Mendive MagnetTeam Expectations – 2017-2018

Greetings to parents, family and friends! Welcome to Mendive Middle School! The nextyearis so important in your child’s development, and we are doing everything we can to make this school year as smooth as possible. As you know, three grade levels are housed here at Mendive, and the team of educators who work with your son or daughter is striving to create an educational environment that possesses a rigor commensurate with your child’s abilities. We strive to integrate all core tasks and provide activities thatelicit responses to real life problems and dilemmas.

By signing the GATE commitment form, you and your child have committed to follow our academic and social/behavioral expectations. By selecting this program of choice, you recognize that you and your child have many benefits; however, if our team feels that this academic placement is in question, we are committed to working with our parents to ensure that your child has the most appropriate academic placement available to him/her.

Expected Supplies

A supply list has been provided for your child. In addition, a $50.00 fee was requested by the GATE office in order to defray the cost of science materials, technology, and manipulatives.Some students find it useful to carry materials in a zippered binder. Our students will be expected to arrive daily with their own writing instrument and a personal flash drive which will organize any written tasks done on the computer.

Weekly Schedule

The following is the school wide schedule. Monday-Wednesday are 71 minute classes and Thursday/Friday are 95 minutes classes.There is an enrichment class that meets every day during lunch-time except Wednesday so that 8th graders and 7th/6th graders eat at two different times. School dismisses at 1:15 p.m. on Wednesdays every week. We are available Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays after school until 2:45 to help students.

Day / Class order
Monday / 1-2-3-4
Tuesday / 5-6-1-2
Wednesday / 3-4-5-6
Thursday / 1-2-3 or 3-2-1
Friday / 4-5-6 or 6-5-4

Homework

We all believe that school work at home must be meaningful. The rotating schedule creates an interesting element: one student’s project may be due a day different than another student, even if they are of the same grade level and received the same assignment. All students will have adequate experiences with a project prior to its due date. Many projects and assignments are started in class and competition is expected to be done at home. Often, homework assigned will be for your child to prepare for the next class. Some classes will have an ongoing cycle of assignments and others will be on an irregular schedule. Your child is expected to note assignment details in their agenda books and check the team website,www.washoeschools.net/mendivegt, nightly.

Advisory

Every week in advisory, students will be expected to have their agenda books filled out with homework and due dates for the entire week and have a parent/guardian signature to acknowledge that the parent/guardian has gone over what is due for the week. Students will receive fullbehavior points for meeting this expectation.

Students can receive up to 30 points per week: 10 points for the agenda check, 10 points for being prompt to class, and 10 points for participation. The agenda check will happen on Tuesday of each week in advisory: 1 point deducted for no parent signature and a 2 point deduction for each day late until Friday of that week. Students will receive a 2 point deduction from their “promptness” grade for each day tardy and deduction of points will be made to the participation grade based on behavior and engagement.

*After Tuesday’s check, it is your child’s responsibility to show their signed agenda book to the teacher by Friday of that week in order to receive points.

Communication with Families

E-mail is a fantastic way to communicate with us. If you are concerned about your child’s performance, drop us a message and we will respond. Although we prefer email, you can call us @ 775-353-5990. We are generally available after school from 2:15-2:45. Simplest of all, we need your support in enforcing our expectation that your child brings his or her work/homework home every day and is prepared daily for class. We use Infinite Campus to send out our messages, so please make sure that your information is valid and up to date with the Mendive office.

Mrs. Hill - (6th and 8th grade Science)

Dr. Heiselt- (7th grade Social Studies and 7th grade Science)

Mr. King- (7th grade Math and 7th grade English)

Mrs. Porter (Team Lead)- (6th and 8th grade Social Studies)

Mrs. Sellers- (6th and 8th grade Math)
Ms. Tuttle- (6th and 8th grade English)

Team Website

Our team has a GT website. The link for that is washoeschools.net/mendivegt. We use this site to post large upcoming assignments, GT announcements, team announcements and schedule changes. We also update it weekly with a calendar so that students and parents are aware of what is taking place and due in each class. We request that it is checked by each student nightly.Assignments and due dates are subject to change, so it is important to check it frequently.

Parent/Team Meetings:

If you would like to set up a meeting with the team to discuss your child, please contact your child’s assigned counselor.

8th grade: Mr. Elsmore –

7th grade: Mrs. Harrell-

6th grade: Mrs. Jempsa

Common Policies

One of the greatest benefits of teaming is that your child will experience some common policies and similar expectations from all of his/her teachers. This limits confusion and conflict as the year progresses. We will make sure to communicate with you regarding any new policies we develop to address new issues as our school year progresses. For now, here are some of our common and current policies:

Missing and Late work – In general, students need to turn work in on time in order to be successful and keep up with the pace of our courses. At the same time, we understand that sometimes students get a little jumbled and/or there are extenuating circumstances that prevent students from getting work in on time. If such a circumstance exists, please communicate that information with us via email as soon as possible. Otherwise, late assignments will be scored at an 80% (if completedand would have earned a 100% if turned in on time). No late work will be accepted the last week of each grading period.

Absences - If a student is absent, it is theirresponsibility to gather their makeup workno later than 2 days upon their arrival back to school.All absent work must be picked up during advisory. They will have one day for each day absent plus one additional day to complete and turn in missing work. After that point, our late policy will go into effect. Due to our rotating schedule, students will need to visit teachers during advisory or after school on the day they return to determine what they missed. If atask is due on the day of their absence, that task is due the day they return. Due to the rigorous curriculum that your student will be experiencing this year, it is crucial for them to be in attendance. If at all possible, please limit their absences. Students need to email each of the teachers whose class they’re missing to inform the teacher of the absence. This is a skill students will need and we will require this in the program.

Plagiarism: The Mendive 8th Grade GT team will follow WCSD rules when it comes to plagiarism. If a student chooses to plagiarize, that student will receive a zero for that assignment. Students will also earn a deduction in their citizenship grade for that class. A teacher may require competition of an alternative assignment and it is that teacher’s decision whether or not to give the student partial or no credit for that assignment. Record of violation will be put into the student’s Infinite Campus file. The teacher will also notify administration. The school administration may impose additional consequences if conditions so warrant. Please visit Washoe County School

District’s plagiarism policy for more information.

Electronic Devices: We are lucky to have laptop computers in each of our classrooms. We will use our laptops for most of our computing needs. With teacher permission, other electronic devices may be used. Teachers will follow Mendive’s consequences for misuse of personal electronics. If a student chooses to misuse a personal device a second time, a parent will need to pick up the device in the office and behavior points will be deducted.

English/Language ArtsFor GT Language Arts, our focus will be developing mature language skills that relate to reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Our Community of Readers approach will require students to independently choose appropriately-leveled books that, upon reading, will become the basis of independent and group projects. At minimum, students will be expected to read three hours a week in their current novels as their “Always-Homework Assignment” for Language Arts, and students will “collect” and write about new vocabulary words they are discovering. In class, our Community of Writers approach will have students not only comprehending the texts that we discuss as a group but also learning to analyze the words with a “writer’s eyes.” To do this, students will develop an academic vocabulary that helps them differentiate quality writing skills from average writing skills, and they will practice applying the stronger skills of writing to the drafts they are working on in their writer’s notebooks and for their class portfolios. By year’s end, each student will write expository, argumentative, and narrative pieces for writing all the way through the seven steps of the writing process, developing and revising their ideas with the assistance of classmates, teachers, and mentor texts. These papers, along with students’ projects based on the books they will read, will constitute the majority of the students’ final grade.

Mathematics

All mathematics classes will be exploring number relationships, data and probability, geometry, expressions and equations (algebra), and proportional reasoning. Exploration of the concepts will be at a very high cognitive level and will require that students read, write, and discuss math in class daily. Homework will be given most nights. All homework is expected to be done by the student! Frequently, we give pre-learning tasks or assignments meant to capture student interest. Because we are aligned with the Common Core National Math Standards our curriculum focuses on problem-solving and reasoning not rote skill practice. Interdisciplinary projects and think tank work will be completed during class time and during enrichment; consequently, all evaluated tasks will be added to the core class grade. WCSD no longer allows students to earn high school credits for courses taken in middle school; however, our students can finish high school courses and start at a higher level when entering high school. Lastly, students will be required to pass the End of Course Examination (s) at the end of the year based on math placement. End of Course Exams are required for high school graduation. Recommendations for high school math placement will be based on student progress, work ethic, test scores, and overall class grades. Student options for high school math are Formal Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, Trig/Pre-Calculus, and Calculus based on current math enrollment.

Science

Science

This high school course will cover the fundamentals of biological science concepts. The academic pace and rigor will greatly increase from 7th grade science. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have an in-depth understanding of the following core ideas: 1) Structure and Function 2) Inheritance and Variation of Traits 3) Matter and Energy in Ecosystems 4) Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems and 5) Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. Labs will be conducted throughout the course and students will be required to participate. Labs will include scientific inquiry, research, measurement, problem solving, and experimental procedures. Homework will be given throughout the course and will mostly depend on how much work students are able to complete during class time. Students should get in the habit of studying on a regular basis to prepare for unit tests. Weekly schedules for each class will be posted in the classroom and the team/teacher’s website. Lastly, students will be required to pass the End of Course Examination at the end of the year. End of Course Exams are required for high school graduation. Recommendations for high school science placement will be based on student progress, work ethic, test scores, and overall class grades. Students will either repeat Honors Biology or be accelerated to the next science course their freshman year.

Social Studies

Social studies will encompass history, geography, economics, politics and current events. Much of history will include primary sources, and learning will be delivered via projects and interactive assignments. Projects will take multiple classes and it is imperative that students consistently work on these large assignments. We will focus a large part of our year on argumentative writing, ensuring that students can make claims and support them using reason and evidence. Homework in history will be on an irregular schedule, but due dates on long range projects will be posted well in advance and class time will be provided to initiate all major assignments. The weekly schedule will be posted in the social studies classroom and on the team/teacher’s website.

Field Trips

Some field trips will be taken during the year. Each field trip will cost at least $5.00 so that we can pay for our transportation. Information about field trips will be sent out at a later date.

Interdisciplinary Round Table Projects

All students will be involved in Project Based Learning Round tables three times a year. All students will present their work on these projects in a Round Table discussion/presentation formatto members of the community for judging.A portion of the grade on this project is based on these presentations.In order to receive participation points, students must attend the night of presentations. All Round Table presentations occur at 6:00in the evening at Mendive and last for about an hour and a half. Students will be presenting and possibly assessing other groups of students.The dates of these presentations areNovember 2nd,March 8th(History Day), and May 17th.

Behavioral Expectations

All of our students are expected to behave in a way that benefits his/her learning as well as the learning of others. As most of our children have exemplary behavior, we have a progressive discipline plan in place to ensure behaviors that deflect from learning are dealt with appropriately.

Minor behavior violations:

  1. Redirect student and individual reminder of expectations and a re-teaching of Mendive’s Magic Matrix for Behavior.
  2. Assign 10 minute lunch detention.
  3. Second time – assign 10 minute lunch detention and contact parent.
  4. Third lunch detention – conference with parent, counselor, teachers, and GATE representative

*Lunch time detentions are served with one of our core teachers during the first 10 minutes of lunch. Record of detentions earned can be found in student’s agenda book.

Major violations such as bullying, safety concerns, fighting, or severe disrespect to another student or school staff member (including volunteers and substitutes) will result in an immediate meeting. A Mendive administrator will contact the parent and the GATE representative. All major violations will result in either an in-school suspension or out of school suspension.

*Please return only this page to your advisory teacher by Friday, August 11th. You keep the other pages!*

Student Name: ______

Enrichment Teacher: ______

I have read this letter and understand the expectations of the Team.

Student Signature / Date / Parent/Guardian Signature / Date