Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year!

Over the years, one of the biggest obstacles I have heard homeschooling/unschooling parents discuss time and time again, is lack of student motivation.  My hope is that this class will help you overcome that hurdle.  In this class students will tackle interesting academic projects throughout the school year, but, also learn valuable skills, gain confidence, and make life long friends while doing it.  As a teacher, the biggest mistake I have seen in traditional education is trying to push skills and academics in a certain order. Often students are not ready to progress or they are bored and possibly acting out.  Instead of flourishing and loving the pursuit of knowledge, often young learners rebel and begin to have self-doubts.  It is my belief that a well structured class that treats learners as individuals can show learning is fun and help students recognize that they are capable learners with skills. 

This class is for students entering Sixth and Seventh grade that would like to meet with a class and teacher on a regular basis for the school year.  It is great for students that need a bit of structure and motivation throughout the school year. It is also a wonderful opportunity for students to gain study skills, confidence, develop projects, work on organization and socialize. The first part  of this class runs through December and then students will have the opportunity to renroll for the second part of the school year.  

This class is for students entering Sixth and Seventh grade that would like to meet with a class and teacher on a regular basis for the school year.  It is great for students that need a bit of structure and motivation throughout the school year. It is also a wonderful opportunity for students to gain study skills, confidence, develop projects, work on organization and socialize. The first part  of this class runs through December/January and then students will have the opportunity to renroll  in the same class for the second part of the school year.  

Sample class break down:
Students enter class and have social time and time to meet with teacher if needed (first 5 minutes).  Down the road, this will also include 10 minutes of DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) some days, after we get through our Love of Reading Unit.
Circle time: (10 minutes)  Students will each share how they are doing (x2) based on a numerical value/or drawing and discuss why we chose that number/drawing, we also will bring things in to share with the class once a week.
Skills Building (20 minutes):  This will be more individualized based on student needs.  I expect unschoolers will work on a weekly project that they would like to accomplish.  Homeschoolers will work based on their curriculum.  Each week we will focus on one study skill and try to incorporate it into our daily academic life.  On the last day of the week students will do a check in with instructor to discuss their work/project and needs.
Social Time (10 minutes)  Using a bunch of different mediums, students will begin craft projects as a class, play games such as kahoot or scribble io.  This is time to socialize before we start our day.

Sample Class Schedule:

Week One
Skill: Homework/Project Folder and how it can help us throughout the school year/ Making New Friends
Craft:  "My first week"  Students will each create a first week of school picture and will add another picture their last week at the end of the school year.  We will also create an " I Am" page to tell others about ourselves.
Games:  Show and Tell,  students will vote on games.

Supplies:  
Students will need a notebook for this class.  Single subject or a journal is fine.

Students will need to print off a picture or have a parent take a picture of their first day of class.  You can take a screen shot of them on zoom and print it off.  I would resize to fit about a quarter of the page they are using.  They will need construction paper, scissors, something to color with and a pencil.  Stickers are optional.

Bright Colored Folder:  We choose bright colors to see our homework/project folder easier.  Students will also be finding a regular place to keep their folder in the home.

Week Two
Skill:  Planning a Project/Organization.  Students will choose a grade appropriate project to work on during the week and show the class on Friday.  Teacher will have some examples.
Project:  varies based on student choices
Game:  Leadership Kahoot

Supplies:  Vary

Week Three
Skill:  Map Reading/Counting and Spending Money/My Favorite State/Country
Project:  Collage-students will tell us about their state/country based on their collage pictures.
Game:  State Capitols/ Countries around the world/Shopping in my country of choice

Supplies:  Construction Paper/ print outs or magazine pictures.  They can also draw pictures.
Teacher will provide handout of world map

Week Four
Skill: Reading For Fun/DEAR (Drop Everything and Read)/  We will begin our Figures of Speech Game/Unit
Project: As a class we will discuss different types of books and choose what genre we like best.
Handout provided by teacher
Game:  Students will vote

Supplies:  After this week we will begin to keep a reading journal.  Some weeks students will be given time in homeroom to read when they first come into class.  Their books should be accessible.  Please choose a book/audio book/kindle book with your student based on their interest.  The goal is to pick a book they will love, that will keep them wanting to read more.  They should have this book for the beginning of our classes moving forward. Students will figure out how many pages they need to read to finish their book by the end of week nine.  Week Ten we will have a Book Club Party/Meeting.  Whoever finds a certain number of figures of speech in their book as they are reading and writes them in their journals will win an award at the end of the course.

Week Five
Skill:  Communication/Helping Others
Project:  Parent Journal/Service Project
Supplies:  This week students will begin a journal or notebook that they will write in a few times a week in order to leave messages for their parents.  Please pick a place students should leave this journal so parents can respond to what they write.  This is a great parent-student communication tool.

Week Six
Skill:  SMART Goals
Project:  Setting SMART Goals/Self-care
Update on Service Project and discussion on care for others versus care for self, why they are both important.

Week Seven
Skill: What are rights?  Magna Carta/Locke/Hobbes
Project:  Create your own Utopia
Game:  Bill of Rights


Week Eight

Skill:  Healthy Me
Project:  My Body
Game:  Go Noodle


Week Nine
Skill:  Deadlines/ Not procrastinating
Project:  To Do List/Choose a recipe for final book club meeting
Game:  Kahoot

Week Ten
Book Club Meeting  (Friday)
Project:  On Friday, students will show and share the recipe of their food/drink choice.  They will also fill out a form to share with the class about their book.  We will go over our figures of speech and crown our winners.