October 15th Letter

October 15, 2010

Greetings.  The past week has been very busy.

1.)     The students have been knee deep in NECAPs for the past 7 days.  The 6^th graders just finished their NECAP exams yesterday (Thursday).  The 5^th graders have one more day left to complete their writing portion of their NECAP exams.  I think the kids are doing a great job!

2.)    I enjoyed meeting many of the parents during parent conferences last week.  It was great to discuss your children with you.  You have great kids!

3.)    Some of you asked when your child might be able to re-take the geography (latitude/longitude) quiz.  I had hoped to give the students the opportunity to take it again on October 20^th, but other educational events are pushing that quiz date back.  So I will give the students who wish re-take that quiz a chance on Friday, October 29^th.

4.)    Students who do not wish to re-take the geography quiz can keep their existing quiz grade.  (There were quite a few A’s.)  Those grades will get entered into my grade-book as a TEST.  This will help reward those students who got a good grade the first time.   

5.)    Just so everyone is aware of how I calculate grades, tests count for twice as much as a quiz.  Tests and quizzes will be worth 75% of a student’s grade.  The other 25% of a student’s grade will be class participation.

6.)    I’ve been doing my best to make sure that the students have no homework during NECAPs.  Hopefully your child will be able to get back in the swing of doing homework next week. 

7.)    The Danville Middle School will be starting a homework club in about 1 week. We will let you know what days students can stay after for extra help.  We’ll probably have this available for middle school students 2 days a week.

8.)    If you ever want your child to stay after school and get extra help in spelling or social studies, please feel free to contact me.  I am willing to stay after school almost any day to help students.

9.)    This week our 7^th/8^th grade Spelling Team won the local spelling bee.  Congratulations to those students!  They will move on to the Regional Championships in a few weeks.

10.)                        The next Spelling Test for 5^th/6^th grade students will take place on Thursday, October 28^th.  I will post those words on this blog later today.

Have a great weekend.

Jim Shea

371-8068