Welcome to Chemistry with Mrs. Jackson This PowerPoint is on Google classroom to view later.

Agenda for this Presentation Personal Introduction Chemistry at home –Information for parental monitoring Chemistry at school –Subject information and what goes on in the classroom

Personal Information A member of the La Serna Science Department since UCI graduate with a B.S. in Biology with supplemental authorization in Chemistry Married and have 3 sons Mark, 17 years old Luke, 15 years old John, 15 years old

At home Homework - YES! (very essential for Chemistry) When? M-Th and sometimes online quizzes over the weekend What?  worksheets given in a unit packet (note – credit for packet work given when it is turned in on the day of the test – late packets = ½ credit). Homework may be spot checked – will show in Aeries. Also, there will be online, homework quizzes)

Other homework  general studying (ie review notes, etc)  finishing up lab activity questions  getting notes off of Google classroom  checking answers of Google classroom  BUT, not text book assignments

At home How can you help your child? Obtain a scientific calculator if possible (used a lot sem II)  Class set is TI – 30XIIS, but any scientific calculator will work, even graphing calculators  BUT graphing calculators are NOT required! –  Basic scientific calculator should cost about $10 this time of year  Students cannot use cell phone calculators in class

At home How can you help your child?  Ask him to show you the homework and ask some questions about it  Discourage “sharing”of homework - many students share via cell phone photos of completed worksheets - this is considered cheating, and if caught at school doing this, will be treated as such. - this may be an efficient way of getting the worksheet/homework done, but it is not effective in helping the student understand the concepts/content

At home How can you help your child?  Encourage him to re-read notes and re-work example problems before starting homework (this seems to be a very foreign concept to students, but is the reason for the notes)  Encourage the use of the Internet for help too. Khan Academy Bozeman science programs (you tube) Ted Ed videos (you tube) Google classroom  Check Aeries weekly (via website and not app)

Google Classroom! Students log in with their school issued gmail account (ask them for it and password I use it to –Display the week’s agenda (describes classwork, homework, and has attachments) –Sometimes for quizzes –Give out test reminders –Due dates for larger assignments –Sharing links or resources (even videos) (let’s look at it)

Aeries Parents get log-in information from the office, students can get log-in information from any teacher (should already know it – same as last year) Check weekly (Friday afternoons are good) Please verify your has been correctly inputted –Incorrect means you are missing out on notices sent from teachers and school –How to correct? If you can’t do on own - call 6030 Students should log in via website and not app (why? See next slide)

Aeries I use comment section to encourage students to get in missing work, and post absolute last day to accept too, which I do stick to.

Other Help! Students can come by tutorial for help – I have mentors here and will help when I can Students can drop by right after period 5 for a couple minutes of help (I don’t have a period 6 class) If a student needs more than a few minutes of help or is in need of help consistently, I recommend a tutor –List of La Serna students (usually AP Chem or Physics students) will be posted in Google Classroom (website too? – website service being updated) when I receive the updated list.

Other notes Chemistry is a challenging course involving –Calculations –Memorization –Learning patterns –Modeling –Collaborative work –Technical writing –The abstract of trying to understand what cannot be seen directly –New unit concepts building on the previous units’ Students can be successful but it does take time and true effort both at school and on homework Cell phones are a distraction and will be taken to the office

Second semester is usually more challenging than the first due to more calculations The third quarter slide (grades dropping) is a school-wide, subject-wide phenomena (student fatigue?) This is when Chemistry gets into some very challenging units Students who fail or get a D in the second semester of Chemistry will have to repeat the entire year, even if the 1 st semester grade was good. Students don’t seem to be aware of this. So, when second semester starts, please, do whatever you can to encourage your child to perservere through the 3 rd quarter.

School Chemistry involves the study of –Atoms, bonding, and molecules –Patterns of the Periodic Table –And so much more What happens in class? –Warm ups –Notes –Labs –Videos –Weekly Quizzes –Unit Tests and other assessments (not test retakes, but a the score on the final can be used to replace a low test score)

Questions? me at (can get this via school website – contact section) Course syllabus/rules/policies etc. is posted in Google classroom

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