Mrs. Harrison's 8th Grade Science

Check-In Survey

Surveys were due today. If you haven’t done yours, you still can and should. Remember, this is how I will “take attendance” each week. If yours is not submitted I may be calling your house to check in on you! The survey is a quick and easy way to not have to deal with all of that. 🙂

The good news is, most students selected that they were feeling happy. We are all entitled to our emotions and we’re all finding ways to process those emotions and use them to make decisions. It was nice to read the things you all said because I miss you all very much. While some of us are going through hard times, it does seem like most of us are using the time to catch up on hobbies, Netflix lists, hanging out with family, and other important things like that.

Last thing – a few students mentioned they were worried about this week’s assignments and getting them done in time. I just wanted to remind you that although it would be great if you kept up a regular school-like schedule and finished by Friday, my assignments aren’t due until Sunday night, so you really still have like 4 days to complete them!

Changes

There have been two very important changes since we came back from Spring Break.

#1 – Online work now counts towards every student’s Quarter 4 grade. Every student must participate. I am being very vocal to help every student figure out what needs to be done. I send out e-mails regularly, post on this iBlog, and I have been leaving comments on assignments to help students find the ones they need to look at. Grades for Online Assignments #6 and #7 have been posted to Student Connect. If yours is missing you need to complete it as soon as possible!

#2 – If you are not participating in Online Learning, you are going to hear from your teachers. From now on I will be posting 1 check in (attendance) and 2 assignments. If you don’t check in for the week, you can expect a phone call. It is much easier for us both if you just complete the check-in before Tuesday night. I appreciate your hard work and dedication. 🙂 The two assignments will always be due on Sunday. If you are making a pattern of not doing your 2 weekly assignments, this is another reason I will end up calling your parents.

I’m sorry to have to be so aggressive with calling home. It is an EXPECTATION that you are doing Online Learning for every single class every single week. The assignments and check-ins I post do not take more than an hour and a half to complete each week. If you are putting in 20 minutes per day like you should be, that is plenty of time to complete the work in my class by Friday, well before the Sunday deadline. Here’s a little quick maths for you: there are 168 hours in a week, or 10,080 minutes. I am asking you for 20 minutes a day, 5 times a week, or 100 minutes. That is literally 0.9% of your time. Less than 1%! It should not be difficult to manage your time so that you can spend less than 1% of it on Science each week. If we were in the classroom together you would be giving me 3% of your week, so I’m really not asking too much.

Believe me, there are things I would rather be doing than calling 40 parents because students aren’t doing their work. It took me 5% of my week to sit down and make those calls this time around! Please work with me here. Set aside the Netflix and crank out some work for me! If something is going on in your life that makes it hard to do the work, please e-mail me about it so at least I know you’re okay!!!

Okay, I’m done preaching. Go on Google Classroom and do your check in PLEASE! Then make sure these assignments are done, as they are the assignments that will be posted to Gradebook:

Unit 8.6 Final Project (late, due as soon as possible)
Online Assignment #6 (late, due as soon as possible)
Online Assignment #7 (late, due as soon as possible)
Online Assignment #8 (due Sunday)
Online Assignment #9 (due Sunday)

Assignments Posted

Good evening y’all!

I posted Online Assignment #8 and Online Assignment #9. They are due by the end of the day Sunday.

I will post the screen cast explaining each assignment later on tonight.

Screencast Update

I posted this video under Classwork on Google Classroom. Please watch it. It shows you about changes I made to our Google Classrooms to hopefully make everything more clear!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gbYYQyf4VloRYOe8si2io7hTLktOgMwU/view

Check-In or Phone Call

Hello everyone! Quick update here…

As we move forward with Online Learning, you will be getting 2 science assignments from me plus one quick check-in. The check-in will be a Forms quiz and it will have questions not related to what we are learning on it. Think of this as me taking attendance at the beginning of the hour. I would really like it if everyone were “on time” for class when I take attendance, which would mean submitting that Forms quiz by Tuesday night. If you are showing up late to class by submitting it later in the week, at least you’re here, but it is inconvenient for me to go back into the checklist to mark you off, just like in class how I have to stop what I am doing to check in tardy students.

I will be using my weekly Check-In as one of the ways to contact you each week. If you do not submit your check-in quiz then I will have to contact you some other way, such as by e-mail. If you haven’t responded to me by the end of the week in one of the ways I am trying to reach you, I will be worried and I will be calling your parents to get in contact with you!

We’re all doing what we can to make this Online Learning successful for you. If you are feeling overwhelmed, e-mail me. Maybe there’s something I can do or say to help you feel more calm.

Other than that – you can expect this week’s slideshow and 2 assignments to be posted on Google Classroom very soon. I try to post them on Monday night or Tuesday morning. They will always be due by the following Sunday.

Thanks everyone for bearing with me while I try to create a good routine for us! Just to recap – check in before Tuesday using the posted Google Form, look for two assignments to be posted by Tuesday afternoon with the week’s assignments that are due on or before Sunday nights.

Project Due

The extended due date on your Unit 8.6 Final Project is just 24 hours from now! Please get that in. It goes on your Quarter 4 grade.

School Newspaper

I am sending this along for you to enjoy!

Online Assignment #7

Please don’t be alarmed when you finish O.A.#7 and it says 0/6. There is not a way for me to set it up to automatically award you the points. Once I grade it, as long as your questions are related and make sense you will get the points. 🙂

Time Management

Hey everyone!

Based on some of the feedback I got on that quick survey I sent out, it sounds like some of you are struggling with time management.

One tool that you can use if all of your classes are on Google Classroom is your Google Calendar. You can look at it at calendar.google.com. Any assignment your teacher added on Classroom should have the due date on there for you already.

If some of your teachers are using iLearn, I’m not sure if it adds those assignments for you. If not, you can add things to your calendar yourself. The video below shows the exact steps to add things to your calendar.

You could also make your own calendar. Here’s one I made in with due dates ~ and my birthday 😉 ~ filled in. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EioXRKa-ieh4huE0N8GRWKjbrwePEdHFwF5JDjnlbX0/edit?usp=sharing

Week of April 13-19

Due Dates: Assignments are due by 11:59pm on the specified date.
4/15 – Post Spring Break Check In
4/17 – Unit 8.6 Final Project (extended due date)
4/19 – Online Assignment #6
4/19 – Online Assignment #7

It looks like a lot, I’m really sorry.

Post Spring Break Check In – 5 questions about whether or not you have technology / how you are doing. Estimate time to complete this assignment is less than 5 minutes.

Unit 8.6 Final Project – Assigned March 30th, originally due April 13. I extended the due date to April 17 as this will be the first officially graded assignment for Quarter 4 (counting on the report card) and it is a large grade. Please prioritize this assignment and e-mail me if you are struggling.

Online Assignment #6 – Has 3 parts. You will spend about 15 minutes watching a handful of videos and reflecting on them. Then, you will complete a Close and Critical Reading framework for one of the two articles posted. Pick whichever one looks more interesting. 🙂

Online Assignment #7 – Very quick assignment – read the Unit Challenge Scenario and ask 3 questions that would help you gather information about the Unit Challenge.