Today at school, someone picked up a jacket that didn't belong to them.  It probably happened at the end of our movie when kids were collecting their things and heading to lunch.  It is gray jacket with a fluffy inside that says Tony Hawk across the front.  It also probably had the name of the student that it belongs to on the tag on the inside.

When your children come home today, can you please check to see if they walk in the door with the wrong jacket -- and if so, would you please email me at:

wferriter@wcpss.net

That way I can get the jacket back to its owner sooner rather than later. 

Thanks,
Bill Ferriter

Many of your children have been working on science fair projects over the last few weeks -- which I think is really cool! 

The science fair takes place here at Salem from January 17 to January 20th.  If your child is putting together a project and it isn't finished yet, I will need their final products by January 16. 

You can email me over track out -- preferably at my personal email address (wferriter@hotmail.com) -- and we'll work out a way to get projects turned in.  I'll probably come over to school and meet you to pick up their boards -- I just don't want any to get lost!

Finally -- as a reminder:  I will count science fair project boards as a replacement for a poor summative grade.  That makes a project board a semi-valuable bit of extra credit.

Hope this helps,
Bill Ferriter

Click here to download:

Science Club Field Trip AnnouncementHello Salem Parents.docx (19 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Science Club Field Trip AnnouncementHello Salem Parents.docx (19 KB)

Dear Parents,

Not sure if you've realized it or not, but Salem has a Science Club that is run by the Track 4 seventh grade science teacher -- Sandra Johnson. 

She's working on organizing a science themed field trip that sounds pretty cool.  It won't take place until the end of the school year, but the planning is moving forward now. 

She asked me to share the letter embedded above with you in case you were interested in seeing your child participate in the trip. 

Hope this helps,
Bill Ferriter

Dear Parents,

On behalf of the entire Gnome team, I wanted to thank you for the treats and gifts that you've shared with us over the past few days.  Anytime that someone takes the time to send kindness to us -- whether in the form of cookies or gift cards or heaping piles of chocolate -- we're grateful.

But more importantly, we're grateful for your kids!  Most days, they are a complete dream team.  We enjoy their sense of humor, love watching them learn, and are incredibly proud of their accomplishments.

As teachers, that's the "gift" that matters the most to us. 

With hope that your holidays are warm and safe and happy and healthy,

Mr. Ferriter, Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Cheslek and Mrs. Barrow

Here at school during 7-7:30 time at school, students in my classroom are being encouraged to write 25 word stories -- which are short, engaging bits that catch people's attention.  They're perfect for the amount of time that we have for writing and they're actually pretty challenging for the kids simply because they have to work with such a short number of words.

I'll share some of those 25 word stories with you here on our website as they come in. 

Here's the first -- which was a tag team effort between Sophie C and me:

The chimney was empty, the cookies were eaten, and the milk had been drunk.  Most of all, the presents twinkled and gleamed -- Santa had come!

Be well,
Bill Ferriter

Just a quick update to let you know what we've been doing in science class in the past few days:

Our main goal has been to study conduction and convection -- which are the two main ways that heat energy moves.  We began that study with two demonstrations -- one showing conduction and the other showing convection.  Students then read the pages in the text book (B 50-54) that explain conduction and convection.  Their goal was to discover which of the two demonstrations that they observed represented conduction and which represented convection. 

During class today, we'll be going over each concept in detail so that students can see if their predictions about our demonstrations were correct. 

Hope this helps,
Bill Ferriter

Just a quick heads up to let you know that there are two assignments due for science tomorrow.  The first is an OWI reflection sheet for a demonstration that we did in class last week.  The second is a "Conduction/Convection Mind Splash" handout that requires kids to write two paragraphs about the central heat concepts that we've been studying in class.

Your kids have had a TON of time to work on these tasks in class over the past five days, so they may already have completed everything.  Definitely check, though.  Missing work has been a problem for students on our team this quarter.

As an aside, students have also been working on an optional thank you letter to one of their teachers.  This task is not required, but most kids had at least planned on taking the time to write to a teacher that they think highly of.  If your child is still working on a letter, it is due no later than Friday. 

Hope this helps,
Bill Ferriter

Click here to download:

Rubric, Student Work BehaviorsV2.doc (37 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Rubric, Student Work BehaviorsV2.doc (37 KB)

Dear Parents,

Just a quick reminder that at the end of each quarter, we ask students to fill out the Work Behaviors Rubric embedded above.  Then, your children's core teachers give them a rating in each category as well.  The completed form is sent home stapled to the top of report cards.

In my opinion, these work records are more important than your children's grades right now simply because they are a pretty accurate list of the kind of behaviors that make people successful regardless of the content that they are studying or the fields that they choose to pursue when they leave school. 

More importantly, they are the kinds of behaviors that middle schoolers are just learning how to master.  If your children can create positive work habits now, they will be far more likely to succeed in the future. 

Consider taking a minute to print this form out and review it with your kids.  They've already completed it -- we did it in science today -- so they should be able to tell you what they've scored themselves.  Ask them to defend their ratings.  Give them feedback about their work behaviors at home.  Ask them which areas they believe they need to improve on the most.

Hope this helps,
Bill Ferriter