Wow! I am so sorry I have been behind on updates. I was very ill the week of Aug 20th and just now am feeling caught up. As I am sure you are aware, progress grades are out today. These are grades that mark the middle of term one and do not go on the transcript. These are simply informational so you are aware of progress or lack of (in fortunately only a few cases) to start conversations with your kids. I will say in many classes these tend to be a bit of a false predictor as in project heavy classes there may not be much to grade yet so be sure to ask your students about what is all going on in class. Moreover, clear your schedule for Parent Teacher conferences on Thursday at 4. Humanities and Math teachers tend to have long lines waiting to speak with them so my advise would be to get here as early as you can and have one parent or a sibling "hold" your place in line so you can visit with other teachers. Get a text when your next up and jet over there. Please bring your student, as they need to be a part of the conversation, good or bad and the next steps need to be agreed upon by everyone. If you can't make it, please shoot an email to the teachers you feel you need to hear from. Maybe its a class they are getting an ok grade on but you see there is stress in your student around it. Or maybe they are avoiding talking about it all together. I check grades almost daily and kids who have D's or F's may not travel until those grades are back up. I will say, as a classroom teacher, I notice kids are not doing their homework or studying for classes the way I would expect. Many teachers will not accept late work at all unlike at the middle school. And still more will not allow re-takes of quizzes etc. If your student is not doing homework, then I would have a conversation with them. Things like languages, AP or honors classes, and even biology will have homework. At the very least they should be practicing or reading nightly. Fun stuff, we are working on our trashcan "event" for showdown...well without much enthusiasm really but I'm trying to rally them...If you happen to have a kids size Captain America costume laying around, we could use it. Lexi is our "model" that we are making a masking tape form to wear the costume to adorn the top of our can. Then we will decorate the rest of the can with print outs of comic book pages etc. I've been collecting t-shirt money and they are beginning to get in the spirit of Homecoming (or HOCO as they say). Friday is the big rivalry game between DC and CV at the stadium at DC.
I hope you all stop and say "hi" during conferences. I would love to see you and meet those of you I have not yet. As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns. FUTURE KEY DATES Sept. 17th--Ruff tuff volleyball 6:00pm CV gym Sept. 18th -- Powder Puff 6:00pm DC stadiumSept. 20th--Showdown Sept. 21st--No Students. Professional Development Day. Sept. 21st--Homecoming Football Game 7:00pm Sept. 22nd--Homecoming Dance 7:30 - 10:30pm Sept. 26th - ASL students are Deaf for a Day in school. Oct. 1st --Extended Advisement--College Fair (Monday) Oct. 3rd -- 2A Final Oct. 4th -- 1 and 2B Finals Oct. 4th - Internship Presentations in the afternoon Oct. 5th-- 3 and 4 Finals Oct. 6th - 14th FALL BREAK Oct. 15th - Term 1 Grades Due, Advisement 1st Oct. 19th - Staff Meeting 7am Oct. 24th - Extended Advisement--Optional PSAT and ASVAB testing Oct. 25th -Trick or Treat Street run by CV Clubs 6:00 - 7:30pm Nov. 7th - Taste of the World 3:15 - 4:30pm Nov. 7th - Fine Arts Night 6:00 - 9:00pm Nov. 12th - Winter Sports Officially Begin Nov. 13th - 17th - Mama Mia Nov. 26th - 30th Mental Health Week Dec. 18th - 2B Final Dec. 19th - 3rd and 4th Finals Dec. 20th - 1st and 2A Finals Dec. 21st - T2 Grades due by Noon Jan. 7th - Advisement 1st, Begin Term 3
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I heard the Back to School dance was LIT. I hope they went, had fun and came home having made great choices.
The kids have had 2 travel days now to stretch their legs. A large percentage of them are going to the commons. I think they are studying and completing homework while they are there. The students were saying they have a ton of work already. Do you know what they are doing to stay on top of it in addition to everything else they are doing? Today, I briefly went over the 45/15 rule I have utilized for years. I made it a 30/10 for my own kids during homework time as they are a bit younger. But this helps maintain focus as you know you will have 15 (or 10) minutes at the end of a good stretch of focused time to check email, respond to that text, or change the playlist on your music. Knowing when that there is time dedicated for those trivial tasks will make the 45 much more productive. We will go over this technique and others for time management as the year goes on. Tomorrow we will head to the commons for the "Club Run". This is the chance for students to learn about all the different kinds of activities, other than sports, they can be involved in at Castle View. Involved kids are successful kids. Back to school night is this Thursday, 6:15-8:15. This is your opportunity to meet all your student's teachers and see their classrooms. As a teacher I can easily say that the number one indicator of a student's success is parental involvement. Its a hard balance, at this point you want to give them all kinds of independence and freedom. But this is also the time they need to know you are still in the know, and you care about what is going on with how they spend 75% (that's a made up number by the way) of their time doing. I hope to see you all there with your questions about math, humanities and how art classes are graded. HOME Events for the Week Thursday 8/23 Boys Tennis vs. Douglas County 3:30pm Varsity at CV, JV at Bison Park Boys Soccer vs. Vista Peak JV and Freshman 5:00pm at CV, Varsity 7:00pm at the stadium Saturday 8/25 Freshman Football vs. Fossil Ridge 9am JV Football vs. Fossil Ridge 11am Freshman and JV Soccer vs. Cherry Creek 9am FUTURE KEY DATES Sept 3rd -- Labor Day No School Sept. 11th -- Mid-Term Grades Due Sept. 13th -- Parent Teacher Conferences from 4-8pm SAVE THE DATE Sept. 13th -- Beat DC Bonfire 7:30pm Sept. 14th -- CV vs. DC Football Game 7:00pm Sept. 15th -- Sabercat Stomp (Feeder Area Parade and Kids Carnival run by our teams/clubs) 4-8pm Sept. 20th--Showdown Sept. 21st--No Students. Professional Development Day. Sept. 21st--Homecoming Football Game 7:00pm Sept. 22nd--Homecoming Dance 7:30 - 10:30pm Oct. 4th and 5th--1/2 Days Finals Oct. 4th - Internship Presentations in the afternoon Oct. 6th - 14th FALL BREAK Oct. 15th - Term 1 Grades Due Oct. 15th - Advisement 1st at 7:40am to start the term. Oct. 25th -Trick or Treat Street run by CV Clubs 6:00 - 7:30pm Yay week two! We had a ton of fun on Friday creating balloon towers. The winning team was Eliza, Darion, Genna and Alex topping out at 101.5. 12 balloons, a roll of tape and the ability to only attach to the base made this a fun challenge to work together on. We lost about 5 balloons in the process but overall, they did great! They also were assigned their lockers so they may have already asked you about locker organization gear.
Today, the kids had a meeting with the admin team in the commons to learn about some expectations for freshmen and hopefully get them excited about joining some activities. Tuesday we will begin our time in the on-line future planning software for kids, Naviance. Then on Wednesday, I will bring in donuts and go over the student handbook and code of conduct as we are required to every year. Thursday we may have to finish up some handbook stuff, but then we will have some fun again. Great questions this week: Did you know several of our teachers switch lunches on Thursday? Does your student know what lunch to go to then? How do you plan to use your travel advisements this term? Friday they will have their first opportunity to show off their ability to manage their time with a travel advisement. Please see a few important dates coming up: HOME Events for the Week Aug 17th -- Back to School Dance 8-10:30pm FUTURE KEY DATES Aug 23rd -- 1st grade check/Back to School Night 6pm Sept 3rd -- Labor Day No School Sept. 11th -- Mid-Term Grades Due Sept. 13th -- Parent Teacher Conferences from 4-8pm Sept. 13th -- Beat DC Bonfire 7:30pm Sept. 14th -- CV vs. DC Football Game 7:00pm Sept. 15th -- Sabercat Stomp (Feeder Area Kids Carnival run by our teams/clubs) 4-8pm Sept. 20th--Showdown Sept. 21st--No Students. Professional Development Day. Sept. 21st--Homecoming Football Game 7:00pm Sept. 22nd--Homecoming Dance 7:30 - 10:30pm Oct. 4th and 5th--1/2 Days Finals Oct. 6th - 14th FALL BREAK Hello! I am Freshman advisement teacher, Amanda Kerr. I am so excited to start off the year with all you young scholars, athletes, artists and gamers. A bit about me. I am an Art Teacher in the BHS academy, my focus being the 3 Dimensional arts where we get to get really messy and channel our inner tinker-er. This will be my 19th year in teaching, all of them in DCSD and my 12th year at CV. I have 3 kids of my own, all will be at CRMS this year. My son is in 8th so some of you might actually know of him.
My focus in my classrooms is always to bring out the creative person lurking in all of us. In advisement I take my role as mentor, advocate and den mother very seriously. During days when we stay together as a group, we will play games, have debates, eat pancakes, learn time management skills and generally support each other through their time in high school. At least once a week, starting in week 2, I will start to pull grades and attendance records and will counsel them on classes in which you are struggling and celebrate classes in which you are doing well or showing improvement. I will be informing them of opportunities to earn their community service hours and may even create some ways which we can do as an advisement. I will also be creating opportunities for us to meet outside of the classroom and meet up together at school events to support each other in their extra-curricular activities. I hope to create a weekly blog/newsletter to blast out which will include events, announcements and things you might want to know about what's going on at Castle View For starters, I would appreciate if you would take a few minutes to fill out the surveys on the side bar, there is one for parents and one for students. I am looking forward to meeting my new group of students who I will get to be with for 4 years and will have the very great honor of escorting them to the stage at graduation in 2022. Please feel free to send me an email anytime and I will always do me best to respond with in 24 hours. Let's have a great year where we not only learn amazing things, but have great time too! |
AuthorMrs. Kerr's advisement meets in 7100. Email me at [email protected] ArchivesCategories |