Letter Home
Dear Parents and Guardians of Room 132 Language Arts Students,
We’ve begun second quarter and it’s time for an update. I’ve got news about the room132.com blog, memoirs, grades, and the source.
Our blog is going great. We’ve been getting lots of traffic and attention recently. As far as I can tell, there really isn’t any other site showcasing student work like we are. We are on the cutting edge of online presentation of student work. If you haven’t subscribed to our feed, you can go to http://room132.com and sign up to get every post to the blog sent to you via email. Or, if you use bloglines or any other news aggregator, you can subscribe to our feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/room132. For the few of you who have left comments on the blog, thank you. Comments are very inspiring to bloggers because it shows that someone is reading and responding. Getting comments on writing inspires writers to continue to write and improve their writing skills. If you haven’t commented on the blog, we invite you to go read the blog and leave comments on any blog entries of interest to you!
November is rewrite month at Eckstein and this week we are going to be rewriting like crazy. Students have 3 drafts of their memoir due this week. Their first draft is due Tuesday, Their second draft with a revise intro/lead is due Wednesday, and Thursday the third draft is due with added details, thoughts, feelings, and reflections inspired by peer editing. I’ll be spending my entire weekend editing them for a final draft which will be due Wednesday, December 7th. We are working on developing our writing so that when you read it, it’s like you can see it as a movie in your imagination. I’m also looking for self reflection in these memoirs. Why is this story important to tell? How did these events change your life? Please take some time to read over your students work and ask them questions about their memoir to help them develop it.
This last quarter I had some problems with the grade machine. My files were on the wrong school server and when they got switched over 4 weeks into the quarter, my grades were erased. Luckily, I had paper backups and I didn’t lose any work, but it threw my routine of sending progress reports home. With the new quarter, I am going to be publishing grades to the internet via the source which is at http://source.seattleschools.org/public/. You will now be able to check your student’s grades online anytime. I’ll be publishing grades to the internet every few weeks, so it won’t always be instantly current. Student grades are password protected, so that only you and your child can see their grades online.
I know that not everyone is online and I’m happy to send out paper progress reports if you would like them. You can also use our parent resource center which is located across the hall from me (I think it’s room 131.) If you are ever curious about your student’s grades or have any concerns, the best way to get ahold of me is through email at nbpettis@seattleschools.org. Alternately, you can reach me through the school at 206-252-5010, or just leave a note in my mailbox in the front office anytime.
Mr. Pettis