Team F: Social Studies with Mr

Team F: Social Studies with Mr. Richter Top 10 Classroom Expectations!

1: Respect: Without respect for yourself, your peers, and your teacher, you cannot learn. “Treat others as you want them to treat you because what goes around comes around”

2: Have fun: I as your teacher vow to make this class as fun as possible! But, that means you need to be an active participant in class.

3: Participate: How many times have you heard a teacher tell someone to, “Pay attention!” I don’t just want you to pay attention; I want you to actively be a member of our class. Ask questions, come up with new ideas, and challenge other people’s ideas, so long as you contribute positively and respectfully you are golden!

4: Homework: It is probably the first thing that comes to a student’s mind when he/she has a new teacher. “How much homework do they give?” I can tell you that in our Social Studies class, you will have homework almost every night during the week, but on weekends I tend to give you a break. Homework must be completed and turned in on the day that it is due. If you had problems or had something come up and you couldn’t finish your homework I need a note. No exceptions, I NEED A NOTE, from a parent explaining why the work was not done! The homework in this class will challenge you to think critically. Homework may be a journal response, or it may be a reading assignment on something we are studying, but you can guarantee that the ideas will come up the next day in class. Stay on top of your homework!

5: Organization: Not everyone in this world is organized, and if you are not organized than I am here to help you. You must have a social studies binder, with tab dividers, and it needs to be in the proper order. I will help you set up the binders, I will help you organize through out the year, I will do everything possible to help you be successful in organization! But, you need to be the one to stay organized at home and during the week. You can do it, it just requires effort.

6: On time: Please, Please, Please, be on time for class. There are going to be some days when we jump right into what we need to do and if we have to wait for you to stroll on in from your last class late because you couldn’t believe that John is going out with Amanda even though two weeks ago Amanda was dating Ted, and now Ted is dating Angela, who happens to be John’s ex. I don’t care, please don’t be late, it is as simple as that.

7: Think: In my classroom I want you to use your noggin. Most of the things we will talk about are real serious events that have happened either in the History of our country or in other countries around the world. In order for you to be a better citizen, more knowledgeable and be able to debate issues, you need to think. Ask yourself questions, don’t be afraid to come up with new ideas, the world needs thinkers and in my classroom I expect it. So put those thinking caps on and dive into the pool.

8: Work well in groups: In this class you will find yourself in groups on a fairly frequent basis. Mr. Richter is not a dummy, Mr. Richter knows that middle school students love to talk about everything and anything other than what is supposed to being talked about in your groups. I have a solution to this problem, I call it the 90/10 rule. I expect that for 90 % of the time in groups that you are talking about the topic being studied. I also expect that 10% of the time, you chill out and can joke around a little bit and take a breather from time to time. But do not violate the 90/10 rule, it goes back to respect and participation. Also, you will work with whomever I pick to work with you. I don’t care if they are your friend or not. In my classroom we are all equals, and we all, just like in the real world, will work together to find the answers.

9: Effort: Mr. Richter does not expect you to get every answer right, know the capitals of all the countries in the world, or be the smartest person to walk the earth. What I do expect is effort. If you put in 100% effort everyday in my class it will show, you will understand more, you will participate more, class will go quicker and be a thousand times more fun. Effort will always get your further than anything else in this world, so put the effort in! Even if things are hard or difficult, remember, the difference between hard and impossible is a thousand miles wide, so never give up!

10: Read: I know, I know, I know, some of you hate to read. You hear teachers say the word read probably more than any other word at school. But you know what, it actually has its benefits. In this class you will be challenged to read some tough texts and some not so tough texts. We will work on a couple different strategies this year that will help you pull information out of texts and understand what you just read better. Reading is essential to building knowledge and sometimes you just might find that you learn some really interesting things by sticking your nose in a book.