Friday, September 26, 2014

Dynamic Dialogue 9/26/14

It’s Friday Dynamic Team!


Upcoming Events:        Sept. 26th Term 1 grades mailed
                                      Sept. 30th – Oct. 14th Book Fair


Important Information:
    
“Forces of Nature” Multimedia Symphony Field Trip – Powell Hall Tuesday, 11 November 9:00 am  

Pairing planet images and information with symphony music, audiences will be in awe at how the power of nature and various phenomena on Planet Earth and Beyond have inspired famous works.  Just added to this awesome line-up is the Theme from Star Wars!



Tuesday, November 11 at 9:30 am

Fall conferences this year will be held during the following dates and times:
  • October 7, 4pm – 8pm
  • October 8, 1pm – 5pm
  • October 9, 4pm – 8pm
You may schedule a conference with your child’s teachers by clicking on the link below. Before doing so, however, please read the following:

You will need to know the name of your child’s team to sign up.
    • Your student in on DYNAMIC.

    • Please sign up for an available time to meet with your child’s team. In most cases, this will include your child’s English/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies teachers.

    • If you would like to meet with your child’s elective teachers, you will need to schedule a conference separate from the team conference. This may require going back to the address below and logging into the website a second time.

    • Conferences are ten minutes in length. Please be respectful of everyone’s time by being prompt and conscious of keeping your conference to ten minutes. Teachers will be happy to continue the conversation at a later time, if necessary.

Hixson Middle School Conference Scheduler: http://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Hixson_Middle_School_1




English –

Susan Artkras – artkras.susan@wgmail.org

This week students began the week with an emphasis on reading. After watching a digital picture book story, students calculated their words per minute. According to one research-based resource, students should be silent reading at least 195 words per minute to maintain continuity of ideas.

On Tuesday, Ms. Artkras attended the 6 – 8 grade vertical department meeting in which we looked at students’ MAP scores to identify strengths and weaknesses and problem solved classroom situation as well as explored resources. Meanwhile Dynamic students worked on polishing their selected paragraphs for topic sentence, supporting details, transitions and formal voice.

On Wednesday, students read and discussed a wonderful poem by a Nigerian author, “My Name is a Song.” Students received a grade for their participation.  The grade is in the SIS Portal and it is weighted at 0% since it was our first graded discussion. Future discussion scores will impact the grade. Grading criteria includes: responding with relevancy, displaying etiquette, coming prepared, asking questions, offering text-based or research-based information, and connecting the text with other texts or synthesizing ideas.

On Thursday, students were introduced to the research essay project “What’s Behind the Name?” Students will begin researching their own names and that research will be organized into an essay. Friday will focus on web-based research.

Our next library day is on Monday, Sept. 29.

Math- 
Next week, students will review the Accentuate the Negative unit (Operations of Integers and Rational Numbers), and take the assessments on Friday. 

Now that students have received their ChromeBook computers, I will implement a new web-based curriculum called MobyMax in our classroom.  This program will be used in conjunction with our math program (Connected Mathematics 2). You can read more about MobyMax in a letter which I will send home next week, also this letter will contain each student's (user name & password).  

Wilma Slaughter – slaughter.wilma@wgmail.org

Science –
Field Trip Permission forms were sent home on Wednesday! Below is the link if you did not receive it from your student. ”Forces of Nature” Permission forms and the fee are due on Friday, 3 October, 2014.


In Dynamic Systems Science the students spent the week continuing to practice the scientific method skills.  The formative assessment at the end of last week demonstrated more practice and polish was needed for hypothesis writing. There was introduction and reinforcement of the meaning and cause of the Autumnal Equinox on Monday, at 21:29 St. Louis time… which also acted as a seeding for the next unit on Universe. On Thursday during Science class the students were instructed and practiced using their assigned Chromebook. Today the students signed up for Google Classroom and sent me a practice e-mail. Please ask your student how they are tracking themselves on each of the learning goals.

Looking forward to conferences with you!


Please contact me right away if you have any questions or concerns! Occasionally there is a communication malfunction whenever an adult communicates with 12-13 year old students. LOL


Dynamic Systems Science – Coach Daniels - daniels.mark@wgmail.org

Social Studies –

Students finished their look at Mesopotamia this week with an open-note quiz on Tuesday.  I have offered before and after school through next Tuesday for any students who needed to finish up.  On Wednesday, students began exploring the geography of Egypt.  With the addition of Chrome Books to the class, you will begin to see many more on-line related activities.  If you have not yet done so, please take a look at my website to get a better feel for what’s coming up.

Dynamic Social Studies Course Website:

Lisa Pettid – pettid.lisa@wgmail.org
314-918-4602




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