Let's celebrate a job well done.

Please make an effort to attend tonight's Association Meeting.  This is where teacher salaries and other issues are voted on.  If we don't have a quorum, we can't vote.  Thanks in advance for trying to make it.

This week is going to be a huge opportunity for those students who are behind on their website research to get caught back up.  

The schedule for our research project is broken into three weeks.  One for research, one for writing, and one for web design.  This week, we are moving on to the writing section of the project, but some students aren't finished with the research phase yet.  The good news is that since we have SATs this week, we will have less homework than normal so students will have more time to do catch-up research at home.  Also, we won't be working on our website every day, so if students are behind they have extra out of class days to catch back up without getting behind as fast in class.

To know if your child might need a little nudge at home, just ask to see their gathered information so far.  You can also look at the mid-research reflection blog post and ask them how each of the items on that list is coming along.

The purpose of the SATs is to give the school information on how we are doing and to help each students wee areas of strength and areas for goals.  It is not something that goes on the report card, but each student should certainly do their best.

Make sure your kids come to school with:

Thinking about the information you've gathered so far, how are you doing?  Parents, you might want to check in with your child and ask them about these things as well.

BCS will be hosting an internet safety class for parents Tuesday, May 1st.

This week is devoted to research and gathering information for your website project.  Here are a couple big points to keep in mind:

1. Your goal is to persuade, not just inform.  Find PERSUASIVE information.
2. Connect with a real person who can provide expert testimony or stories.
3. Don't worry about organizing your information yet, just gather it.  Organize next week.
4. Don't forget SCOPE.  Use these tools to make sure are persuading.

Every day, you'll click on the Website Project Tracker to check in and let me know how you are making progress.

1) Make sure the tracker is current at the end of each class.
2) Do not change anyone's status but your own.
3) Be honest, so if you get a little behind schedule I can help you.

Once this blog post is no longer on top, just click the new link on the sidebar of this blog.

Parents, if your child is having difficulty studying, you might want to check out Study Smart, an article that explains some interesting research findings on how our brain likes to learn.