Welcome to Team Mesa Verde

September 18: Back to School Night

September 21: 7th Grade Family Lunchtime BBQ

September 26: Picture Day

Hello Families,

Thank you for ensuring your scholars come to school prepared with their daily math notebooks, pencils, and highlighters for those who like to annotate our word problems with color. Last week, we began our curriculum work for Math 7 and Math 8.

Next week, we will start the I-Ready diagnostic assessment to determine each student’s math level. Any consideration for movement to a higher math course will be based on students’ I-Ready scores and levels.

We will be assessing students from Monday to Wednesday, and I will ensure that both students and parents receive their respective scores.

For the upcoming week, students will only need to complete their weekly homework on the PEAR application through Clever. Starting the week of 9/16, I will expect all students to pass a weekly I-Ready lesson.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

This week students wrote and ran their own experiments on beetle larvae. Today they will analyze their data and create posters in order to present their work tomorrow.

Next week students will learn to use microscopes. I will be making slides for a "Who ate the homework?" lab where they look at dog fur under a microscope. If anyone wants their dog to be a suspect, please email me a picture of the dog, the dog's name, and send in a small Ziploc bag with some of its fur either tomorrow or next Monday.

Students currently have seven grades in Aspen. Please encourage your children to check for themselves once a week to ensure that everything has been submitted. The "no-name" section on my board has several assignments waiting to be claimed.

Hello! We spent this week completing a writing diagnostic. The purpose of the diagnostic is to assess your student's current writing skills and identify where support is needed. The students were given blurbs about four candidates and prompted to choose a new leader for society. The students demonstrated their reading, annotating, and writing skills.

Next Week:

Monday: Unit Launch

Tuesday: Native Americans Overview

Wednesday: Native American Tribes

Thursday: European Exploration (Motivations)

Friday: European Exploration (Interactions)

This week students learned about how authors use direct and indirect characterization by reading and analyzing the short story "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto. Students also demonstrated their reading and writing skills through our beginning-of-year diagnostic. Next week we will dive into figurative language, visit the library for the first time this year, and start ELA MAP growth testing.

I will be asking all students to be responsible with their books this year and return them in a timely manner. We do not charge fines for lost books, but I do ask students to donate a replacement book if one is lost and if they are able. Students should always come to me to let me know when a book is lost or damaged so that I can update the system and remove it from their record. If a student leaves Deal with overdue books on their account, they will be asked to pay for them before they graduate high school so it is always a good idea to let me know so that we can prevent additional expenses to families.

I will be sending overdue notices out once a month. These notices do not include the titles of the books as we want to protect the students' privacy. Students and families can login to their account in Follett Destiny (Can be found in Clever) to see more specific information about the books that they have out. Families can also reach out to me with any questions or concerns.

Our library book orders are going to be sent out at the end of October. I am asking students to send me any book recommendations that they would like to see in our library. Students and families can make book recommendations at the link below:

https://bit.ly/DealMSLibraryRecommend

In addition, families can refer to our library's website (aka LibGuide) for more information and links related to the library, reading, newsletters, research, and more at the link below:

https://bit.ly/DealMSLibGuide

Retakes and Grading:

· Any assignment that earned a D+ or below may be retaken once within the progress report marking period. The highest possible grade on a revised assignment is a C (76).

· All late work for assignments due before progress reports must be submitted by the end of the progress report marking period. Assignments due before this period will not be accepted after this deadline. All late work for assignments assigned after the end of the progress report marking period is due by the end of the term. The grade for a late assignment will be reduced by one letter grade (i.e. A- to B-).

https://www.canva.com/brand/join?token=7_Foe8Wodk-P9p3xX6bVWw&brandingVariant=edu&referrer=team-invite

¡Hola!

My name is Sra. Cuffee. I am extremely excited to be one of the two 7th and 8th grade Spanish I teachers this school year! The Spanish I course is a high school credit course, and students will build upon their knowledge from last year's Beginning Spanish course.

This school year is my seventeenth year teaching; the last twelve have been at Alice Deal. I am also the group leader/organizer for the 8th grade word language trip to Costa Rica. It is always so amazing to connect with former, (and now possibly current), scholars outside of the classroom in an international setting.

I am genuinely looking forward to seeing, meeting, teaching, and growing with each of you this school year! It WILL be the best one yet!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at Britney.Cuffee@k12.dc.gov

Here's the link to my canvas page for more information:

https://dcps.instructure.com/courses/383098

Hola!

My name is Profe. Donaldson, and I am excited to be one of the two 7th and 8th grade Spanish I teachers this year! The Spanish I course is a high school credit course, and students will build upon their knowledge from the Beginning Spanish course.

Todo Sobre Mi:

I have been teaching Spanish for over a decade, and I have been teaching at Alice Deal Middle School for most of that time. I'm also an adjunct professor of Spanish at the University of the District of Columbia Community College where I have been teaching for almost a decade as well. I enjoy traveling and practicing other languages. I also enjoy seeing my former students’ language growth when I attend the 8th-grade trip to Costa Rica.

I look forward to a great year ahead, and please feel free to reach out to me at Michael.Donaldson@k12.dc.gov if you have any questions or concerns.

Here's the link to my canvas page for more information:

https://dcps.instructure.com/courses/383103

Hi! I'm Patricia Balestra, and I'm excited to be teaching 7th grade French here at Deal for the third year in a row! I also teach 6th grade Spanish Humanities. I have been a French and Spanish teacher since 2001 (!!). I first started at Deal as a substitute in Spring of 2022 and then began teaching here full time in the Fall of 2022. Outside of work, I love being out in nature, spending time with my family, cooking, biking, swimming, and playing the recorder with early music groups! I also love talking about all things language!