Mrs. Siriani's Classroom Connection

My class for Social Studies (Room 23) has been assigned a project about various aspects of life in Greece. This project has been outlined on paper and discussed in class. The presentation may be a movie, power point or oral presentation with posters. I have no preference and they will be graded on the quality of the work - NOT the format. The movie format is an option that was added as the result of a request from the students. I do not have a video camera. It is not required. I told the students that they will have time to work on the project in class, during Library and during Computers. I always give students time to work on group projects at school as I know from experience that it is sometimes difficult for the students to get together outside of school. If it is easier to have your child's group do a power point or posters, the students have access to my classroom computer besides the library computer and computer lab. They can make posters at school. This is supposed to be a project for the students not the parents. The project for Room 23 is due on March 12.

We have just started a unit on Ancient Greece. We are doing the activities associated with the book first. The unit will then be expanded to include additional research and activities. Time will be allowed for some of this in class. The rest of it will be done at home or if it is a group activity the group may need to get together outside of school. Please e-mail me if you have any questions or problems regarding the unit.

The easiest way to contact me is through my St. Linus e-mail address. It is rare that I am unable to get through to check my e-mail which I do twice daily. When you log onto engrade and choose to e-mail me through its option, I get an e-mail in my school mailbox telling me that I have a message. Unfortunately, as has happened tonight, I am sometimes unable to log onto engrade. This is probably because of the high volume that they are experiencing as the result of the end of the semester across the country. If you want to contact me, please e-mail me at msiriani@stlinusschool.org. I will then be able to answer you more quickly.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope your holidays were as enjoyable as mine.
I have recieved several email inquiries about missing assignments. The only way that I can keep track of missing assignments is to put an "M" as the grade. This negatively affects the grade, so it is done as a last resort after requests to the classes and individual students are made. A number of students are missing one or more assignments. I gave all of the students copies of the missing assignments today. They are due on Wednesday. As I get them corrected, I will put them on engrade. The semester ends on Friday, January 15th.
I am looking forward to a wonderful second half of the year.

Engrade is being updated on an almost daily basis. If you see an "M" it means that an assignment is missing, usually something that wasn't completed in class and then not turned in the next day. Putting the "M" there helps me to keep track of those assignments. I print missing reports and then give them to the children. If you see an "M" there for a few days, I may already have the assignment but haven't entered it. If I have a problem collecting an assignment, I will send a note home.

This has been a very busy week for both the children and me. We are now settling into our routine. There have been some exciting additions to our curriculum. Both the Social Studies books and the Grammar books are online now, in addition to the Vocab book which has been online for a year or more.

To access the Vocab book:http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/vocabulary/

To access the Social Studies book: Room 23 only
http://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com

To access the Grammar book:
http://www.glencoe.com

Sixth grade access code: B6D224D684
Seventh grade access code: E672B3F98A
Eighth grade access code: A8EED79015

The Glencoe site is not as user friendly as the rest and I will send home instructions on how to get to the book and ask Mrs. Rosellini to take the students there during computers so that the students will be able to do it.

We have also added another website for Vocabulary practice. It is called Spelling City and can be accessed at:
www.spellingcity.com

I will be entering the vocabulary units and the students can play games with the words.

I am looking forward to a really good year. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to e-mail me at: msiriani@stlinusschool.org