Team 8-2 News
Mrs. Allen, Mrs. McKinney, Mr. Salser, Ms. Waxman
General News! Week of August 29th - September 2nd
Happy Monday! Hope you all enjoyed the weekend, and are ready to get right back at it. We did want to make a few quick reminders for you. This year our WOW and ZAP days have been replaced with two new programs, Zero Period and Camp.
Zero Period intended to help our students start their day off right! It will be held on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 6:45-7:15 am.Students will receive invitations tomorrow, and will begin on September 6th, following our holiday weekend. If your child is invited, and would like to attend, please return the permission form as soon as possible, so that we know we can expect them.This is a very small group of students, with just one teacher per team. If we do not receive a response, we will invite another student to take their place.
Camp will have more of an academic role. Teachers will work with smaller groups of students for 10 consecutive weeks, and then invite another group to join in. All four of our team's teachers will be inviting students to join us, so hopefully we will be able to reach everyone who can use a little extra support in one or more of the content areas. More news to come on this...
We mentioned grades last week, but wanted to add a little more information as you become more aware of your child's progress on PowerSchool. If you see a low score, or even a "0", please check to see if there is a blue hyperlink attached. If you click on these you will often see notes the teacher has attached. These often answer the questions you may have about the grade, such as, whether it has simply not been turned in, the student was in class, but did not do it, etc...With this in mind, we are already half way through our first quarter, and progress reports will be going home on September 14th.
Just an FYI...Mr. Salser has entered a number of student grades, but they do not appear to be able to be seen by you at the moment... Sorry! Our technical department are at work trying to solve this little cliche; hopefully, it will be back in working order soon!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
September 1st- SMMS Yearbooks are on sale now for $37.00 ( order online at)
September 5th- Labor Day Holiday (No School)
September 6th- Title I Annual Meeting 6pm.
September 14th- 1st Quarter Progress Reports go home
Language Arts- Ms. Waxman
This week in language arts, we will be taking a closer look at the basic elements of a plot diagram and determine where the events of our story, up to this point, belong.
For grammar , our focus for the next couple of weeks will be on commas and the rules that help us determine their usage. Middle Schoolers love to tell you that commas are there because they "pause", which is in part true, but there are actually 19 rules that guide those pauses.
Last week we took a quiz on the parts of speech after reviewing them since we have been back in school. For many, it served as a review that they needed, and they are back up to speed, but for many others, it seems that these are foreign terms that they do not have a solid understanding of. If this is the case for your student, I would suggest flash cards, or any other means that will help them get a handle on these. It will make some of the other grammar concepts we will introduce much easier for them to understand.
On Thursday, we will take a quiz on our Rootie Tootie Roots : sub and trans, our over and under prefixes. I have posted a StudyStack for these in their Google Classroom for extra practice.
Some of you may have noticed a new grade enter for "Independent Reading Practice". This grade is a reflection of the reading time that I have asked the students to do as their main homework for me of approximately 20-30 minutes of reading time each day. Their first book was due by last Friday. Many students were able to complete this task successfully, and may have even enjoyed a good book along the way!Unfortunately, there was another group that has not made much progress on this so far, and those efforts were also noted in PowerSchool. If your child has not been on track with this, please try to set aside some time, and get them going. I will keep you informed of the next assignment and due date.
Have a great week!
Math- Mrs. McKinney
This week we will start learning about transformations. Wednesday the students will take a quiz over parallel lines, transversals, triangles, and angle measures. I think they are ready for the quiz. Monday will be an introduction to transformations and students will work on completing a foldable in their interactive notebook. Tuesday we will work in buzz math and the students will practice translations on the computer. Wednesday will be the quiz and more translations, and Thursday and Friday we will expand our transformations to include reflections.
Blocks 1,2 and 4 only - Last Friday the students turned in their parallel city projects and I graded them. The students will get their projects back and they will have the opportunity to improve their grades by coming in before school and explaining to me what they need to do to correct their projects. They will need to ask me to sign their agendas.
Here are some links to help this week:
http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/transformations.html
Social Studies- Mr. Salser
This week we are focusing on Oglethorpe and the establishment of the Georgia colony. We will look into the types of people that Oglethorpe brought in, how he set up the colony, the religious freedoms he established, and the reason for the establishment of the Georgia colony.
Science- Mrs. Allen
This week in science, we will be learning about the states of matter, atoms, molecules, elements, and compounds! We will be exploring properties with labs, and expanding our understanding of how things in the world work! I look forward to seeing everyone! J
Teacher Contact Information
Mrs. Allen- callen@camden.k12.ga.us
Mrs. McKinney- dmckinney@camden.k12.ga.us
Mr. Salser- tsalser@camden.k12.ga.us
Ms. Waxman- bwaxman@camden.k12.ga.us
Location: 205 Martha Drive, Saint Marys, GA, United States
Phone: (912)-882-8626