World Geography PreAP
Ms. Kristina Rumfelt
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
The spring semester curriculum will continue as follows:
January - We will evaluate economic and political geography.
February - We will analyze global cultural regions beginning with the United States and Canada.
Throughout the first semester, we studied the following:
Planet Earth
Forces of Change
Natural Disasters
Global Warming
Earth's Water
Earth-Sun Relationships
Factors Affecting Climate
World Climates
Global Cultures
Factors Affecting Settlement
Forced Migration
Genocide
Global Population
Demographics
At this time, students should be able to identify:
North American Countries
South American Countries
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION...
Please let me be clear when I say I love educating your child about the world every day I get to see them. It is truly my pleasure. This being said, it is a constant struggle to engage every student every day when such quick rewarding digital and social amusements are my competition. I am sure this is the struggle we all, as teachers and parents share, when dealing with teenagers today.
Regardless of the mountain before us, we must continue to push the leaders of tomorrow to appreciate and encourage their vision to continue to hold a place for the dreams of their future. In saying this, I would like to encourage you to regularly check student progress through Parent Portal. I have included a link for you below. To encourage student ownership of their education, I would also like to encourage you to request your son/daughter to regularly check their academic progress through Parent Portal access. If you need further reasoning to support the constant regulation of your child’s academic progress, please continue reading.
I will always support your child through the best of my ability, but I have done the math*.
Unfortunately, the numbers reflect a disturbing fact. Although seeing your son/daughter daily for 177 days per year as a class seems sufficient, when considering the time I will have with your child individually educating, during the contracted hours of my day, the numbers look less appealing. After the math is said and done, I will only have approximately 54 minutes total for your child annually if I were to spend equal time with all students throughout the year.
Therefore, it is imperative that you work with me in enabling your child to remember that their education is an investment towards their future dreams, as it often functions as a key which opens the doors of opportunity. I will promise to enforce this every day from my end, but I am extremely limited, as I have previously suggested, to do this effectively due to the limitations of numbers and time.
I am fighting a losing battle with cell phone use in the classroom. I appeal to their best sensibilities, or I should say the best sensitivities that a 14/15 year old has currently available to themselves at this time, but often to no avail. I am open to ideas and thoughts that would not include increasing time for individual students because, as I mentioned before, this would only cut into the already limited time I have to spend on individual students. Consider that uncontracted hours are already absorbed with planning, researching, grading, reporting grades, printing/copying, and an assortment of other district and campus required professional development and/or paperwork.
Please comment suggestions below, however, keep in mind that there are also many regulations/policies that limit the extent of what I can commit to in regards to consequences, as these are, and I believe should be respected as such, individually owned, aka parent owned, devices.
Current ideas I am considering and/or currently use include:
- Involving cell phone use into class research and other educational uses throughout the class period as misdirection of use. PROBLEMS: Not all students currently have devices and/or internet capabilities, and there is only one class set of iPad available to our entire social studies department on any given day.
- Asking that students place cell phone away, off the desks, and keeping track of cell phones seen throughout the class period. Class periods could compete for incentives. Incentives could be offered in the form of non-academic class rewards. PROBLEMS: Students claiming they were checking "the time", and the personal cost of the incentives.
*177 days/yr.
approximately 60 class minutes/day
approximately 200 students/teacher
Tutoring
Daily
Mornings - #A103
8:15-8:30
M, W, F
Afternoons - Library (ReTeach)
4:30-5;30
T, Th
CONTACT INFORMATION:
I encourage your questions, comments, and/or concerns about your individual child's academic and social well-being in our class.
The best contact method is email.
If you do not receive a reply, right away, I would like to offer my sincere apologies now. Please do not hesitate to send the email again as soon as you feel you should've already received a response.
Email: krumfe@neisd.net
Website: http://wckrumfe.weebly.com
Phone: 210-356-0000
Twitter: @MsRumfelt
The Pantry @ WC
Donations are accepted anytime throughout the school year to RM A110. Any student enrolled at WCHS is welcome to utilize the Pantry. There are no eligibility requirements and all information is kept confidential to be used only for inventory and associated stats.