Tag, I’m it! You’re off summer duty, and I’ve got your kids -- at least for one period a day. ; ) I want you to feel confident about your student’s History class and reassured that we’re all on the same team.
To keep an eye on grades, a weekly check-in with Power School is a great place to start the conversation with your student. (Scored work is given to the students to keep for reference, and thus, they should be able to produce for you any work for which there is a score in Power School so that you can look at it together.)
Daily lesson instructions and materials can be found in the stream of your student’s Google Classroom.
At the start of this year, right now, please:
Read through the “Grading and Getting Help” page for helpful explanations and examples about how this course works and why. Let me first set the paradigm, however, by creating this small shift regarding grades; most students start in the “B” or “C” range and then work their way up from there as the semester progresses, because they repeat and replace old scores with better ones as they hone their history skills. Please ask your student if they feel they know how to improve and get help, and if they seem unsure, reinforce my invitation for them to see me for individualized help. The “Grading and Getting Help” page will clarify this! ; )
(Accounting note: I use zeros as placeholders in Power School for make-up and late work, as I find it increases student completion of the work and also reduces my clerical errors. That online system is simply an accounting tool, and so, if it says “58%,” for example, but I know it’s only because Sally Student was ill for five days and has been back to school for only two, then I certainly won’t report her as ineligible to the activities’ director.)
Here’s to a great year! Please be in touch.
Warmly,
Sherry (Cluver)
WCHS History & Social Science
Parent/Guardian Permission -- A/V Materials
Mrs. Cluver
Audio-visual materials will be used in the History classes, including short clips from DVDs, entire episodes of select films/shows, and items from the internet. Some items are used to demonstrate key points in our lessons, while others are used as material for critique and evaluation.
Some footage may, on occasion, be from R-rated films. (Just a couple of examples include: an excerpt from the movie Amistad that depicts accurately the graphic Middle Passage of enslaved Africans, select scenes from 12 Years a Slave that are equally intense, and the soundtrack from Broadway’s Hamilton uses some derogatory Revolution Era language to describe a child of an unwed mother and some salty references in depicting the behavior of some of the figures.) Anything of the “R-rated” nature is used for deliberate historical depiction and/or analysis, and not for gratuitous shock value.
Additionally, there are excellent PG-13 and PG materials that still contain a bit of language or humorous references that the creators included not to much detriment, but aren’t necessarily things I would say, myself, in the classroom. (Just a few examples -- there is some foul language in a scene in the film Lincoln and an occasional edgy joke in the “Crash Course in History” videos.)
_____ Yes, I give permission for my student to watch all AV materials in Mrs. Cluver’s classes.
_____ No. I’d rather discuss my preferences for what my student views with Mrs. Cluver. I may wish for my student to work independently in the library or office to complete an alternative assignment. I will contact her within this first week of school so we can plan together accordingly. (See contact information below.)
_____________________________
STUDENT name PRINTED, please.
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PARENT/GUARDIAN Signature
Please, feel very free to call or email if you wish to talk about these or other course materials.
432-2486 (WCHS)
