Hello Everyone,

And, so this begins my final blog post for the Dearborn Public Schools. I will greatly miss teaching and influencing students to “love Math”, and I will miss being a part of the O.L. Smith Viking community where I have spent 26 of my 30-year teaching career!

School Reminders:

1. Please remember that PTSA fundraiser orders are due Monday, October 7th.
2. Check out the Academic Games team being coached by Mrs. Savage if you like to do math and are competitive at heart!
3. Remember that Friday is a 1/2 day for students!

Math News:

1. We are taking our Lesson 2/Rates and Unit Rates quiz on Monday.
2. Anyone wanting credit for missing/incomplete needs to turn it in by Wednesday, October 9th.
3. We’ll put our notes together for this Unit to date in the Interactive NB.
4. We will start some practice for Lesson 3 skills; Equivalent Ratios.
5. We will enter our Fall NWEA RIT scores into Khan Academy and also review how to practice, search and find lessons on that site.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK – IT’S BEEN A PLEASURE AND AN HONOR WORKING WITH YOUR STUDENT EVEN IF ONLY FOR THIS SHORT TIME! Thank you!

There’s things happening at O. L. Smith:

1. Academic Games will begin in November! This is a great team event for students who enjoy math yet don’t have to be ‘great’ at math! See Mrs. Savage for further details.
2. Our PTSA fundraiser for holiday items and the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies continues through this week. Orders should all be in by Monday, October 7th.

There’s things happening in Math Class, too:

1. We will wrap up Lesson 2 this week, and have a quiz on Rates and Unit Rates on Monday.
2. We completed several great note pages for our interactive notebooks for this particular lesson and also some that feed into the next Lesson 3 that will teach Equivalent Ratios.
3. Finally, students will receive a printed Progress Report on Wednesday that they should share with you.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 16TH

• NWEA testing (Math, Reading & Language Usage) Tuesday – Thursday
• Quiz Thursday – 4 Operations of Math
• Field Trip to the Zoo on Monday, September 23rd; Parent Letter and Permission Slips were sent home Monday the 16th and due back Wednesday the 18th along with $3
• Because of shortened classes/testing, we reviewed for quiz and checked work on a few assignments in classes
• Summer Learning Khan Academy time due Friday the 20th; I will check it in on Monday or Tuesday; students who were not in DPS last year had a minimal requirement of time as well

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 23RD

• Trip to the Detroit Zoo Monday! So excited!
• We will finish up Unit 1/Lesson 1 this week and take a 5-question quiz on Friday
• We will begin Unit 1/Lesson 2 this week

SCHOOL REMINDERS:

• Daily Announcements can be found on the school’s Website (see link here on this page)
• Please consider joining the P.T.S.A.; such a worthy cause EVEN IF you cannot give time to meetings or a committee; just showing support as the “P” in P.T.S.A. speaks volume by becoming a member!

This is my first blog post of the year and, with Week 3 well underway, here’s some information regarding school and class news, events, and assignments to date!

OPEN HOUSE IS ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH FROM 6 TO 7:30 P.M. WE HOPE YOU’LL JOIN US!

COME EARLY TO GRAB A SLICE OF PIZZA AND CHECK OUT OUR P.T.S.A. INFORMATION TABLE AND O.L. SMITH GEAR!

Students completed some opening year activities, some are posted in the classroom and others are in the hallway above lockers outside my room!

Everyone has joined my Khan Academy Class with me as their coach. All students know that they need to have completed their Summer Learning time on Khan by September 20th (I’ll check on the 23rd, so that gives them one extra weekend). The district’s expectation was 480 minutes. I will average total minutes/480 to determine a summative score.

Students had 10 days to get supplies and I offered to provide any they couldn’t get before our supply check on September 6th.

Students should have joined my Google Classroom (codes were provided)!

Students received their textbooks, we wrote our names on the binding and we started our first lesson in our Ratio Unit this week. Their books will be stored in the room BUT will come home as HW is assigned, when needed as a reference or when needed to prep for quizzes or tests.

Students should have brought home a Book Agreement page to be signed and returned by September 11th.

We went over our “Grading and Class Information” page (stored in our Math folders if you’d like to check it out).

Students should have brought home a Parent Letter and a confirmation page to be signed and returned by September 11th.

The gradebook in MiStar (Parent/Student Connect) is current; check it out!

FINALLY, ALL OF 6TH GRADE WILL ATTEND A FIELD TRIP TO THE DETROIT ZOO ON SEPTEMBER 23RD — MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW SHORTLY!

WE HAVE ARRIVED!  

This Last Week of School …

Monday:   We will wrap up the CCSS with a review of the Prob and Stats we slotted all year and also take another quick look at the Box and Whisker plot construction.  Students have created an excellent Interactive Math Notebook which I hope many will want to keep as a reference as they continue in math the next few years.

Students received a packet which outlined their review work and a math-related idiom drawing that they should be working on either Tuesday (if they didn’t attend that day’s field trip) or Wednesday in class.  The other instructions in the packet included completing at least 3 pages of the packet and then dividing their class time (on field trip days) between those review pages and Khan Academy.  Everyone should have plenty to do (without having any HW) for Tuesday through Thursday in class.

WEDNESDAY:  I will send home a letter regarding Summer Learning that had suggestions on skills and topics to focus on over the summer BESIDES students low RIT scores.  This was accompanied by their most recent NWEA RIT scores from Spring.  

Students will also receive a Summer Learning instruction letter in LA.  If you have any questions regarding that information, please contact the office directly.

In Closing:  It has been my absolute pleasure teaching your child Math this year.  Thank you all for your constant support and I wish you not only an excellent summer spent with your family, but also a wonderful 7th grade year when your child returns for another great school year!

Signing off with my most sincere appreciation,

Paula Consiglio, 6th Grade Math

Hi Everyone!

So, testing is finally over!  It was a long month, but we got through it all and all my students were such good sports about it; they took their time and devoted much energy and effort.  And with just 9 teaching days remaining (days off in June, 1/2 day for field day and 1 field trip day), here’s a look at  how we’ll be wrapping up the school year.

6th Grade Math Hours 2nd, 3rd and 4th:

• We will have a summative assessment on Wednesday, May 29th to assess the last of our Pre-Algebra skills (simplifying Alg Expressions)
• We will devote the next 6 days of teaching to the Geometry skills for 6th Grade CCSS; all skills will be taught and practiced enough that students will be exposed and able to find Area, Volume and Surface Area of Polygons and Triangles, as well as find the Area of Net and Irregular shapes.
• We will wrap up the year with the rest of our Probability and Stats Unit by reviewing line plots and learning to both read and construct a box and whisker plot.  We already learned to calculate Mean, Median, Mode and Range back in the winter prior to testing for the Winter NWEA.  We will, however, do some review of this skill as well.
• There will most likely be another summative assessment with a few geometry and Prob and Stats problems, but students will be able to refer to their notes/examples in the interactive notebook when taking this final assessment.

NOTE 1:  There will be absolutely no late work accepted after this Friday, May 31st (except on the day after something was due).  I have taken late work all year right up until the very last day of the marking period except this final cardmarking.  

NOTE 2:  The district does plan to have Summer Learning requirements for students in Math again; I haven’t gotten word BUT I don’t doubt that it will be similar to years prior requiring 480 minutes (excluding video time) on Khan Academy.  I will send home final RIT scores when I send the Summer Learning packet so students can enter them in Mappers as we’ve learned to do in class.

Now, for some general school reminders:

1.  June 11 & 13 Field trip permission slips (and $2 if students want the 2 pizza slice lunch) is due back NOW!  🙂
2.  The Adventure Park waiver (on line/go through 2nd Hour Google Classroom, Monday May 20th) is due NOW!   🙂
3.   There is no school June 3, 4 and 5.
4.   There is a schoolwide Field Day on Friday, June 7th for students who’ve earned 3 PBIS Viking Vouchers.  If the weather is warm and sunny, please be sure to send sunscreen for your child that day.
5.  Here are some ways to help your O.L. Smith P.T.S.A. earn $$ starting NOW!  And ….. GO!  A note from your P.T.S.A.

***Looking for some easy ways to support the PTSA over summer break? Listed below are three simple ways to do so that require little effort!***

1.  Amazon Smile! – Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to the PTSA when you shop.  smile.amazon.com

2.  Kroger Community Rewards! – Did you know you can support the O.L. Smith PTSA just by shopping at Kroger?  It’s easy when you enroll in Kroger Community Rewards®!  To get started, sign up with your Plus Card and search for Smith Middle School.  Once you’re enrolled, you’ll earn rewards for our P.TSA every time you shop and use your Plus Card!

3.  Shoparoo! – Forget cutting labels or selling door to door to raise money for schools. Shoparoo is a free app for iOS and Android phones that allows anyone to take pictures of their shopping receipts and earn cash donations for their schools!  Just snap a picture of your grocery receipt on your smartphone, and voila, you’ve made an instant cash donation!  You can also take pictures of your non-grocery receipts (from clothing stores, electronics stores, restaurants, home improvement stores, etc.) for entries into Shoparoo’s cash donation sweepstakes that can reward a school up to $15,000!

Please feel free to email Yasmine Hicks at yasminehicks@hotmail.com with questions. Thank you for your continued support!

So, that wraps things up for the next 5 school days (2 weeks).  As always, contact me if you need anything and Eid Mubarak to all of those celebrating this blessed holiday.

Ms. C.

This week in Math:

We are really into the M-STEP mode for testing this week spending our mornings testing 2 days of Language Art including reading and written responses followed by another morning of Math testing.  Students practiced writing their essays and seem ready to go and are excited to do well!  

I have asked students to use any of the Math practice links on Google Classroom and also review their Interactive Notebook pages to brush up and be reminded of the skills we’ve learned and practiced this year.  

Finally, we will finish the M-STEP this week, have a week off, and then we’ll be on to the NWEA the week of May 20th!  

Hi Everyone!

School Reminders …

1.  Marking Period 3 ends Friday, March 29th
2.   PTSA sponsored book fair in the Media Center March 25th through the 29th – come check it out!
3.  Spring break will start March 30 and run through March 7th; see you back here on the 8th!
4.  There’s a very cool “March Reading Madness” contest sponsored by the PTSA; every student received an email in their school account explaining how to participate for Book Fair prize $$!  I encourage everyone to participate.
5. Always check out the school website for our daily announcements about tryouts for track and other important news.

Math Class Happenings …

• Well, we managed to get through Unit 1 and will test on it Tuesday, March 19th.  
• We cleaned out our folders from Unit 2 and stored all of it in our Fake Holding Folders until the end of the school year!
• We will take a quiz on integers, absolute value and graphing in the coordinate plane on Wednesday – open INB for sure!
• We will begin our Expressions and Equations unit with a review of Order of Operations and solving powers; then we’ll continue with writing algebraic expression and equations; hopefully we’ll get through these two skills prior to the break
• Please continue to check student/parent connect and keep up with assignments
• Please continue to check Google Classroom for assignment reminders if you are absent OR when the assignments are posted for you
• Please remember to do your Khan Academy minutes – I truly believe they do help you improve your skills in Math!

Have a great next few weeks and an excellent Spring Break!

STUFF GOING ON ….

•  District Progress Reports (if your child is earning a D or E in classes) should be arriving in your mailbox very soon.
• A progress report printing by yours truly should already have been shared with you; I sent a mass email about the being sent home on Friday, March 1st, asking that you wait to see if your child will voluntarily and responsibly share with you!  Crossing my fingers this is mostly the case!
• Check out the info and link below for a drawing contest your child may be interested in entering!

MATHING PACING UPDATE …

So, January and February were the longest, shortest months ever with all the vacation, snow, icy and cold days, and last week was the first one in a long while where we actually met 5 DAYS IN A ROW!  Indeed, we’ve all gotten slightly behind in our pacing and, now, we are forging ahead to finally get out of this 2nd Unit/Number Systems (the longest unit) and the most grueling for kids who struggle with the “F” word (FRACTIONS, PEOPLE, I’M TALKING ABOUT FRACTIONS!), as well as for those who cringe when I say ‘long multiplication and division’.  I’m joyously reporting, however, that the students who held on tight and worked hard and practiced and participated, going along for the long haul of a ride, came out mastering these dreaded math skills and have built their confidence in doing so!  Then, we applied these basic Algorithms in multiplication and division to operations with decimals with great success.  So, once we wrap up this unit, we’ll cruise into our Expressions and Equations unit (pre-algebra topics), Geometry by mid-April, and then wrap up the year with Probability and Statistics.  

Coming Soon to a Math Class Near You …

We’ll have our quiz on Tuesday related to operations with decimals;, then with just 3 very quick and short lessons to follow, we will wrap up this unit and have our unit test on March 11th or 12th.

Somewhere in here I want to take a class period and get the kids started on a pictograph project; they are fun and the kids like doing them, and they are excellent practice for graphing in the 4 quadrants of the coordinate plane!  So, expect to see these coming home for the coloring work, and then coming home again to post on a refrigerator near you!

Have a great week and, once again, check out the contest info.

Kids Count Art Contest

Our friends at the Michigan League for Public Policy have announced that its Kids Count project is holding a youth art contest. The contest is open to children from preschool through 12th grade and the theme revolves around the question, “What’s it like to be a kid in Michigan?”

The Kids Count in Michigan project, which is part of the national KIDS COUNT project at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, seeks to improve and strengthen our state so that Michigan’s kids can thrive in a world where they are supported. The youth art contest is a chance for kids to be part of the 2019 Kids Count in Michigan Data Book.  The annual data book covers a variety of issues facing children and teens in our state, and though it is not required, artwork can relate to topics such as: friends, family, health, nutrition, childcare, school, career goals, teen issues, home life, culture, emotions, food, sports, money or jobs.

Artwork can be done in crayon, ink, acrylics, oil paint, pastels, watercolor, colored pencils, scratchboard, color marker, chalk, pastels, charcoal, or paper collage. They cannot accept artwork done using plain black pencil or weak colored pencil.

Please visit https://mlpp.org/kids-count-2019-youth-art-contest/ to submit.

Opportunities for a Girls’ Engineering Exploration on March 9th – Check out the links

Engineering Exploration Student Flyer

Engineering Exploration – Parent & Teacher Flyer

Tiger Baseball and the STEAM Program

By now, all students should have brought home the permission slip to attend the STEAM program presentation and lessons at Comerica Park which includes taking us “Out to the Ballgame”.  This field trip is FREE OF CHARGE; students only need a bagged lunch or money to buy something at the ballpark.  We are very excited about this trip.  Please contact me if you have any questions at all.

This Week’s Class News

We continue to work through one of our the longest CCSS Units – Number Systems.

We wrapped up long division practice and are doing a review of long multiplication in order to finish up our operations with decimals (multiplication and division of decimals) by early next week.

Then, we will complete Lessons 13 and 14 – both a little intro to integers and absolute value and finally wrap up with distances in the coordinate plane, Lesson 15.  This last lesson will allow us a little fun time as we’ve already mastered graphing in all 4 quadrants, so students will be doing pictographs (graphing multiple points that connect to make a picture) that they will color at home.   I love culminating this skill with this project, and so do the students!

We are hoping to have our Number Systems Unit Test somewhere around the 5th or 6th of March.  Stay tuned for a more accurate date as next week concludes.

Links for M-Step Practice, Free IXL.com Trial

Please notice the links on my blog for several places to do some M-Step warm-up problems (especially as we get closer to April testing windows and the free IXL link for excellent rote math practice (this, of course, does not replace Khan Academy, but it’s a nice site for skills practice, nonetheless).