Best Practices to Help Your Child be Successful
1. Check Power School Weekly - either get a parent account or even better have your child show you their grades. Trust me, they know how. In the rare instance where they do not, let me know and will be happy to show them in class. I generally grade each assignment being worth 100 points.
Things to look for: Assignments with a zero entered as a score. I cannot speak for other teachers, but I can tell you that for me this means only one thing, the assignment was due and not turned in. If the grade is very low, 5 or 10 out of 100, this means that while the work was submitted on time it was vastly incomplete. You also want to look for low grades that have been indicated as being late.
2. Check their Notebook Weekly - I put holes in any worksheet that I hand out. At the top of each page will be numbers 1-1 means unit one, first assignment. 1-2 means unit one, second assignment and so on. Your child should have their work in their 3 ring notebook, ideally in order. Some well meaning students appear lazy and uncaring, when really the problem is they are unorganized. Penalties for turning in late work are pretty severe. Not doing work or studying for a test is sometimes the result of not being able to find it.
Things to look for: Is all the work there, are there gaps in the numbers. Does it go from 1-1 to 1-4? I will have students turn in work electronically. It is incredibly rare that I have students physically turn in work. Look at the work. Are there just answers written down and no work shown? This in most cases is a problem. Are there problems that are not done?
3. Feel free to verify what your child tells you: I was a kid, you were a kid, we both know that sometimes children tell less than than the truth to parents when they are afraid of getting in trouble. So please know this: I will never think less of you or your child if you email me to verify something you have been told...that you are evenly slightly skeptical about.
4. Get the Canvas Parent App - on this app you should be able to see assignments, and resources that are available to your child on Canvas. Frankly, the other and sometimes better option is that have your child show you their Canvas Account where you can ask them questions about what you see.
Things to look for: Assignments with a zero entered as a score. I cannot speak for other teachers, but I can tell you that for me this means only one thing, the assignment was due and not turned in. If the grade is very low, 5 or 10 out of 100, this means that while the work was submitted on time it was vastly incomplete. You also want to look for low grades that have been indicated as being late.
2. Check their Notebook Weekly - I put holes in any worksheet that I hand out. At the top of each page will be numbers 1-1 means unit one, first assignment. 1-2 means unit one, second assignment and so on. Your child should have their work in their 3 ring notebook, ideally in order. Some well meaning students appear lazy and uncaring, when really the problem is they are unorganized. Penalties for turning in late work are pretty severe. Not doing work or studying for a test is sometimes the result of not being able to find it.
Things to look for: Is all the work there, are there gaps in the numbers. Does it go from 1-1 to 1-4? I will have students turn in work electronically. It is incredibly rare that I have students physically turn in work. Look at the work. Are there just answers written down and no work shown? This in most cases is a problem. Are there problems that are not done?
3. Feel free to verify what your child tells you: I was a kid, you were a kid, we both know that sometimes children tell less than than the truth to parents when they are afraid of getting in trouble. So please know this: I will never think less of you or your child if you email me to verify something you have been told...that you are evenly slightly skeptical about.
4. Get the Canvas Parent App - on this app you should be able to see assignments, and resources that are available to your child on Canvas. Frankly, the other and sometimes better option is that have your child show you their Canvas Account where you can ask them questions about what you see.