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“Science is the organized knowledge of God’s creation.” Sr. Mary Matthew RSM ~a beloved Catholic science teacher |
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Provide a place. It's important for a child to have a good place to work--a desk or table with a smooth, flat surface and good lighting. The study place needs to be free of distractions like, TV, Computer Games noises, toys, even good books, if your child is an avid reader like mine! They would much rather grab a book and read while they are supposed to be “doing math”. Set a time. Try to set a particular time to do science assignments. Have your child print and post lesson plan. Have him or her check off what has been done every day. If a sick day or free time is needed, work ahead or double up on assignments, or work on weekends to catch up or get ahead. Have the materials. Provide plenty of paper; folders in which to organize work and resources. Help them learn to take notes from the text or articles they read. Have your child make flash cards for terms and concepts and get an older child or other parent or grandparent to help them drill. Help them organize and manage email and computer files, and email correspondence, and graded tests and quizzes so your student can find what is needed. Don’t tell them the answer! When your child misses a question, encourage him or her to look it up in the text and site the page the answer was on. Writing the missed question and answer makes it stick if questions are missed from the text or online quiz. Check course announcements weekly! It is very important to be accessible by email and to watch for the feedback from me and from the quizzes. Email me if your child needs help on a topic, or is getting frustrated and we’ll try to direct you and your child to the resources that help and make a note to address that topic in class. During online work time: be nearby, just incase, and frequently check to be sure your child is looking up and writing notes on misunderstood material as directed, and please install native parental controls for both browsing and software use. Many options are available! But even with these staying in touch with your child throughout the day is necessary. Monitor homework: Some Homework is auto –graded, some is graded by you or your child if you so desire, with keys that come with your book. Please have your child go over keys and compare to his or her work. In some cases you need to make them re-do parts of assignments or post questions if they don’t know if their response was right. How much time should my child be studying on a daily basis? The average workload should be about an hour to an hour and a half per day during the week on non-class days. Check the grade book update links sent. Make sure your child is completing the daily lesson plan and turning in labs, assignments, and tests on time. Sample lesson plan here. What is the advantage of this course over a traditional correspondence course? Your child’s progress is monitored by both you, the parent, and the teacher. All grading is done for you. You have readily available help for your child. There are many more helps online than in just a correspondence course. In addition to that, there is on-line class where your child can participate in discussions, ask and answer questions over material, and view multimedia presentations during live class. Students can post pictures of their laboratory experiments. Also there is an additional study sessions wherein students can study with classmates over the week’s material. There is the aspect of some fun collaborative class/forum discussions Hopefully, the oversight of a teacher, due dates as well as the social aspect of the class will help you motivate your child to work. How much help will you provide my child?We will provide lesson planning, scheduling help, test grading and reporting, study suggestions, record keeping as well as recommendations for remedial work when needed. We provide testing online, and quizzes and drill and online supplements. We try to encourage and motivate students to work hard. also I will handle email questions. We also provide quarterly grade book updates and an end of year course report. |