Welcome to Team Mesa Verde

September 18: Back to School Night

September 21: 7th Grade Family Lunchtime BBQ

Dear Families,

I want to thank you for sending such wonderful children to Deal. We've had a fantastic first week, and the students handled having math homework right away with great attitudes!

Next week, we’ll be diving into our curriculum. Math 7 will begin with scale drawings, where students will explore how images can be resized by understanding the factors involved. In Math 8, we'll start Unit 1, focusing on transformations of figures on a coordinate grid.

Please note that students will begin their weekly I-Ready lessons on September 9, 2024.

If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out. I look forward to seeing you all at Back to School Night.

Best regards,

Sean Walton

We've begun our Life Science course with multiple labs this week. Today students are finishing up their egg labs where they saw how water can go in and out of an egg. Tomorrow students will run an experiment on live beetle larvae that I wrote. They will use this experience to help them write and do their own experiments next week.

Students should currently have at least four grades in Aspen.

Hello! WOOO! We have almost made it through our first week back to school. The students spent the whole week learning about the class routines and procedures, creating expectations for students & teachers, and completing lessons on digital citizenship. The students have been great at being respectful and staying on task! I am so excited for the rest of the year!

Next week

Monday: No School

Tuesday: Reading & Annotating

Wednesday: Writing Diagnostic

Thursday: Rubric Review

Friday: Geography & Maps

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions! I check my email between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

This week we focused on building classroom community and gaining insight into self-identity through poetry. Students wrote poems based on Rudy Francisco's "Honest Poem" and created their own pieces of blackout poetry. Next week, we will begin to cover characterization in narrative work and complete the beginning of year diagnostic.

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-).

¡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!