Thank you for visiting. Here you will find class summaries as well as homework for the class your student joins me for. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at ahorban@mcmish.org.
 
***MAKE-UP WORK: If students need to make-up any activities, they need to come in before school at 7:30 or stay in during recess.  These times need to be pre-arranged so I can plan accordingly.

At Mishawaka Catholic we have a unique science curriculum. Our learning comes from a series of activities that range from readings to labs with specialty equipment. To go along with these activities, students keep journals where they take notes such as vocab, lab observations, or information from class discussions. The journals also contain student answers to analysis questions that follow each activity. The journal grade accounts for 35% of the total class grade. Our Journals are due every Friday.

There is always more than enough time in class to work on the activities and analysis questions. In the event that extra time is needed due to an absence or other circumstance, extra time can be scheduled before or after school.

This year students will be discussing topics in 3 general areas of study: Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth Science.

**Change in classroom structure* *

In this last unit of study for the year we will be studying weather and atmosphere. Due to the limited time frame of our last few weeks together there are a few challenges when is comes to grading and monitoring student learning.  We will most likely not be able to complete the unit.  I had to make a few changes to make it easy to "cut-off" the unit material at any point, and most likely without a wrap-up exam.

1. The first change is how we do journals.  I will be checking journals for completion after every activity, then as a class, we will grade/correct all questions.  Journal grades will be based on the set-up (complete Table of Contents, Titles...), complete sentences, and having all questions answered / corrected.

2. Another change comes with the unit scoring guides.  We will not be having one this unit.  Instead, students were given a vocab list which they are responsible for filling in as we go.  It will be collected at the end of the year and graded based on how far we got in the unit.

3. Every Friday (unless under special circumstances which will be announced), we will have a recap quiz.  The quizzes will be short and will review the activities we completed that week only.

At Mishawaka Catholic we have a unique science curriculum. Our learning comes from a series of activities that range from readings to labs with specialty equipment. To go along with these activities, students keep journals where they take notes such as vocab, lab observations, or information from class discussions. The journals also contain student answers to analysis questions that follow each activity. The journal grade accounts for 35% of the total class grade. Our Journals are due every Friday. There is always more than enough time in class to work on the activities and analysis questions. In the event that extra time is needed due to an absence or other circumstance, extra time can be scheduled before or after school. This year students will be discussing topics in 3 general areas of study: Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth Science. We started the year with a unit a few students previewed last year as 7th graders.

Our main goal is deepening the student's understanding of their faith and strengthening their bond with God.

This year we are using the Blessed Are We religion books. A daily Religion class period would look like: starting out with a question that foreshadows the lesson followed by a reading assignment done as a class. After the reading, there are a few more summary questions and a self reflection activity.

One of our smaller curriculum goals is trying to finish a chapter about every 5 class periods. A chapter layout consists of about 2-3 days of reading and reflecting, a review worksheet and chapter review, follow by a chapter test on the 5th day.

Robotics is one of the many electives Mishawaka Catholic offers. In class we are learning about the background of robotics (i.e. what they are, what they do...), building, and programming.

Rise Up Academy
Andrea Horban