Naaktgeboren's Class Blog

Greetings Families, We found out today that the field is available for the Read-a-Thon budding reading location. We did this a couple of years back, and it was really cool seeing 500+ students reading with one another across the field. If you see this in time, please send your 3rd, 4th, and/or 5th-grade student to school with a blanket or towel that he or she can sit on with their younger counterpart. Thank you for your support. Best, Michael Naatkgeboren

The following message is from Ms. Arce-Lindsay. She is leading the Bard Competition for this school year. Registration forms will be sent home tomorrow.  Hello Archway Arete Parents and Students! It’s once again time for our annual Bard Competition, which means registration starts now! If your student is interested in trying their hand at this artistic form in this exciting and challenging competition, please have them ask their teacher for a registration form, which must be turned in no later than Monday, November 5th by the end of the day. Each student who registers will also receive a copy of the Poetry Out Loud judging guidelines to help them refine their performance for the first round of the competition, which will take place across November 16th and 19th at 3:05 after the school day. More details to follow. I am so excited for this competition to kick off and see what students we’ll be hearing from this year, so please don’t hesitate to register! If you have any furt...

Greetings Families, Despite assigning the study guide many times throughout the unit, a large number of my students still failed to complete their study guide. The class average on the study guide was 62.4%. This is due in part to students simply not doing the work, but also shows that students are still having a hard time using their notes to answer questions. This is a skill that must be developed. I've tried to provide some support by providing the pages the information is found on, but students must learn to use their notes to answer questions. It is a basic skill they will need for the rest of their lives. Because so many students failed to do their work, I'm providing you with a copy of the answer key so students can study for Friday's test. This should not be something I need to do again. Students should be working toward becoming proficient scholars and responsible for their own work and learning. If they are not responsible, they should suffer the consequence o...

Greetings Families, I hope you are doing well and are enjoying your week. It has been good to have the students back in the classroom with our more regular routines. Next week will be a fun week with Read-a-Thon. An email was sent out from the class moms about the event. If you can, know that you are welcome to attend. If you are not fingerprinted, please let me know by Monday that you would like to come so we can plan an escort for you. Even though the quarter has just begun, there has already started to be an issue with homework not being completed and/or not turned in. I will be sending home grade reports tomorrow. Please review these and see if your child has missing work. If your child has been absent, it might show that they have missing work as well. Once they get that completed and turned in, they will get full credit for what they missed. Students who turn in late work, not due to absences, will receive 80% of its value. Lessons Grammar/Writing : In grammar, student...

Greetings Families, I hope you have enjoyed the conference week. It was a great pleasure to join with you on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons. I think we had some good conversations, and hopefully, together we can do some great things for your children moving forward. I'm excited about the second quarter. I want to begin by addressing some of the comments I made with families that apply to all of the families. Conference Points Homework : The goal in deciding what homework will look like each night, my aim is between 50-70 minutes. From the discussions we had this week, most families are falling into that window. However, some are still struggling with homework taking up to 90 minutes, and occasionally longer. Please know that you are permitted to stop homework at any point. If you have been working on homework for 70 minutes, you are welcome to send me a note with what you weren't able to accomplish without any negative impact on your child. Your child will j...

Greetings Families, I hope you are doing well and have enjoyed your break. I'm looking forward to getting to see you again this week during conferences. There are a number of things to address, so let me jump into it. Tutoring and Clubs There is no tutoring or clubs during conference week because very day if a half day. Conferences If you haven't signed up for conferences, please go to the blog post I sent out before here . On that former post, you will find the link for my SignUpGenuis and the one for the specialists. Mechanical Pencils As I promised the students, I will be allowing mechanical pencils starting this quarter. There are a few notes to make in respect to this though. First, they have to keep the privilege. If they start to become a problem, they will lose the opportunity to have them. Second, please don't send your child to school with expensive mechanical pencils. They often come up missing and possibly stolen. Unless your child's name ...

Greetings Families, I hope you are enjoying the first part of fall break. I'm looking forward to waking up early tomorrow morning to start doing some yard work that has fallen to the wayside. My year, which never really looks great, is looking pretty bad. Your child should have brought home a Fall Break Review Packet on Friday. This review packet is for you if you so choose to have your child do it. There is no expectation. Some families want their child to do nothing school related for the entire nine days without school. If that is you, please don't have your child do it. However, other families want their children to stay academically active. If you do, then feel free to have your child do the work. For families who want their children to do some of the work, there are some small incentives. First, any work completed will earn extra credit for the homework category of the subject. If a child does one day's worth of work, he or she will get the extra credit earned....

Greetings Families, Please use the following link to sign up for a conference time with Ms. Lacsa and me during the first week of the second quarter:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c4fadae23a0f49-quarter4  Please use the following link to sign up for a conference time with the specialists during the first week of the second quarter:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c4ea8a92aa7fe3-25specials2 Best, Michael Naaktgeboren