The Weekly Update #4

All students requesting a recommendation for high school must complete the following steps:
1. Have a personal conversation with your teacher to request a recommendation.
2. Complete the recommendation request form (linked below by team).
3. Share your teachers' email on the school's application site.
4. Send the teacher an email to let them know you completed the form and thank them for their time.

As Deal teachers receive many recommendation requests, all requests should be submitted at least two weeks prior to the application school's deadline and will be completed in the order they are received. Recommendations are completed at the discretion of the teacher. Students are responsible for maintaining positive relationships with their teacher and meeting high academic expectations.

While completing this form, students are required to submit complete, thoughtful responses that reflect the time and energy they expect from their recommending teacher. Incomplete or insufficient responses may result in the teacher not submitting a recommendation.

Recommendation Request Links:

• Team Havana Recommendation Request Link

• Team Woolloomooloo Recommendation Request Link

• Team Izu Recommendation Request Link

• Team Kendrick Recommendation Request Link

• Off-Team Teacher Recommendation Request Link

If your student needs a recommendation from a teacher not on these form (including 7th grade teachers), please email that teacher directly.

Please note that the deadlines for the teacher components of your applications, such as recommendation letters, are usually different than those for the student. For example, recommendation letters for St. John's are due on January 8th, but student applications were due on December 6th.

Each year teachers on our team come up with a list of items we need for our classroom to make your child's learning experience enjoyable and more dynamic. Linked below you will find our team amazon wish list. If you decide to buy through this portal, items will be sent directly to the school and distributed within 48 hours to teachers. We collectively thank you for your support and any contributions. We currently are in need of red tickets and tissues.

Monday, December 16 - Friday, December 20 8th grade Student Government is hosting a spirit week and food drive as a team competition. In partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank, Student Government will be collecting items each morning as students enter the building. Each donated item will be counted towards the overall team total for the week. Additionally, students participating in the theme of each day will score a point for their team.

Students voted in their history classes to choose the themes for each day. The themes are:

• Monday: Jersey Day

• Tuesday: Twin Day

• Wednesday: Pink Out "on Wednesdays we wear pink"

• Thursday: Dress like a Teacher/Student

• Friday: Pajama Day

Deal has the opportunity to send a limited number of students to the DCPS Career and Technical Education Expo on December 18th. If your student is interested in learning about these options for high school, please contact our wonderful 8th grade counselor, Ms. Travers, at Johnet.Travers@k12.dc.gov. Students who are selected to attend the trip will be notified by Ms. Travers and will be given a permission slip to attend the trip next week.

The Jackson-Reed fall/winter Open House will take place on Thursday, December 12th from 5:30 pm- 7:30 pm. We invite all prospective families to joins us and learn more about what Jackson-Reed has to offer.

We are excited to invite Deal students and families to attend Dunbar High School Open House! This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about our historic school, academic programs, and vibrant community.

Open House Dates:

• Tuesday, December 12th, 2024 | 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
• Thursday, January 25th, 2025 | 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM

It is that time of year again at Deal Middle School for our Annual Winter Sale. This year it comes with a little twist.

Pre-Order Seasonal Items: Purchase Here
Pick up pre-orders on Saturday November 29th & Sunday December 1st! On-site sales will also take place!

On-Site Sales of Seasonal Items: Saturday December 7th & Sunday December 8th.

Join us for our inaugural Student Winter Market!

Discover the incredible talent of our aspiring young entrepreneurs at our festive Winter Market. Our students will be selling unique handmade crafts, artwork, treats, and baked goods, all created by their own hands. Come and support our students and discover one-of-a-kind treasures for the holiday season.

When:

• Saturday, December 7th, 10 AM - 1 PM
• Saturday, December 8th, 10 AM - 1 PM

This week in science, we took a break from our physical science curriculum to focus on the community service project. Students have been researching topics and identifying issues they will address in their projects. Please check my Canvas page for community project resources and support next week.

As part of the process, students will be reaching out to you via email to share their chosen topic, their goals for the project, and any partners they plan to collaborate with. Your engagement and encouragement will be invaluable as they work on this.

Looking ahead, we will resume our physical science lessons next week. Students will:

• Explore the concepts of mass and volume.
• Learn how to measure the mass of solids and liquids using a triple beam balance.
• Review methods for determining the volume of regular (rectangular and cube-shaped) and irregular objects.
• Define and calculate density and apply it to identify unknown substances.

Medical Leave Reminder:
I want to remind you that I will be out on extended medical leave beginning Thursday, December 12, 2024, and will return on February 24, 2024. During this time, I will not be available to answer classroom-related questions until after winter break.

Students will continue receiving high-quality, engaging, self-paced lessons, complete with helpful resources and reasonable due dates. They are expected to complete all assignments and assessments on time and will receive feedback from me on their work. It is their responsibility to review my feedback carefully and communicate with me to schedule a chat if they need clarification on a topic.

I plan to hold office hours once I have recovered from the initial phase of my medical leave. A message with details about office hours and how to schedule time with me will be sent out after winter break.

Thank you for your understanding and support during this time. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out before December 12, 2024.

We had an awesome time on the field trip this past week. Students did great as they became spies and exploring our nations history with espionage! Thank you again for all parent chaperones who attended the trip with us, we could not have done it without you!

Last week we began our third unit, The Constitution! Students started by determining the responsibilities they think our government should have. Students then learned about the successes and failures of our first system of government, the Articles of Conferderation. Students ended the week learning about the constitutional convention and the key issues that were discussed and how the framers compromised on those issues.

I will be out on Friday of next week, but there will be sub materials for students on Canvas. Next week's schedule is below.

• Monday: Principles of Government
• Tuesday: Formative A - 2 question check about Articles of Confederation & Compromises at the Constitution
• Wednesday: Constitution Close Read- Executive Branch
• Thursday: Constitution Close Read- Legislative Branch
• Friday: Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens sub work

This week in ELA students worked on building the components of a multi-paragraph comparison essay. Students pulled evidence from both texts, evaluated the evidence, and learned how to craft context and commentary sentences to expand upon their thesis statements. Students also reviewed how to write an introduction and conclusion paragraph using the GST (general, specific, thesis) format.

Next week, students will use their essay outlines to complete a formative assessment. This formative asks students to use their thesis statements, evidence, and commentary sentences to create a multi-paragraph response. Students will have access to writing organizers as well as their pre-work from the previous week during the formative. In addition to content and quality of writing, the essay should be in correct MLA format. After the formative, students will peer-edit and revise their writing at the end of the week to ensure that they are prepared for the Summative assessment taking place on December 16th and 17th .

Homework: This week students were assigned 3 vocabulary lessons and 2 reading lessons. Reading Plus is tracked from Monday - Sunday (11:59pm).

Reminder: Students should have their own copy of 145th Street Short Stories in class starting December 9th! Purchase a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/145th-Street-Walter-Dean-Myers/dp/0307976106. If you would like to purchase a copy for the classroom please contact me.

Algebra 1

This past week students began a new unit on exponential functions with an introduction using an activity with skittles. We finished the week out by exploring the structure of exponential functions in equations and graphs. This coming week we will continue to look at the differences between growth and decay functions. We are currently in unit 5 of our curriculum and the link to the unit online can be found here.

Math 8

This past week students looked at how equations are created when they are not proportional. Students learned about the y-intercept and where it is located on the graph. Students also learned about the slope intercept form of an equation and the y-intercept shows up in that type of equation. This coming week students will have an IB assignment on Tuesday that goes over the concepts related to slopes of lines and how to write equations. The week will continue with more study on slope and writing equations in slope intercept form. A link to the current unit can be found here.

If you would like to contact us, please feel free to do so using the links below. Expect a response from teachers, during school hours, within 1 to 2 business days, of the time your communication was received.

Teacher Email Addresses:

• Science: Charmaine.Thompson@k12.dc.gov
• History: Marlena.Wikander@k12.dc.gov
• English: Catherine.Cunha@k12.dc.gov
• Math: Brandi.Anderson@k12.dc.gov

Website: alicedealmiddleschool.org

Location: 3815 Fort Dr NW, Washington, DC, USA
Phone: 202-939-2010