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Chimacum Middle School My name is Al González and I will be your child’s science teacher for the 2003-2004 school year. Sixth graders will be learning process science this year and working on many fascinating projects. The process we will focus on will be the scientific method. Please check my website for more information: http://eagle.csd49.org/classpages/. Please try to check the website weekly to check on homework as well as to check on what your child will be learning and doing from day to day. We will be studying water quality, plate tectonics, geology, the first three kingdoms, physical science and we will integrate some fractal geometry as well. Cispus will kick off the first two content areas just mentioned. Please email me if you have any questions or would like to help out (al_gonzalez@csd49.org). This coming year I am pleased to announce that I will have a student teacher working with us during the first quarter. Please help welcome Robin Purnell to Chimacum. I’m excited and looking forward to a great year with your child. A lot of the work in science will be done in teams. In group projects, your child is graded on how hard s/he works as well as on completing the project successfully. When there is a group project or lab, each student has to do work for her/himself and for the group. I always hear that group work is unfair because “my son/daughter does all the work and the other students get the benefits of my son/daughter's work.” This is just not going to be the case. Each student in the group gets a grade on all the work s/he does. I observe students daily and each student has to fill out a form after each project showing me what s/he learned. Therefore, if your child does all s/he is supposed to do, s/he will get a good grade based on what s/he did. I believe that students should be rewarded for learning and discovering. If your child does that and puts forth effort, your child will do wonderfully in my class. The student that does less work in a group project will get a lower grade. Effort counts for a lot in my book. My expectations are that all students write in full and complete sentences, that all students use details to back up what they write or say, and that all students treat each other well. Extra credit is always available for students who are caught up with all their class assignments or for students who need or want alternative assignments. Aside from the materials your child’s homeroom teacher will require, such as markers, colored pencils, pencils, pens, a sharpener, erasers, tape, a calculator, a pair of scissors, or binder paper, the only things that I ask for are a spiral notebook that is only for science, one folder that is only for science and black pens (ball point, gel or whatever). If you wish, another optional material your child might want is one or more blank rewritable CD’s or CD-RW to save computer projects on throughout the year. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I’ll see you soon. Al González |