Tips for Starting Middle School

Tips for getting your kid ready for Robinson:

* Read and play games with your kids. Always keep it short and fun! Here are two at home math games that you can play with your kids At home math games. Short stories are the best! I'm currently reading 13 Stories that Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen to my rising seventh grader and it has a few gems in there (although I wouldn't read all of them - some are a bit racy for my kid).

* Recognize that the 4 point scale is gone. Students are now being graded on a percentage (out of 100 points).

* Students in FCPS will be using the rolling grade book. That means that there is no quarterly restart. Your twenty point assignment in the first quarter will be worth the same amount and still be present in the fourth quarter; however, by the time fourth quarter rolls around there will be a lot more points stored in the grade book. The takeaway here is that it is a lot easier to start strong and maintain than to catch up in the fourth quarter.

* Students cannot earn less than a 50% on any assignment, even if they don't turn it in.

* Students have 10 days after the deadline to turn in an assignment with the maximum penalty being 20% reduction off the earned grade.

* Check SIS (Student VUE and/or Parent VUE) regularly. If your kid has a phone, download the app. Make sure your kid knows where to find their grades and their individual listed assignments. These features are different from elementary school.

* Teachers will use Schoology as the communication between parents, students, and teachers; however, google assignments (on google docs and slide decks for instance) will still exist.

* Students will have an email address that they should check periodically. You can set filters on it in the settings to bring individual emails (versus group emails) to the top. This might help your student filter out the white noise emails. Notifications should be turned off because they will be a distraction. Google and Schoology love to send emails about every edit. Just set a regular time to check your email once or twice a week.

Hope this helps and enjoy the rest of your summer!