Grades, Projects, and Tardies

Image by jesseducation via Flickr

The local  middle school has made our lives as parents a little bit simpler by using a website called SnapGrades. This site is updated by each teacher daily or weekly(when they have time) with each students progress. Homework, projects, tests, tardies and missed days. Including PE, you can see how well they run the mile each week. If a student is falling behind the teacher can contact you via this website and stay on top of your child, and if they need to talk to the student about something they can leave a note on the website for both parent and student to see.

I am able to log on at anytime and see my child's current grade in each class. Any missing assignments, and their current GPA. I also receive a weekly email with current information.

Middle school is a difficult transition, and with help of a simple website like this, we can all keep our children on the right track. If your school doesn't have this type of simple communication maybe it's time to suggest it. I only wish they had it in my daughters high school. *Sigh*

Here is the website. If you watch the demo it will give you a nice introduction.

http://snapgrades.net/

Middle School is for Growing

Last week I attended back to school night at my daughters middle school. The parents had a twelve minute visit with each teacher gathering information about each subject they will be teaching this school year.
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My daughters third period class is Advanced Art. After the information portion of her presentation she became very solemn and proceeded to tell us that last year the school had lost two students. The first one was a sixth grade girl who had an aneurysm in her sleep and passed away. The other student was her own son. He was an eighth grader who was hit by a car while riding his bike. She claimed that she wasn't telling us these stories to make us sad. However, she wanted us to be aware that middle school grades are not looked at for college. That each moment we have with our children is precious, and this is not the time to push them with grades, even it they come home with a bad grade.
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Think about this... We only have our children for eighteen years until they go off to college. The days become weeks, and then years. Once we open our eyes they are adults and time has passed us by.
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Love your child(ren) every minute you can. Life is lived daily, and they deserve our best.