Hello Parents and Students,

It was nice to meet and talk to some of you at the back-to-school night! I look forward to getting to know you in more detail (I assuming that this email is going both to students and parents). I am attaching the course syllabus (for the year) and the course outline (for the fall semester). If you have any questions about either of them, feel free to email me at veritas.sohmer@gmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

In regards to the accountability sheets: I will not be sending out accountability sheets for the students. My hope is to have them depend on and use their planners more. The reasoning for this is that I desire to help the students become more organized and be able to plan for more than just a week. I realize that giving accountability sheets is common practice, but due to this class also being a study skills class, I am trying to help them use a planner and calander. I figured this would be good training for them to be able to think and plan long-term, rather than just for a week. In light of this, I will be giving the students course outlines to encourage them to organize their semesters and work (we will do this Tuesday, see outline).  I will, however, remind students of certain dates and other big assignments, as well as offer class time to work on bigger assignments. This being said, I realize that this is for 8th graders, so I will be flexible in coaching them in developing their study skills. However, they are quickly approaching high school, and I have standards/hopes that they start to prepare and organize like high schoolers should.  I know they are competent and intelligent enough to do this. I see a lot of potential with this group and I look forward to partnering with them, and you, to help them grow.

If there are any questions you have for me, or about the course syllabi or outline, please contact me through the email located in the first paragraph. I am looking forward to a great year!

Cheers!

Mr. Sohmer