1. Welcome! & Sign in Use the laptop… Or on your phone, go to msrolfe.com and click on the link to the google form. If you prefer paper, there is a paper sign in on the clip board as well. Feel free to grab my business card as well. It has all of my contact information.

2. My contact information Please feel free to take a business card. bree.rolfe@austinisd.org or breearolfe@gmail.com or you can call my office phone at 903-884-6835. It’s a google voice number and will ring all of my phones. (Please don’t call after 9PM if you can help it.) The easiest way to reach me is through email. I promise I will answer quickly. The next best way is my google voice. My conference period is 2 nd on A Days and 5 th on B Days

3. Best place to get information… My website! http://msrolfe.com

4. A little about me! I started my teaching career at Del Valle High School ten years ago. This is my 3rd year at Bowie. Before becoming a teacher, I was a freelance journalist and worked in marketing for ten years in my hometown of Boston, MA. I have an MFA from the Writing Seminars at Bennington College and a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University. During my career as a journalist, my work appeared in The Boston Phoenix magazine Stuff@Night, XLR8R, and Boston’s Weekly Dig. She also contributed articles on a volunteer basis to What’s Up Magazine and Spare Change, which are two magazines that benefit the homeless. My poetry has appeared in Saul Williams’ poetry anthology Chorus: A Literary Mixtape, as well as the anthologies Forgetting Home and Mother is a Verb. I’ve also published poems in literary magazines like 5AM Magazine, Touchstone Literary Journal and on the online journal LaFovea.

5. Tutoring times Any time before school, after school or at lunch by appointment. I am here most days until around 5:00 PM at least. If your student lets me know, I can be here. Monday through Wednesday is best. On Thursdays I sponsor Nintendo Club, so I can tutor, but it might be loud. I am flexible. Just ask/ sign up!

6. What we’re studying this year… Literature from around the world! –Reading skills will include inferences and incorporating textual evidence to back up an assertion. –We’re going to read A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah (3 rd six weeks) as a class and students can choose one of the following for our Literature Circles next six weeks- A Lesson Before Dying, All Quiet on the Western Front, Night and Funny in Farsi. The major essays we will focus on first is the persuasive (STAAR) Later in the year, we will focus on literary analysis and research.

7. Grading break down Homework and Daily assignments are worth 15% Quizzes and mini-projects are worth 20%. Unit Tests are worth 30% Essays and major projects are worth 35% Students who fail tests can re-take them within one week for up to a 70%. Late work (This is for all 10 th grade ELA Classes) All assignments (homework, mini-projects, major projects, essays, presentations, etc.): These are due at the beginning of the period on the due date. Late assignments will be penalized 10 points for every calendar day late until it reaches a 50%. After five days, the assignment will receive a zero.

8. Grading for creative writing Grading Procedures: Pre-Writing & Classroom Activities: 15% Rough Drafts & Informal writing assignments: 20% First Drafts & Formal Writing Assignment: 30% Writer’s Notebook & Portfolio Pieces: 35% Creative writing is a weighted elective. Therefore if students do well, it can help their GPA. For this reason, I expect students to take the work seriously and participate in class.

9. Bowie Book Fair! The ELA department is hosting book fair of sorts this year. They are in the library tonight. If you use the voucher, the ELA department will get a part of the proceeds. For my class, I suggest students purchase a copy of their literature circle book and A Long Way Gone so that they can mark it up and have it outside of class if they need it.

10. ANY QUESTIONS? Thank you!