Friday, September 6, 2013

Newsletter #2 (9/6/13)



 Hello Quest Families,
It has been another excellent week of learning here on Quest!  A few notes for the upcoming weeks:

Field Trip
On September 25th, we are planning to take a field trip to the Long Trail (the Duxbury Window hike off of Camel's Hump Road).  This field trip will be culmination of our unit on Interdependence.  We are putting the plug in now because we are hoping to have some adult chaperones (drivers) join us.  This will not only save us money by not having to rent a school bus, but will also give you a chance to see your student in action!  We will be hiking (about 1 mile in) to a stream to do some place-based studying.  Please email or send a note if you have any interest in joining our excursion.

Math
This week in Math, we discussed factors and multiples.  We learned how to play 2 new games (The Product Game & The Factor Game), which you can access from the Quest website under the Math section.  These games are great way to practice working with multiplication in a fun way.  This Tuesday, we will have a short quiz on factors and multiples, so practice away over the weekend!

Next week, students will be taking a Multiplicative Reasoning Assessment.  This is a district assessment that will have no impact on your student's grade.  The purpose is to guide instruction around student need.  The assessment in 7 questions and will be taken on Monday and Wednesday.  The second half of the week will be the start to our work in the Investigations Math Program (same as Thatcher Brook).  The focus of our first unit is Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System.  Parent information can be found at this web address:  http://investigations.terc.edu/families/.

Humanities gets a new name
Upon further reflection, we found that the title "Humanities" didn't cut it when it came to all of the different subjects we will be learning first thing in the morning.  In teacher school it is called "interdisciplinary studies," which might not mean a whole lot more to your student.  We asked the students their opinions on what we should call this class!  We had ideas ranging from "Everything and a side of bacon" to "Ready to Roll"   We picked three out of a hat for them to vote on this afternoon.  During this time block we learn about a topic from the lens of all subjects.  More on how that will look on the report card in next week's newsletter!

Getting to Know Your Student 
Please take a few minutes to fill out the attached survey.  It will help us to get to know your student better.  If you are receiving this via email, please click here to access the survey.  You can email the results back to one of us.  If you are receiving this by paper, please see attached.

Gmail
This week, your student received his / her gmail account for middle school.  This account is to be used for school work.  We will primarily be using Google accounts for the features offered in Google Drive.  They will not often use their email, although they can use it to contact me if they have a question.  We discussed appropriate use of technology, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact us, or Tom Drake.

ePals
We are working on setting up some electronic penpals for your student from around the world!

Questions to ask your student:
What is the new humanities name?
What is the logo contest?
 What map are you drawing in class?
Do you have a Google account?


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