Dear Student and Parents,

Welcome back to Elkhart Middle School. I am looking forward to a year in which you will learn a lot about SCIENCE. This letter is to introduce myself and to familiarize you with the grading and discipline procedures that I will employ this year. I hope this information will help you to have an easier time in my class and understand why things are done the way they are.

Grading Procedures:

will be grouped into two categories; Daily Work and Test Grades. Each category will be worth 50% of the total grade. Each six weeks I will collect between 10 and 15 Daily grades and 2 to 3 Test grades. Since there are fewer tests, they make a bigger impact on the overall grade.

Late Work:

Ten (10) points will be deducted from the earned grade for each day the work is late.

Make-Up Work:

It is the student’s responsibility to find out assignments missed and then to turn them in according to district guidelines found in the student handbook (p. 17).

Retaking Tests:

If a student fails a test, they have the opportunity to retake the test for maximum grade of 70. The student may come at 7:30 a.m. and take the test before school or at 3:20 p.m. and take the test after school. This needs to be done within 3 class days of the original test. It is the student's responsibility to make arrangements with me to retake a test.

Tutorials:

I am available before and after school every day for extra help on science assignments, study sessions before tests or any additional help a student may need. To get extra help the student needs to report to my classroom no later than 3:30 p.m. Advance notice is preferred but not required.

Classroom Procedure Expectations:

Be in your assigned seat and have all materials needed for class at desk, i.e. Textbook, Science Notebook, Paper, writing tools, when the Tardy Bell rings. Take care of personal business between classes; emergencies will be dealt with individually.

Behavior Expectations:

Students are required to follow Elkhart School’s Code of Conduct. If a student disrupts class, shows disrespect to any student or the teacher or has any behavior that prevents the progress of the educational process the consequences are as follows:

1. If the student disrupts class, they will be reminded about the behavior expectations.

2. If the behavior persists the parent will be contacted.

3. If the student behavior persists after the parent contact, the conduct grade will be lowered to an “N” (needs improvement). The parent will be contacted again.

4. If the student disrupts the class again, it will result in an office referral and the conduct grade will be lowered to a “U” (unsatisfactory).

5. Each Six weeks, students get a clean slate and start out with an "S" (satisfactory) conduct score.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. My conference is 10:50 – 11:40 Monday through Friday. The school telephone number is: 764-2459. My email address is: lrascher@elkhartisd.org.

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