Weekly Update: May 3rd

Pennichuck Parade!

Parade Route

We are so excited to participate in the Pennichuck Parade this upcoming Monday, May 4th.  We can't wait to see our students, even it it's in a socially distant way!

Google Classroom Guide For Parents

Mrs. Delaney, our technology integrator, created a short video clip explaining how to navigate Google Classroom and manage assignments. We thought our Badger parents may find it useful! Click here to view the video! 

Enrichment Work: We have put together a new Google Classroom for students who finish their class work early and are looking for additional ways to stay busy. Mrs. Simeone, Mrs. McGuire, and Mrs. Folini have come up with an interdisciplinary project that ties in all three subjects.  Each Monday we will post the week's mission.  Students are encouraged to work virtually together, or they can choose to work alone. This page is intended for students who are caught up with all their work in each class.  Moving forward, this will be an optional, UNGRADED assignment.  The code to join What's Cookin' Badgers? is: dl2hnrf  

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students continued learning about the Magna Carta. There was an assessment on Friday. We will continue our Middle Ages unit on Monday!

Literacy:  We wrapped up Latin Unit 11 this week.  Students performed well on a Google Forms quiz, and they should have turned in their Comprehension portion, a narrative, on Friday.  Next week we will focus on our Informational Text standards.  I have several selections from Junior Scholastic all prepared to assign. In other news, I've decided to forego the Omnictionary project - the incredible slide show dictionary of vocabulary that showcases the roots students have learned.  It was a very difficult decision, because so many of our students have already invested a great deal of time. Students have the option to finish and submit their work, but it will not be graded.  

Science: Students will finish investigating what are indirect effects. We will then model indirect effects and evaluate evidence about indirect effects for our moon jelly population.

English: We began a new unit this week on persuasive writing. Students were asked to watch at least three commercials and explain how they used persuasion. I've loved reading the responses! Students also learned how to format an introduction and "hook" their readers in a persuasive essay.  Next week, we will focus on thesis statements, body paragraphs, counterarguments, and conclusions.

Math: Students have their probability test this Wednesday! Study guides went out last Friday.  If anyone needs help I will be running daily Zoom chats at 11 for anyone needed extra help.  

Weekly Update: April 26th

April's Virtual Vacation Monday!

Pennichuck Parade!

Stay tuned for details from Mr. Falzarano about Pennichuck's Staff parade!  We are hoping for Friday, May 1st.  

Google Classroom Guide For Parents

Mrs. Delaney, our technology integrator, created a short video clip explaining how to navigate Google Classroom and manage assignments. We thought our Badger parents may find it useful! Click here to view the video! 

Enrichment Work: We have put together a new Google Classroom for students who finish their class work early and are looking for additional ways to stay busy. Mrs. Simeone, Mrs. McGuire, and Mrs. Folini have come up with an interdisciplinary project that ties in all three subjects.  Each Monday we will post the week's mission.  Students are encouraged to work virtually together, or they can choose to work alone. This page is intended for students who are caught up with all their work in each class.  Moving forward, this will be an optional, UNGRADED assignment.  The code to join What's Cookin' Badgers? is: dl2hnrf  

Earth Day!  This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of Earth Day!  The Badger Team has always marked the day with team activities centered around learning why and how we should respect our planet.  Although we cannot be together for our activities this year, we were able to schedule a Badger Team Day this past Friday.  Students were notified in our Google Classrooms about the fun, enrichment activities! Students should submit their creations to their first period teacher on or before Monday, April 27th. 

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students were introduced to the Magna Carta this past week. We will continue learning the impact that it had on our world and how it connects to the United States. In addition, we are going to start investigating the development of kingdoms in Europe. There will be an assessment on Friday. 

Literacy:  Students should expect a mastery test on Latin Unit 11 this week.  They should be preparing as they always have for a mastery test.  

Science: We are continuing with chapter 3 in Amplify.  We will use the simulation this week to see what can affect the size of a population besides its resource and consumer populations.

English: Students completed the final assessment for The Giver unit this past week. Please check in with your student, as many of them have not completed and submitted their mastery assignments. I hope every one has a great weekend!! We will be transitioning to a persuasive writing unit starting on Tuesday! 

Math: Students will finish up their probability unit this week.  We will spend this week learning about complex probability.  Students will have a test Tuesday May 5th.  The study guide will go out May 1st. 

Weekly Update: April 19th

Enrichment Work: We have put together a new Google Classroom for students who finish their class work early and are looking for additional ways to stay busy. Mrs. Simeone, Mrs. McGuire, and Mrs. Folini have come up with an interdisciplinary project that ties in all three subjects.  Each Monday we will post the week's mission.  Students are encouraged to work virtually together, or they can choose to work alone. This page is intended for students who are caught up with all their work in each class.  Moving forward, this will be an optional, UNGRADED assignment.  The code to join What's Cookin' Badgers? is: dl2hnrf  

Earth Day!  This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of Earth Day!  The Badger Team has always marked the day with team activities centered around learning why and how we should respect our planet.  Although we cannot be together for our activities, please note that Friday will be a Team Day.  We will notify all students in Google Classrooms what the fun, enrichment activities will be! 

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students took two assessments this past week: A short answer question on Feudalism in Europe and Japan and an assessment on the Early Middle Ages. Please check the grade book to see how your child scored. We will start a new topic Monday as we begin to look closer at kingdoms and ultimately the Magna Carta. 

Literacy:  We should be finishing Latin Unit 11 practice this week, and students should be planning on an assessment at the end of the week, or Monday.  Please encourage your children to learn this material.  Tomorrow is a listening, reading and responding activity that should be enjoyable.  There is a YouTube video.  Our district's Firewall is very secure, so when we assign YouTube videos, they need to be cleared by IT. If there are issues, ask your child to restart the computer.  

Science: Feedback on Google classroom is how I let students know if they are understanding concepts. Please encourage your children to check feedback on each assignment before going on to the new assignment. This week in science we will finish the CER from last week, take a second look at what makes a sampling method valid and start Chapter 3.

English: Students will have an assessment on The Giver Monday, April 20th and Tuesday, April 21st. The assessment will be split over two days for the sake of time. Students shouldn't have to spend more than 20-25 minutes completing the assessment each day. I want to reiterate our team and school expectation that each child is to complete his or her test with fidelity. No one should be sharing answers or working together during an assessment.  

Math: Students will continue with experimental probability this week. There will be another short quiz on Thursday April 23rd.  I will be available at 11 daily via Zoom for extra help. 

Weekly Update: April 12th

For those who celebrate, we'd like to wish everyone a Happy Easter and Passover.  

Grade Information: Trimester two report cards will be emailed to parents on Wednesday, April 15th.

Enrichment Work: We have put together a new Google Classroom for students who finish their class work early and are looking for additional ways to stay busy. Mrs. Simeone, Mrs. McGuire, and Mrs. Folini have come up with an interdisciplinary project that ties in all three subjects.  Each Monday we will post the week's mission.  Students are encouraged to work virtually together, or they can choose to work alone. This page is intended for students who are caught up with all their work in each class.  Moving forward, this will be an optional, UNGRADED assignment.  The code to join What's Cookin' Badgers? is: dl2hnrf  

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students did a great job researching and learning about Feudalism this week. They learned how Feudalism worked in Europe and what it looked like in Japan. There will be an assessment on this topic Monday.

Literacy:  The greatest challenge we face is crafting assignments which will challenge, and deliver the standards we teach, without having our students in front of us.  Continuing to teach the Latin Root curriculum is paramount in my mind, because it is the foundation of the Literacy curriculum. It is hoped that families are encouraging their children to treat remote learning with the same respect as in school learning. Students will only benefit from what teachers provide, if they learn and test with fidelity, and honesty.  Google Form quizzes and Google Doc tests are only valuable to those who study, learn and demonstrate what they have learned. To copy and paste the words of others is plagiarism, and your children have been taught this.  To share test documents is equally unacceptable.  Next week, we will begin Latin Unit 11!  

Science: This week we evaluate evidence and look at claims about why the moon jelly population is increasing. This information is then used to write a CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) paper.

English: We've officially finished reading The Giver! Students did an excellent job reading from home and answering the follow-up questions this past week. This upcoming week, we will be discussing etymology and conflict, as well as reviewing for our unit test.  Students will be assigned their unit test on Monday, April 20th.  I will discuss details with students and offer review material this week.

Math: Students are working through probability. We spent last week discussing theoretical probability, and will start talking about experimental probability this week.  Students will have a short quiz on Thursday April 16th.  I will be available everyday at 11 for extra help, the link to the Zoom call is in their daily assignment each day.

Weekly Update: April 5th

Grade Information: Trimester two officially closed on Friday, April 3rd.  Report cards will be emailed to parents on April 15th.

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: It was nice connecting with many students this past week via Zoom. I will continue to offer daily Zoom calls for each of my five classes moving forward. It is a great way to reinforce concepts that are being introduced on Google Classroom in addition to simply allowing us to feel some sense of normalcy. Students were introduced to feudalism last week, they researched and ultimately investigated whether or not if it's a fair social system. We will continue feudalism this week along with going off course for a little to research the Vikings. 

Literacy: The Junior Scholastic assignment caused lots of confusion, but I was really proud of how well many of your children problem solved!  Next week, as Trimester 3 begins, we will plan for a test on Latin Unit 10, begin Latin 11, and continue to read some great articles in Junior Scholastic.  No worries - I'll only post the PDF of the article from this point forward.  Please check the grade book.  If you see any 0's, it means that you didn't complete that assignment.  You have until Tuesday to complete anything for T2.  Please remind your children to read directions, follow directions, and to TURN IN their assignments.    

Science: This week in science we will finish investigating what can change the number of deaths in a population and then review for a multiple choice quiz on Wednesday and a short answer quiz on Thursday. Friday we will begin working on  Amplify population puzzles.

English: Thank you to everyone who submitted their March IRP projects. There are still MANY students who have not.  Just as a reminder, these were due on 3/31 and will need to be submitted for a grade.  As Mrs. Simeone mentioned above, please check the grade book online.  If your students have zeroes in the grade book, it means they did not complete the particular assignment given that day.  This upcoming week we will focus on the last two chapters in The Giver and wrap up our reading unit!  

Math: Yay, to all the students who turned in their Food Truck project Friday. I have left the window open to submit for the week because some students had some technical difficulties. Tuesday we start learning about theoretical probability. 

Weekly Update: March 30th

First and foremost, we want you to know that we all miss our students a great deal.  We understand that learning in this manner presents different challenges for everyone.  What we ask is that everyone try.  If your children are having difficulty, email us, and we will do all that we can to help.  Certainly, we hope that all of our Badger families are healthy.  If, however, your child is sick, please email us, so that we will know that he or she is unable to complete the work for a period of time. 

We survived week one of remote learning! Some of us better than others.  As the week progressed each day got a little less stressful as we navigated and learned new things about remote learning. Everyone should remember to check the grade book, as we will post grades regularly.  This will be the best way to monitor your child's work completion. 

Thank you for the positive, uplifting emails we've received from so many of you.  We really appreciate the kind words and supportive comments during this time.  As always, if you ever need to contact us - please do so! We are here!


Class Updates: 

Social Studies: We picked up right where we left off despite not having class in-person! We continued our unit on the Middle Ages and took a deeper look at one of the most prominent leaders in Medieval Times--Charlemagne. Students researched facts about him and the Holy Roman Empire. There was one assessment this week. Please check the grade book to see how your child did!

Literacy:  We have forged ahead with Latin Unit 10 and kids are doing well.  It's wonderful to see how well they have adapted!  There are two recurring problems: kids not reading directions well, and failing to turn in their work in the way they have been taught.  All assignments need to be turned in to the Google Classroom assignment, so that credit can be given. We will continue with practice activities for Unit 10, this week, and then there will be some reading and writing activities assigned.  

Science: Hopefully everyone is getting more comfortable with Amplify on line. I am getting better at navigating it with remote learning. Please have your child read all assignments carefully. Assignments will usually have multiple parts both in Amplify and on attached google documents. Students can always correct class work assignments for credit within two days. Students should check their grades regularly. As assignments come in at different times and are resubmitted a grade could be missed in transition from google classroom to X2. Next week we will continue with the Populations and Resources Unit. Monday is the last day to contact me about  make up work from the week of 3/9-3/13.

English: What a week! Prior to school closing, students were nearly finished reading The Giver in class. Luckily the text is available online, so everyone is able to finish the reading from home. I've been pacing students this week with the reading, and we've had some really wonderful discussions. Their reactions are the best! Along with notes on dramatic irony, euphemisms, and paradox; students completed five more chapters, and now we're just pages away from the ambiguous ending. Coming up this week, students can expect to finish the book AND submit their March IRP projects, which are due on Tuesday, March 31st. I will post the method in which students should submit their projects on Monday.  Thank you to everyone for navigating these uncharted waters this week - you're all doing a wonderful job! 

Math: Students should be about halfway through their Food Truck Nation projects.  All work is to be done in their copy of the Google doc. As of Friday, we have completed up to the Percent Change page. The project will be due on Friday, April 3rd, but I will accept projects up until Sunday April 5th at midnight.  Students will need to upload the project and this will count as a test grade!

Weekly Update: March 23rd

EXPECTATIONS:

Welcome to our new reality!  You have all hopefully received all of the notifications from The Nashua School District regarding its expectations of the delivery of learning opportunities from each of your child's teachers.  Teachers have been working tirelessly this week to prepare Google Classrooms, and invite students to join them.  Thankfully, your kids are very familiar with the format, as Mr. Santorsa, Mrs. McGuire and Mrs. Simeone have used it from the very beginning of the year.  They should plan to see invitations to join the classrooms established by each of their Unified Arts teachers and Special Educators.  All of the classroom icons will reside in one area for easy access during the day.  You can expect each teacher to post something new, every morning that will require a response.  Some of them will be graded as assessments, others just as attendance.  You can expect that each of your teachers will diligently provide the best remote learning experiences and assignments that we can possibly create.  We, in turn, expect all students to participate, and complete the work.  Badger teachers are counting on parents to encourage the more reluctant students to participate.  We have to be partners.  

ATTENDANCE:

The Administrators of the Nashua School District, as well as the members of the Board of Education expect every teacher to be teaching each day, and every student to be learning every day.  In order to prove that this is happening, every student must respond to every teacher, every day.  That is the only way that we can take attendance. We will report each day's attendance in X2 at the end of the day.  It is imperative that your child reply to whatever post in each Google Classroom.  The Google Classes are not connected - so posting attendance in Social Studies does not communicate with Literacy or English or Tech Ed.  Each class must be responded to.

OFFICE HOURS:

The hours listed below are those times when we will be available for immediate response.  We certainly encourage and will accept emails, questions, responses and assignment submissions at any time during the day or night - but we will be at our computers during the hours listed.

Mrs. Simeone - simeonej@nashua.edu Office hours: 10 - 11 am, and 2 - 3 pm

Mr. Santorsa - santorsaf@nashua.edu Office hours: 12 - 2 pm 

Mrs. McGuire - mcguirea@nashua.edu Office hours: 10 - 11 am, and 2 - 3 pm 

Mrs. Duval - duvalbuellm@nashua.edu Office hours: 10 am - 12 pm

Mrs. Folini (Huckins) - folinic@nashua.edu Office hours 9 - 10 am, and 2 - 3 pm 

GUIDANCE: 

We know that these are stressful times.  Our Guidance Department has created a Google Classroom where they can offer assistance as well as communicated confidentially with students and families.  The code to join the Guidance class is listed below:

 25jmqw3

MEDIA CENTER:

Mrs. Sand has prepared an informative video about navigating the PMS collections!  Enjoy!

Pennichuck Library Media Center