Wow, what a great trip to Grouse Ridge we had!  If you haven’t seen the pictures yet, I posted a few of the best pictures on our crew website.  We enjoyed great weather, practiced our navigation skills in a beautiful area, and had a lot of fun in the meantime. 

The trip would not have been possible without the help from so many of our parents.  First, Carol for organizing the extra supplies and Gary for providing them.  Thank you Carla for organizing the food list, picking up, and packing all of the food for the trip.  Our chaperones/drivers:  Cristina, Karen, Brooke, Crash, and Adam. Thank you for volunteering your time, energy and gas to our crew.  Lastly but not least, thank you to Katie for organizing all of the volunteers and driving/loaning your car for the trip.  You all truly went above and beyond (dusty cars and all).  Thank you!

As for gas, SELS is reimbursing part of the cost for gas for those people that drive on fieldwork.  If you drove over 50 miles with students on fieldwork (for this trip it means driving both ways with kids), I will be sending a form with your child to reimburse you for part of the cost of gas on the trip.  I ask that you sign it and send it back to school with your child.  If you have any questions, let me know.

Goal Setting Conferences:  We will be holding goal-setting conferences October 15, 16, and 17.  I have a document attached to this email that you can sign-up for the time that works best for you.  I will be sending more information out later to help you prepare for the goal-setting conferences.

Reading:  I have not mentioned this to the parents yet, but I expect all students to read for at least a half hour every school night.  The purpose of this exercise is to foster a healthy habit of reading.  This can be a book of their choice, newspaper, magazine (reading, not just browsing pictures), or anything that is at their reading level and they enjoy.  I will expect parents to be monitoring this at home and appreciate your help.

Cartographers and Commanders Expedition:  We are moving on to the next phase of our expedition, the build-up to the Age of Exploration.  We will be starting to use our online textbook called TCI.  Mrs. McMains used this same curriculum last year with the “Worlds of Wonder” expedition.  The students will be logging on to www.learntci.com to access reading passages and complete quizzes and activities.  The students will be learning how to access these accounts this week, and we will begin to learn about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. 

Math:  We are nearing the end of our first math unit.  Most recently, we have been using our graphing skills to create graphs on graphing calculators.  I have allowed the students to use their iPhones/iPods in math if they have downloaded the “Free Graphing Calculator” app on them.  We will finish up this unit, review and take the unit test by the end of the week.  Our next unit is called “Stretching and Shrinking” and will involve scale and geometry.

“Who am I” Expedition:  I just outlined with the class what I expect from our first assignment with their mentors: an interview about the mentors background and values.  It will be due by the end of the month to give you a chance to setup a good time with your child’s mentor.

Thinkwave:  I have not heard any problems with Thinkwave so far so I hope it is working well.  I wanted to let you know that the “Final Grade” is an average of all of the student’s grades, which I will not use so I ask that you just ignore it.

Social Coordinator:  We still need a social coordinator for our class.  This can be a very fun way to volunteer for our crew!  Cindy Burson is taking it on for the 6th grade and we need someone to help her coordinate with our crew.  If you are interested please contact Katie.

Katie and I are working diligently to nail down the details for the San Francisco Trip.  It will be November 7-8.  More details to come.

I will be posting our crew updates on our crew page or the SELS website. http://www.truckeecharterschool.org/index.php/en/latest-news/crew-pages/williams-crew

Important Dates:

October 15-19:  Minimum Schedule all week.  11:45 dismiss.

October 15-17: Goal Setting Conferences.  Schedule your conference on the attached document.

October 24: Minimum Day

October 31 Bear Walk

Thank you again for all of you help, guidance, and volunteer work to ensure a successful 7th grade year!

Happy October,

Zach