GENERAL NEWS We had a great open house and as always it was great to meet up with many of you that day. The high school placements are gearing up so if I can be of any assistance with your choice please contact me. You know your children better than anybody so I’m sure you will know what the best soil will be for your child to grow. Some are good when pushed and others are not. There is always a window for change after the school year begins so that’s an option too.  This week is Catholic School’s Week and lots of activities are planned.  It will be fun to culminate the week with our traditional red & white day. Please get your conference forms back to me so scheduling can begin. That date is Feb. 19th. This week Thursday I am going with Ms. Wollensak to the 7th grade Scholastic Bowl at Naz, therefore, math help sessions are only Monday & Tuesday this week.

REGULAR ALGEBRA  We are closing up the chapter on writing a linear equation this week. We will have that Chapter 5 test next week. I am ahead of last year at this time and that speaks to the hard work of these students this quarter. They have really stepped to the plate and mastered some difficult topics and homework is being completed in a more timely fashion. It is very difficult to succeed in math without doing assignments as it creates holes in the learning process. Then it makes it difficult to build on those holes. I think the students are getting that fact so they are working better than before. The more we can cover this year, the easier it will be next year.

ACCEL ALGEBRA We are testing Chapter 8 at the end of this week and will begin Chapter 9 next week.  Before the year is out we need to complete chapters 9 and 10 completely along with portions of Chapters 11, 12 and 13.  We are on track to do that but can’t waste one minute along the way.  I am disappointed in the fact that I am getting more dedication and a better work ethic from the regular group than the accel group overall. Many are working well and hard but many are not. On a recent quiz grades were very low despite 100′s on homework. There’s something amiss here.  I’m not sure what it is specifically, but I do know it tells me that homework isn’t being learned while it’s being done. Working in groups, copying, rushing, taking my work as your own during class explanations are all contributing factors. There is no substitute for hard work and knowing what you need to know for the next level.  Many thanks to those who are already there!

RELIGION  We are beginning sesion 5 out of 8 toward Confirmation and I am enjoying the process. I hope the students are also. Test scores in the second quarter were low in spite of the whole test being mapped out ahead of time. I tell the students exactly what to know and even share the essay questions prior to the test date.  Those who prepare as I outline do well, and those who don’t prepare have those low scores. We will have 4 more tests in the Confirmation series and then return to our study of Morality to finish out the year. Discussions are good and projects are well done, now let’s get those test scores up where they belong.  We will attend Mass on Tuesday this week for Catholic School’s Week. Let’s appreciate the fact that we can worship together during our school day!

GENERAL NEWS  Happy New Year! Looking forward to the rest of the quarter winding down and meeting with you again in February at our conferences.  I have had students coming to math help in droves this week. I guess the end of the quarter is looming and folks are a little worried.  Some of them surely need to worry since the work ethic this quarter has been so far under par. I still have my achievers as usual, but in general, the level of work has been very poor throughout December and into the New Year. Some of the reasons for this are working too fast, working distracted, not turning in work in a timely fashion, poor computation, skipping problems (not doing them), and wanting to be done more than wanting to be correct. Unfortunately, it’s too late now to affect much of a change in the level at present.  Hopefully, some disappointment will settle in after report cards prompting students to “kick it up a notch.”  I hope your holidays were happy and restful. Mine were fantastic with my little Joey and the closets I was able to clean!

ACCEL ALGEBRA The semester exam took place this week and I will share the results with the students next week. I feel we had plenty of time to review and prepare, but I don’t think the students took full advantage of that. The cumulative review I collected on Monday after the break was some of the poorest work I’ve seen to date. I asked the students to have that document signed so you can see the level of time and effort put into it.  Of course, some were fantastic, but others were very poor. Daily I am trying to instill strong work policies in these young people so they can be successful in the future, but they seem not willing to invest the time it takes to be successful. Those who do choose to invest the time are very successful at this point and I thank them for that.  We will proceed with Chapter 8 starting next week and that is about exponents and exponential functions. I must say the work will become more difficult now so it will be imperative to stay on task and keep up with the daily expectations. The week of 1/16/12 we are off Monday and the rest of the week we will cover 8-1 & 8-2 with a quiz, then on to 8-3 & 8-4 and a quiz. I’m not sure of the dates yet. Probably 8-3 & 8-4 will be the week of 1/23/12 with the rest of Chapter 8 completing that week. 

REGULAR ALGEBRA  The Christmas break came before we could test Chapter 4 so that happened this week.  I will return them to the students as soon as possible and then next week we will start Chapter 5. This is about writing the equation of a line, which isn’t difficult but requires a few steps so it will be important to take notes and use them to process homework.  The week of 1/16/12 we will cover sections 5-1 to 5-3 and review them. We will take a quiz on those sections then the week of 1/23/12.  We will continue in Chapter 5 with sections 5-5 & 5-6 with a quiz on those two also. I will go back then and pick up section 5-4 to join with 5-7 and get ready for Chapter test.  This will all be in the third quarter as time won’t permit too much getting finished before next week is over.  Most of the students are working hard in this group and I am really proud of the progress many have made. As always we have our challenges, but I think most of them understand the work it takes to keep up in this class.  I thank them for working hard most of the time.  Those who have chosen not to work hard and keep up  are are well aware of the cost.    As always taking class notes is a must for success. 

RELIGION  We tested session 3 at the end of this week and now we have session 4 titled “Empowered by the Spirit”. We will learn the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how Confirmation will enhance our lives.  We will ask how we intend to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We will devote about a week and a half to this session with a test during the week of 1/23/12.  Confirmation is March 18th at 2:00 so it is closer than we think. We have four more sessions to study and about 7 weeks.  We will spend about one and a half weeks on each session to be completed just before Confirmation. Then we will return to the Morality series for the rest of the 8th grade Religion curriculum. Please be sure to attend Mass as a family, especially now as we embark upon this beautiful sacrament.