Be an individual. Be yourself. Be creative. Be unique. Be a leader. Be happy. Be funny.
Don't be a disruption. Don't be a follower. Don't be a distraction. Don't be someone else. We want our kids, and I do call your children "my kids" to be able to be themselves. We want to raise young men and women who make good choices and lead others to do the same. We do not want our children to follow, but do we let them... or do we really even want that. The classroom is a place where we try to teach 20+ kids who are all unique and do so with one lesson plan that conforms to the standards designed by district, state and national guidelines. I have many kids who can't stay in their seats, many who can't stay awake, many who can't make it to school every day, many who don't eat three meals a day (especially on the weekends), and many who know that college is not in their future. But I am supposed to teach these children all the same information that is set up by the North Carolina Science Essential Standards (2010). On top of educating these children and trying to make Science fun, I am expected to get them ready for the eight Science benchmarks throughout the year, the three Math and three Language Arts benchmarks that cut into my classroom time, and the End of Grade testing that takes place the last two weeks of school. These tests are hard, often they not only test comprehension, but also test endurance. That is my main issue. We all need to do things some times that either bore us, or make us work harder than we planned, but to have these teenagers sit through hours of testing like the Language Arts tests from last week and the Math ones this upcoming week seems unfair. You can just look at many of the exams and see the endurance levels drop as the test continues. They start off strong, wanting to please their teachers, but it just drags on, and on, and on. I'm proud of the work these kids put in, but lets, as parents and teachers, find ways to take the stress of these kids. They have time for that later in life. I teach students, not Science. As always at HJM, We Are One Vision, One School, One Squad!
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As all of my students, and many of you parents know, I am a huge fan of all Boston area sports. Currently I am keeping track of the New England Patriots schedule on my whiteboard and the kids love to see each week if the Patriots remain undefeated. Well, after another tough game, the Patriots have won and stay undefeated on the season at 6-0. I bring this up not to brag about my favorite team, but rather to show that there are many ways to succeed in life.
In football, there are 5 guys that play on the offensive line, to protect the quarterback. The Patriots have played 6 games and have used 5 different combinations there due to injuries. They played today without their top 2 running backs but they had gotten back a wide receiver who has not played all season due to injury. They have many weapons in their arsenal this season and each week they adjust what they do best to what their opponents do best. As a teacher, I hope to instill that sense of overcoming the odds in my students. The problem is how we measure wins in a classroom. Is it by test scores (I hope not), is it by discipline referrals (again, I hope not), or is it by the type of man or woman we release into high school or college or beyond? I tell the students that I use the topic of Science to help them with life. This is my third year teaching and I am starting to see some of my first students do well in high school. I love to hear the stories of how they are doing. Kids who struggled who are now in Honors classes, kids who were trouble now classroom leaders. These are my wins, so with benchmark tests on the slate for this week, do not stress on the final score. Know you gave it your best, and work hard to make your best better next time. As always at HJM, We are One Vision, One School, One Squad!!! My.NCEdCloud.org
The first quarter of the 2015-2016 school year is wrapping up quickly. This is the final full week and I have put a link up above so you can see where your student stands in class. If they log in to the MyNCEdCloud account, they can click on a link for Powerschool where they can see their current grades and click on each subject to see what is missing. Please take a moment to do this as this coming Friday (October 23rd) will be the final day to turn in any late assignments. We will have the Molecular Biology Benchmark on Friday with a classroom review on Thursday. This is also a big week for HJ MacDonald Football. So far HJ has placed 3rd in Volleyball and 1st in Golf. With a battle on Wednesday at West Craven High School vs the WC Middle School Wildcats shaping up to be the game that determines the conference champion. Both teams are undefeated. Feel free to contact me with any questions, And, as always... At HJ MacDonald Middle School: We Are... One Vision, One School, One Squad!!! All Day... There was talk this past week that one of the religions felt that last week would be the end of civilization. That day passed and they corrected themselves to say that it was the following day. I'm guessing that if you are reading this, then you are alive and well. Last week we made it through Armageddon, a field trip, a half day, a hurricane, and the Hurricanes (with a big win for the football team over the Pamlico Hurricanes to remain undefeated as we head into the bye-week).
With all of this in mind, we now need to make up the missing classroom time. We will start Monday with a new part of the current unit we are working on, we have been talking about health, and healthy choices. This has dealt with food, alcohol, drugs, smoking, etc. We have had some frank, open discussions but now we need to go inside the body. We will be taking notes for 2 days on the processes cells undergo inside the body. This weeks vocabulary is posted on my website, and we will have a quiz on Friday. The students just finished a project (that counts as a test grade) where they created an online poster called an infographic. So as I started this post, the end is near. We are winding down the 1st 9-week grading period, please check with your student to make sure they have all of their work turned in. Enjoy the last few hours of the weekend, hope you were able to get out in the Sun and even make a visit to the Mumfest. As always, at HJ MacDonald Middle School: We are One Vision, One School, ONE SQUAD!!! I hope everyone is safe from the storms with little to no damage. While I did enjoy the extra day off this week, we will now need to make it up this coming Monday, October 12th.
As for time in the classroom, this will be an interesting week as well with altered schedules almost every day. No school Monday, 2 hour delay on Tuesday, full day on Wednesday, Field trip on Thursday (for about 2-3 hours), and 1/2 day on Friday. Because of all these distractions, we will be working on a classroom project that can be found on my assignments page. We will have about 30 minutes each day, starting Tuesday to complete the assignment for Friday. Please be safe in and around town this week. and remember: We are One Vision, One School, One Squad! |
Mr. CI am looking for a fun school year. But be ready to work. Archives
September 2016
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