Make up assignments/ Participation points grades 5-8

Hi Bethlehem Families!!!

For grades 5-8, if your student is absent on a day we have Technology, they will receive a 0 for the day. I have a make up form that they can complete at home in order to make the points back up for their grade. They have access to this form at all times, and after looking at their Engrade, if they are unhappy with their grade they can always print one of these forms (or more than one depending on how many days they have missed) to make up their points in Technology.

Here is what the form looks like:

If you are missing points for participation in Technology for not being present in class, you may make it up by completing time on Khan Academy.

Example: April 21st you were absent and got a 0/10 for participation and 0/20 for Khan Academy practice.

Class is 45 minutes long, I will allow you to spend 45 minutes practicing math and completing your mission on Khan Academy at home.

In order to receive full points, your parents must see your grade, sign this sheet and you can turn it back in for full credit. If you missed three days, you need to fill out three sheets. This means you will need to do three SEPARATE 45 minute sessions on Khan Academy.

Parent Signature X________________________________________

Student Signature X_______________________________________ 


If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me via email or phone! 

-Ms. G

NWEA/MAP testing starts in May!

Your children will start the Spring portion of the NWEA/MAP testing beginning in May.

The first and second graders will  begin the week of 5/2, while the 2-8th graders will complete testing the weeks of 5/9-5/13 and 5/16-5/20.

Grades 2-8 will complete a Language, Math, and Reading test.

Grades K-1 will complete a Math and Reading test.

I encourage all students to be practicing for these tests using www.KhanAcademy.com. This website provides true grade level content so you can help your student re-learn material that was not taught, retained/forgotten, or that they need a little extra help on.

These problems walk the student through with hints, and if they still can't get the correct answer/process this website gives them a variety of tools for the student to learn the content. There are videos, notes, and much more!














Grades 4-8 already have accounts through either my teaching portal (4-6) or through their Bethlehem email account.

Good Luck to all of our Bethlehem Students on the MAP tests!!!!

-Ms. G

2-5th grade homework announcement!

The second through fifth grade will be starting their presentations for the class next Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday!!

It took us a little longer than expected to finish researching, typing, and formatting our animal research projects. The students have a typed copy of their finished reports that they will be presenting.

These projects have been researched, typed, and formatted completely by your child!!

For homework between now and Tuesday, students need to practice their presentation. I encouraged them to practice in front of the mirror, siblings, parents/guardians, family pets etc.!

Very proud of them, way to go!!

Khan Academy

Happy Tuesday!

6-8th grade students will begin and continue to work through Khan Academy. If you are not familiar with this educational website, I highly recommend you ask your children to log into their accounts using gmail, and show you around!

This website is geared toward state standards in every core subject, as well as elective classes. Your child can click the grade they are on and work toward their mission of completing grade level questions and standards.

This program offers hints if they get stuck, and even videos with mini lessons to virtually walk them through the problem if they have not learned the material, or did not retain the information previously.

The website is, www.khanacademy.org


:)

-Ms. G

2nd/3rd- Saving and inserting images into word documents!

Happy Wednesday!!!!!

The animal research projects are coming along very well!!

The 2nd/3rd grade class has learned a lot about formatting and researching the past few weeks!! As of today, they have all successfully typed (using accurate hand placement) their entire research project. We have been working hard the last week to learn how to save images from a search engine (Kiddle) and insert them into our word document.

Today they took a quiz and they all did very well on it! They had to open the internet browser, use the address bar to navigate to www.kiddle.co, use the search bar to find their favorite food, save images of their favorite foods, and write me a 3 sentence description of why they chose that food as well as insert the images they saved.

We had a 100% success rate on this quiz and it was very cool to see the progress they have made!

If you get a few free minutes, I would encourage you to ask your child to show you how to search for something using a search engine and save pictures, they can even show you how to insert them into their document!

They have come a long way with formatting, and navigating through the computer systems this year!

Great Job 2nd/3rd grade :)

6th grade google applications/email update

Hi 6th grade parents!!!

I just wanted to update you on the email and google application progress in 6th grade. So far, a good majority of the class has struggled with retaining the core foundations for moving forward with these assignments.

We have been working with google email/applications for close to a month, and we spend roughly 20 minutes at the beginning of every class passing out username and log in information. This only leaves us with a limited amount of time to conduct activities and they are not being done thoroughly enough for the students to retain the information.

I am going to hold off on moving forward and overwhelming them with more activities, and focus on going back and practicing logging in and logging out of both the computer with usernames and passwords, as well as the gmail email accounts. We can move forward when a majority of the class is proficiently able to log in and compose an email and access their google drive account.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or call my cell phone and I'd be happy to clear any questions or concerns you have up!

Thank you,

Ms. Gerardi

Grades 2-5 animal research projects

I am very excited to have started our research projects in grades 2-5. This project has been differentiated for each grade level (2-3/ 4-5) so the standards are being met in each grade.

All of the students are conducting research using the San Diego Zoo website. They have each chosen their own individual animal, and are learning to conduct credible research using sites that have credible sources.

For the younger grades, the websites were given to them for all of the necessary information on the research project.

For the upper grades, the base website was also given, but a few in depth questions that were not provided on the San Diego Zoo website were also asked of them.

For these questions, the students are learning to conduct research using the search engine Kiddle. This allows them to type in the questions and sort through credible websites to find the necessary answers.

This research project is a class based project, and they will have little to no work to do for this at home. I like being able to observe and help the students as we move along in this process :).

They are all doing a very good job with this, and I am impressed with the amount of growth they are displaying in Educational Technology!

If you have any questions regarding the research project, please feel free to contact me at any time!

-Ms. Gerardi

Student feedback

Hi parents!

I just wanted to take a second to touch base in regards to student feedback.

For grades 6-8, we complete assignments weekly using their gmail account. I share items onto their google drive, and after they complete them they share it back to me for grading and comments.

I share these documents back to them via email and google drive for them to view their grade and comments.

You can access this through their school email account that was created!

Grades K-1 have been receiving feedback weekly through daily formative checks on their work.
Sight word bingo, Spelling practice, Keyboarding practice all produce a grade at the end of the task. I review the grade with the student, positively affirm the correct work, and discuss what was incorrect and how we can make a plan to fix it!

Grades 2-5 have a similar system for feedback but they receive feedback on keyboarding/typing tests, research projects (written comments on research papers that we are still working on) as well as verbal affirmation and checking for understanding via formative assessment.

After grades 2-5 finish their research projects they will have a bundle of graded material with feedback returning home!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me:
Kgerardi@bethlehemsaginaw.org
or contact me by phone at:
619-204-5691

Thank you :)

Ms. Gerardi

Introduction

Introduction

Howdy all!!!!

For those of you who I haven't met yet, my name is Katelyn (Katie) Gerardi. This is my third year teaching, first year at Bethlehem! I have taught Middle School ELA/Reading and Writing and all subjects in 5th grade (Social Studies, Science, Math, ELA). I love teaching, but am especially blessed to be working with such an amazing group of students. Your children have been lights in my life, and have helped me in my ever growing journey in Christ.

I graduated from Central Michigan University with my Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education with a concentrated minor in Language Arts.  I am currently in graduate school, also at Central Michigan University, working toward obtaining my Master's Degree in Educational Technology.

I was born in South Bend, Indiana (GO IRISH!) and was raised in San Diego, California. I moved to Michigan in the Fall of 2008 to pursue my teaching degree.

I have a handsome, loving, caring 5 year old son who recently transitioned to the Kindergarten class at Bethlehem. I can honestly say, that was the best decision as a parent I have probably ever made for him! We are enjoying growing and learning with our new family at Bethlehem!

Technology news!

 

Kindergarten has been working with site words! They are playing bingo, organizing in ABC order, and also working with graphing. This is all done on the computer, so while they are getting the foundation skills for reading and math skills, they are also practicing motor movement with using the mouse and the keyboard!

First grade has been working on spelling words, abc order, and keyboarding! They are also practicing motor skills and navigating the mouse and keyboard.

Second and third grade have been really practicing hard on the keyboard. They are playing different keyboarding games, and practicing the proper hand placement while using the keyboard. They have also started practicing how to use shortcuts (Copy and Paste) with their keyboards.

Fourth and Fifth grade have moved into internet research and credible sources. While they have also been practicing keyboarding, they are focusing now on research using the internet. They will move into Powerpoint slideshow presentations to present their research when it is complete!

6-8th grade is working on utilizing google applications through their school google email that we created! This is helpful for them to use collaboratively with other students, and staff in our building! They have been practicing typing and also formatting documents using Google Docs.