This week's main attractions:
1. Tomorrow is early voting for the Tax Ratification Election at the Academy. If you haven't heard or read information about this yet, click here. This is such an important issue for all of BISD, and your vote is extremely vital to our students, teachers, and our district as a whole.
2. There is no school Monday! I don't know about you, but I plan on waking up late, taking a nap or two in the afternoon, and then going to bed early. (Yep, it's going to be a big day!) : )
3. Class pictures and picture retakes will happen Wednesday.
4. The final trip payment was due today. If you haven't paid yet (and haven't talked to me), please send your money Tuesday. Remember, unless I contacted you the final payment for a parent-student pair is $80 and the final payment for an individual student is $35.
5. We have spent a lot of time talking about the expectations for homework over the course of the week. Here are the highlights of our conversations:
- Spelling assignments should take around 30 minutes max to complete.
- Other assignments (not projects) should take a similar amount of time.
- Blogging and posting on the wikispace should take around 15 minutes each. (Most kids are at the point now where they can do these in less time.)
- Until this last week, technology has never been a required means for a product. If the technology is making your child's assignments stretch out for hours at a time, he/she probably shouldn't be using that form of technology for that assignment.
- Students should set up a routine for completing homework to lessen the stress at home. A sample routine might be: spelling assignment on Saturday, other assignment on Monday, post on the wiki on Tuesday, and blog on Thursday.
- If your child is stuck or has a question, please shoot me an email. I have a few email buddies who write me each week for clarification. These wonderful parents always seem worried that they are bothering me, but that couldn't be farther from the truth! I love that they are asking before their child gets to the stressed-out point. Please let me help you if I can!
6. Speaking of homework, we started the Homework Hotline last week. The 3 kids who came got a ton of work done in that hour. In fact, 2 of them got their entire projects done or almost done! The Homework Hotline will meet this Tuesday from 3:00 - 4:00. Please remember that in order for your child to attend, you must fill out and turn in the Homework Hotline pass so we know what your child's top priorities should be.
7. This week's Homework Menu is now posted. All activities on the menu are due this Friday.
8. Your child should post his/her 7th book this week on the wikispace. Most kids are doing a tremendous job of keeping up with (or surpassing) this expectation. If your child is behind, remember that the Homework Hotline time could be spent for this task.
9. Most kids are caught up with their blogs. Please check with your child and make sure he/she has blogged a response for each week to this point. I will post this week's question on Sunday.
10. Report cards will be coming soon. On the first report card, 4th graders are held responsible for being able to complete 100 addition problems in 5 minutes and 100 subtraction problems in 5 minutes. Please check with your child to see if he/she has met this requirement yet. If he/she hasn't, remember that flash cards are extremely helpful for developing this skill. Also, there are printable drills on my website you can use at any time. Our final drill for the first Nine Weeks grades will be this Friday.
