The Week of the 19th of October, 2012

This week our students will be completing the Math MEAP which they did today.  The Social Studies MEAP scheduled for tomorrow will occur next week because we are trying the new online version of the MEAP.  The students have taken a practice test version of this to acclimate them to the process.  Next week, October 26th, is the day of our "Bring a Hero to School for a Hero Sandwich Day".  I have received a lot of notes back offering to bring items.  I will contact any offers that doubled to see if we can get all of the items covered.   If you did not receive the flier, please let me know and I'll send one home.  Last week upon doing progress reports, I discovered that 21 of my 34 students were receiving a score below a 'C' in at least one subject.  I tested my theory that parents were not receiving my weekly progress reports and found this to be true.  The students know this is the last time late work beyond a week will be accepted.  All parents should know that if a progress report is not sent home on Monday, that a note stating it was not sent home has been handed to your child to give to you.  I have never gone past Tuesday on getting progress reports out, so please expect one by Tuesday if you did not receive one on Monday.  Please sign these and give them back to your child to return to me.  Kids have an incentive for you to do this for them.  Also, please put on the progress report any questions, concerns or requests for missing work to be completed by the following Monday.  The first night your child receives work, it has to be completed by the next day for no penalty, then, every day after that will have a 10% reduction until the work is 5 days late by which it will receive half credit.  After 5 days, no work will be accepted unless it is due to an absence.  I am working hard to help you all keep in the loop so there are no surprises by report card time.  Please help me by looking for these progress reports so we can work together to keep your child up to date and on time.  I am pushing the deadline for the "Learn the Process" project back to November 16th.  Central Office has stated they want to create accounts for your children to develop their pages on and have not gotten back to me on when those will be available.  We also have had a lot of time get disrupted due to testing, especially the MEAP.  Look for that change on the calendar.  Over the course of this week I will be entering new grades for one subject a day starting Wednesday.  I was inundated with a giant stack of late work to grade so new work was set aside temporarily.  Wednesday will be Reading and Writing, Thursday Math, Friday will be Science, and Saturday- S. Studies.  Next Monday, your child may have new missing work, so be sure to check for the progress report then.  Also new to grading, I will complete by Monday, all of the "All About Me" website grading.  Expect those to come home on Monday, October 22, 2012.  Kids can correct the items they were marked down on to boost their score in this project.  Any new project rubrics received are late and will have the 10% deduction for every day late after October 5th.  This is a large writing score and will impact your child's grade severely if it scored a zero.  Half credit will not have as much of an impact.  Please make sure tonight your child has turned this in to me.  Have an excellent week, and if you're like me the past few weeks battling a cold/sinus infection, I will say a prayer for your speedy recovery.  That is no fun!