This week's Word de Jour and Quote

“Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.”

-John Lennon

RECLUSE

Noun    (LONER)

A person who lives alone or has little to do with other people.

For the week of September 25th - 29th

JOBS

Hello all!

I hope you are finding your groove as we enter the 6th week of school.  It has flown by fast.  If you haven't had a chance yet to login to Parent Portal on Infinite Campus, I highly encourage you to do so.  If you have never logged on before, you will need to contact Amy Bowers at amybowers@visioncsd.org for your login and password.  I just updated grades this weekend and they are current as of Friday.  If you are concerned about your student's grades and don't know how to hep them, please don't hesitate to set up an after school appointment with me.

Reading
We are continuing on with Journey to the Center of the Earth.  This week we will be tackling Chapters 8, 9 and 10.  Please know that your student will most likely have homework in this subject on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Any students with unfinished work will be sent to lunch detention to finish.  Late work receives 25% off each day it is late.

Science
We are still working on weather.  Last week the class spent several class periods working with the properties of air pressure.  It was "playing with a purpose".  This week we will be working to sum up our results and write up our first Lab paper.

Math
We have completed almost all the lessons in Unit 1.  We will be preparing for a test most likely on Thursday.  Please check Edmodo for updates.  Also, please remember that your student will have homework every night in this subject.

Home Econ
After re-working our pancake recipe, the class had another cook day on Friday.  This batch was extremely successful.  It was enjoyed by the students and the entire Admin staff.

Word de Jour and Quotes

Deja Vu

noun

An impression of having seen or experienced something before.

“Before you put on a frown, make absolutely sure there are no smiles available.”        -Jim Beggs

For the week of September 18th - 22nd

Class JOBS

Hello all!

I hope the hustle and bustle of 6th grade is becoming more routine now.  I know it is a lot of getting used to being organized and always prepared.  Here are a few ways you can help your student:

1. As a parent, make sure you understand what programs your student is using and how to login to these.  Students were given an internet login info sheet at the beginning of the year.  Each time we signed into a program, the students were prompted to write down their user name and password.  This sheet should be coming home when they have to login to these programs at home.  If your student lost or misplaced theirs, the link below will provide another copy.  Internet Passwords Sheet
2. Ask to see the agenda.  In each core class, math, science, ela, social studies and reading, students are asked at the end of the class to write down what is due.  
3. Subscribe to Edmodo.  Edmodo is a platform similar to Facebook.  Our school uses Edmodo to post assignments, reminders and allows students to ask questions about assignments.  If you want to be apart of this, please subscribe following the directions below.

Keeping  informed is easier than ever

Text 27291 with the class code below and Edmodo will send you automatic updates. No smartphone required!

Class Code: 

8rjgui 

Here is what you can expect this week:

Reading

We are continuing with our unit study on Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Students have been busy working on creating a book poster to entice other readers to get excited about reading this book.  The posters included the title, a tag line and all the tools needed to survive such a perilous journey.  

Math

Students have now had several lessons on how Digits works.  Students were assigned chapter 1.4 pre-read and workbook activities to be completed before Tuesday's class.   If your student still is struggling with signing on at home, please contact me and we can Facetime to get this corrected before Tuesday.

Science

Our unit on weather has prompted some great discussions in class, especially pertaining to the hurricanes that have hit the east coast and what this winter might be like.  This week we started our own weather reports in class.  For the next 30 days, we will be learning how to use the National Weather Service site as a tool for reading and predicting weather.  

Home Econ

We started our unit on breakfast.  Included in this unit is how to measure wet and dry ingredients along with how to convert measurements for reducing and multiplying the recipe.  Tuesday's cook day will be how to make your own homemade pancake mix.  

As always, if you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email or set up an appointment after school.

-Mrs E:)

Digits Expectations and Homework

Chances are your student is coming home with Digits homework tonight.  Here is what you can expect:

1. They will need to go to the Digits website.  It is a link on the left-hand side of my blog, under the math tab.
2. When logging in, all students were given their login and password info at the beginning of the year.  In every class they were instructed to write this down on their internet info sheet that is kept in their binders.   If they forgot this, their login is their legal first name and the first two (sometimes 3) letters of their last name @ vision.  The password is Vision2018.
3. The assignment is found under the "Classes" Tab.
4. Students are to click through the launch slide, part 1, part 2 and part 3

         

          5.  While students are reading through the slides, their workbook corresponds to each slide.

Page 9 corresponds to the launch slide

Page 10 corresponds to Parts 1,2 and 3

      6.  Students need to try to answer these questions to the best of their abilities.  This is what we call a pre-read activity.  A pre-read or front loading activity is to become familiar with the overall content and organization of a selection or assignment.  It is perfectly okay to not understand everything during a pre-read.  I will teach the entire lesson in class.  

      7.   Students will never be marked down for trying the problems.  Pre-read activites are a participation grade.  The only way to receive a non-passing grade is to leave the problem blank or write down a silly, nonsensical answer.

**If you do not have internet access, I have textbooks I will check out to you for the year.  The textbook is identical to the online slide presentation **

For the week of Sept. 11th - 15th, Decoding all Programs and class updates

Hello all!

Welcome back to another week in 6th grade.   Here is a recap and a preview in one place.  I will also be discussing some "How to's" on some of the other programs we use, how to login and what to expect.

Infinite Campus/Parent Portal
This is probably one of the most useful tools you as a parent can use to track and stay updated on your student's' progress.  It doesn't matter how many children you have attending Vision, you will have 1 login and can view every single child's online grade book.  Please click the link below for the instructions to subscribe.

Infinite Campus/Parent Portal Instructions

Blogs/Communication
Both Mrs. Warr and I use our blogs as weekly communications to update you on class happenings. Remember all 6th graders have both of us as teachers. While we may be advisory teachers, your student may have several other teachers.  Below is a list of teachers and what they teach:

Mrs. Warr:   Social Studies, Math tutorial, Language Arts, Robotics and an exploratory class.
jamiewarr@visioncsd.org   jamiewarr.blogspot.com

Mrs. Evans:   Earth Science, Reading, Algebra 1 and Exploratory - Home Econ.
karaevans@visioncsd.org   mrsevans6th.blogspot.com

Mrs. Paulus:  Algebra 1.
jameypaulus@visioncsd.org  (blog will be available later this week)

Mr. Berg:   Health and PE
dustyberg@visioncsd.org

Ms. Vance:   Art and Spanish
rebeccavance@visioncsd.org

Mr. and Mrs. Ellis:  Band, Orchestra, Choir
alellis@visioncsd.org      debraellis@visioncsd.org

Mr. Mark Boothby:  Student Government/Leadership
markboothby@visioncsd.org


Digits
Digits is the math program that Vision uses from 6th grade- 8th grade and Geometry.  It is an online program.  The class is set up so there is homework every night.  The homework consists of clicking through some slides that explain key concepts.  There will be pages in the student workbook that must be filled out.  The nice thing is, this is a pre-read and "frontloading" activity. Students will not be penalized for answering incorrectly.  Student's will be penalized for not trying. Jamey Paulus and I then start teaching the same chapter in class to reinforce these concepts.  Assigned questions will be started in class.  Most students will finish within the class period.  Any unfinished questions will need to be finished at home before the next math class.  Students unable to access the internet from home will be loaned a hardback homework book to complete their assignments.

IXL
IXL is another online math program we use.  In 6th grade, IXL is used to reinforce math concepts learned prior and a way to practice new ones.  Mrs. Warr is using IXL as a tool to help teach Math Tutorial.

Edmodo
Is the equivalent of an educationally based Facebook.  It allows users to interact, ask questions about assignments and have online group discussions.  It allows us teachers to post assignments, copies of worksheets, create class polls, create class discussion and communicate with parents about what is happening in class.

MyON
MyON is an online collection of books.  It is like having an entire library at your fingertips.  Students can login and read at anytime.  I will at times, have projects through MyON posted.  This allows me to have individualized reading materials for all students based on their Lexile level.  A Lexile level serves two unique functions: it is the measure of how difficult a text is OR a student's reading ability level. This allows me to challenge each student at their own level.

NewsELA
Newsela is an online kids appropriate news magazine.  Students, after knowing their Lexile level, can pick news articles from a variety of categories from science to opinion pieces.

*Please note that all logins/passwords were given out the first few weeks of school.  Students have an internet password sheet in their binders with all login information.  Teachers usually do not bring this information home with them. It is a useful time saver to bookmark all sites and have Google save passwords when logging in at home.  Links to the up above mentioned sites are found on the blogs* 


Reading
This whole month we are doing a unit study on Jules Verne's Journey to Center of the Earth.  In 6th grade, I am using an adapted/abridged version.  In class we talked about how the original book was written in the 1800's and uses very descriptive and often flowery language, making it harder to decode without a history lesson of the time and a dictionary to decode older words.  While all the books key points are in our version, many of the lengthy, hard-to-follow descriptions have been shortened.  While the book is classified as science fiction, there are many science facts that we will addressing both in reading and science.  Homework will be limited right now to vocab and comprehension addressed in each chapter.

Science
We just started our unit on weather.  We have been studying forms of extreme weather and on the difference between hurricanes and tornados.  Questions brought up in class about storm formations and draining patterns from tubs and toilets have been extra credit discussion on Edmodo.  We will continue this week by tracking local weather, along with seasonal changes. Topics this week will involve the differences between Climate and Weather, along with tracking weather over extended periods of time.

Algebra 1
Last week we tackled, 1.1 and 1.2.  I ran out of time on lesson 1.2.  Homework for 1.2 will be completed in class, on Tuesday. You can expect homework on Tuesday and Thursday night.

Home Econ
We finished writing letters to ask for donations to keep our program cooking.  If you know of any community sponsor that would be willing to make either a financial donation or a food donation in the way of a gift card, please email me their contact info.  This last week we learned about measuring properly, took a knife skills test and prepared a savory and sweet hummus.  This week we are on to breakfast foods.  Tuesday will be all about crepes, quick sweet sauces and stabilized whip creams.

Jobs for the Week
Jobs For the Week

For the week of September 5th - 8th

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend.  I have been busy trying to figure out all my new technology.   If you haven't gotten any updates from Edmodo, please don't worry.  I am still figuring out things on this end.  lol    I am posting our agenda on the blog until I get everything up and running. Here is what you can expect this week:

Job Chart

This Weeks Jobs

Reading 1A and 2A
We started taking notes and reading Chapters 1 and 2 in Journey to the Center of the Earth.  We will be doing some reading level testing this week and continuing with Journey to the Center of the Earth

Math 2B
We logged into Digits and completed section 1.1.   There were workbook pages and an online homework assignment.  If you didn't finish, don't panic.  There will be time on Tuesday to work on it. We will continue with sections 1.2 and 1.3

Science 3 and 4
We finished walking through the inventing process using the paper airplanes and airplane parts tutorial.  I was very impressed with all the designs and effort the students put into building their planes.  This week we will be starting our unit on weather.

Home Ec
We had our very first hands on lesson by experiments with smoothie recipes and learning kitchen safety, along with how to use the blender.  This week will be about food processing and making hummus.