Setting Goals and Getting Organized

We spent quite a bit of time on these two subjects this week. We covered the first four references in their Shurley folders. All four added up to one idea: Being successful begins with organization. Here are the 4 topics:

1. Study skills- get organized, listen, plan your time, and do your homework
2. Beginning set-up plan for school: A plan to keep things in order.
3. Study plan for school: Check this plan every day!
4. Study plan for home: Stick to this plan every evening!

We worked in cooperative groups to study all 4 sections. Each group was assigned a section to read and become the experts. They were then given the task of "teaching" their section to the rest of the class. They were required to make a visual with chart paper, but then they had to decide as a group as to how they would present the information to the class in a 5-7 minute time frame.

I learned so much about them through this process. Who are the leaders, team players, creative students, thinkers, poets, time managers, confident presenters, and artists (I'll post some of their visuals soon)? I also noticed the weaknesses, which we won't mention or dwell upon.

On Friday, they were asked to set three personal goals for themselves. In one paragraph, they were to write which goals they chose and why. Some have not finished this, but will on Monday at the beginning of class.


At home: Please ask your child what his/her goals are and how you can support him/her. They need to know that their goals are important to you, and that YOU are willing to help. If I can get them to feel successful, then they may start setting little goals along the way and build some powerful intrinsic motivation.

Lastly, we went to the lab to take the pre-test on Friday. This 100 question quiz was given on the Internet in a program called Quia. Now I have some powerful data that will tell me exactly what I need to focus on for the rest of the year. For example, I know they need instruction on adverbs, adjectives, compound sentences, and categorizing pronouns. Their strengths include Homonyms, verbs tenses, and punctuation. For you mathematically inclined parents, here are more stats:

Overall Summary for 109 students:
Points Possible 100
Low Score 7
High Score 81
Mean 45.138
Median 45

I'm constantly assessing and reassessing their strengths and weaknesses. The fact that they came to 6th grade knowing 45% of what I was planning to teach, tells me I'm going to have to up my game this year! 5th grade teachers have prepared them well.

Speaking of setting goals, I think I'll go do that now.

Sneak peak at next week:
Jingles: sentence, noun, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
End mark flow
Classifying sentences

Parents/Students comment here for Smarties!

I hope this additional mode of communication will be helpful to you and your middle schooler. Make sure you scroll down and read the first 3 posts.

Just leave me a message with your name. If you want to be notified by email when I add a post, please add your email address in the space provided at the top on the right hand side.

Also, please send an email to my teacher account at vicki.swinger@sumnerschools.org . It really helps me to organize my students' addresses and keep in touch with you. For doing this, your child will be offered a choice of a homework pass or +10% on a test. The homework pass does not give the student 100 points, but treats it as if the assignment has been omitted. If saved, both can be used at the end of the 9 weeks to help with bubble grades (bubble- when you're really close to moving up to/falling below the next letter grade).

The links provided may be helpful to you for a variety of reasons, so check them out!

Working together,
Ms. Swinger

Box Tops for Education!!

We are now collecting Box Tops for Education. For every box top turned in, money is donated to our school. That money adds up very quickly! How about a friendly contest?!?! Boys against girls! Losers have to serve the winners a breakfast of doughnuts and milk.

Not enough, you say? OK...Servers will wear aprons. Let's rally this year and set a record.  AND...if you win the class with the most box tops, the parents and I will serve all of you a waffle breakfast with all the fixins.

NOW...go clip those box tops!

Today, my students are working on a writing pre-assessment. The prompt: What did you imagine KDDC Middle School was going to be like? Now that you've been here for a week. What is it really like?

I asked them to do their best and assured them no grade would be given. I explained how I use the writing to get an idea of where they are in their development as a writer.

This is one of my favorite assignments to read. Since I'm their only audience, they say it all! These papers will be placed into a writing file in my classroom and given back at the end of the year. Hopefully, when they see these again, they'll see a lot of maturity in sentence structure, vocabulary, and grammar.

How can you help at home? In conversations with your sixth grader, use a more mature vocabulary. Ask open-ended questions and challenge him/her to use details when describing an event or situation. (If your child is long-winded like my daughter, this will NOT be necessary.)

Working together,
Mrs. Swinger

First Week of School

Hello, parents and students! Welcome to my class blog. I'll try to keep this updated every week. Please subscribe to the feed so you'll get an email when something new is added.

First Week of School:

Procedures, procedures, procedures!

This week is all about getting to know the school and teachers. I will be reviewing the handbook, doing a "Get to Know You" activity, and modeling appropriate classroom procedures. Although Wednesday is the only day I'll fully dedicate to behaviorial instruction, I'll spend 2 weeks total illustrating each and every rule and procedure students are to follow in my classroom.

Friday is our PBS day where all KDDC students will move to different stations where school-wide behaviors will be modeled and explained. In the afternoon, our anti-bullying program will begin with a huge assembly. I can't wait!

Pretesting in writing and language arts classes will begin next week.