Provide Exceptional Learning Activities

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome to a new year at Stapley Jr. High, and welcome to the team. It takes a team effort in order for your child to reach his/her full potential. The team consists of your child, you, and the teacher. If we all work together—if we each do our part—we can make this a truly rewarding semester for your child in Health Science. It is generally most helpful to everyone if roles are defined so members know what they can count on from the rest of the team. Here are the basic tasks proposed for each team member:

Teacher:  Provide exceptional learning activities  Monitor student progress and assess performance  Give feedback regularly and often to parents & student  Create and maintain a classroom atmosphere conducive to maximum learning  Provide tutoring as needed

Student:  Attend class every day you possibly can  If you must be absent, make up work immediately.  Bring all student supplies to class each day  Be actively and appropriately engaged in class for the entire period  Always do Quality Work: completely finished, the best you can do, on time  Accept responsibility for your actions and possible consequences

Parent:  Emphasize the importance of daily attendance  If your child must be absent, monitor completion of make-up work  Provide student supplies (listed). Many of these items are provided to students to use in class but more will be needed as the year progresses. If purchasing supplies provides a financial hardship for your family, please have your child speak to his/her teacher privately.  Check the student planner for homework.  If average is dropping, ask student to show you completed assignments on a daily basis until average improves  For specific class information, see the “Expectations” which your child is required to keep in his/her notebook or visit my webpage at http://www.mpsaz.org/stapley/staff/psostrander Portfolio Composition Notebook:  The composition book is your student’s interactive textbook for Health Science. Unlike other disciplines that have a textbook for your student to take home, science uses the portfolio format. This composition book contains all of the information that your student is accountable for. It will be used daily, and is an essential tool for reviewing for unit tests, semester and year end tests. Your student’s portfolio will be as useful as your student makes it. Expectations of content and organization are clear, expressed and modeled. It is up to your student to follow these expectations in order to reap the most benefit from using an interactive portfolio. The composition book will be collected at the end of the unit, and assignments will be graded. ALL work assigned since the previous portfolio collect / grade must be completed with diligence if the book is to be graded as “on time”. If any assignment within each graded section is missing or incomplete, the book will be returned for completion / correction. When the completed work is turned back in, it will be graded at the most of 75% credit. Having a complete, accurate, up-to-date and organized comp book will help your child be successful. Reminder: Partial work within each graded assignment chunk will cause that assignment grade to be as a zero. If your student is falling behind or struggling, s/he needs to come in before school or after school for additional help.

Make-up Work:  If your student is absent, s/he HAS missed instruction and work. Your student is responsible for finding out what s/he missed. To find out what was missed / what needs to be made up, your student needs to come in before or after school and also check online calendar. Two days will be allowed to do make-up work for each absence before it is counted as late IF the assignment is an over-night assignment. Over-night assignments are rare! Most collected and graded work is the comp book collects, which the students have advance notice of. IF the assignment a comp book check or is a larger project and advance notice is given, THEN THE DUE DATE IS AS POSTED!! If a student knows that he/she will miss class on the due date, then the assignment must be turned in prior to the missed class for full points. If the student is ill on the due date, then the assignment is due at the beginning of class on his/her first day back from the absence. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS. ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE AS POSTED. Tardy  You must be in your seat with materials out at the bell. After the first tardy detentions will follow.

Leaving the Classroom  Before I can excuse class each day, you must ensure that your materials are properly stored, and that tables, bins, lab stations, and the floors are clean and organized for the next class. If not you will not be excuse until they are. Safety  You are expected to act in a safe manner at all times! Unsafe or inappropriate behavior will cause you to sit out of a lab/activity and take a zero for that assignment. If any equipment is damaged during the lab/activity the entire group loses point and will be finically responsible for the broken or damaged equipment. On lab days you must wear; closed toed shoes, and be mindful of jewelry, accessories and hair styles. Office Hours  Basic hours are, Monday-Friday excluding Wednesday 7:30-8:45am. Monday-Friday 3:50-5:00. Make sure to tell me that you are coming, and check for changes. Homework  Yup we will have it! We have a stock project that will need to be completed out of class. Other homework will be classwork that will need to be completed at home because class time was not used efficiently

Student Supplies for “HE-01 Health Science” and all other classes:

 Basic calculator, and ruler  Kleenex  colored pencils, crayons  clear tape and refills  blue pens  3-ring binder with dividers (may be shared with other classes)

Movies: During the year we do watch a couple of movies that are very powerful in the learning environment. If any of these movies do not meet you approval please let me know and I will find an alternative assignment.  GATTCA (edited)  Contagion  Outbreak: Ebola  Inside the Living Body and others from Discovery and or National Geographic

HE-01 Sequence and Timeline

1st Quarter o Introduction/ Safety o Microscopes o Biotechnology/Cells/DNA o Stock Project

2nd Quarter o Anatomy/Physiology (Major Systems) o Muscles/Bones o Breaks/ Sprains o First Aid/ CPR o Crime Scene o Bacteria/Viruses

In order for our team to reach our goal, your child must succeed in this science class. Working together, we can make that happen. Let’s make this a winning year—for all the team members! Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Email will be the best and fastest way.

Sincerely, Phone: 480-472-2765 Email: [email protected] Ms. Peggy Lord Website: http://www.mpsaz.org/stapley/staff/psostrander My student and I have read these guidelines and understand Mrs. Lord’s classroom expectations.

We understand the late work policy.

We know where to go to find out about assigned work.

We know when to make up tests or labs.

We know Mrs. Lord’s email, phone and web page.

We know that the Portfolio composition book must be current and correct so that it is a useful tool.

Parent signature: ______Student signature: ______

Printed name: ______Printed name: ______

Date: ______Date: ______

THIS PAPER IS DUE ______AND IS WORTH 10 EXTRA CREDIT POINTS IF SIGNED BY A PARENT AND TURNED IN BY ALL STUDENTS IN THE SAME HOUR.