September 20
Team Notes:
Congratulations to our own Ms. Totzke on her wedding this weekend! We're happy to welcome back the new Mrs. Brian on Monday.
Next week is Homecoming week! Spirit days are:
Monday: PJ Day
Tuesday: Neon Day
Wednesday: 70s/80s Day
Thursday: Tie Dye Day
Friday: Orange/Black Day
Dress code still applies on all days.
Friday, students are dismissed early to walk to the parade. All staff walk downtown and remain throughout the parade. After the parade, students who need the bus return to school. Others go home with parents or walk home. Go PANTHERS!
A big thank you to everyone who returned signed information sheets (7-O expectations) and t-shirt orders. We appreciate your help in getting those things back to school. The payment for t-shirts will come as part of the Urban Challenge permission slip in early October.
Speaking of Urban Challenge, more information will be forthcoming shortly. We are going to be moving to the date to later in October and hope to have plans finalized within the next week. We will be looking for volunteers who are available to chaperone on the day and hopefully, be with us the day after to help small groups discuss and process their team building efforts. We will keep you posted!
We are now entering week four of school and students have settled into a nice routine. We are really excited about this group of sharks and thank you for your encouragement from home. We would suggest that you begin making a weekly or maybe daily check of Infinite Campus to monitor your student's progress. Teachers are working hard to keep it updated so as to give you the best and most timely information possible.
During our back to school in-service, teachers learned a bit about the adolescent brain and how it works from our school psychologist. This week, during connections, we did an activity to start to teach students a bit about how their brains are different from those of adults. There is a great PBS Frontline special about this topic. You may want to check it out! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/ It helps explain why students act as if they are invincible and how the hormonal changes affect the brain, creating moodiness. Happy learning!
English (Totzke): It's been a great week in English! This week we read "The Fun They Had," a short story by Isaac Asimov, and we had some good discussions about what school "should" be like. Thursday and Friday of this week, we also completed the reading MAP test, which will give us some really good information about ourselves. This next week, we will complete Unit 2 of our vocabulary, and we'll work on analyzing another short story. You can find more information about the week and the vocabulary words on my Google site by clicking here. Happy Reading!
English (Rigell): https://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/oms-enriched-english/home/homework
FACE: We are finishing up our Bullying unit with our Bullying Project. The students were able to choose between making a Bullying Brochure or Story Book. We are having work days in class and presenting on Monday. I am very excited to see what the kids come up with. Next week we will be starting our family unit.
Geography (Stoller): We dove head first into the shark tank this week and began our first full unit, The Five Themes of Geography. Students began taking a closer look at each of the themes, practicing a bit about each one as we went along. Ask your student what the themes are and how to describe them! Next week, we will have the opportunity for students to showcase what they have learned either by creating a children's book or doing something else to demonstrate what they know.
Geography (Howe): We've really picked up the pace during the third week of the year. The class has trail blazed through the 5 Themes of Geography, one of the central themes to the curriculum. The themes include Location, Place, Human Environmental Interaction, Movement, and Region. The kids just started planning their final project for the 5 Themes. The summative assessment for this section is to create a children's book that would teach students at the elementary level about the 5 Themes. We'll be working on this in class next week, with a due date of Sep. 30. I've uploaded the document to my web page (https://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/mr-howe-s-classroom-site/geography-home). Have a great weekend!
Math (Stauss): In math class this week, students took a test on polygons and angles on Tuesday. Since then we have started the next unit and have already learned how to use positive and negative numbers in real-life problems as well as how to compare them using a number line. Next Monday students will have Map testing during math class. For the rest of the week we will focus on continuing to use a number line as we learn how to add and subtract integers. On Friday students will take a quiz on everything they have learned up to that point.
Math (Krueger): See separate IC email and blog post
Science (van Steenderen): The science activities this week focused on what is involved in the three areas of doing science and the differences between observations and inferences. Tuesday for the first time the students took the science MAPS test. Some of the questions covered material they have not been taught and/or were written at a higher level. The students did a wonderful job of staying focused and working to give a clear picture of where they are academically at the moment. I know it was difficult for them to keep trying when they felt overwhelmed by the material. Great job, 7-0 Sharks!! 
The first quiz of the year was given on Friday. Hope you all saw them preparing for it!
Science (Howe): Week 3- We've spent the majority of the week continuing to investigate the differences between inferences and observations. We did a really cool candle demo (ask the kids) and reviewed what Science is, what it isn't and took a look at the Ig Nobel Awards(http://www.improbable.com/ig/). We finished the week reviewing the major themes from the first two and half weeks, and are having our first mini quiz today (retakes available).
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Andrew Dolejs (Special Education) - acdolejs@oregonsd.net
Kelly (Eickert) Manzeck (Special Education) – kjmanzeck@oregonsd.net
Alex Howe (Geo and Science) - abhowe@oregonsd.net
Bryan Krueger (Math) - bmkrueger@oregonsd.net
Katie Stauss (Math) – kmstauss@oregonsd.net
Amanda Rigell (English) - akrigell@oregonsd.net
Jeri Shumaker (Tech Tools) - jsh@oregonsd.net
Laura Stoller (Geography) – lms3@oregonsd.net
Caitlyn Duffy (FACE) - cmduffy@oregonsd.net
Tiffany Totzke (English) - tntotzke@oregonsd.net
Debe VanStenderen (Science) – ddv@oregonsd.net
Team Blog: http://oms7-osharks.blogspot.com/
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