Team Dublin Weekly Update

Deal will host IN PERSON conferences on Thursday, March 14th from 12-7pm. Families of 6th and 7th grade students will engage in Student-Led Conferences, empowering students to take ownership of their learning, progress, and achievements. Families will make one appointment (15 minutes) with their student’s Advisory teacher. Students will work with their Advisor in advance of conference day to lead a discussion of their goals, progress, and achievements. Students must attend the conference with their family member(s).

Beginning Monday, March 4th at 8am please visit https://ptcfast.com/schools/Alice_Deal_Middle_School for appointments. Please note, the system will close at the end of the day on Tuesday, March 12th. The system is available in English and Spanish and families may request conference interpretation for any language by stating the language need in the special request field.

Hints for a successful student-led conference:

• Make sure you have seen your student’s Term 2 Report Card and check Aspen in the week before your conference. Student-led conferences will not focus on the nuances of a student’s grade in a specific class but rather look holistically at a student’s academic goals, progress, and achievements. Families should use Aspen to monitor students’ grades and attendance throughout the school year and address concerns early, if necessary.
• Arrive a few minutes before your conference. It will be helpful to have time to transition into the building and to the classroom without being in a rush.
• Need more support? Assistant Principals, Counselors, Deans, and Social Workers will be available in their offices on conference day for drop-in check-ins or to support families that have specific concerns not addressed by the Student-led Conference format.

This past week, I met with all students that completed the ANet Assessment and provided them individual feedback on their writing progress. (Any student in the MLL program did not take ANet this week, and I will provide an update on those students in the coming weeks.) I also emailed each parent with information about their student’s progress. If you did not hear from me this week, please let me know and I can reforward those comments.

This coming week, students will finish reading Tuck Everlasting. As we journey with Winnie, we will analyze how she grows up throughout the text, and look at one of the text’s themes. Students should be through Chapter 19 (page 100) in Tuck Everlasting and complete the Modules through Chapter 15-19 Lesson and RCT 4 by Monday. The text is available on SORA and CANVAS.

Great week! Rest relax recover! Eat your fruits and veggies. AND DO YOUR IREADY LESSONS AND PREPARE FOR THE DC CAPE! 😀 “We’re excited to celebrate Pi day on March 13 this year and have the students lead parent teacher conferences on the 14th!”

We spent the week learning about the political, physical, and human characteristics of East Asia. We ended the week with a practice quiz and some fun review Jeopardy! Over the weekend, students should be studying for their East Asia quiz on Monday. They should have brought home their maps, vocabulary, and atlas exploration AND use the Nearpod code 3I89R to study.

Next week, students will take a map quiz, reorganize binders, then begin on the theme of the unit: Population Growth and Urbanization.

Last week in class, students delved into the causes of climate and ocean currents, gaining a deeper understanding of these fundamental concepts. Moving forward, we will explore topics such as the Gulf Stream, prevailing winds, and the Coriolis effect, which play crucial roles in shaping our planet's climate and oceanic patterns. As part of our ongoing assessment process, students will have an end-of-unit assessment to gauge their comprehension and progress, contributing to a formative grade.

In order to have more time to review how heat transfer works, I did delay our Roots Quiz #5 to Monday. On Monday, they will also do a Critical Juncture test on what they understand to date.

Students have Roots Quiz 6 Friday, March 9th. To prepare, students should diligently study the roots words provided below for homework. This quiz serves as a stepping-stone towards our roots summative assessment later in the term, which will encompass all the roots covered throughout Term 3.

Roots Words for Quiz 3.6 :

• Gon - having a number of angles (Think: polygon, pentagon)

• Demo - common people (Think: demonstrate, demographic)

• Cracy/Crat - government (Think: democracy, bureaucrat)

• Term - end, word (Think: terminal, terminology)

• Macro - large (Think: macroscopic, macrophage)

PLEASE NOTE that students are expected to complete any classwork they did not complete in class. You will notice a new string of grades for last week. Please also note that you will start seeing notebook and class participation grades. Please remind your student to stay on task.

As a side note, PLEASE tell your student to have a pencil. I have gone through another 50 pencils in the past three weeks. If you see your way clear, please check that your student has pencils every day.

We are down to our last few boxes of tissues and rolls of paper towels. If you have an extra of either, please send it in with your student.

Most students have completed all 4 domains of the WIDA ACCESS test! The rest will take the speaking test this week. Students did incredible work this week. Their progress on System 44 was the best it has been all year. Shout out to Shayagan Daryabi who grew 8 levels!

Monday, 3/4/24 is Read Across America Day. In support, Mr. Reichlen has created two Flipgrid video challenges. One for staff and one for students. The idea is two record a short video using the link below. Parents and families can also record a video using the teacher and staff link

Students will use the app Flipgrid to make a 90-second video to promote a book that they have enjoyed or read a passage from either a book or poem. Students can also read a creative work that they have authored. Flipgrid is a Microsoft app so it can be accessed through the student's 365 portal. When a student clicks on the link below, they should login using the "Microsoft Login" option.

https://flip.com/66f3df9b - Student challenge

https://flip.com/f21ed523 - Teacher and staff challenge (Also available to parents and families).

Please reach out to Mr. Reichlen with any questions about the process at: stephen.reichlen@k12.dc.gov. The window for submissions is open until March 15th.

All Deal students are expected to be in class and ready to learn promptly at 8:45 AM daily. To help build strong, healthy habits and ensure that students do not miss instructional time, the 6th grade team is assigning tardy hall to students who arrive to school after 9 AM or who have established a pattern of late arrivals that are resulting in lost learning time. Students who are assigned tardy hall will stay afterschool with Ms. Watson, 6th grade dean, until 4:15 PM.

Ms. Wesselhoft, team lead - naeemah.wesselhoft@k12.dc.gov

Mr. Kirschenbaum - adam.kirschenbaum@k12.dc.gov

Mr. O'Malley - michael.o'malley@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Osman - catherine.osman2@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Patsalos - constance.patsalos@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Garcia - maria.garcia@k12.dc.gov

Mr. Memminger, 6th grade counselor - jacob.memminger@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Barr, 6th grade social worker - ellen.barr@k12.dc.gov

Attendance: For any attendance related concerns, including absence notes, please be sure to contact Ms. Stephens our attendance counselor at dealattendance@k12.dc.gov.

ASPEN Help: For any ASPEN related issues, including help resetting a password or accessing your account, please email Ms. Lerum at dealaspenhelp@k12.dc.gov