Hello O. L. Smith Community,

Today, we worked on creating Holocaust Identity Posters. These posters are a way to give a face and a name to many Holocaust survivors and to understand the stories of others before diving into the story of Anne Frank. Students worked diligently in class and many finished. However, some decided to take it home for some final touches and fifth hour, due to an assembly, was unable to work in class.

Pictures below provide instructions and examples for the assignment:

Students may also find information on their identity at the link below:

https://www.ushmm.org/remember/id-cards

Students are welcome, at any time, to come see me during lunch for help or to work on this assignment, or any other assignments during the year. If I am not in my room, I am typically in Ms. Beydoun’s room down the hall.

This assignment is due on Friday, 3/11, for 1st and 3rd hours. It will be due on Monday, 3/14, for 5th hour because they lost their in-class work day due to the assembly.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Megan Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

In honor of the primaries, we have our own election coming up here at O. L. Smith. Before the election occurs, however, we need a few candidates to run for our PTSA. If you are interested in running for PTSA please see the link below.

PTSA Election Information

If you aren’t sure, consider visiting the PTSA website for more information:

PTSA Website

If you aren’t interested in running, please make sure to get out and vote! For both the primaries and the upcoming PTSA election.

Megan Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

For bellwork, students will no longer be doing spelling tests. For the fifth card marking, students will be working on sustained silent reading and metacognitive logs.

For sustained silent reading (SSR), students will come into class and read silently for five minutes. Once reading time is over, they will write one sentence in their metacognitive logs. For these logs, students will write, for example, if they were engaged in their story, distracted by something else, or what they did if they got stuck on a word.

As you can see, these are different than the typical types of questions and five minutes of reading is not very long. We are challenging students to do the most they can with that five minutes and analyzing how to maximize reading strategies during that short time in order to read better. When students learn about HOW they read, they learn more about themselves. “I do like to read in this way” or “I don’t like to read using this other strategy.” This way, students know what works for them and are more prepared for everything from standardized tests to high school to learning how to focus in the workplace.

Our goal is not just to help them understand what they are reading but also to understand themselves and how their brain processes information.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Ms. Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

In honor of March is Reading Month, each student will be giving a 1-2 minute Book Talk about a book they have read or are currently reading. The expectations are listed below:

Book Talk Assignment Sheet

Students can sign up on the Google Doc below over the weekend. I will print it out Monday morning for the rest of the students to sign up.

1st Hour Book Talk Sign-Ups

3rd Hour Book Talk Sign-Ups

5th Hour Book Talk Sign-Ups

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Ms. Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

This week, we are discussing the history of WWII, including the Nazi use of propaganda. Your homework assignment is to create a political cartoon relating to a current event either in your life or in the world. You may consider promoting O. L. Smith as being a better middle school than another school in the district, a celebrity who is trying to win an award or draw a political cartoon for a current event you research for Social Studies. The PowerPoint shown in class as well as the rubric are below.

Political Cartoons PPT

Political Cartoons Rubric

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Ms. Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

This week, we are learning about the Holocaust and World War II in preparation for reading Anne Frank later this month. To begin, we are creating class definitions for the Holocaust.

The three definitions we are using to create our definitions are below. If you are writing your definition at home, you may refer to these documents to inform your definition.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Ms. Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

Our spelling words for this week are…

1. achieve
2. believe
3. field
4. height
5. leisure
6. niece
7. receive
8. relieve
9. thief
10. weird

Rememer to study your words!

Ms. Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

I hope you enjoyed your snow day! I know I did. Just a quick reminder that your homework is still due tomorrow and I expect everyone to have it done since you had all day to work on it!

Also, remember your spelling test tomorrow and bring your library books! We will be taking the test and then exchanging library books.

See you tomorrow!

Ms. Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

Here is the link for the Argumentative Essay Visual Display Assignment. The assignment will be due on Friday along with your argumentative essay.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Megan Timpf

Hello O. L. Smith Community,

Tomorrow, 2/27, students will be taking the PSAT. This test is not a “brand new” test; it is a replacement test for the Explore test. The Explore Test was the pre-ACT exam, however, since the district has switched to administering the SAT, 8th graders will now be taking the PSAT.

The test will serve as one of many indicators of high school readiness and inform high school teachers of the strengths and areas of improvement for incoming high schoolers. With this information, students will be placed in the classes that are most likely to help them succeed.

Please make sure to get a good night’s rest and eat breakfast in the morning. Students will be going straight to first hour instead of Advisory. Although each teacher has different rules, I will be allowing bottled water and good testing snacks (granola bar, fruit snacks, grapes) for my first hour students during the test. Nothing sugary or messy, such as candy, oranges, etc. A health snack is especially important since 8th graders will be having the 12:26 lunch tomorrow.

The test will last for approximately 3.5 hours and consists of math, reading, and writing. Students will remain with their first hour teacher for the entire test.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Megan Timpf