Notes From a Teacher

On the Road

emonty — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:04:28 +0000

I will be gone on Monday, October 6th to attend a meeting in North Platte. There will be a substitute teacher with assignments for the students consisting of reading and working on A+ assignment lists.

1st Quarter and 1st Semester Grading

emonty — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:01:06 +0000

Students are at various stages of finishing individual assignments on the A+ system. I plan to assign a grade based on the assignments completed BUT assignments that are not completed will be assigned to 2nd quarter and must be completed to receive a semester grade. If a student does not complete his/her assignments the student will receive an ‘incomplete’ and have two weeks to finish before the student is assigned a grade of ‘F’ for the semester.

A+ Software Used to Meet Individual Needs

emonty — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:28:46 +0000

All of my students have been given an adaptive reading assessment using the A+ software the district purchased last year. This software evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of a student in a particular area, in this case reading and language usage. The result is an individualized list of assignments and assessments designed to work on the weaknesses of the each student. Parents using the on-line system to check on student grades will see one of three things. Each area is listed as an assignment. The student will either have a grade for assignments completed, an ‘NR’ if the assignment is not required for that student, or an ‘R’ which means the assignment is required and the student has not completed it yet. All A+ assignments will be scored as a ‘daily grade’ in the grade book upon completion.

Literature 12 - Book Completion Form

emonty — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:15:46 +0000

I have posted a form for students to use when completing a book. These book projects will count as a test grade in my grading system. There is a link to the page at the bottom right-hand corner of the main page. Instructions are contained on the form but if you have questions please contact me.

Upcoming Plans - Photo Story 3 Software

emonty — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:29:15 +0000

A soon as we have the software available the students will have the chance to learn Photo Story 3 for Windows. I attended a two day workshop on this software over the summer. The software will give students a chance to use some higher level thinking skills to tell a story. The first time they use the software will be to tell me about the first mystery they read in class. The software forces a student to make decisions, especially what to leave in and what to leave out. The writing demands are fewer but the software forces students to make short, concise statements so they have to be exact. The student also has the chance to do voice over on a project which forces the student to write a script and to read it fluently and clearly. Many of our language arts standards will be clustered in this software. One of the advantages of this software is that is allows s student to be more creative than other kinds of ‘book reports’ methods.

A Short Week for the Teacher

emonty — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:01:55 +0000

I am going to be out of school from August 21-22. Teachers have been assigned to cover class and students should bring a book to class. Rading in class will be graded as SSR while I am gone.

A New Experiment

emonty — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:42:13 +0000

After years of using other software ESU 13 has moved to using WordPress blogging software for teachers who wish to maintain a site. This will be a work in progress for me so if there is information you need that you cannot find on this site, please contact me. Links to pages for students, teachers, and parents can be found in the right hand column.