November 14, 2011

Random song quote:

I know this is supposed to be a holiday song, but given how I feel about the subject of this week's blog...

"It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

Countless people sang this holiday classic.

Exam Information

With Thanksgiving just a week away, and the second interim grades now behind us, students, parents and teachers will start to think about exams. This tends to be a time of stress for our students. Many of the exams are comprehensive exams covering material since the start of the semester. Each teacher will provide a study guide to students on December 9. This is to aid them in their preparation and to identify the key topics students should study for the exam. The purpose of these exams is to provide a culminating event for the semester and to help students practice preparing for and taking exams and give final presentations.

From Wednesday, December 14 to Friday, December 16, students will take six exams (two per day). The first exam begins at 8 a.m. each day, and the final exam ends at 11:15 a.m. You can expect to pick up your child by 11:30 a.m. on those days.

Wednesday Exams - English first and then Judaic Studies

Thursday Exams - Science and then History

Friday Exams - Math and then Foreign Language

There may be alternate assessments given in lieu of exams in a few classes this year. Each individual teacher will send out the details of those assessments in December. The time and weighting for each grade-level exam is as follows:

6th Grade - 1 hour exam; 10% of semester grade

7th Grade - 1 hour and 15 minute exam; 15% of semester grade

8th Grade - 1 hour and 30 minute exam; 20% of semester grade

In preparation for the exams, students will work on exam study skills in the 6th Grade and share successful exam preparation methods in 7th and 8th Grades during advisory on December 5 and 6. In addition, three exam review days are scheduled for December 9, 12 and 13. These are day zeros in which students will meet with all classes in order to maximize the time to review for each exam.

If you have any questions about the schedule or process, please feel free to email or call me.

Thanks and have a great week.

Happy Birthday to the following students who will celebrate their birthdays this week:

Melissa Altar - Nov 17

Vinit Reddy - Nov 18

Dylan Solomon - Nov. 20

Kyle Stein and Elise Shoss - Nov. 21

Jake Stern and Joe Schwartzberg - Nov. 22

Lauren Rosenberg and Nikki Schwartz - Nov. 23

Mazel Tov to the following students who either celebrated or are celebrating their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs:

Rebecca Burd - Nov 12 (sorry we missed you last week)

Kyle Stein and Michael Ran - Nov 19

Upcoming Athletics Games:

Monday -

7th Grade Boys Basketball @ John Cooper - 4:30 p.m.

8th Grade Boys Basketball @ John Cooper - 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday -

7/8th Grade Boys Basketball v. Presbyterian - 4 p.m.

7th Grade Boys Basketball v. Trafton - 5 p.m.

8th Grade Boys Basketball v. Trafton - 6 p.m.

Calendar of Events:

Nov. 23 -25 - School Closed for Thanksgiving

Dec 9, 12 and 13 - MS Review Days

Dec 14-16 - MS Semester Exams

Exam Calendar:

Wednesday - English/Judaics

Thursday - Science/History

Friday - Math/Language