Maroon & Gold

The ASU Sun Devil

These are the proud colors of ASU, Arizona State University, the college I have adopted for my classroom. As students enter the halls of San Jose Middle School this coming Thursday, August 20^th, they will be seeing many different colored pendants and banners from colleges all over the U.S. As a staff, we are excited about the new college focus and have many activities planned around it. The first activity will be our College Readiness Kick-off Event on Tuesday, September 1^st from 1:00-2:00p.m. This event will include guest speaker Dr. Jeri Echeverria, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs of the California State University system. That following Friday will be our first College Friday for students who have been responsible, respectful, engaged and adhering to the SJMS Commitment contract that each student will have signed.

To start out the Language Arts and History core curriculum, students will begin with a strong focus on writing. We will begin with improving vocabulary, writing strong paragraphs and expanding paragraphs to organized essays. In addition, each class will be focusing on writing for the daily warm-ups for the first few weeks to get the students comfortable with writing. Mini-lessons on reading comprehension will be integrated into each History lesson, which will eventually work into collaboration lessons. The intent is to help the students work towards working in groups to investigate mini-inquiry/research questions. Students will eventually be taking a reading placement test (STAR test) using the Accelerated Reader program provided by the district. Once the students reading levels are determined, an AR points goal will be set for each student for the semester. This points goal is a formula based on students reading at their level for a minimum of 30 minutes per night, 5 nights a week. Please help your student by making sure that they have a book (I strongly encourage you to get a free Marin library card) and that they are reading for the minimum time nightly. You could also read to or with them. This is a great way to connect with your teen and to ask questions in order to gauge what they comprehend while reading.

Unfortunately, Technology is not an elective that is being offered this year. My hope is that I will be able to integrate technology into the different subject areas in different ways with the students. That being said, it is important for you and your students to make sure that all information from the packets that are passed out on the first day are returned as soon as possible. Within that packet there could be a form that allows students to get onto the computers at school. If they did not attend SJMS last year or did not turn in their form (AUP – Acceptable Use Policy/Network form) they will not be able to use the computers. This will greatly hamper their academic experience if they cannot participate along with their peers.

A few events that you should be aware of by now include the mandatory parent meetings on Tuesday, August 25^th, Wednesday, August 26^th, and Thursday, August 27^th at 7:00pm. Please find a day that works for you in order to attend one of the meetings. In addition, Back-to-School night is slated for the evening of Wednesday, September 9^th from 6:30-8:00pm. I look forward to meeting you face-to-face on that evening and I anticipate this will be a new, exciting year for us all!