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Algebra

August 25, 2008                                                                                                                                                Dear Parents and Students,                 Welcome to the 2008-2009 school year and algebra class. I am excited about being you teacher for the year. Algebra is a wonderful subject that can be very demanding at times. It is the basis for all your high school math classes.                There are some things we need to go over. Books, workbook, pencils, and homework are to be in class everyday. I will supply paper for all tests and quizzes. Homework is 20% of the grade, quizzes are 20% of the grade, class participation is 10% of the grade, leaving tests to be 50% of the grade. Homework is due each day, and if it is not done or not completed, a zero will go in the grade book. The only exceptions would be if there was an emergency in the family, and I would have to have a note from home explaining the circumstances. I will not accept excuses because of sports, dance lessons, company, etc. For those who leave their homework in their locker, you may get the assignment and 5 points will be deducted from the class participation grade. I will send an unprepared slip to Mrs. Sandkuhler who will keep a record. She will call the parents when the student has received 2 unprepareds. Going to your locker has to be cleared by me.                All students are required to write their assignments in their agendas. The assignments will be written on the board and should be entered into the agendas immediately. You may come back during the day to write down the assignment, but I have found that when students do this, they often forget to come back.                I am requiring that all notes and homework be done in the same graph paper spiral. I will not be collecting homework but will check to see that it is completed. After I have checked the homework, we will go over it, and students should make corrections and ask questions at this time. The spirals should be arranged with the notes in one section and homework in another. Additional spirals might be required later in the year.                I require all tests and quizzes be signed by a parent/guardian. Either Mrs. Sandkuhler or I will be calling parents periodically for those papers that have not been returned to me. Tests should be saved until the end of the marking period.                 This course is demanding and there will be quite a bit of homework. I assign homework on a daily basis and over weekends. I am available during recess for those who would like some extra help. I am also available after school until 4:00pm each day. I will be giving the students my home phone number, and they have my permission to call me if they are having trouble with the homework or when studying for a math test.                I will send home several progress notices during each marking period. Please be on the look out for them. They need to be signed and returned as soon as possible. Either Mrs. Sandkuhler or I will be calling home for those who have not returned the notices. I feel that it is very important to keep both the student and the parents up to date on grades.                If you have any questions at any time during the year, you may write me a note, leave a voice message, or send me an email. My email address is cooper7-2@hotmail.com.                Please sign and date the bottom portion of this letter with an email address where you can be reached. Return the signed copy to me and keep the second copy. I hope we have a great year.                                                                                                                                                 Thank you,                                                                                                                                                Mrs. Cooper Student’s signature________________________________________________ Parent’s/Guardian’s signature________________________________________ Email address________________________________ Date______________________________

Pre-Algebra

                                                                                                                          August 25, 2008 Dear Parents and Students,           Welcome to the 2008-2009 school year and pre-algebra. I am excited about being your teacher for the year.  I look forward to a great year and hope that you will learn many things.          There are a few things I would like to go over with you.  Books, notebooks, pencils,  and homework are to be in class every day.  Homework is 20% of the grade, tests 50%, quizzes 20%, and class participation 10%.  Homework that is not here when it is due, will receive a zero.  I do not accept late homework.  I realize that sometimes there are family emergencies, and I do require a note from home explaining the emergency.  I will not accept excuses because of sports, dance lessons, company, etc.  If homework is left in the locker, the student will be allowed to get the homework and 5 points will be deducted from the class participation grade. I will send an unprepared slip to Mrs. Sandkuhler who will keep a record. She will call the parents when the student has received 2 unprepareds. Going to your locker must be cleared by me.          All students are required to write their assignments in their agenda. The assignments will be written on the board and should be entered into the agendas immediately. Students may come back during the day to write down the assignment, but I have found that when students do this, they often forget to come back.Students need to have a graph paper spiral divided into two sections.  One part is for notes and the other is for homework.  I will not be collecting homework but will check for completeness. We will go over the homework in class.  This is the time when students can ask questions and make corrections. Students needing extra help may see me during lunch recess.  I am also available after school until 4:00 pm everyday. However, if no one shows up by 3:30 pm, I might leave school. Usually I am here until 4:00 pm.          All tests and quizzes are to be signed and brought back the next day.  I recommend that all tests be saved until the end of the marking period. A midterm and final exam will be given. I will let the students know the dates later in the year.          I will send home several progress notices during each marking period. Please be on the look out for them. They need to be signed and returned as soon as possible. Either Mrs. Sandkuhler or I will be calling home for those who have not returned the notices. I feel that it is very important to keep both the student and the parents up to date on grades.          If you have any question at any time during the year, you may write me a note, leave a voice message, or send me an email. My email address is cooper7-2@hotmail.com          Thank you for your support and I look forward to a great year.  Please sign the bottom portion of the page with an email address and return tomorrow. The second copy is for you to keep.                                                                                       Thank you,                                                                                      Mrs. Cooper   Student’s signature____________________________ Parent’s signature_____________________________ Date_________________ Email address_______________________________________ 

Language Arts

                                                                        August 25, 2008

                                                                                                           Dear Parents and Students,             Welcome to Language Arts and Reading.  I am excited about this year and hope that you enjoy it too.  We have many things that we will be doing this year, and hopefully we will do a lot of learning.  I would like to begin with my grading policy.  For reading, tests are 50%, homework 40%, and class participation is 10%.  In vocabulary, tests are 50%, homework 20%, quizzes 20% and class participation 10%. For spelling, the tests are 60%, homework 30%, and class participation is 10%.  In grammar, tests are also 50%, homework 20%, quizzes 20%, and class participation is 10%.             My homework policy is as follows.  For students who are absent, they have one additional day for each day they are absent to complete the assignment.  For all other situations, if the homework is not handed in when it is due, the student will receive a zero for that homework assignment.  There are very few exceptions, such as an emergency in the family, and in this case I would require a note from home explaining the circumstances.  I will not accept excuses for leaving homework home, forgetting the book or the agenda, lost it, left it in the car, and so on.  I feel very strongly that homework and achievement go hand in hand, which is why I am so strict concerning homework.   If the assignment is not completed, then I will give a zero.  For those who leave it in the locker, they may get the homework out of the locker and will lose 5 points from their class participation grade.  Whenever a student comes to class unprepared, 5 points will be deducted from the class participation grade. I will send an unprepared slip to Mrs. Sandkuhler who will keep a record. She will call the parents when the student has received 2 unprepareds.            Spelling will be a little different this year. There will be a test on Fridays on the list words. The students are responsible for all of the words including the challenge words. On Mondays, there will be a dictation test with the spelling words in sentences. The students will be required to write each sentence in its entirety. I will deduct 2 points for each misspelled word. This means any misspelled words in the sentence. Spelling is cumulative and the students will be responsible for all the words from previous units. I will also give the students a grammar grade based on any grammatical errors from the spelling tests. The students will be doing the pages in the spelling book for homework. Thursday’s homework will be to study for the test on Friday. We do a unit a week, even when we have a short week. Some students are studying the new list of words the weekend before we do them in class. That is fine and gives them a head start in learning the words.              Literature homework will consist of reading from the book, answering questions from the book, and worksheets. All vocabulary words are to be written in the vocabulary notebook. The assignments will be to write the definition and use the words in sentences with context clues. Please use a dictionary. For the tests, I will select four words from the current story/poem/play and one from a previous unit. I strongly suggest that the students make flash cards to help them learn the definitions. They should review the words at least 5 minutes every day. This will help them tremendously with their tests.    All students are required to write their assignments in their agendas. The assignments will be written on the board and should be entered into the agendas immediately. The student may come back during the day to write down the assignment, but I have found that when students do this, they often forget to come back.I require that all tests and quizzes be signed and returned. Either Mrs. Sandkulher or I will be calling parents periodically for those papers that have not been returned to me. Tests should be kept until the end of the marking period.I will send home several progress notices during each marking period. Please be on the look out for them. They need to be signed and returned as soon as possible. Either Mrs. Sandkuhler or I will be calling home for those who have not returned the notices. I feel that it is very important to keep both the student and parents up to date on grades.I am looking forward to a great year with all of you.  If you have any questions, please write a note in the agenda, leave a message on the voice mail, or email me at cooper7-2@hotmail.com. Please sign and return the bottom portion of this letter and keep the second copy.                                                                                                              Thank you,                                                                                                            Mrs. Cooper  Student’s signature___________________­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________________________________ Parent’s/Guardian’s signature_______________________________________________ Email addresss___________________________________________________________ Date___________________________________________________________________