Benchmarks are Coming

Next Monday and Tuesday we will be taking our second Benchmark of the year. Please make sure that your students are well rested and have eaten before taking this test. This test will go in the grade book as a test grade for this six weeks.

Also, the Pack Your Bags projects are due November 5th! Late projects will NOT be accepted and will result in a 0 for that test grade!

October 25th-29th with Mrs. S

Another crazy busy week in the land of Mrs. S! :) Make sure you refer to the previous post about the happenings for Red Ribbon Week this week!

Monday
Monday Memory Quiz over Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences
Begin Algebraic Expressions (#13-17 independent)
HW: Practice Sheet #10 (due Friday- +5 if turned in early)

Tuesday
Begin research in Computer Lab for "Pack Your Bags" project
Project is due November 5th!
HW: Practice Sheet #10 (see above)

Wednesday
Algebra Tiles and One Step Equations
Algebra Tiles (#10-15 independent)
HW: Practice Sheet #10 (see above)

Thursday
Continue research in Computer Lab for "Pack Your Bags" project
No other time in class will be given. All of the remaining MUST be done on their own tmie. Students can come to the computer lab after school for finishing their project. There is a sample project uploaded to my Teacher Web Page.
HW: Practice Sheet #10

Friday
Two-Step Equations and Mix-It Madness (Two-Step #7-9 and Mix It #1-6 independent)

Monday and Tuesday we will be doing our second Benchmark. Make sure that you are rested and have gotten a good breakfast to start your day. Our goal is for all three class periods to have a 75% or higher class average. What will Mrs. S do if we reach this?

Box Tops for Ice Cream!

Friday was our first collection day for Box Tops. After school, the Box Top Committee counted up a total of 1398 Box Tops!

Mrs. Batten's class was the runner up with almost 400 Box Tops but my class was the winning class with a total of 901 Box Tops! :)

We will be having an Ice Cream Party on November 3rd at lunch to celebrate! :)

Mrs. S's Smarties

I have been looking for a way to showcase student work in our classroom. I have a section of the bulletin board in the 8th grade hallway that I have labeled Mrs. S's Smarties. This will be for all of my students who make spectacular grades on their quizzes, homework (not Practice Sheets) and tests. What is a spectacular grade you might ask? Any student who makes a 95 or higher on any of these assignments OR they have made an improvement of at least 20 points from their previous quiz, homework or test.

This definitely will help students set goals in my class and be motivated to make the board in the hallway. Also, as an added perk, they will get a pack of Smarties from me when they make the board.

Red Ribbon Week Days

Monday- Sock it to Drugs! (Red shirt with dress bottoms, crazy socks- Contest with the winner from 7th grade and 8th grade receiving a Sonic Gift Card)

Tuesday- Be Smart, Don't Do Drugs! (Nerd Day with dress bottoms- Contest with the winner from 7th grade and 8th grade receiving a Sonic Gift Card)

Wednesday- Live Your Dream (Pajama Day)

Thursday- Lasso Up Drugs (Western Wear- out of dress)

Friday- Drugs can't find us! (Camo shirt with dress bottoms)

Classroom Update

Friday is when I had my cut off for all my grades for Progress Reports. They will be going out on Tuesday during homeroom. Homeroom switches will occur on Thursday since we have a Pep Rally on Wednesday afternoon.

If you are selling candy for Student Council, make sure that you are bringing it to me everytime you have $20. I don't want you carrying around excess money and risk it being lost. Thanks for all that you do!

Week 8 at CMS!

This week is a busy week! Just to give you a run-down:

Monday- How Big Is Barbie? due from Friday
Wednesday- Review for Unit 3 and 4 Test
Thursday- Unit 3 and 4 Test
Friday- Begin Unit 5; How Big is Barbie? Extra Credit due! Practice Sheet #8 due
Saturday- Watching Texas beat Nebraska! :)

Next week, I will be introducing our Second Six weeks project.

Don't forget that this Wednesday is Early Release. Also, Progress Reports will be out on the 19th so this week in tutorials is crucial to bring the grades up.

How Big is Barbie?

Today we are doing a project in class over ratios and proportions. The title above may make you wonder so that is why I am posting. Our project (it is a test grade) will be measuring different parts of a female and male action figure and discovering their ratios and how accurate that would be on a normal human being.

Students who are missing class today due to the Environmental Club field trip will have to make this up on their own. I will get the assignment to them on Monday, October 11th and they will have until Friday, October 15th to turn their POSTER into me! Remember this is a test grade so a ZERO would not be a good thing!

Student Council Update

This past weekend our Student Council Officers went to the TASC District 3 Leadership Conference in Corinth, Texas. They did a lot of team-building activities to help strengthen our numbers and we are excited to bring that "bond" back to Crandall Middle School. We did discuss some ideas for the upcoming year as well. We will talk about these in detail at the upcoming Student Council Meeting on October 11th at 3:15 pm.

On October 25th, we will be having our first service project for Student Council. For this Service Project, we will be making Affirmation Cards. These cards will then be sent to several different places (Elementary School Teachers, Police Officers, Firemen, Local Business, etc.) and letting them know how much we appreciate them at CMS. The goal behind this is to not only show how CKH is working in our students but also to help show appreciation for our local businesses.

New Unit- Unit Rate and Proportions

In Pre-Algebra, we just started discovering proportions. We will be studying proportions through next week. This Friday we are doing a project called "How Big is Barbie?" Each group of 4 people will need to bring in a Barbie (or other female figure) and a male action figure (Spiderman, Superman, The HULK, GIJoe, etc.). We will be measuring the various areas of their bodies and then determining if they are proportionate to a human being.

This proves to be a very interesting assignment. I have asked all of the students to put on their "mature hats" while we do this assignment. We have discussed that any inappropriate actions will result in an automatic office referral.

Now that we are in a new Six Weeks, I hope that all students will stay on top of their grades. Report Cards are going home today and I am very pleased. My failure rate is lower and my overall averages in each class are higher than last year. I hope this continues and that each of my students continue to show the effort that it takes to do well in Pre-Algebra.

If you didn't know my goal for this year already, It is my goal to not only make sure all of my students succeed in knowing the core curriculum for Pre-Algebra but that they are able to relate this core curriculum to the real world and also apply it to the end of the year assessment (TAKS). My goal for TAKS is that no child is left behind and that we have 100% mastery in my class. Each student has their own mastery level and I know that it is possible for them to do well. :)

Quiz, Benchmarks and More

On Monday, the MMQ (Monday Memory Quiz) will be over Scientific Notation. Make sure you understand what you need to so that you will excel and have a great first quiz grade! :)

Last week's benchmarks went well. The students worked hard and many were VERY proud of their scores. I will be contacting parents of those students who made a 50 or below on the test as I want to STRONGLY URGE that these students start attending tutorials on a regular basis. It is crucial that we cover these things now and are not kicking ourselves in March as we bare down and prepare for the TAKS test.

On October 8th, we have a Pirate Pride Assembly during Homeroom. Students will be receiving awards for grades and attendance. Congratulate your students if they receive one because of their continued hard work at CMS.

Don't forget our next Student Council Meeting is October 11th at 3:15 pm in Room 316. We will be talking about committees, Red Ribbon Week, our upcoming service project for the community, our fundraiser and District Fundraising Week.