WELCOME!
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Welcome to Back to School Night
September 8, 2015
7th grade Science, Karen Green, Room 204
There are 2 handouts per household tonight, entitled How to Survive
Middle School & Homework due dates. If you did NOT get the
Parent Packet of info I sent home on 8/28 and 8/31, please ask your
7th grader for it. ( This is posted on my website as well and I’m trying
to save paper.)
No Sign In sheets. Please email me that you attended tonight.
If you contact me about your student, I will first ask you if you have
seen your student’s Agenda and their Binder. Thanks for checking
on those two items prior to contacting me. 
The 7th grade student is the first order of communication between
school and home. Their MMS Agenda should be something you can
ask to see if they say they have no homework. Website is a helpful
tool but the AGENDA is used daily.
Items of concern: Organization, due dates, Agendas, Organization,
grades, scissors/stapler, hole punch at home, Organization, ask to
see Agendas and binders, Organization, personal pencil sharpener.
Cell Phones Silenced Please
• PLEASE SILENCE CELL PHONES,
or any other electronic devices.
Kindly step out into the hallway if you
need to take a call.
• Thanks.
Mantra for the year:
“What you do every day
matters more than
what you do once in a while.”
Gretchen Rubin, _The Happiness
Project_
All About Me
• This is my 28th year to teach adolescents. You hardly
notice the twitch at all any more.(prefontal lobotomy as
well) 
• Graduated from SWTSU with Bachelor of Science in
Education and Physical Education. I am certified to
teach Health & High School Biology as well.
• There’s a short bio on my website if you’d like to read it.
• I love all the support and generosity from parents---and
students----at MMS!(That’s why I keep coming back and
this is my 22nd year at MMS. )
• Speaking of support, I am in need of some Bounty
Paper Towels and some Kleenex tissues for my
classroom.
What we have done so far…
• Observe and Infer(Ms. Green eating the candle)
• Problem Solving: Popsicle sticks, index card,brain
teasers… Not sure what these are? Please ask
your 7th grader.
• Green’s Procedures/Rules/Routines , Organizational
Skills, Teen Brain Info
• Current Event Directions, C.E. Sample, Due Dates
for the entire year. Students have these CE due
dates and have been instructed to post them in their
Agendas, also on my website; Science Connections
• Lab Safety Review; Balancing Nails Activity
• Lab Safety Agreements; Scientific Method steps;
Inquiry Lab, TEKS review
Science Textbooks
• Good news: NEW TEXTBOOKS! (Finally)
• Bad News: No class set of books with this adoption.
• Students can write in their books and highlight as well. We will be
giving instructions soon about which pages of the book to tear out
and put in their binders. They can keep their books at home and
just bring the necessary pages they’re instructed to bring every few
weeks.
• They do not have to return their textbooks at the end of the year.
• TUTORIALS: Usually Tues/Thur, 3:30 to 4. Students need to ask
me ahead of time to be sure I don’t have an after school meeting if
they plan to stay for tutorials. There’s a post on my website about
Tutorials as well and I’ve gone over this with students in class.
Tutorials will likely not start until the week of September 14th.
Projects
• Science Fair Projects are only required in
the Advanced Science classes. (If you are
in 2nd or 8th period, this would be your
student.) SFPs Will be assigned soon.
• Due date is December 7th and 8thth. Work
on this project will be primarily
individualized, with very little class time
spent on it.
• All paperwork for the SFP is online this
year.
7th grade Science Curriculum,
Grading Policy, Agenda & Website
• Curriculum is posted on my website and a printed copy
was sent home with the syllabus.
• Grades will be entered at least once a week and if your
7th grader turns in work past a due date, it may be
several days or a week before I can get it entered in the
online grade book.
• Grading Policy for 7th grade Science:15% homework,
85%daily/labs/projects/quiz/tests.
• Your 7th grader and the MMS Agenda are the main
modes of communication between school and home.
• Online grade book can be checked by students.
• Please let your 7th grader get their graded work back
before you ask them about the grade. Thanks.
Homework and Communication
with me
• YES! There is homework almost every night. Your 7th
grader may say “Nah, we don’t have any homework in
Science.” In their brain, that means, “We don’t have any
homework in Science due tomorrow.” There should be a
homework folder or divider in students’ Binders. This
one Binder is for ALL their classes this year.
• Reading & doing the Cornell Notes, studying for a test,
working on a long-term/ongoing project, and Current
Events all count as homework.(just a few examples)
• Email communication is best to get in touch with me. I
will make every effort to get an email or phone call
returned to you within 24-48 hours of when you contact
me.
• Traffic Light Tri-Folder Idea for work to be turned in.
(Explained to students and is on my website.)
Students communicating with
me 
• I have already asked students to email me
whenever possible, when they have
concerns about their academics, so that
they will get used to being their own best
self-advocate! NOW is the time, not later.
• Examples: asking about a grade posted in
online grade book, asking about an
assignment posted on my website,
clarification on an assignment when they
were absent.
Suggested Reading for Parents of
Adolescents
• Suggested Reading List for parents of teens is
posted on my website. My two most recent
favorites are _The Teenage Brain_ and _How to
Raise an Adult_
• A piece published in Austin Family Magazine,
How to Survive Middle School,by Melissa
Cooper, one of our very own MMS Language
Arts teachers, is posted on my website and you
have a copy to take home as well. GREAT
READING!
• _How children succeed: Grit, Curiosity &
the hidden power of Character_ by
Literacy across all subject areas
This is our third year to have
Science Connections in 7th grade,
which is an effort to connect books to
Science and increase the number of
our readers on campus.
(Your student has info on Science Connections in their binder and it is
on my website as well.  )
Some things to remember as a
parent of an adolescent…
• You’ll need a sense of humor and a coat of
armor, most likely, in that order.
• Don’t take it personally. (whatever it is)
• WE ARE THE ADULTS! (remember that)
• The definition of an adolescent is someone who
cries like a baby if you don’t treat them like an
adult.
• Reasoning with an adolescent is kind of like
mud-wrestling with a pig….you both get dirty and
the PIG LIKES IT!
Sent Home Already for parents to
have for information purposes…
• Green sheet with my welcome note and
website address went home on the first
day of school.
• Lab Safety Agreement(to be read, signed
and returned) went home on 8/26, 8/27.
• Parent letter & Syllabus to keep at home
and a parent checklist sheet to read and
sign and send to school with your student.
Do you know where your next class
is?
• Good Night and Thanks for coming! I look
forward to a great year with your 7th
grader.
Quote from Paul Tough:
In the Sept. 5, 2012 issue of Time, Paul
Tough writes:
“In the classroom and outside of it,
American parents need to encourage
children to take chances, to challenge
themselves, to risk failure. Paradoxically
enough, giving our kids room to fail may
be one of the best ways we can help them
succeed.”
ADVANCED SCIENCE
CLASSES
• 2nd and 8th periods: ADVANCED Science class
characteristics:
• Condensed curriculum for basic Science information
• Outside reading required
• Depth and complexity of topics
• Rapid pace with notes and expectation of detailed notes
• Self-starters and avid, above-level readers
• Love to problem solve and discuss/debate current
Science topics
• Always inquisitive and ready to learn science
• Loves Science so much that they’d spend a summer in
Science camp, voluntarily
My mantra for 2015-16:
Resilience and Perseverance
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough (which is an absolutely perfect
name, considering the topic!) “outlines the qualities that researchers
suggest divide children who succeed from children who don’t:
curiosity, zest, optimism, gratitude, social intelligence, self-control,
and grit, or a passionate desire to stick with a task until it is
accomplished.”
http://siobhancurious.com/2012/09/03/whats-a-teacher-to-do-paul-toughs-how-children-succeed/
http://siobhancurious.com/2011/09/26/fail-better/
Tough discovered that “a child, from [a stressful] environment, who
is given the tools and confidence to face challenges may develop a
stronger character than a child who faces little adversity. A child
who grows up in poverty but has a nurturing, supportive parent –
one who encourages the child to tackle difficulties, praises success,
and promotes the learning potential inherent in failure – may have
more character tools than a middle-class or wealthy child whose
parents protect him or her from every bump in the road.”
http://siobhancurious.com/2012/09/03/whats-a-teacher-to-do-paul-toughs-how-children-succeed/
http://siobhancurious.com/2011/09/26/fail-better/