Progress Reports Went Home TODAY - May 13

Progress reports were issued today for all subjects. The new progress report does not show details for how the grade was earned. For SCIENCE I have found that the majority of low grades are due to
1) not completing the assigned GIZMOS from www.explorelearning.com, or
2) from submitting poor grades for GIZMOS.

What's the solution?
1. Tomorrow and Friday I will be conferencing with students about how to raise their grades.
2. If Gizmos are the problem, then completing them or re-doing them is the solution. HOWEVER, I will not be retrieving any more grades electronically for the previous assignments. If a student does a GIZMO and earns a good grade, then print out the first page which shows student name and Gizmo title along with the score earned. I do not penalize students for trying to raise their grade through doing Gizmos again.
3. Students must complete all of their assigned tasks in a timely manner. A project is underway right now and everyone should have begun data collection so that the project may be finished before the final exam.

If your child brought home a poor grade it's important that you ask about the GIZMOS that they have done or haven't done. Very often students are submitting grades that are very low. A score of 5/5 is 100%, 4/5 = 80%, 3/5 = 60% which is a "D", the lowest passing grade possible. Scores below 4/5 drag the entire grade down so don't let a child celebrate a score of less than 4/5!!!!

I will be glad to receive any new data in paper form so that grades can be recycled. However, all recycled GIZMOS must be submitted by May 28 so I can enter them into the grading program and have them reflected in the report card grade for this grading period. There will not be time to enter late grades since I will have to record the projects and the final exam grades. More on these 2 topics tomorrow.