Hello 6th Grade Parents:
Happy beautiful autumn weekend. Read on for news of the upcoming week(s):
End of 1st Quarter = End-of-Quarter Report
Last Friday marked the end of the first quarter of our school year. This week the Grade 6-8 Teachers will be completing End-of-Quarter reports that will make their way home to you (with luck) by Friday. This is the first time we have actually attempted this kind of thing around here so I hope you will be patient with us as we work through the kinks in the process. Of course, all the reports should ultimately be available online through the PowerSchool Parent Portal website too, if all goes well!
We hope that through these ongoing efforts you will feel better informed about how your child is doing week to week. However we recognize that some parents may wish to meet face to face with us at some point instead. If this is a concern for you then please sign up for a parent conference on our class help sign-up page (https://docs.google.com/document/d/17mlIDc0iyksHQNxqtJvB3rcf9O7hvJz4P_kvdlC0IvQ/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1). Conferences will be held on both November 25 and 26 (Monday and Tuesday) for those parents who would like to meet with us in person.
Habits and Skills Class?
As I mentioned at our parent meeting, included will be a report on a class we are officially calling "Habits and Skills." “Habits and Skills” class represents our continuing effort to help students learn to identify and develop behaviors, skills, attitudes, and strategies that will be helpful for successful academic performance in their classes and also in later life. During recent parent gatherings we named these behaviors “Super Skills.” By examining in class a small range of these positive academic behaviors, including organizational skills, meeting deadlines (time management), short and longer-term focus (self regulation/control), consistent best effort and perseverance (academic problem solving/metacognition), and functional interpersonal skills (social problem solving) our hope is to help the students to learn to identify their own strengths and also work on their challenges so they can move on in their schooling after Stone Bridge School and successfully manage the new environments and meet new academic and social demands that arise for them along the way. The scores and comments in this section of the End-of-Quarter Report represent both the consideration of the teacher and students themselves regarding the above mentioned 6 focus areas. This week each student will be completing a self-assessment and also will be setting a goal to work towards over the course of Quarter #2.
Current Main Lesson Block
Our current main lesson block is a Language Arts Block. During this block students will be spending some of the period writing and some rehearsing for our class play to be performed on Thursday, November 21st, at 6:30pm in our Stone Bridge School theater. In particular this week, students will be working on procedural writing, and will be asked to write a simple (!) paper that describes the procedure (step-by-step) for doing something that they are very familiar with. In class we will be discussing how to write engaging papers that are enjoyable to read (I pray!!), while at the same time making sure to include the appropriate amount of detail-- in the correct order-- and use transition words between steps in process that are non-repetitive. Drafts will be started on Monday and worked on during the course of the week, to be turned in on Friday. Be forewarned that I will be asking the students to use a parent as an adult editor during the final step of the process...
Class Play Needs?
I am on the hunt for the following items to borrow for our play in November:
- Wooden Coat Rack
- Metal chalice or grail-style cup of some kind that can be dropped on the hard ground, preferably gold colored
- King's royal crown-- the kind with the red middle...
Next Parent Meeting: Saturday, November 16, 10:00-12:00pm
I hope you will mark your calendars for our next parent meeting. I am struggling to maintain my energy into the evenings these days so am planning a Saturday morning meeting this time instead. Topics for our gathering will include Class Fundraising and Developing "Super Skills" with 12 and 13 year-olds. We get together so rarely as a class parent group these days and so I will cross my fingers that you are able to join us this time. I will try to make the meeting inspirational in some way, and worth your while. I promise!
Dates to Remember:
Photo Retakes: Wednesday, October 30th
No School: November 1
No School: November 11
Class Parent Meeting: Saturday, November 16, 10:00am-12:00pm
Class Play: Thursday, November 21st, at 6:30pm.
Thanksgiving Break: Week of November 25th
That's it, I think. I hope you have a nice week.
Justin
Happy beautiful autumn weekend. Read on for news of the upcoming week(s):
End of 1st Quarter = End-of-Quarter Report
Last Friday marked the end of the first quarter of our school year. This week the Grade 6-8 Teachers will be completing End-of-Quarter reports that will make their way home to you (with luck) by Friday. This is the first time we have actually attempted this kind of thing around here so I hope you will be patient with us as we work through the kinks in the process. Of course, all the reports should ultimately be available online through the PowerSchool Parent Portal website too, if all goes well!
We hope that through these ongoing efforts you will feel better informed about how your child is doing week to week. However we recognize that some parents may wish to meet face to face with us at some point instead. If this is a concern for you then please sign up for a parent conference on our class help sign-up page (https://docs.google.com/document/d/17mlIDc0iyksHQNxqtJvB3rcf9O7hvJz4P_kvdlC0IvQ/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1). Conferences will be held on both November 25 and 26 (Monday and Tuesday) for those parents who would like to meet with us in person.
Habits and Skills Class?
As I mentioned at our parent meeting, included will be a report on a class we are officially calling "Habits and Skills." “Habits and Skills” class represents our continuing effort to help students learn to identify and develop behaviors, skills, attitudes, and strategies that will be helpful for successful academic performance in their classes and also in later life. During recent parent gatherings we named these behaviors “Super Skills.” By examining in class a small range of these positive academic behaviors, including organizational skills, meeting deadlines (time management), short and longer-term focus (self regulation/control), consistent best effort and perseverance (academic problem solving/metacognition), and functional interpersonal skills (social problem solving) our hope is to help the students to learn to identify their own strengths and also work on their challenges so they can move on in their schooling after Stone Bridge School and successfully manage the new environments and meet new academic and social demands that arise for them along the way. The scores and comments in this section of the End-of-Quarter Report represent both the consideration of the teacher and students themselves regarding the above mentioned 6 focus areas. This week each student will be completing a self-assessment and also will be setting a goal to work towards over the course of Quarter #2.
Current Main Lesson Block
Our current main lesson block is a Language Arts Block. During this block students will be spending some of the period writing and some rehearsing for our class play to be performed on Thursday, November 21st, at 6:30pm in our Stone Bridge School theater. In particular this week, students will be working on procedural writing, and will be asked to write a simple (!) paper that describes the procedure (step-by-step) for doing something that they are very familiar with. In class we will be discussing how to write engaging papers that are enjoyable to read (I pray!!), while at the same time making sure to include the appropriate amount of detail-- in the correct order-- and use transition words between steps in process that are non-repetitive. Drafts will be started on Monday and worked on during the course of the week, to be turned in on Friday. Be forewarned that I will be asking the students to use a parent as an adult editor during the final step of the process...
Class Play Needs?
I am on the hunt for the following items to borrow for our play in November:
- Wooden Coat Rack
- Metal chalice or grail-style cup of some kind that can be dropped on the hard ground, preferably gold colored
- King's royal crown-- the kind with the red middle...
Next Parent Meeting: Saturday, November 16, 10:00-12:00pm
I hope you will mark your calendars for our next parent meeting. I am struggling to maintain my energy into the evenings these days so am planning a Saturday morning meeting this time instead. Topics for our gathering will include Class Fundraising and Developing "Super Skills" with 12 and 13 year-olds. We get together so rarely as a class parent group these days and so I will cross my fingers that you are able to join us this time. I will try to make the meeting inspirational in some way, and worth your while. I promise!
Dates to Remember:
Photo Retakes: Wednesday, October 30th
No School: November 1
No School: November 11
Class Parent Meeting: Saturday, November 16, 10:00am-12:00pm
Class Play: Thursday, November 21st, at 6:30pm.
Thanksgiving Break: Week of November 25th
That's it, I think. I hope you have a nice week.
Justin