August 25, 2008

Dear Parents and Students,
Welcome to the 2008-2009 school year. I am looking forward to having each student in my class this year. I would like to share the following information about my class with you. If you have any questions, please call me at the school or e-mail me at ljones@merkel.esc14.net . Information about my class can also be found on my website within the Merkel ISD website at www.merkel.esc14.net . Please sign the bottom of this letter and have your child return it to school. Thank you.

Class Rules
1. Come to class prepared. This includes having homework assignments completed.
2. Do not disrupt class.
3. No food, drinks, candy, gum, or grooming items in the classroom.
4. Respect everyone-yourself, students, teachers, and school staff.
5. Work hard, be creative, and have fun.

Discipline
Consequences: 1. Verbal Warning
2. Sign the discipline book (Every fourth time the book is signed, the conduct grade for the six weeks will drop one letter.)
3. Sign book and discipline referral
4. Phone call home and discipline referral
5. Trip to the office
Severe disruptions: Trip to the office.
** A phone call home may be made at any step.
** Detention with Mrs. Jones may be an option instead of a discipline referral.

Students will earn their conduct grade each six weeks. Every fourth time a student signs the discipline book, his/her conduct grade will drop one letter. Example: sign the book 3 times, conduct grade E; sign the book 6 times, conduct grade S.



Assignments
Students begin class each day with warm-up activities. This will consist of proofreading activities and a journal entry. Students will write each day in their journal for 3-5 minutes. We will have spelling assignments each week, with a quiz over the words on Wednesday. We will have writing assignments and projects throughout the year.

Cheating/Copying/Plagiarism
Any student who cheats, copies, or plagiarizes will receive a zero on the assignment and a discipline referral. Repeat offenses will result in ISS. Any student who allows another to copy will receive the same punishment. Plagiarism is copying from a book, magazine, newspaper, the Internet, or other academic source without giving that source credit. Even copying just one sentence or key phrase is plagiarism.

Grades
Grades will be taken on a daily basis. Daily work/homework and spelling will count once. Tests, essays, and projects will count twice.
If a student fails a paper, a correction assignment may be available to raise a grade to a maximum of 70. Correction assignments will not be available for work that was failing due to being incomplete. Late papers will not be accepted after 3 days and missed quizzes/tests must be made up within a week.

Supplies
Supplies needed for this class will be the following: a three ring binder, dividers, pencils, pens, and notebook paper.

Textbooks
Students will have a writing/grammar book and a literature book issued to them. These books must be covered and can be kept in the student’s locker or at home since we will have class sets of each book to use in the classroom. Each student will be assigned a numbered textbook to use in class this year. Each student will be responsible for loss or damage of the class set textbook that he/she is assigned. Both the student’s books and the class set textbooks must be treated with care as they are quite expensive to replace. (Writing/grammar $43.00 Literature $52.25)



Co-Teachers
This year I am excited to be co-teaching two periods of the day. Mrs. Pate will co-teach 1st period and 2nd and Mrs. Dotson will co-teach 4th period.

Conferences
I will conference with parents as the need arises. If you would like to have a conference with me, please call me at the school. My conference period will be 3rd period. If this time is inconvenient, we can arrange another time for a conference.

If you would like to be contacted about your child’s progress via e-mail, please provide your e-mail address below. If I have your e-mail address, I can put it in my address book and any e-mail you send me will not go into my junk mail box.

I am looking forward to meeting each of you. I am excited about having your child in my class this year! Together we can accomplish great things.

Sincerely,

Lillian Jones
7th Grade English Teacher