Mercury Online Happenings
October 22-26 2012
Upcoming Dates to Remember
- Thursday, October 25th: Parent Education Meeting @ 8:30pm Eastern
- Friday, October 26th: Advisors Meeting @ 2pm Eastern - Julie's office
- Sunday, November 4th: Daylight Savings Time ends- this means AZ will only be 2 hours behind Eastern time!
- Monday, November 5th: Work from home day for CA Center students
- Tuesday, November 6th: Staff Meeting in Stephanie's office @ 7pm Eastern
- Friday, November 9th: Advisement meeting in Julie's office @ 2pm Eastern
- **Beginning August 28th, all adjunct teachers must submit invoices to Brenda McCullers on the 14th and 28th of the month**
Thanksgiving Break across Mercury land!
Arizona: November 21-23/Wednesday-Friday
California: November 19-23/Monday-Friday
Colorado: November 21-23/Wednesday-Friday
India - November 22
Puerto Vallarta - November 23
Muskegon Heights - November 22-23
Staff Spotlight
Cecilia Perkins
This week we spotlight Cecilia Perkins. Cecilia works as the Administrative Assistant for Mercury Arizona.
Cecilia shares....
My name is Cecilia Perkins and I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I have been married for 16 years, and we have five children and five grandchildren. I continued my education at the University of Phoenix to work on my Business/Administration degree. I have been working in the education field for 16 years, and I can say I love working with students and parents. I have been employed with Mercury Online Academy since February 2012. I really love working with the staff, parents, and students.
Mercury Sunshine!
- Barbara Noel-Williams who lost her dear Aunt June this past week. Aunt June's loss was totally unexpected, and we are so very sorry Barb- we know she was like a mother to you.
Let me know of any concerns or celebrations within our Mercury family!
Club Corner
This week in art club students got creative with color! We learned how the eyes perceive color through light and how the spectrum of colors are arranged on an artist's color wheel. Our amazing artists created their own creative color wheels showing the primary and secondary colors. Here is a wonderful example by High School Art Club member Gabrielle Ballinger!
Middle School Book Club
The middle school book club had a lively discussion on the book, The Outsiders. We discussed how author S.E. Hinton was only 16 years old when she wrote the book in 1967 and how the book is still relevant today. Our favorite quote so far is: “It seemed funny that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”
Our newest installment.... TEACHER TIP OF THE WEEK!
1-Activating Prior Knowledge (What do my students already know? How can I build off of their understanding?)
2-Socratice Discussion (The ART of teacher questioning to guide student thinking to gain a deeper level of understanding)
3-Graphic Organizers
4-Cooperative Leaning (Team building through cooperation and partnerships)
5-Role Play (Kinesthetic connections, gaining empathy and just plain FUN!)
6-Personal Connections/Journals (How do I feel about what I just experienced? )
Plan for these ETS daily in your lessons and increase student engagement and achievement!
What Is Going On In Other Mercury Locations?
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Alaska
Muskegon Heights, Michigan
Hyderabad, India
Ohio
You will receive updates here that will pertain to our students in any of these locations!
- be sure to consult the various calendars in D2L for these locations
Teachers PLEASE be sure you are keeping your D2L grade book updated. Whenever a program needs grades for a progress report, we export the D2L grade book current average. Thank you!
Upcoming Holidays:
India - October 22 - 26, November 12-13, November 22
Puerto Vallarta - November 2, November 23
Muskegon Heights - November 22-23
Online Paragon Nights!
We look forward to seeing what our wonderful students have created!
End of the Grading Period is coming!
Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns - the deadlines stated are very important!
- AZ End of Grading Period: October 19th
- CA and Prep End of Grading Period: October 24th
- CO End of Grading Period: October 30th
This week's deadlines:
Monday, October 22nd: Student Holiday/Teacher Workday – AZ
Tuesday, October 23rd: All PSAPs complete in Alpine-AZ
Wednesday, October 24th: Last day of GP#1 CA
Wednesday, October 24th: Begin PSAP Conference Window-AZ
Wednesday, October 24th: Grades entered in PS by 12 noon EASTERN AZ
Thursday, October 25th: Student Holiday/Teacher Workday-CA
Friday, October 26th: All PSAPs complete in Alpine-CA- Be sure all AZ and CA PSAPs are fully complete in Alpine
- All grades for AZ entered into PowerSchool NO LATER THAN 12 NOON – 10/24/12 (grades in PS and in D2L must match EXACTLY. Round all grades as follows: 0.49 and below rounds down; 0.50 and above rounds up)
- Email Cecilia Perkins as soon as all AZ grades are entered in PS so that she can provide you with a verification report.
Here is the link to the wonderful step by step recording that Carrie Polk has provided for creating PSAPs in Alpine:
The next round of Performance Ed/Scantron Testing is Coming!
Also, updated Performance Series Testing Instructions are on their way...the format has changed within the system and student login screens do not look as they did in the past. Please inform your students, and possibly login with a sample student ID (I will provide these!) to model the changes for your kids. It is also recommend that you post a news item with some screen shots (I will provide these!) to help guide students through these changes.
Targeted Learning Series.....
Next week's topic: There will be no TLS for this week, but it will resume next week!
Join us if you can:)
Upcoming Paragon Units- Be aware for Cross-curricular connections!
CO 6th graders: Renaissance
CA 7th: Medieval Africa
AZ 7th: Civil War
CO 7th: China/Japan
CA 8th: Westward Expansion
AZ 8th: WWII
CO 8th: The Constitution
Contemporary World Cultures: Middle East / Rise of Islam
Paragon World History: Pre-Columbian America (including Mayas, Aztecs, Incas)
And Our new weekly installment..... your joke of the week
A. The alpha-BAT.