Dear Tucson Country Day School families,
I am excited to explore 6th/7th grade science with you/your student this year at TCDS. I love science and love the fact that my job allows me to share my excitement and passion with others. This is my first year at TCDS, previously I taught the science lab for grades 1-6 at Agua Caliente Elementary School and before that I taught chemistry at Pima Community College. You can read more about me and my background on the "Mrs. Young" page of this website.
My science colleague, Mrs. Lara Huetter, and I have a fantastic year mapped out for our 6th/7th/8th graders. We have been working hard this summer to develop units that incorporate "big idea questions" and key concepts that will form the basis for many thoughtful discussions and experiments, as well as the foundation of the thesis to be written for each unit. We aim to provide students with a challenging curriculum that incorporates 21st century skills, such as: solving difficult, multi-disciplinary problems; persistence in learning and creating; and a self-awareness of learning styles and habits (metacognition). Students need to be able to tackle difficult, real-world problems that do not have a single, correct answer - one of our primary goals is to help them navigate these types of problems successfully.
You may have notices a few changes to the way things operate already this year. One of the biggest changes is the move to standards-based grading. Some of you may have experienced this format last year in elementary, this will be the first year of adopting standards-based assessment school-wide, including middle school. This change is an effort to give students, parents and teachers a better idea of where students excel and where they may need more assistance. Each subject will be divided into objectives/goals to be met throughout the course of the year, and students will obtain a score from 0-4 based on their level of proficiency related to each objective/goal. This type of grading system is definitely a shift in mindset from the standard letter grades; at first, it may seem like an overwhelming amount of information, but it is also a much more powerful, detailed tool for understanding how your student is performing in every aspect of their schooling. This year as teachers we will be working to implementation this assessment system, we will be looking for your feedback as a parent/guardian to help us modify as we progress in order to create an optimal system that is meaningful to everyone involved. Stay tuned for more information, in the mean time here is a nice article on Seven Reasons for Standards-Based Grading.
One other change is our move towards using more online tools, this is an effort to be more efficient and use less resources! The Parent and Student surveys are accessible via the buttons to right or by clicking on the blue words in this sentence - we would like for each student and at least one parent/guardian to complete the forms at the latest by Friday August 19, 2016. Parents/guardians can complete the form together if desired. The other form to complete is the Student Lab Safety Contract, which should be completed by the student together with their parent/guardian. The safety contract should also be completed at the latest by Friday August 19, 2016.
Thank you for reading this welcome letter! I look forward to an exciting and productive year in science!
Sincerely,
Krista Young
I am excited to explore 6th/7th grade science with you/your student this year at TCDS. I love science and love the fact that my job allows me to share my excitement and passion with others. This is my first year at TCDS, previously I taught the science lab for grades 1-6 at Agua Caliente Elementary School and before that I taught chemistry at Pima Community College. You can read more about me and my background on the "Mrs. Young" page of this website.
My science colleague, Mrs. Lara Huetter, and I have a fantastic year mapped out for our 6th/7th/8th graders. We have been working hard this summer to develop units that incorporate "big idea questions" and key concepts that will form the basis for many thoughtful discussions and experiments, as well as the foundation of the thesis to be written for each unit. We aim to provide students with a challenging curriculum that incorporates 21st century skills, such as: solving difficult, multi-disciplinary problems; persistence in learning and creating; and a self-awareness of learning styles and habits (metacognition). Students need to be able to tackle difficult, real-world problems that do not have a single, correct answer - one of our primary goals is to help them navigate these types of problems successfully.
You may have notices a few changes to the way things operate already this year. One of the biggest changes is the move to standards-based grading. Some of you may have experienced this format last year in elementary, this will be the first year of adopting standards-based assessment school-wide, including middle school. This change is an effort to give students, parents and teachers a better idea of where students excel and where they may need more assistance. Each subject will be divided into objectives/goals to be met throughout the course of the year, and students will obtain a score from 0-4 based on their level of proficiency related to each objective/goal. This type of grading system is definitely a shift in mindset from the standard letter grades; at first, it may seem like an overwhelming amount of information, but it is also a much more powerful, detailed tool for understanding how your student is performing in every aspect of their schooling. This year as teachers we will be working to implementation this assessment system, we will be looking for your feedback as a parent/guardian to help us modify as we progress in order to create an optimal system that is meaningful to everyone involved. Stay tuned for more information, in the mean time here is a nice article on Seven Reasons for Standards-Based Grading.
One other change is our move towards using more online tools, this is an effort to be more efficient and use less resources! The Parent and Student surveys are accessible via the buttons to right or by clicking on the blue words in this sentence - we would like for each student and at least one parent/guardian to complete the forms at the latest by Friday August 19, 2016. Parents/guardians can complete the form together if desired. The other form to complete is the Student Lab Safety Contract, which should be completed by the student together with their parent/guardian. The safety contract should also be completed at the latest by Friday August 19, 2016.
Thank you for reading this welcome letter! I look forward to an exciting and productive year in science!
Sincerely,
Krista Young