Events
Monday – picture day and Monday morning mass. Mass uniform required due to picture day. If heat is still present, I do recommend boys bring their polos and shorts for after our photo time.
Homework Help – I will be starting homework help on Monday from about 3:15-3:45. We usually get our math homework done and sometimes students can get started on other things.
Tuesday – Senior Yard Homework Help with Mrs. Amann for $15 dollars a time (please email her if interested at mamann@stellamarisacademy.org
Friday – Dollar Denim Day – pay a dollar and wear jeans or jean shorts with a free dress shirt and athletic shoes.
NO AR tests next week. We are merging our accounts with the Diocese and they have informed us that our access will not work next week while this change happens.
Missing Work in 4th Grade
Yesterday I finally inputted some grades in to SchoolSpeak. I am still learning the ins and outs of this program and need to change some categories and weights, but wanted to start to get grades in.
In our old program we were able to mark something missing and not have it hurt them. In this new program if something is missing it gives it a score of zero, which can obviously be alarming as a parent. Please know missing is simply to alert myself that your child is missing an assignment.
In 4th grade we have a variety of issues that could have caused work to be missing. It could be because they didn’t put their name on it. It could be because it happens to be in another bin of work. It could be because they aren’t done with it yet or it could be a victim of a dreaded desk shover and be temporarily in the wrong place. I have already seen a few of these desk shoving infractions take place and am working on it as we speak. There is also the chance of teacher error, so when work is returned to you (probably Mondays), I would encourage you to compare any work missing to returned work just to make sure I didn’t mess up. I told your children this as well today.
In 4th grade I want the STUDENTS to take responsibility for their missing work and once a week I will be printing out a missing work report and distributing it to the class. This gives them the opportunity to look in the “No Name” bin and all the other places and get it to me. Today students were notified of their missing work and several no names were reclaimed and unfinished papers were found and turned in. I try to enter them right away but sometimes this work will go in the missing work bin and I will do a mass entering of all the assignments at one time. If they tell you they found it and turned it in, please believe them unless you hear differently from me. Feel free to email and ask if you become concerned. Several students found the work that was missing and are still working on it. That is FINE! Please don’t worry. They are learning the importance of turning things in, better time management etc.
USS Midway Science Field Trip on October 1st
Mr. K is organizing this field trip. I know he is looking for drivers and I believe the cost for each student is 10 dollars. I need to confirm this though, but I DO know I have the right date.
Mission Decision
We need to start discussing what mission we want to go to. My first few years here we went to Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside. When they had to close it to retrofit it and such we moved our field trip to Mission San Juan Capistrano. I love this mission and would prefer to go to this mission. So we have two ways we can get there, we can drive to it or we can take the train. I think the mission tour and activity alone are about 15 dollars each. We then need to decide if we want to add the train. I think this adds about 20-35 dollars for a child/adult to the 15 dollars. We have done the train for the past 2 years and everyone has seemed to enjoy it. I will send a separate email to get feedback on this week.
Homework at a Glance
At least 6 students failed to do the required Spelling Activities this week. I went ahead and have already unlocked Lesson 2 Spelling on Spelling City. It won’t be due until Thursday, September 24th, but I am hopeful with more time maybe this will increase students taking this seriously. It is a 30 point assignment and really needs to be completed.
I shared with you that we don’t stop math on the weekend, so there is an assignment in ALEKS called Homework 2 that is due by Monday morning. I also tried to set ALEKS up to show the students that they have a 5 topic assignment each week. I am hopeful this will count down for them and make this part a little easier.
For the week…
Reading: Read and log for 100 minutes. Log due Friday
Spelling: Lesson 2 ABC order due on Friday
Vocab: Unit 2 Vocab cards due on Friday
Math: ALEKS Homework 2 due Monday. Five topics due by Friday
Monday: 1-9
Tuesday: 1-10
Wednesday: 1-11
Thursday: 1-12
Spanish: Students need to research Spain and be ready to take about what they learned about Spain for 2-3 minutes. Their presentation could highlight places, sites, food, facts etc. Native speakers will be asked to present in Spanish I believe. Students seemed to suggest that they could make a Powerpoint, print out pictures or make a video. I think they have 2 weeks for this assignment. I have emailed Senorita Loredana already to clarify.