Welcome to Sixth Grade Orientation and Curriculum Night

1. Welcome to Sixth Grade Orientation andCurriculum Night August 1, 2013 By PresenterMedia.com

2. Introductions Dr. Steinbeck - Principal Mr. Jones – Assistant Principal Ms. Turner – Assistant Principal Mrs. Cantrell – Social Studies Mrs. Hicks – Language Arts Mrs. Naliwajka - Science Mrs. Norton – Reading Mrs. Wallace – Math – Resource Reading and Language Arts – Ms. Lawandales – Resource Math – Mr. Tolerson - Co-Taught Reading, Language Arts, and Math – Mr. Cantrell – Supportive Instruction: Science – Ms. Hemphill and Social Studies – Ms. Adams

3. Bring Your Learning Device BYLD

4. What is BYLD? • Under direct supervision of classroom teacher, students will be allowed to use their personal technology devices to: • Access Web-based content • Use tools, software, apps on their device for practice and productivity • School participation is voluntary • Teacher participation is voluntary

5. Why BYLD? Access Change from toy for communication and entertainment to tool for organization and productivity Allow parents and students to leverage their investment in these technologies for targeted academic purposes Teach skills needed for 21st century workplace (NETS-S)

6. WhyBYLD? Enable students to become contributing citizens who communicate effectively and utilize technology to make responsible decisions and adapt to the challenges of the future Prepare all students and teachers to maximize learning by fully integrating relevant technology into academic content

7. Guidelines • Students and parents must sign and turn in the BYLD Student/Parent Agreement • Student use is solely at the discretion of the classroom teacher. • Teachers will notate on the board outside their classroom when learning devices will be needed and able to be used in their classrooms. • Teachers and CCSD staff will not troubleshoot students’ devices. Students are responsible for charging and maintaining.

8. Student Rules Students are required to access the Internet through the BYLD network, per the BYLD Acceptable Use Policy. Student network access is filtered as required by the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Any violation of the AUP is a student code of conduct violation and should be turned in to the appropriate administrator.

9. Student Rules-continued Students should save work on their own hard drive, a flash drive or the student’s SkyDrive. Students will not have printer access at school from their personal devices. Students are responsible for securing their learning devices at all times. CCSD is not responsible for theft or damage to any device.

10. Types of Devices Brought to Class • Laptop • iPad • iPod Touch • iPhone • Smart phone • Nook • Kindle • Kindle Fire • Blackberry Playbook • Sharper Image eReader • Nintendo DSI

11. Improper Use consists of: • Calling • Texting • Listening to music • Playing Games • Receiving calls or texts • Recording • Taking pictures • Having the device out when the teacher has not designated a BYLD activity

12. STEM • S = Science • T = Technology • E = Engineering • M = Mathematics • All subject areas taught will integrate the use of these curricular strategies to enhance instruction in each STEM area. All subject areas will utilize cross-curricular instruction in each individual class subject. So your child will be doing reading, math, language arts, science, and social studies in all classes. All lessons will have students using the Engineering Design Loop for learning to take place.

13. STEM Engineering Design Loop Communicate Share your knowledge

14. Attendance Our school day begins at 7:45; however, students are permitted to the classroom at 7:15. Once students are unpacked, they are expected to start working on morning work which consists of Math Review problems, Language Arts questions, and Social Studies Daily Geography or Cumulative Review. Many sixth grade students are at different extra curricular activities around the school in the morning, so it will be necessary for them to complete the morning work as homework each evening, if this is the case for your child. We need students here and on time each day. We can only give students the best instruction and education when they are present and on time.

15. Absenteeism • Please know that if your child is absent, he/she is missing instruction and work in five different classes. He/she will need to get any missed work when he/she returns. Students have three days from the date of absence to return the school work back to the teachers. • We need a written excuse for an absence. We ask that you not email the excuse or write the excuse in his/her agenda as we keep the excuse in your child’s file if questions arise. • Students with chronic tardiness or absenteeism can and will be turned over the to truancy officer for investigation.

16. Parent/Teacher Communication • We have several ways to keep you updated on what’s happening in the classroom. We use: • Daily agenda – Please sign at the bottom of the column each night. Homework should be circled by your child as he/she records the assignment(s) off the board at the beginning of each class. • Weekly Newsletters – These are posted to our websites every Friday, and it is noted with what we’ll be covering and the major test(s), project(s) due dates and events for the next week. • Websites – Each teacher offers a website with different information about what we are doing and curriculum that is being taught in the classroom. Due dates are generally posted here, too. • Email – This is probably the most effective and quickest way of communicating with us. We do check our email daily; however, please do not send urgent messages, as we do not always get time during the school day to check it. • Phone calls – You may call the school and leave a message. We often have meetings during our planning or after school, but we should return your call within a day from your phone call.

17. Discipline Policies • We will be using agendas as part of our discipline policy. A student who misbehaves or does not complete an assignment will receive a red mark in his/her agenda. If a student goes the entire day with no red mark for behavior or responsibility issues and gets his/her agenda completely filled out and signed, he/she earns a token for that day. Codes for misbehavior and responsibility issues can be found in the plastic pocket inside of your child’s agenda. • Students earning a token for each day of a week receive a choice of a certificate at the end of the week. Every day a student receives no red marks, he/she also gets to participate in reward time at the end of each day. Students who receive red marks must sit out of reward time or miss a portion of reward time, depending on the severity of the infraction.

18. Parent Volunteers and Helpers • We are in need of parents to volunteer to coordinate our: • Two parties (Before winter break and end of the year) • One to two parents to copy for us. All volunteers are required to apply and be finger printed. If you are interested, please let your child’s homeroom teacher know!

19. Field Trip Pending Board Approval • Where: Tybee Island – Burton 4-H Center • When: October 28 – 30 (3 days, 2 nights) • Who: Sixth grade students, Mrs. Cantrell, Mrs. Hicks, Mrs. Naliwajka, Mrs. Wallace, an administrator, and chaperones (must have a background check and be fingerprinted) • Estimated Cost: $225 – Payment installments will be available. • More Information to come!

20. Sixth Grade Myths • “The teacher didn’t give us time in class to work on the in-class assignment.” • “I don’t have ANY homework tonight.” • “My teacher doesn’t like it when I ask questions in class.” • “My teacher wouldn’t help me.” • “I don’t have a book to read because I can’t go to the library.” • “We don’t have time to complete USA Test Prep assignments (or other online assignments).” • “We didn’t have to write in our agendas today.” • “I can’t bring home a textbook.”

21. Subject Area Presentations

22. Language Arts Mrs. Hicks • In Language Arts we focus on writing skills and Grammar skills. We will be focusing on the 6 Traits of Writing: Ideas, Organization, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, Voice, and Conventions. • We will be writing in the following genres: • Narrative • Expository • Persuasive/Argument • Technical

23. Language Arts Mrs. Hicks • In Grammar, we will use the Shurley method of classifying sentences, and we will be diagramming sentences. We will also use other materials to practice various Grammar skills. • Students will have a quiz on Fridays over the sentences we have worked on during each week. • Each Monday students receive a Language Arts morning worksheet. This morning work will be related to the 6 Traits. We will discuss the answers to each day’s page in class, and on Friday we have a writing prompt related to what we have learned.

24. Read 20 minutes each evening. Vocabulary Quiz on Fridays. Students receive the Vocabulary with definitions on Mondays. When Reading Counts Tests are ready, students will need to have read 12 books (3 books per quarter) by the end of the year. We will cover the Common Core using a variety of materials, including novels, short stories and guided reading books. Reading : Mrs. Norton

25. Math – Mrs. Wallace • Curriculum – • Unit 1 – Decimals • Unit 2 – Number Theory • Unit 3 – Fractions, Decimals, Ratios, Percent • Unit 4 - Proportions • Unit 5 - Equations • Unit 6 – Solid Figures • Unit 7 – Statistics • Unit 8 – Rational Numbers

26. Math - Continued Grading: Grades are weighted using the following percentages: Daily Grades – 20 % Homework – 10% USA Test Prep – 10% Quizzes – 20% Projects/Tasks – 20% Tests – 20%

27. Math - Continued Cumulative Review • * Distributed in homeroom on Mondays • * We will check the answers in math • * Quiz over the cumulative reviews on Tuesdays • * Parents are encouraged to go over the cumulative review with the student on Monday nights • REDO Opportunities • * Students are allowed to redo failing daily grades by following the redo expectations posted in my classroom. The corrected assignment will be recorded as a 70.

28. Math - continued • Check my website often for important dates, objectives, documents, links, and our daily agenda. • Mrs. Wallace’s website • http://mysite.cherokee.k12.ga.us/personal/valerie_wallace/site/default.aspx

29. Science: Mrs. Naliwajka • In Sixth Grade, our curriculum covers the Earth Science branch. Our units of study this year will be: • Rocks and Minerals • Weathering and Erosion • Inside Earth • Water in Earth’s Processes • Climate and Weather • Universe and Solar System • Earth, Moon, and Sun • Human Impact on the Earth (integrated in all units of study) • Each unit will integrate laboratory experiences (hands-on /technology –based activities) and field work using inquiry-based learning. • Many of the standards overlap into other units of study. Grades will be weighted. Refer to the syllabus that will be sent home.

30. Science Science Fair • Every sixth grade student will be required to complete a science fair project first semester. Students will have the choice to complete the project individually or with a partner. We will complete much of the work on this project in class; however, student s will be asked to conduct the main experiment of the project at home. Students will be receiving information about each step of this project as we work on the step in class, and there are several links on my website to look at regarding Science Fair. Students will be working on their research paper for this project in Mrs. Hicks’ Language Arts class. This project will count as a large portion of the student’s grade during first semester. Students will also receive time to work on these projects in Mrs. Cantrell’s Social Studies class, too. Science Fair is a great way for students to apply skills and content they have learned in the classroom!

31. Social Studies – Mrs. Cantrell • Will be covering the geography, culture, environmental issues, and population distribution, governments, economies, and history: • 1st Nine Weeks: Introduction to World Economies and Governments, and European geography, environmental issues and culture, economies, and governments • 2nd Nine Weeks: European History and Canadian geography, environmental issues and culture, economy, government, and history • 3rd Nine Weeks: Latin American and Australian geography, environmental issues and culture, economies, governments, and history • 4th 9 weeks: Personal Finance and Preview Seventh Grade Social Studies

32. Social Studies – Mrs. Cantrell • Grades in my class are weighted, so when you are on Aspen, you can not simply add up all grades and divide them by the total number of grades. Grades are weighted by category. • The category and weights of grades are: • Daily grades – 30% • Quizzes – 20% • Tests/Projects – 30% • Participation/Online Assignments – 20% For students who utilize class time wisely, the only homework they should have is study for tests/quizzes, completing weekly on-line assignments (if they do not finish in class), and completing projects (whatever is not finished during class time.)

33. Teacher’s Email Addresses • leighann.cantrell@cherokee.k12.ga.us • barbra.hicks@cherokee.k12.ga.us • lisa.naliwajka@cherokee.k12.ga.us • misty.norton@cherokee.k12.ga.us • valerie.wallace@cherokee.k12.ga.us

34. Thank you for coming today! Please feel free to visit your child’s classrooms at this time. Please know we want to speak with all of you while also maintaining confidentiality, so we will not use this time to conference about specific needs of your child. IMPORTANT: We ask that you sign in at your child’s homeroom and complete the information verification form and your child’s transportation information. We want your child to be successful and enjoy his/her last year at HSES STEM Academy. Please know we will educate your child using the best of our abilities and preparing him/her for middle school while loving, nurturing and guiding your child in a supportive environment. We feel we can best do this by working with you and your child as a team. All five of us believe teaching is a calling and want to thank you for allowing us to be a major part is your child’s life.