I have put this page together to answer some fo the most frequently asked questions parents have and to facilitate better communication between school and home in the support of your sons and daugters, my students.
Q: I have a question/concern, how do I contact you?
Q: What can I do to best support my son/daugtor now that they are at the high school?
Q: What are your policies on tardiness and grading?
Q: My son or daughter is really struggling/not challenged, what should I do?
Q: How can I find out more about what is going on in class, deadlines, content, project requirements etc.?
A: My email is [email protected]. Expect a response within 48 hours. If you need to leave a voice mail message you can call the school and they will connect you to my voice mail but I will not be able to pick up the phone or talk during the day as the phone is located in a classroom.
A: It seems to me that the role of the parent (and teacher) as kids move from middle school to high school changes. Our role becomes less about direct interventions and more about facilitating growth, independence, and good decision making in regard to their learning. To that end, I advise parents to try to encourage their kids to become advocates for themselves and to let them make the mistakes that will allow them to grow more responsible for themselves. This is a difficult thing to do for both parents and teachers but I think it becomes easier when we keep the end goal in sight.
So what does that look like? For example, instead of doing homework patrol every night, check in with your son or daughter's learning by asking them questions about what they are learning that require them to show what they know or (don't) like "I see you are working on a hurricane tracking project, I always wondered...what makes a hurricane slow down and die out?"
Also, here is a handout I give the freshman to help them make the transition and really take advantage of the high school experience!
A: I adhere to the stated school policy on tardies. 3 Tardies of any length will earn a class cut notice which will be addressed by the assistant principle. In science this is more of an issue than in other classes because we meet for labs at 7:30 and many students have trouble getting up and to school on time. I would appreciate as much support as you can provide in getting your son/daughter to class on time and supporting our system of consequences if they don't make it on time. Hopefully together we can impart the importance of timelyness and nip the problem in the bud while they are still freshman. Missing class time, especially the beginning of class when directions are given is really detrimental to their learning and distracting to other students.
The grading policy for honors is outlined in this hand out that I gave the students in the beginning of the year. Here is the same handout for Level 2 Project Earth Science and here is Level 3 project earth science.
A: If your son or daughter is really struggling, the first question to ask is if they can identify if there is a certain area that they are struggling with and if it is something specific, like organization, encourage them to seek me out and make a plan to address the difficulty. If it is in more than one area the next question to ask yourself, your child, and me is if they are in the appropriate level for this time in their academic career. Here is a handout I gave the students (click here for honors, click here for level 2) to help them think through the decision about levels. Also, another guideline to think about is if your son or daughter is only barely hanging on with continuous extra help from you, me, or a tutor and are always at frustration level when trying to do work for the course then they are probably in over their heads and would benefit from switching down a level.
If your son or daughter is finding the classwork too easy or is easily reaching his or her learning goals ahead of all of the rest of the class with minimal effort and wishing the class would move faster or reach a deeper level of conceptual understanding then please have him or her come talk to me and we can discuss moving your son or daughter up a level.
A: Use the website and navigate through you son or daughters class page, deadlines are posted and most of the digital handouts I give are available for download online.