WELCOME!• Welcome to Back to School Night• September 8, 2015• 7th grade Science, Karen Green, Room 204• There are 2 handouts per household tonight, entitled How to Survive

Middle School & Homework due dates. If you did NOT get the Parent Packet of info I sent home on 8/28 and 8/31, please ask your 7th grader for it. ( This is posted on my website as well and I’m trying to save paper.)

• No Sign In sheets. Please email me that you attended tonight.• If you contact me about your student, I will first ask you if you have

seen your student’s Agenda and their Binder. Thanks for checking on those two items prior to contacting me.

• The 7th grade student is the first order of communication between school and home. Their MMS Agenda should be something you can ask to see if they say they have no homework. Website is a helpful tool but the AGENDA is used daily.

• Items of concern: Organization, due dates, Agendas, Organization, grades, scissors/stapler, hole punch at home, Organization, ask to see Agendas and binders, Organization, personal pencil sharpener.

WHEW!

Cell Phones Silenced Please

• PLEASE SILENCE CELL PHONES, or any other electronic devices. Kindly step out into the hallway if you need to take a call.

• Thanks.

Mantra for the year:

“What you do every day

matters more than

what you do once in a while.”

Gretchen Rubin, _The Happiness Project_

All About Me

• This is my 28th year to teach adolescents. You hardly notice the twitch at all any more.(prefontal lobotomy as well)

• Graduated from SWTSU with Bachelor of Science in Education and Physical Education. I am certified to teach Health & High School Biology as well.

• There’s a short bio on my website if you’d like to read it.• I love all the support and generosity from parents---and

students----at MMS!(That’s why I keep coming back and this is my 22nd year at MMS. )

• Speaking of support, I am in need of some Bounty Paper Towels and some Kleenex tissues for my classroom.

What we have done so far…

• Observe and Infer(Ms. Green eating the candle)• Problem Solving: Popsicle sticks, index card,brain

teasers… Not sure what these are? Please ask your 7th grader.

• Green’s Procedures/Rules/Routines , Organizational Skills, Teen Brain Info

• Current Event Directions, C.E. Sample, Due Dates for the entire year. Students have these CE due dates and have been instructed to post them in their Agendas, also on my website; Science Connections

• Lab Safety Review; Balancing Nails Activity• Lab Safety Agreements; Scientific Method steps;

Inquiry Lab, TEKS review

Science Textbooks

• Good news: NEW TEXTBOOKS! (Finally)• Bad News: No class set of books with this adoption.• Students can write in their books and highlight as well. We will be

giving instructions soon about which pages of the book to tear out and put in their binders. They can keep their books at home and just bring the necessary pages they’re instructed to bring every few weeks.

• They do not have to return their textbooks at the end of the year.

• TUTORIALS: Usually Tues/Thur, 3:30 to 4. Students need to ask me ahead of time to be sure I don’t have an after school meeting if they plan to stay for tutorials. There’s a post on my website about Tutorials as well and I’ve gone over this with students in class. Tutorials will likely not start until the week of September 14th.

Projects• Science Fair Projects are only required in

the Advanced Science classes. (If you are in 2nd or 8th period, this would be your student.) SFPs Will be assigned soon.

• Due date is December 7th and 8thth. Work on this project will be primarily individualized, with very little class time spent on it.

• All paperwork for the SFP is online this year.

.

7th grade Science Curriculum, Grading Policy, Agenda & Website

• Curriculum is posted on my website and a printed copy was sent home with the syllabus.

• Grades will be entered at least once a week and if your 7th grader turns in work past a due date, it may be several days or a week before I can get it entered in the online grade book.

• Grading Policy for 7th grade Science:15% homework, 85%daily/labs/projects/quiz/tests.

• Your 7th grader and the MMS Agenda are the main modes of communication between school and home.

• Online grade book can be checked by students.• Please let your 7th grader get their graded work back

before you ask them about the grade. Thanks.

Homework and Communication with me

• YES! There is homework almost every night. Your 7th grader may say “Nah, we don’t have any homework in Science.” In their brain, that means, “We don’t have any homework in Science due tomorrow.” There should be a homework folder or divider in students’ Binders. This one Binder is for ALL their classes this year.

• Reading & doing the Cornell Notes, studying for a test, working on a long-term/ongoing project, and Current Events all count as homework.(just a few examples)

• Email communication is best to get in touch with me. I will make every effort to get an email or phone call returned to you within 24-48 hours of when you contact me.

• Traffic Light Tri-Folder Idea for work to be turned in. (Explained to students and is on my website.)

Students communicating with me

• I have already asked students to email me whenever possible, when they have concerns about their academics, so that they will get used to being their own best self-advocate! NOW is the time, not later.

• Examples: asking about a grade posted in online grade book, asking about an assignment posted on my website, clarification on an assignment when they were absent.

• Suggested Reading List for parents of teens is posted on my website. My two most recent favorites are _The Teenage Brain_ and _How to Raise an Adult_

• A piece published in Austin Family Magazine, How to Survive Middle School,by Melissa Cooper, one of our very own MMS Language Arts teachers, is posted on my website and you have a copy to take home as well. GREAT READING!

• _How children succeed: Grit, Curiosity & the hidden power of Character_ by

Paul Tough(Great Book!)

Suggested Reading for Parents of Adolescents

Literacy across all subject areas

This is our third year to haveScience Connections in 7th grade,

which is an effort to connect books to Science and increase the number of

our readers on campus. (Your student has info on Science Connections in their binder and it is

on my website as well. )

Some things to remember as a parent of an adolescent…

• You’ll need a sense of humor and a coat of armor, most likely, in that order.

• Don’t take it personally. (whatever it is)• WE ARE THE ADULTS! (remember that)• The definition of an adolescent is someone who

cries like a baby if you don’t treat them like an adult.

• Reasoning with an adolescent is kind of like mud-wrestling with a pig….you both get dirty and the PIG LIKES IT!

Sent Home Already for parents to have for information purposes…

• Green sheet with my welcome note and website address went home on the first day of school.

• Lab Safety Agreement(to be read, signed and returned) went home on 8/26, 8/27.

• Parent letter & Syllabus to keep at home and a parent checklist sheet to read and sign and send to school with your student.

Do you know where your next class is?

• Good Night and Thanks for coming! I look forward to a great year with your 7th grader.

Quote from Paul Tough:

In the Sept. 5, 2012 issue of Time, Paul Tough writes:

“In the classroom and outside of it, American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure. Paradoxically enough, giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.”

ADVANCED SCIENCE CLASSES

• 2nd and 8th periods: ADVANCED Science class characteristics:

• Condensed curriculum for basic Science information• Outside reading required• Depth and complexity of topics• Rapid pace with notes and expectation of detailed notes• Self-starters and avid, above-level readers• Love to problem solve and discuss/debate current

Science topics• Always inquisitive and ready to learn science• Loves Science so much that they’d spend a summer in

Science camp, voluntarily

My mantra for 2015-16: Resilience and Perseverance

How Children Succeed by Paul Tough (which is an absolutely perfect name, considering the topic!) “outlines the qualities that researchers

suggest divide children who succeed from children who don’t: curiosity, zest, optimism, gratitude, social intelligence, self-control,

and grit, or a passionate desire to stick with a task until it is accomplished.”

http://siobhancurious.com/2012/09/03/whats-a-teacher-to-do-paul-toughs-how-children-succeed/

http://siobhancurious.com/2011/09/26/fail-better/

Tough discovered that “a child, from [a stressful] environment, who is given the tools and confidence to face challenges may develop a stronger character than a child who faces little adversity. A child who grows up in poverty but has a nurturing, supportive parent – one who encourages the child to tackle difficulties, praises success, and promotes the learning potential inherent in failure – may have more character tools than a middle-class or wealthy child whose parents protect him or her from every bump in the road.”

http://siobhancurious.com/2012/09/03/whats-a-teacher-to-do-paul-toughs-how-children-succeed/

http://siobhancurious.com/2011/09/26/fail-better/