Hello everyone,
I hope this email finds you all doing well and to the start of an excellent weekend. I just wanted to give you a quick update on the happenings in history.
This has been another fantastic week. 5th grade has finished their studies on Mesopotamia and will be moving on to Egypt in this next week. I was so pleased to see that the vast majority of the students received A's and B's on their tests. It has been encouraging to see the students work so hard, and then be successful. Even students that had been struggling with content put the work in where it counts and did very admirably on their test. These tests went home with students today and are awaiting your signatures. Make sure to give you child a pat on the back for their hard work.
When we study Egypt we hopefully will mummify some chicken legs. I will request a few supply donations closer to the time comes.
6th grade is almost finished with their "Crash Course in Ancient History." We have now covered the Neolithic Revolution, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece. We will discuss the Roman Republic and Empire this week and then finally get to move on to Medieval History. I, of course, would love to go over every detail of ancient history with them, but I think the material we are covering will give them a sufficient foundation to understand the Medieval world. Today we a quiz in which many of your children were quite successful. These will be returned on Monday and will be awaiting your signatures as well.
There have been a few students that have been neglecting to complete their homework. I have individually contacted the respective parents and have arranged time for them to stay after and complete work. I have been so thankful for the incredible support I have received from all of you. I cannot do my job properly without all that you do at home, so thank you. Please encourage your children to work hard on completion of their assignments. For a few, it was painfully obvious today that not completing homework correlates with poor quiz performance. The assignments are specifically geared towards mastery of content for the students.
As for assignment length and time taken, for the most part it seems most students aren't having to take too much time to complete the assignments. Every now and then I may miscalculate how long something should take. That I am sorry for. If you see your child is spending a very long time on an assignment make sure they are using the proper strategies to complete the work. For example, last night's study guide seemed to take an average of thirty minutes for the students when I polled them. Some more, some less. Ideally, a study guide should simply remind students what they need to know. Therefore, students should be mostly completing that work from memory, and only going to the book or notes when they are stumped. As always, never hesitate to contact me with feedback or questions. It is never my intention to consume all of your children's time (Hopefully catching the Wordly Wise vocabulary reference :)
Last but not least, the Walters field trip. Wow, I am not used to having so many parent volunteers to chaperon. At my old school, I often had to beg, even having my own mother chaperon twice. I took volunteers on a first come first serve basis. In the future I shall switch to a random selection since I can see the interest is so high. I have already contacted the eight parents who volunteered first (4 5th grade and 4 6th grade.) If any of them cannot make the trip, I will make sure to randomly select another parent and make them aware.
Thanks again for all you do. Looking at pinnacle and TAC I can see all of my students being successful; I am very blessed to get to work with such a great group of students and their families. Have a fantastic weekend.
