Hello and welcome to English III/ Communications .

My name is Ms. Walston and this is my second year at Sterling HS. I’m excited to be teaching all of you and look forward to a fun a productive year

We will receive notebooks once everyone's schedule has been finalized.

I have extremely high expectations for each and every one of you.

I believe in you and want to ensure you have every opportunity to excel in life.

I can guarantee you that taking an interest in getting an education will make your life more interesting.

Class Rules

• No Cell Phones
• No Restroom Breaks
• No Sleeping
• No Profanity
• No Food or Beverages

These are non- negotiable

Please remember, this classroom is my space. I've spent many hours and hundreds of dollars decorating it in a way that we all can appreciate. This is my house during the day, all week long, for 9 months a year, and you are my guest.

Please respect my space and do not leave supplies, trash, or any unwanted materials on the ground, on the tables, or anywhere else in this room when you leave. I wouldn’t trash your house if I were your guest, please don’t trash mine.

We will discuss behavior expectations later and you will do a group project so that I know you completely understand what I expect of you. I will also go over the behavior management plan and explain the procedures for parent/administrator contact should you deviate from this plan.

Also, your seating will most likely change several times over the course of this semester. Please understand that this is only to facilitate learning and effective group work. If I ask you to move, please comply immediately so as to maximize instructions time.

You will be expected to work in groups and present your work to the class every day. This method is called the jigsaw method and is used to facilitate student centered, project based learning.

When you arrive in my classroom, please get your journal and sit quietly at your desk- There will be a do now every day and you are expected to begin working on that as soon and you sit down at your desk.

There is a NO OPT OUT policy in my classroom. Does anyone know what that means?

That means that if, and when, I call on you to answer a question, you will be engaged and ready to discuss your answer. If you do not know the answer I will call on another student until the correct answer is given. I will then call on each previous student to repeat the correct answer.

In my classroom I expect students to respect each other’s voice and time, therefore, you must raise your hand if you have a question or comment.

Do not yell out, talk over me or other students, make fun of or insult other’s points of view, and you must be respectful when other students are talking or answering questions.

As part of the overall literacy strategy at NFHS – I will implement an EVERYBODY WRITES strategy in my classroom. That means each day I will give you a writing prompt and you will be required to respond in writing AND share out to the class if asked to do so.

As part of our STAAR preparation strategy, once a week, we will practice a read aloud and answer aloud. We will read, as a group, STAAR reading and writing passages and then discuss the best strategies for answering the accompanying questions. Also, once a month we will work on a timed writing prompt- you will write between 4 and 5 paragraphs in 45 minutes.

In order to become a globally competitive student, you will be expected to do a research project and presentation once every 6 weeks. This is non-negotiable.

You will also be expected to complete peer reviews of each group’s presentation so that you and your peers can become better presenters.

GRADE SPEED- You should be checking your grades every day. You should have a good understanding of why you have the grade you have in this class. Do not ask me why you have the grade you have or say things like “Why you fail me?” If you have a questions about your grade it needs to be specific and regarding a particular assignment. If you need to have a conference with me about your grade be sure that you have all of the assignments in question with you and available for review.

All make up work will be posted in either Edmodo or on the HUB. You are responsible for looking it up and completing it in a timely manner. If you are absent and it is excused, points will not be taken off for late work. If it is not excused, there will be 10 points taken off for each day it is late.

You are tardy if you arrive after the bell rings to begin class, even if you arrive 30 seconds after the bell. After the first 15 minutes, you will be marked absent.
Students who are in the hallway after the tardy bell rings must go to any Grade Level Administrator’s office to get their ID scanned. It will be documented and a pass will be printed for the student.

3 Tardies: Student Parent conference

6 Tardies: Administrative Detention

9 Tardies: Saturday Detention

12 Tardies: ISS

15 Tardies: OSS