Hello all! Phew, what a wonderful beginning to a new year. As I sit in my living room listening to new music with my husband, I looked back at the beginning of this school year and realized just how many new things will be going on in this up coming year!
Of course all my students are new to me. Some I have known since they were in kindergarten with my youngest son at Sharon Elementary, how fast time flies! The rest I have seen around school and sometimes they had to come and "visit" my class, but all in all they come to me with a clean slate. I am so pleased at how hard the students are working already this year.
The Core Curriculum is a whole different experience. I guess I should start with explaining exactly what the Core Curriculum is and how it will affect everyone as a whole. The migration of students from all over the country, for what ever reason, has become a growing concern for several years. The Federal Governments Agency for Education is working with 48 of the 50 states to make it a little easier on children who move from place to place and state to state. For the first time during my teaching career, a student can move from a different school, county and even state and be moved into a classroom that is on the exact same topic or very close to the topic that they were working on in their last school. That is a big help to not only the student, but the teacher as well because we don't have to worry if the student had the topics we covered in the past or do I have to back and reteach all that we have covered this year. Topic wise there isn't a whole lot of change, some things have been taken from the 8th grade and put into lessons in 7th grade and in 9th grade. Either way, I can promise you that all the teachers will do their very best to teach your child everything we can to help them for the next chapter in their life. Now, for as long as I can remember, the 8th grade EOG never had a calculative inactive. The students were always allowed to use a calculator on the whole thing. They have now brought back the calculator inactive part of the 8th grade EOG as well as a written part of the EOG. This written part is when a student has to take a problem and break it down step by step and explain exactly how they got the answer. It is something new to almost all of us, but it can be done! I am going to take a break for now, but if you ever have any questions for me, please do not hesitate to contact me! Have a great day and year!!!!
Mrs. Lackey
