Weekly Update

Ahh! Fall is in the air, and the first mid-quarter is upon us. It must be October! Hopefully, you have been keeping up-to-date with your child's performace through Infinite Campus and my weekly blog updates. Don't forget, you can get daily assignments by following the "Assignment" link on my website: http://www.mrsovd.co.nr/. We know many kids have been out sick, and we also realize that they have been quite ill while at home; however, quite a few students have returned to school with nothing done, and then didn't talk to us about it. Some even told us they didn't know what they had missed. Remember, even if the list that comes home is incomplete or inaccurate, we post our daily assignments on our blogs (and those are always right). One student, who was in a similar situation, came to school and immediately told me what she had/had not been able to do, and we then worked out a plan for getting caught up. That is what we're looking for!


Literature

This week in Literature the kids finished writing their scripts and presented their talk shows that demonstrated their understanding of the plot of "The Osage Orange Tree." There is one group that has not presented yet due to illness, so as soon as we get that one done, I'll post the videos. They are now reading "A Retrieved Reformation" by O. Henry and looking at characterization. Their assessment for this aspect of stories will be to answer a question that I post on a classroom-friendly blog at http://www.classchatter.com/. They will also have to comment on others' posts. Be sure to have your child log in and show you the blog discussion. They have a week to do it, and I will be monitoring it to be sure nobody sneaks anything inappropriate, unkind, or not school-related! If they do, I will delete it.


English

We are focusing on commas this week. People tend to either overuse or underuse commas. I am trying to teach the students that unless they know a specific rule for using a comma, they should not use one. Hopefully, they will be able to apply these rules throughout their writing this year and firm up their knowledge of commas usage.

Religion

This week we were lucky to have Deacon Randy Haak come in. In 8th grade, he speaks about comtemporary issues in the Catholic Church. This week he talked about forgiveness (using Brett Favre as an example) as well as respecting all life.

The students also finished studying St. Paul's Second Missionary Journey and took a quiz on the material on Thursday.


For our assessment project at the end of the unit (probably in November), the students are going to need large cardboard boxes or display boards for creating a museum exhibit. If you have large cardboard boxes available for your child or to share, could you please save them? I could also store them here. Thanks!