Virtual Students of the week: Lexia Leaders!

Wow; there were two students last week who each completed 46 units each! Thank you for your hard work and dedication to your online learning!

McKenna McWilliams 

Cole Lemieux

Fantastic Job!

Have a great week everyone, and don't forget to log your Lexia minutes! Parents, for more information about the benefits of Lexia, please visit: https://www.lexialearning.com/why-lexia

Graduation Update

Hello everyone,
We wanted to make sure you all saw this important line from survey results that SATEC sent out via emial.


"We are working on our plans for celebrating our 8th graders.  We will not be able to have an in person graduation as we normally would, but we plan to pre-record some of the important components (i.e. graduation speeches from our students, award presentations, and reading of all our students' names).  We will be sending out a survey to students and parents to gather your input on our plans and how to use the fundraising money that was slated to be used for our trip to Montreal next week so stay tuned."

Be on the lookout for a survey from SATEC via email!

We are looking forward to celebrating our 8th graders!


Ms. Lanfear

Lexia Reminder

Hello everyone,

Reminder: Lexia is scored as a self-direction score in Language Arts. To receive a score of '4' you need to log 60+ minutes over the course of the week. If you have finished the Lexia program, you should use this extra time for independent reading.

In case you missed it, Here is the Distance Learning Plan for Monday, May 11th - Friday, May 22nd. 

Have a great week & make sure to send us an email with any questions you have!

Mrs. Lanfear

Distance Learning Plan May 11th - May 22nd

Hello everyone,

Here is the Distance Learning Plan for Monday, May 11th - Friday, May 22nd. Please email us with any questions.

We hope you have a relaxing weekend.

Ms. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan

Having a hard time with independent reading?

Hi everyone,
Here are the independent reading guidelines for school closure.  Even if you haven't been able to commit significant time to reading, please make sure to complete the survey every Friday.

A parent recently shared a great post with me; it's Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) reading chapter 1 of book 1. I suggest you play it and clean your room at the same time! What a great way to complete your independent reading for the day!

Have a good night.

Ms. Lanfear

UA Information

Hello everyone,

We were asked to share the Unified Arts page with you, to make sure everyone has the link and access to Unified Arts information.  Here you go:

https://sites.google.com/maplerun.org/satec-elearning/grade-level-departments/unified-arts  


Have a good evening.

Ms. Lanfear

2 week distance learning plan & independent reading options

Hello everyone,
I hope that you're successfully navigating the two week distance learning plan for April 27th - May 8th.  As always, please reach out with questions.

Some of you might be looking for independent reading ideas. Audiobooks definitely count toward your independent reading goals. They challenge your mind to sustain attention in different ways, while still expanding your vocabulary and deepening your comprehension skills. I put together this list for you of some really great books I found online, and I will continue to add to it. I plan on listening to The Hobbit first, as I've never read it.

Have a great day.

Ms. Lanfear

2 week distance learning plan & Google Classroom information

Hello everyone,

We hope you had a relaxing school vacation and were able to get out and enjoy some of the warmer weather we had.

Here is the planning page for the next two weeks of assignments and lessons. If you can, please print this page and post it where you can easily cross off assignments as you go. 

Parents - If you would like to be invited as a 'guardian' in either of our Google Classrooms, please let us know. You will be able to see if your child has turned in work or if it is missing, before it gets scored in PowerSchool. Also, you will get an automated message, on a weekly basis, for assignments that haven't been 'turned in'.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out.

Thank you,
Ms. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan

General Information on turning in assignments

Thank you to the students who have turned in work this past week! For language arts and social studies, it is really important for you to select 'turn in' once you finish your assignment. That way, if it happens to be late, I will get a notification. This includes the 'Independent Reading Check In' from Friday.

Please check PowerSchool this week. Since you are on vacation, it would be a good time for you to get caught up on any work you might owe.

Parents - If you would like to be invited as a 'guardian' in my Google Classroom, please let me know. You will be able to see if your child has turned in work or if it is missing, before it gets scored in PowerSchool.


Thank you!

Mrs. Lanfear

Lexia Reminder

Reminder: You will see a score for Lexia each week in PowerSchool. To score a 4, you need to log 75+ minutes during the week. (15 minutes each day) Lexia scores will be entered every Friday night.

Attendance Reminder

We will be evaluating attendance for the week tomorrow, Friday the 17th.

Please remember that we are required to take attendance each week and report it to the State of Vermont. Students will be marked as 'present' for the week if they are engaging in most of the assignments for all four core classes. If a student is not doing assignments and not communicating with staff about arrangements to complete assignments, they will be marked absent.

Please reach out if your child is sick, as they will be marked excused.

Distance Learning Update - Thursday, April 16th

Hello Everyone,
Students are getting into the swing of handed in assignments online. Thank you!

If you are handing in older, hard copy assignments, the Notes app on your phone is a great way to scan them to one file. It makes it a lot easier than sending individual pictures.

Next week is technically vacation, and it would also be a great time to check PowerSchool and take care of any missing assignments.

Thanks to everyone who has been keeping in touch with us!

Mr. Howrigan & Ms. Lanfear

Distance Learning Update - Tuesday, April 14th

Hello everyone,

We're getting a lot of assignments handed in this week; fantastic job everyone! We know that adjusting to this new schedule is hard. We appreciate your hard work. That goes to students and parents, because we know that parents are doing quite a bit to support learning at home!

For those of you who missed the schedule, here it is again. Many parents have found it helpful to print the schedule and post it on the refrigerator. Students should cross off and initial an assignment when they have completed it and turned it in online. It's just one way parents to help kids without feeling like they're "nagging". 

As always, please reach out with questions or concerns. This is new to us too, so working together will be important.

Thank you & have a good evening.

Ms. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan

State Mandated Attendance Policy

Good morning,

We want to make you aware that we are required to take attendance each week and report it to the State of Vermont. Students will be marked as 'present' for the week if they are engaging in most of the assignments for all four core classes. If a student is not doing assignments and not communicating with staff about arrangements to complete assignments, they will be marked absent.

Official school attendance starts this week.

As always, please email with any questions or concerns.

Thanks,
Mrs. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan

An amazing independent reading opportunity for those of you with Instagram...

Good morning everyone,
More and more authors are sharing their books as read alouds online. To hear the author read their own work, in the way they intended it to sound, is a really cool opportunity. Jason Reynolds (a favorite for many of you) will be reading his new book, Look Both Ways this week on Instagram. This would be a great way for you to meet your independent reading requirement! I'll be listening every morning at 10:30 - I hope you can too!

Have a good week,
Mrs. Lanfear

Next week... and beyond!

Good Evening 8th Graders and Parents,

Everybody’s health and well being is of the utmost concern and should be our number one priority.  We hope you are maintaining a schedule that provides time for exercise, fun, and time with friends, as well as maintaining the proper attention to your learning goals.

A big high five to those of you who have managed to take this transition in stride and complete all (or many) of your assignments on time. We know that this has been a major adjustment period for many of you.  One of the parents compared this transition to school at home as putting the end of a fire hose in your mouth and opening it full blast! We realize it can be overwhelming at times, and are trying to balance this with the need to keep everybody well-informed during these unusual times. 

Remember, your teachers are here to help.  Please ask any questions you may have as they arise.

As of Monday, we will be moving forward with "Distance Learning." Please find the calendar for the next two weeks here. (Surprise: April Break is still a break, so it’s actually just one week of work!). We realize that it is Saturday - we wanted to give you a heads up for what to expect for the next two weeks. You do not need to start these assignments until Monday.

***Virtual Student of the Week is Braidyn Luman! Congrats, Braidyn! Keep up the good work and communication. ***

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan

Distance Learning Update: New work for the week of April 13th

Hello everyone,
Every two weeks, we will give you a new schedule with lessons and assignments. Here is the schedule for next week. The following week is April break.

General information about the schedule:

• The school expectation for 8th graders is 2.5 - 3 hours of academics each day.
• Please turn assignments in the day that they are assigned. 
• Please continue to check PowerSchool to monitor your progress.
• The 'Office Hours' listed are times when you will receive quick responses from teachers, as we've blocked off that time to field your questions. Please continue to reach out to us outside of those hours. 
• If you are not an Algebra student, please disregard the Algebra row.
• If you are going into Accelerated Global Studies and Writing Workshop next year, please complete all extension activities for language arts and social studies on page 2, in addition to the assignments on page 1. 
• While everything in this schedule is accessible online, we recommend you print the schedule out and cross off assignments while you work.

If you have any questions, please send one of us an email.

Thank you,

Ms. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan

Distance Learning Update: Thursday, April 9th

Keep those assignments coming! Thank you to everyone who has submitted work.

Tomorrow, we will be sharing next week's lessons via this blog. Stay tuned.

Have a good evening,

Ms. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan

Distance Learning Update - Wednesday, April 8th

Hello Everyone,
We hope your learning at home is going well! The Wellness teacher (Ms. Stetz) has a Google Classroom that she has asked all students to join.

Lanfear Homeroom code is 7lrfxje
Howrigan Homeroom code is ebb7b2h

Please continue to check Powerschool for missing assignments. Students know how to log-in, so sitting with your child and going through subjects and assignments might be a good idea. We have many students with multiple assignments missing at this point. We are available to help students; please reach out to us. 

Thanks, 

Ms. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan

Distance Learning Update - Tuesday, April 7th

Hello Everyone,

Thank you to everyone who has submitted assignments this week! Keep up the good work. Later this week, I will be sending out a slideshow of all 8th grade 1800's research poster projects to "showcase" your work. If you haven't submitted it yet, please do so ASAP! If you don't have poster materials, you are welcome to make a Google Slide. Check out the slideshow so far in the Google Classroom to get some ideas.

Ms. Katarina sent us this slideshow to share with 8th graders.
8th Grade Art

Please keep checking PowerSchool!

Have a good evening,

Ms. Lanfear & Mr. Howrigan