18 December 2008

Dear Parents:

May God bless you and your family with a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

We’ve come almost to the end of the first semester!  I was complimenting the students just this morning on their much improved work habits: I collected three assignments this morning and had almost 100% of the assignments turned in!  I look forward to seeing continued growth after the New Year.

Second nine weeks ends on Friday also; report cards will come out after the New Year.  I have asked students to leave their binders here tonight so I can grade them one last time before the quarter ends; they should take them home over the holiday and thoroughly clean them out.  Most things in the binder can stay home; they should only bring back paper, the dividers, and things like the syllabus and copied prayers.

A list of missing work is attached to this note; it can be turned in the day we return in January.  If your child has no missing work, a note stating that is attached instead.  There won’t be any homework over the Christmas break, but student may do make-up or extra-credit work over the break if they wish.

In my experience, some parents have wanted homework assigned over Christmas break, while others have not.  My compromise on this is the one stated above: not to assign any required homework, but to allow make-up and extra-credit work to be completed and turned in after the break.  Extra credit is available in every subject, according to the list below.

                Religion:  Any unfinished pages in the workbook up to p. 44

                Reading:  Any unfinished pages in the workbook up to p. 113 (the “Writing to Explain” and “Writing to Explore” pages particularly)

                English:  Any of the exercises on the following pages in Voyages in English:  92-95, 102-115

                Math: Any of the “Supplemental Practice” sets from p. 458-463

                Social Studies:  A research project (long or short) on one or more Greek myths

                Science: A research project or experiment (long or short) on plants

                Latin (gr. 4): A research project (long or short) on one or more Greek myths; the same project cannot be counted for both Latin and Social Studies

                Latin (gr. 6): Any unfinished workbook page up to p. 43; translations of stories on p. 28, 61, 80, and/or 95

                Spelling: any writing assignments listed on p. 93, 99, or 105 of the “experimental” spelling worksheets

                Handwriting: Copying out (in cursive) one or both of the poems on p. 118 and 242 of Voyages in English

                Phonics:  any of the pages after p. 150 in the Word Study book

Of course I do not expect any student to do all of this; in fact, I expect many families will choose to do none of it.  It is simply offered as an option.  Points are awarded for all extra credit work turned in; more points are awarded for more work, more careful work, and more difficult work.  Extra credit can raise a student’s grade up to (but not further than) one letter grade, depending on its quantity and quality.

Please sign and return the bottom portion of this note to school with your child.   Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.  You can email me at tmain@holyrosaryacademy.net, call me at 907-360-2590, or send a written note with your child.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Tim Main