Hello Friends
Welcome to the land of math with Mrs. Mittler
Hello parents and students. Welcome to Enlightium Christian Academy! I am so glad to have you here. Please make sure to take the time to read all of this newsletter as there is a lot to understand about EA and what is expected of you or in your child's math course.
My name is Mrs. Mittler, and I am going to be your math teacher. Just to let you know so you do not mistake me for Ms. Miller, just remember math we use addition and my name has addition signs in my name; the t's. ;) Before I let you know how my courses work, I would love to tell you a little bit about myself.
I am the oldest of three girls. I am married and have one wonderful daughter who will be graduating this year. Besides doing math, I REALLY love to do arts and crafts. I enjoy taking items that some would throw away and then making something new with them such as jewelry or art pieces. I also love to paint and crochet. Basically, I enjoy trying any type of craft if I can is something I am willing to do.
When I am home with my family, we love to play games, watch movies, and pick on each other. Along with a husband and daughter, we have 1 cat, 3 rats, and a snake that are part of the family too. NO, the rats are not the snake food but our little friends that hang out with us. I also volunteer at the humane society to help socialize cats for their future homes. If you have not noticed, I LOVE animals.
I am a diabetic and have been since I was 7 years old, so I have had to learn to cope with many medical situations and believe it or not had to learn math equations to check over my blood sugars at a very young age. It's amazing how God creates us all differently, and I learned that I was made special. But through him, I can do anything! So if you ever feel different, or have a sickness or disease just remember God is there for you, and he created you to be special. If you are ever frustrated by anything such as being a diabetic or anything like that, feel free to call me...I will be glad to listen. I understand the struggles of being different and would love to be there for you. :)
No matter what: if you need to talk or need time in prayer, please don't ever be afraid to ask me or another teacher. We are here for you. Please remember that.
PARENTS:
Contact information
- Diamond response time and grading time: Grading will be done in 24 work hours and the response time is 1 hour unless it is not during my office hours, chapel, or school meetings.
- Gold/ Silver Plus response time and grading time: Grading will be done in 48 work hours and the response time is 2 hours unless it is not during my office hours, chapel, or school meetings.
You can email me at m.mittler@enlightiumacademy.com
or call 509-319-2412 or 1-866-488-4818 ext 2412.
Please save these somewhere near your desk just in case you need them.
What will I need for this course?
To see what will be needed for their course please click here for math supplies needed.
https://support.enlightiumacademy.com/support/solutions/articles/48000653303-grading-scale
EA's Knowledge Base Site
If you need help on how you use Ignitia or questions about courses you can find this help here: https://support.enlightiumacademy.com/support/home
Absent Form
If your child will or is sick for more than one day please fill this form out.
Technical Support and Requirements for School
If you are not sure what is the best set up for you child or are having issues getting something to work please check this section of the EA website.
Mrs. Mittler's math courses:
Here at Enlightium Academy, one of our main goals is to help students become lifelong learners. When God created us, he wanted us to be able to grow in learning. Many bible verses show this to us. A great one that shows how wisdom and learning are crucial in school, life, and about our Lord's laws is in Proverbs 1: 1-33. Be aware many times in the Bible we are told about respect and learning from our mother and father but this also goes with other adults that are teachers and mentors to us. When we do this it is called having a growth mindset. Our brains are meant to grow. So please be aware that many times teachers will be encouraging students to find out answers on their own or to take more time to research what a question is asking them to do. Do not be alarmed or think I am trying to ignore them - I am wanting to help students become strong in their ability to find answers or set up work on their own. This does not mean I will not help and I will most often show them how to solve one of the questions and then have them try the rest on their own. While learning this year, I want you to have that growth mindset. What that means is always be willing to try again and not stop learning. Students: Please print this sheet out and place it by you to help remind you that even if you don’t succeed the first time try again (https://www.screencast.com/t/s3gmjaqm7ki).
Students, when you get an answer or two incorrect or do not pass the assignment the first time, look at this as a way to help you learn more about the lesson. A second attempt is given on assignments that are lower than a 73%, so you will be able to try it again. Use that second attempt to take notes and try your best. If you need help and can not find enough information online, please ask me to help you out. I want you to succeed in math. If you do not succeed the first time, no worries that is still ok to try again. This is having a growth mindset.
For more information on what a growth mindset means and how to help you become better at having this type of mindset please look this over.
To learn more about ALL math expectations at EA please use this link to see them all.
Tutoring sessions
Diamond and Gold students are allowed one session a week.
NOTES:
- Gold students, you are only allowed 2 hours for all teachers so if you only need help in math, once a week will be ok.
- Diamond Students are allowed a session with all teachers each week. But please be aware that this does not mean every day. Each student is allowed once a week with all teachers and sometimes 2 times a week if a parent contacts the teacher about this or the student does this just once in a while.
Some important rules to follow with setting up your tutoring sessions:
- Please make sure you write down the time you pick so you are not late or miss it.
- If you cannot find a time from any of the teacher's schedules the week that you need the session, please message me as I will try my best to find a spot, but I can only allow that when all teachers have been booked up. There will be several teachers that offer times for you. You do not have to just pick me for help.
- Make sure you are on time and do not miss your session. If you need to cancel your session, please message me no later than 1 hour before your set time.
- Here is where you can set these times up. Feel free to set up sessions ahead of time if you plan to do one every month or every week.
Here are some VERY important things to know about the math courses and what is expected of the student
LIVE LESSONS:
Math teachers will be doing live lessons. Weekly math Live sessions will be held Mondays and Wednesdays with Homework help on Fridays. Please note, that not all weeks will there be a session and some might have 2. To know the exact days and topic please go to the math course below that you (your child) is taking in Livebinder for this information. You will find it under the tab LIVE LESSONS. All live lessons will be recorded for those who are not able to join. If you or your child does not want to be recorded, then make sure to not join us and ask me for the recording later or keep the camera off during times when the video is on.
Speaking of Livebinder, this is a site that we use to show extra videos and websites for extra help that will be very useful for you. Each Livebinder is different, but they are all handcrafted by each teacher and designed to help you. Some even give hints, and tips on how to best do an assignment for Ignitia, or will walk you through one or two of the questions in your lesson. If we direct you here, it's because we know there is something in there that may help the student. This will be like your help workbook and should ALWAYS be utilized when you need extra help. So PLEASE parents and students, before you ask a teacher for help you MUST go here first. Make sure to bookmark this so it is easy to get to each time.
What to do when taking a test or quiz:
***Parents you can reword a question if that might help but that is all you can help on when they take these.
A few things that I would like students to keep in mind before they start their coursework: PARENTS Please read these over with your student to help remind them of this importance in school
1. Please use your own words in your answers, because God and I highly value honesty and integrity in the work that you do. I sincerely hope that I will not have to give anyone a warning about plagiarism or cheating in our class. When you use the internet for help or to get the answer and copy it the way the site or person that helped you wrote it, this is plagiarism. Not only are you cheating when you do this but it does not help you understand how to get the correct answer or what the answer truly means. In math, all answers need to be your work. We can not quote others work or write it how they did in this course. So please, again, just look at how they do it, close the site up and show me in your own words or your own work on how to answer the question. As mentioned earlier, look over your student handbook about plagiarism if you are not sure what this is or what the consequences will be for this.
2. At EA, we expect you to complete ALL of the work that you are assigned with the use of complete sentences to the best of your ability. You will be given one message warning if you have not used proper grammar in your sentence, or give a one-word answer. After that points will be taken away. Should you choose not to answer a question, 0 points will be given for that question, but you are free to place the correct answer in the help box along with showing all work to prove this is the correct answer. After you have been given one message warning, any other blanks in the course will receive a 15% off the whole assignment grade. This is per EA policy.
Remember that I am here to help you out, so if you don’t understand how to complete a problem, ask for help. Please do not be afraid to ask. Not understanding how to complete a problem is not an acceptable excuse for leaving a problem blank. Most of the work in the curriculum is meant to help you learn essential skills, and submitting empty responses or using just one word or incomplete sentences to answer these questions deprives you of learning these skills.
3. Take notes: Keep in mind that you are permitted to take notes during your lessons and can use these while taking quizzes or tests. You can type them up if you wish; however, I recommend handwriting them because of the way many math concepts are formatted and the more you write data out the better you remember them. when you take notes show examples of each type of math equation to help remind you on how to solve an equation. If you would like to see the 2 best way to take notes in math please watch this video.
4. Wrong Answers: A great way to learn in math is to review your work and look over the ones you got wrong. use them to take notes on, write the steps on how to do it based on the answer key or even ask me if you are not sure how to get the correct answer. I will be glad to show you in steps. So always make sure, after an assignment is graded, to look over the ones that are marked wrong to help you see how to fix it. If you feel the answer was marked wrong but is really correct, please let me know. Sometimes computer marks you wrong for silly reasons, or I may have misunderstood what you said in a writer's box. I want you to always get the points you deserve, so do not ever be afraid to question if you feel they should be right. If you feel it was marked wrong by mistake please let me know in a kind message and explain why you feel the answer you placed is correct. It never hurts to check and you deserve to get the points when you are correct. :)
5. Always show your work for writer's boxes. As mentioned above a writer's box is important to show your work in. See the link above for more info.
6. If you see your grading going down or it is not the grade that you like, please ask for help. We have lots that can be done to help you improve your grade. The first is IXL. This is a site where I can add skills in that relate to the lesson you have had trouble with. So feel free to ask about this. the next one is to read the monthly newsletters. We will have extra credit at times added in there. So make sure to read these when they come in.
7. My final comment is to remember that if you noticed an assignment that you turned in was sent back to you, please make sure you read the help box notes. There will be times when I will let you know you left an answer blank or need to add more to your submission. I only do this to help you improve your score, not trying to torture you ;) Now if you notice no comment was made in the writer’s boxes and you receive a red mark or 0 points for it, just ask if they are correct or not. Sometimes if the grade is super low the program automatically will send it back to you before a teacher even sees it. So we did not get a chance to tell you if the writer's box answers are correct or not.
When I need help there will be co-teachers that will be grading in my course alongside me. Some of my Co-teacher will include Ms. Clark, Mrs. Sanchez , Mrs. James, and Mr. Lamoureux (I usually call him Mr. L), but I will have others that help me form time to time as well. Please give them the same respect you give me. All the teachers here in the math department are great and you will get some wonderful help from them just as you would from me. So please don't ever feel afraid to ask any of us for help.
Due Dates:
Please remember to make sure students follow the due dates of work as much as possible. This is not required but will help them get answers quickly, be ready for the live zoom sessions, and not end up being behind at the end of the year where it can be VERY overwhelming. This is especially important around the end of semesters when we are sending out progress reports or report cards. If you or your child has any other questions or are confused on one of my rules please make sure to ask. I will be glad to help you.
To learn more on how to succeed in math please look this over as well.
I love math, but in all reality, I love to have fun and will try my best to help you in a way that makes sense. So please do not ever feel afraid to ask me for help. That is why I am here :)
Kindest Regards and God bless†,
Mrs. Mittler
Hey Students,
Now that you have read this letter on what is expected and what you should not do. For 1 EC point on your first quiz or test whichever is lower tell me 2 things you should NOT do and one thing that you feel will be helpful for you. This must be turned no later than 1 week after I sent you my welcome letter as a response to this welcome letter. :)