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Calling all parents!

on this blog, you can find my parent newsletters to 
stay up-to-date with what we are doing in class . You can also add this blog to your RSS Feed (I recommend the mobile app, Feedly)!

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Beginning Quarter 2

11/13/2016

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"Bridging" the communication between teacher and parents  as we walk into AUTUMN!
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It's hard to believe, but we're already into Quarter 2 of this school year.  Your child has only 3 quarters left in their sophomore year!  Time flies!

This quarter's blog post includes the following:
-Resources for parents: Google Classroom, Remind, and now sharing GOOGLE DRIVE FILES!
-Collection 1 recap
-Collection 1 essay due Wednesday
-Looking ahead to Collection 2

Click here or on the "read more" link below and to the right to learn about what we've been up to in English 2H and how you can support your teenager at home.  Thank you for your continued support!


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Starting the Year Off Strong

10/3/2016

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If you are on this site, that means that you want to be "in the know" and get involved in your child's education.  So THANK YOU!  You are a VITAL piece of the puzzle in these oh-so-important high school years.

Click the "Read More" link to the bottom right to learn about some ways that you can continue to stay up to date on what is going on in our English 2 Honors course.    I hope you take advantage of both opportunities.  At the bottom, I share the quick updates for my class.

Thank you for joining me on this school year voyage!​

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Back to School Night, 2016

9/28/2016

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My Presentation
Parent Handout
Please click on the buttons to the left if you missed Back to School Night.

Feel free to contact me at shousepian@ggusd.net with any questions.
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Wrapping up 1st semester

1/31/2016

12 Comments

 
YOUR COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, &/OR FEEDBACK ARE WELCOMED
AT THE END OF THIS POST!
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 Staying Connected through "Remind"

I use the Remind app on nearly a weekly basis.  It is an easy-to-use app that allows me to send text message reminders to students about upcoming events and deadlines, or send them motivational comments.  All students have enrolled.  It's hard to imagine running my classroom with out.  More and more teachers at PHS are starting to use it as well.
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I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU to sign up for the very same  "class" that your child has signed up with in order to see what messages they get.  Their enrollment information can be found on the bottom "There's An App For That" section of my  Technology Page.  You can also choose to sign up for my separate Parents Remind "class"; instructions can be found on my Parents Home Page.   I  sent out a reminder of an upcoming exam earlier in the semester, but only 8 parents were enrolled at the time, so hopefully more of you can sign up and stay connected! ​

Student Teachers

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I believe that the teaching profession, much like many other professions, is one that improves with experience and quality training.  And because I believe that proper teacher training has a direct effect on the quality of instruction in the classroom, I find myself serving as a mentor teacher to teacher candidates at nearby universities.  It is a position that I find fulfilling and one that I feel students can benefit from.  I believe in a very collaborative approach when serving as a mentor teacher and even if I am  not specifically teaching a portion of a lesson, rest assured that I was directly involved in the preparations.
Ms. Smart will be finishing her semester with us this week and the students and I could not be more disappointed.  She is a stellar teacher candidate whose ability to instruct, mentor,  and inspire is admirable.  Because of her presence, students have benefitted from TWO teachers worth of feedback and instruction.  We wish Ms. Smart the very best as she looks ahead to future employment!

Next semester, I will be welcoming a new student teacher, Mr. Conner.  He also comes from Cal State Long Beach's teacher credential program.  He has a degree in English Literature as well and is eager to bring in continued college and career readiness skills and creative projects.  He has been observing my classes this month and will begin co-teaching with me at the start of next week.   He will be  co-teaching mostly in periods 2,5, & 6.   Once the semester begins, he can be reached at mrconnerphs@gmail.com .

Scholar Cards

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You may have heard your child talk about Scholar Cards in my class.  Allow me to briefly explain what these are.  

They are brightly colored (so they don't lose them!) index cards that I hand out each quarter.  When students participate in class by sharing their knowledge, they can earn "scholar credit" for the day (limit one a day).   On the spot, I give them a score of 5,4,or 3 (if they get a 2, they get a chance for a better score later in the period), all of which earn credit. I do this so they receive immediate feedback from me and I build a culture in my class where all scores are equally appreciated.  Students  write on their cards themselves and turn them in at the end of the  period for me to stamp.  This is a formative assessment in their grade book.  Students should try to earn at least one stamp a week!

A 5 is when a student shows incredible mastery of the content and blows me away with their insight; they are rarely given and definitely coveted.  A 4 is given when students understand both the complex and simple  concepts of a lesson or question.  And a 3 demonstrates a student's simple or basic understanding, or it can be the result of a simpler question that I posed that didn't yet require complex thought.

 Students can also earn "credit" for demonstrating Habits of a Scholar: leadership, collaboration, preparedness, showing initiative or being proactive, coming to my before/after school Office Hours, and more!

You can learn more by visiting my College and Career Readiness page  or asking your child how many stamps they have so far.  

English 2H

Weekly  "2H Voyage Board" (now open to public!)
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   This semester 's accomplishments:
  • introduction of the year-long Digital Portfolio Project (ask your child to share his/hers with you!)
  • a significant focus on Writing with multiple opportunities for practice and a large amount of teacher feedback.  Students set quarterly writing goals and reflected on these goals in their portfolios.
  • various technology-based projects
  • introduction to blogging (will really start next semester)
  • OREO (Outside Reading Educational Opportunity)
    • a fiction book of their choice
    • Theme Multi-Intelligences Projects
  • Unit on Social Conformity & The Creation of Identity
    • 12 Angry Men
    • Non-fiction articles
    • To Kill a Mockingbird
    • Short stories
  • Unit on Ethical Responsibility
    • Of Mice and Men
    • Short Stories
PERIODS 2 & 5: As we wrap up the semester, we are beginning a mini-unit on "Coming of Age" where students will be studying famous authors and their writing style in order to emulate their skills and write their OWN creative short stor!

PERIOD 1:  This class and I are working closely together as we pilot a NEW TEXTBOOK called StudySync!  I highly encourage you to have your child show you  what we are learning on this very digital platform.  It requires that students really think, while giving incredible support!  Students have been giving me their feedback daily as we both figure out its new learning tools.  We will rejoin the other 2 class periods at the end of February once this pilot is completed. Myself and about 25 other 7-12 teachers will be deciding on the textbooks which will be purchased and ready for first-time use for all GGUSD 7-12 students in the fall of 2016.  This is a big undertaking, but an exciting and rewarding one as well!

Want to know more?  Ask your child to share their Google Classroom or Google Drive Toolbox with you!  You can also go to the Students tab above-->English 2H-->2H Voyage Board for our weekly agenda, announcements, and homework!  Click the button above for quick access.

English 1H

1H Weekly "Voyage Board" (now open to public!)
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This semester 's accomplishments:
  • a significant focus on Writing with multiple opportunities for practice and a large amount of teacher feedback.  Students set and reflected upon their writing goals.
  • various technology-based projects and skills lessons
  • OREO (Outside Reading Educational Opportunity)
    • two fiction books  of their choice
    • multiple Reading Letters (literary analysis papers)
  • Unit on Social & Cultural Identity
    • A Raisin in the Sun
    • House on Mango Street
    • Poetry 
    • non-fiction texts
  • Unit on Good vs. Evil
    • Lord of the Flies
    • various short stories, videos, research studies, and non-fiction texts
Next semester I will be starting with the introduction of the Digital Portfolio Project!  Stay tuned!  And next semester we'll be covering units on Leadership & Loyalty, and Actions & Consequences.

Want to know more?  Ask your child to share their Google Classroom or Google Drive Toolbox with you!
You can also go to the Students tab above -->English 1H-->1H Voyage Board for our weekly agenda, announcements, and homework!  Click the button above for quick access.

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COMMENTS WELCOMED BELOW!
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October 2015 Newsletter

10/12/2015

1 Comment

 
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BTSN

Thank you all for  watching my Back to School Night video and/or joining me for my "Meet and Greet" that evening!  Based on your feedback, a far majority of you appreciated and preferred this approach.  I will share your feedback with my colleagues!

I also wanted to thank so many of you for taking the time to not only email me a quick confirmation that you watched the video (so your child could get extra credit), but also for sharing such kind sentiments with me.   I appreciated it!   Your kind words fuel me :-)

Some of you had GREAT questions on the evening's Q & A posters.  I have added those questions and my responses to my FAQ Parent page on this site.  Thank you for your inquiry!

Who you can turn to in the front office

Based on Back to School  Night conversations, I thought it might be helpful to share who you can turn to in the administrative and counseling staffs.    (The school website has information about attendance, athletics, and more as well)

This year, all assistant principals are assigned to grade levels. This is new this year and has GREAT potential, as it allows individual administrators to focus on just one grade level's particular needs!  9th grade is Mrs. Stephanie Bartlett.  10th grade is Mr. Tom Duggan.  You might find yourself contacting them if you have a major concern about your child's overall well-being or academic progress at school (but please see my comment below about contacting teachers first).    

Counselors are still assigned to students according to students' last names. Please see the Counseling page on the school website for alpha assignments.    You might contact your child's counselor if you notice his/her grades are slipping in multiple classes, you want information about college entrance requirements or course selections, or are concerned about his/her emotional well-being (just to name a few).

As a general rule, I recommend that you and/or your child contact individual teachers directly if the concern or question you have is specific to that class.  Sometimes going straight to the source is the best idea, at least for starters.   I definitely welcome your contact!

Progress Reports

Progress reports will be going out later this week.  While I feel these are great tools for the school site in determining which students are in need of our attention, I still believe the BEST approach to staying on top of your child's grades is a more REGULAR checking of the AERIES portal.  Yes, grades will fluctuate, but teaching your child to stay on top of their grades consistently will help avoid headaches at progress report times.

These grades are NOT official, but are instead an indicator of present progress.

In my class, if a student is getting a C- or below, I will be contacting parents directly, as I do not believe this is acceptable.    I want to work with parents and students together to help get their grades up.  Usually just a few simple changes can make a big difference!

English 1H Spotlight

We started the year with a non-fiction unit as part of the CSU "Expository Reading & Writing Curriculum" (ERWC).   Students learned how to approach a non-fiction text differently than a fiction one and how to write an organized argument based on textual evidence.

We then moved onto a Poetry unit where students learned how to "dig deeper" into poetry analysis with the use of the TPCASTT strategy.  Students had a exam where they were given a new poem to annotate and analyze and then write a paragraph about.  We'll be returning those exams this week.

Now students are about half way through our unit on Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street.​  Students are learning how to  analyze an author's use of figurative language.  We are focusing specifically on the quarter's Universal Concept which relates to one's social, cultural, and personal identity.  Students will have a chance to show their creative side by creating their own "books" in a digital format of their choosing.  They will also have an exam on this novel in about a week and a half.  

We will wrap up the quarter with the reading of A Raisin in the Sun (a famous play) and some other poems and videos that relate to this quarter's concept.  There will be a Quarter 1 Final Essay that will ask students to synthesize ALL sources from this quarter into an argumentative paper.  Ms. Smart and I will be providing plenty of support and guidance to help students with this challenging paper.

Some students are struggling with the technology side of my class.  Ms. Smart and I available before and after school to offer support and many students have come in and are already improving!

This quarter we are trying not to go too fast, as we realize that this is their first quarter in high school.  This is a huge transition for them!

Students will need to finish their OREO (Outside Reading)  book soon.  Please check with your child on his/her progress.  Students have access to the assignment and its deadlines on Google Drive.

For day-by-day agendas and homework, don't forget that I have our "1H Voyage Board Doc" available under the Students tab.  You'll need your child's GAFE account to access it.

English 2H Spotlight

English 2 Honors has also been very busy!  

We started the quarter with  12 Angry Men, a classic play about 12 jurors and the decisions they have to make.  This introduced students to one of this quarter's universal concepts--Social Conformity.  They had their first timed, in-class essay and many of them struggled with this.  You may have seen their grades drop. However, they were given plenty of feedback on their work and were asked to hold onto their "growth mindset".  I reminded them that this year was a marathon, not a sprint, and assured them that last year's sophomores also struggled with that essay, only to find themselves improving leaps and bounds by the end of the semester!    Already students' writing is improving!

Next we started a short story unit where we read "Everyday Use" and "Two Kinds".  These short stories served as a great introduction to a deeper analysis of this quarter's concepts --Social Conformity and the Creation of Identity.  Students were given opportunities to practice writing lessons that were given and students again took a timed writing assessment.  Those assessments are still being graded.  They take a long time...

Now, we are about a week into To Kill a Mockingbird  and it is going very well!  What an AMAZING novel!  Year after year, students share that this is their favorite book of the year.  I have been giving students many tools for success with this novel and we are having amazing class discussions about the text, its purpose, and its connection to this quarter's themes.  I'm very proud of your children's work thus far!  

To wrap up the quarter, we will have a Midterm Exam on TKAM this week, many additional challenging yet enjoyable experiences with the text, and a creative final assessment that will allow them to discuss their understanding of the novel.  Throw in a few other smaller texts and video clips, and they'll be ready to write their Quarter 1 Final Essay, a take-home/process paper for which they will receive (and are already receiving) plenty of support.  The quarter ends on November 6th.

Students should be reading their OREO (outside reading) book.  But it's not due until after Thanksgiving break.  The assignment details are on a Google Doc in their "Toolbox" in Google Drive.  Ask them for access to learn more.

Students are also participating in a cross-curricular effort between the English and the History departments this year.  This quarter's focus is on developing the following skills:  non-fiction text annotating/reading, analyzing a writing prompt, composing a strong thesis statement.  They should continue to see parallels between what is taught in my class and what is covered in their history class.  Each quarter will have a new "skill" focus. This is very exciting simply because we are making a unified effort to help students grow as readers, writers, and thinkers!

I know this class moves quickly, but I encourage all students to communicate openly with me if they need any help or need extensions due to unforeseen or incredibly challenging situations.  They are starting to trust me and take me up on my offers, which is great to see.  Ultimately, I want them to work hard, but also not stress out too much in the process.  Time management is KEY in this class.

For day-by-day agendas and homework, don't forget that I have our "2H Voyage Board Doc
" available under the Students tab.  You'll need your child's GAFE account to access it.

PSAT

This Wednesday, October 14th, GGUSD is paying for ALL sophomores AND juniors to take the PSAT (Preliminary/Practice SAT).  What a great opportunity for students to see what the test is like (although it's a slightly abbreviated version of the SAT).  In my 2H classes, students have been preparing for the exam with some practice tests.   Please ensure that  your child gets plenty of rest the night before!

Thank you for your continued
​involvement and support!  
Please leave a comment below with your Questions about this month's post or suggestions for future posts.  I welcome your ideas!

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Back to School Night, Sept 30th

9/22/2015

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Hello parents!

It is that time of year again to welcome the community and parents to our school for Back to School Night!  You can download the informative flyer  that the front office is distributing by clicking the link above.

For those of you who were able to read my email welcoming you to the new school year, you are already aware of how my BTSN presentation will be FLIPPED this year.   (those who didn't get my email, please scroll down below)


  Please watch my video prior to Back to School Night.   I tried to keep it a bit shorter than the BTSN schedule, which is 10 minutes; it is 9 minutes long.  THANK YOU in advance for taking the time out of your busy schedules to watch this.  I am definitely not a professional videographer or movie maker, so bare with me as I did the best I could with the time I had :-)

  I hope after watching the video that you will be able to come to my classroom during your child's English 1H or 2H period (the Bell Schedule for the evening can be found on the document link above) and participate in the "Meet and Greet" with me, Ms. Smart (student teacher), and other parents/students.  Come with any questions, concerns, ideas, or suggestions.  I look forward to meeting you then!   If you are unable to attend, at least you are still able to learn about your son/daughter's English class through the video below:
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Make sure to get your child's class/teacher/room number schedule ahead of time. They will have campus maps available. Each class period lasts only 10 minutes. I encourage you to come and participate in the PTSA meeting to learn about school updates. See you then!
If you  did not receive my email, you can subscribe to my emailing list by going to my Parents Page  or on the right of this blog post. I'd be happy to forward my last email to you as well, if you request it. 

Below is the information I shared in my email about how Back to School Night will be different in my class this year:

"This year, I plan to do something a little different for Back to School Night.   Traditionally, parents come to PHS and sit and listen to my ten minute presentation about my English class.  Having parents come was always beneficial; however, there was very rarely enough time left for questions.
 In an effort to innovate and improve how I meet the needs of our families at Pacifica High School, my English 1H Presentation will be given online via my YouTube channel prior to BTSN (inspired by other educators who have paved the way with this approach). It will be posted on my Parent Newsletter Blog by the end of this week for parents to watch ahead of time. I will send out a quick email once it is ready. Should you not have access to the necessary technology, I will have the presentation available in my classroom during the Meet-and-Greet for you to watch.

 "Then, on the actual evening of Back to School Night (9/30), I will have an "Open-Classroom Meet & Greet" allowing for more parent communication time, answering of questions about the presentation/school year, and just getting to know each other as we build our team to support each student's learning experience.  

 "Here are the many positives for an On-Line Back-to-School Information Presentation coupled with a "Meet the Teacher" night:

- 24/7, year-long access to the same valuable background information
- Watch at your convenience from anywhere on any type of device
- Allows for time to process all the 10th grade information and opens up time for question and answer
- If parents are unable to attend, they can still access the important information
- Student's who may join during the school year can have their parents still access the same information as those whose child started at the beginning of the school year.
- Allows for more contact time with each parent at the Meet-and-Greet
- Uses technology to enhance communication between parents and teacher
- If language translation is needed, this allows for that possibility

 "With these positives, I hope that you will see the benefits of this new innovative format for Back-to-School Night.

 "I look forward to building strong relationships to support depth of learning and high levels of growth and success for each and every student. And  I look forward to meeting you at Back to School Night! Please come with any questions ."


      See you at BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT!





1 Comment

Correction about student teacher

9/22/2015

2 Comments

 
I have a quick correction to make from the email I sent out to all parents on September 20th.  Ms. Smart, my student teacher, will be co-teaching periods 2, 5, &  6, not 1, 5, 6.  My apologies if this caused any confusion.

Kind Regards,
Mrs. Housepian
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    Mrs. Housepian, your child's English 2H teacher and motivator!

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Room 501 (new building!)
Pacifica High School
6851 Lampson Ave., Garden Grove, CA 92845
(714) 663-6515
Garden Grove Unified School District
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