Spring Testing is Here!

Star testing begins this Monday, April 27th, and will conclude on May 8th. Attendance is very important and we ask that you make sure your student gets to school on time for the next two weeks. Also, please be sure that your student has had a good breakfast and plenty of rest.  You may also want to provide a healthy snack and make sure they have a good book to read when they have completed testing.

Students have completed research on their careers and will be creating their final product this coming week. It has been fun reading about what they hope to become. One thing is for sure, San Jose Middle School will have an abundance of alumni who will be professionals in all areas.
Seventh grade students have just finished Unit 4 in History about Imperial China. They will be taking a unit test next week (study guides will go out this week) and will begin the next unit of study about Medieval Japan. I anticipate the student will enjoy learning about the warrior class.

In Language Arts, students will begin a novel study based on James Howe’s novel, The Misfits. This novel is about a group of seventh grade students who are not a part of the mainstream. They decide to come up with a new “political party” for the student council elections with an agenda that includes a zero tolerance policy for name-calling. As a culminating activity for this unit of study, my students will create public service announcements, short movies, for anti-bullying.

On another note, there are about seven remaining weeks left of school. Spring fever is running rampant; however, there is still work to be done. Student Accelerated Reader goals have been increased, once again, and the new due date is May 29th. For those students who have fallen behind on their reading goals, it is imperative that they increase their reading time from 30 minutes a night, five days a week, to an hour and include the weekends. Remind them, there is extra credit for any student who can read beyond their independent reading level goal.

I hope you are enjoying our beautiful weather. You may be seeing me riding around Novato with my family. The spring weather makes us anxious to get out and exercise. Perhaps we will see you today at the School Fuel bike ride at San Marin.

If you have any questions, feel free to call or email me. In addition, if you would like to see your student’s PSA on anti-bullying, please send me a note. If all goes well, I am hoping to upload them onto the wikispace page for viewing purposes.