Thank you to all those who came to Curriculum Night last night - we enjoyed meeting you!  If you could not make it, the presentation we gave on each of our core classes is attached.  It also includes some information on Conference Day. 

During our presentation, we talked about homework on 8 Blue.  Here is an article that might be helpful in understanding the research behind our philosophy on homework.  www.edutopia.org/blog/research-trends-is-homework-effective-youki-terada

​

We have had a great start to the school year.   After taking time to get to know each other we have been focusing on becoming familiar with the 8th grade curriculum and refreshing previously learned skills.  I am meeting with students to discuss their strengths and their goals for this year. I hope to have the meetings completed  by the end of the week. We recently did an activity to reinforce the importance of writing clear procedures in science labs by writing the procedure to make a ham and cheese sandwich. The students had many different procedures and enjoyed watching our 'volunteer chef' make a sandwich based on someone else's  procedure. 

Next week we will begin to make tool kit cards/procedural guides to use in math class and also do review activities on parts of speech.  

 I am posting homework in the Learning Skills Class daily for those students who may not remember an assignment or may need some clarification on the assignment.  If you child does not use a paper planner or an app to manage their work, I will encourage them to find a system that works for them this year before they enter high school. 

I am available for after school help on Monday's and Wednesday's until 3:30.  

We have been busy in Social Studies getting acclimated to our first "real" History course and talking about why history is important to pay attention to.  We have covered basic timelines for this year, talked about how small events can have a big impact, how to identify and use primary and secondary sources, and why paying attention to our world is so important.  This week, we will move on from introductory information into our first unit: Ancient Rome.

The syllabus for this year (written for students) is attached.  Feel free to contact me with any questions at namaral@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us

We have been working with measuring in SI units in science class. Ask your student what is something that is about 1 meter in size? What is something that is about 100 grams?
​Next week, we start talking about motion.

Students are blogging about things they are interested in. Some of the topics are dance,  book reviews, music, sports analysis, and more. I believe that teaching students to write for different purposes and audiences is an important skill. This unit also is teaching students about creating a positive digital footprint and gives them practice writing in the "real world."

The students are so enthusiastic about this assignment! I am so excited to see these amazing blogs as the year goes on. Ask your son or daughter to see their blogs! They should have the basic template set up, and the first post should be in progress. Their first two posts are due tomorrow, so they should have a decent start! 

You can see the blogs by going to the ELA course materials page in Schoology. There is a link to the blogs at the bottom of that page. Happy reading!

If your daughter or son is interested, yearbook club sign ups are taking place! See the attached flyer for more information.