Things to know about your teacher Ms. Emma Abruptly!!

Hello lovely students! I will be the instructor of Biology for 7th & 8th graders at Mannanda Middle School. It is my pleasure to be working with the school, and to partner up excelling students to the next level of science! I have taught here at Mannanda Middle School for 3 years, and this will be my 4th year here. I have received a masters degree in English Composition, bachelor degree in Applied Mathematics, and a Doctorate Degree in Biochemistry, Environmental Science around Physics, & in  Curriculum Organization. I take my job as a teacher in a personal level, so if there is anything that needs to be discussed or if there are any issues that needs to be addressed, please stop by room or catch me in the halls to let me know about anything!

For the previous years at this school,  I have taught Honors Algebra I, Honors Prealgebra, Honors 7th & 8th Grade Science, Pre-Ap 8th Grade English, and Honors Biology.

This year I will be instructing the courses: Honors Earth & Space Science for 6-8th Graders and Honors Biology for 7/8th graders.

Mannanda Middle School
Room 301 (Chemistry Laboratory)

School Cell Phone- ###-EABRUPTLY4
School Email- eabruptly4@rhisd.us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bOH6xaVZLQ

 

Course Description

The course of Biology is the study of living things and their vital processes. The field deals with all the physicochemical aspects of life. The modern tendency toward cross-disciplinary research and the unification of scientific knowledge and investigation from different fields has resulted in significant overlap of the field of biology with other scientific disciplines. Modern principles of other fields—chemistry, medicine, and physics, for example—are integrated with those of biology in areas such as biochemistry, biomedicine, and biophysics.

We will also learn about the cell, the molecular foundation of heredity, biological evolution, organism interdependence, matter and energy, organization in living systems, and organism behavior. Biology also teaches us about our bodies, diseases, fertilizers and pesticides, resource management, conserving the environment, and responsibility for ecosystem maintenance. It teaches us about our bodies, their parts, and how they function. It also explains diseases and their causes, as well as how fertilizers and pesticides effect living things. It also explains how to utilize fertilizers to improve soil quality and how weedicides and pesticides effect living organisms.

Biology is 9th grade level science that is usually taken Freshman year, this course is known to be a complex field of life and can be easily be boring and it is my job as your Biology teacher to eliminate that method and hearing each classes thoughts to fix things that will workout to a solution that must be solved.  As a field of science, biology helps us understand the living world and the ways its many species (including humans) function, evolve, and interact. Advances in medicine, agriculture, biotechnology, and many other areas of biology have brought improvements in the quality of life.

Biology is a Graduation Requirement for ONE HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT in the department for science. When students finish taking Biology in their 7th, 8th, or 9th grade year, they will take the course called Chemistry which is the branch of science that deals with the properties, composition, and structure of elements and compounds, how they can change, and the energy that is released or absorbed when they change. Taking this course will also give you the 1 Year Middle School credit needed for graduation from Mannanda Middle School.

The Biology that students will learn will be in level that will comprehensive to Middle/High School students to be able to gain the knowledge when studying Biology. To have a complete education in Biology, this course will take about 3-4 years to complete in order to have the complete knowledge of what the study of life is.

 

NOTE: For students who are taking Biology in 7th Grade - Depending on what you have scored on the final assessment EOC exam, you will either be placed in Environmental Science or Chemistry. If your score is great enough, you will be placed in Chemistry and depending on how your schedule works, you can be placed in both or the other(Environmental Science).

If you did NOT score well enough on the Final Assessment EOC Exam for Biology, you will be placed in Environmental Science in which it has the same level as Biology.

 

Daily In Class Expectations: 

When your student has me for this semester, students will be expected to do a bell ringer when coming into my classroom, on the first day of class; the bell ringer is primarily preparing students of what to expect for the course and giving them the time to think about the Biology course in general, after from there; the bell ringers will always have a maximum up to 30 questions and when super bell ringers come into play, it will be 57 questions but this depends on what concepts my students will need practice on to get the idea into our head. These bell ringers will always have topics of what we have covered in the past; this will keep the memory of the lessons to still be in the students head so that they do not forget.

When students have completed the bell ringer in the required timeframe to them, we will browse through our books and begin the lesson; the more topics we begin to study, the more information will display on the bell ringer so students may practice. Students will be asked to write notes in their journals, with no regard for the terminology in the diary. I will require them to think critically about the information provided in the book and to summarize things for them to grasp.

When we finish the lesson in class, students are required to complete an exit ticket, which is usually given every time before class ends. Exit tickets are only completed during the day that is given; however, exit tickets are mostly just going over what we went through today and making sure that they have learned the things that are supposed to be understood.

When an upcoming test is about to take place, I provide my students with reviews which will always be for a grade and will be expected to be done before taking the actual test. The test is a major grade and students will not be able to afford a zero and just pass on, students will be required to take a new test with new test questions until they pass that test.

 

Class Organization System

Materials required for this class: (It's better if you have supplies to have better organization of where your work should be)

For this 1 year Biology course, you will need the following supplies to satisfy the materials to be organized when taking Biology.
  Note: I promise that if you get organized, you will have a better motivation of being productive when studying throughout this course.

• Only ONE Binder for the rest of the year of taking Biology to place your work and note-assistance papers to be in.
• ONE NOTEBOOK for when taking notes, and writing down important events,
• You must have ONE FOLDER to place your data, statistics, and any type of chart to determine your grades.
• One of the best tools that you must have is A PENCIL and you must have at least 2 packs in case you lose them.
• You must also carry ERASERS with you during the semester of this course.
• You must have HIGHLIGHTERS to highlight important parts of a textbook that is provided to us by the school district.
• The 9th Grade High School Biology: ACY 2017-2018 Edition that is provided to you by the front office, the color of the cover is Green!!

If students may not have the funds to assist themselves with the required supplies that are used for my Biology course, then I will surely give them the supplies that will be given only if it is valid.

 

What do I do with Attendance?

Present (P) - A student must be here and I will take attendance on a daily basis, if a student is present; then they will receive a 100 percent in the gradebook for the attendance grade group. 

Late (L) - When a student is late, this will be a 70 percent that will be insert in the gradebook and I can only count a student late when the class period is halfway through or when class is about to end.

Absent (A) - When a student is missing in my class and it is unexcused, it is critical since you are in a high school class environment and you are expected to be present on time, you cannot afford to have a 0 since attendance is part of a group that will significantly affect your grade for this course. When a student misses a day of class, they must come after school or during a time when I can assist them in catching up for my class; if this is not possible, they must catch up on the next day they see me.

The story is different if it's on a test day, they must schedule a time to take the test before leaving for the week.

*ATTENDANCE IS GRADED!!!

The reason why attendance is counted as the graded is to show the accuracy of how much you been learning and how often you been coming to class and the grade speaks for itself. Attendance will counted as a tardy if the lesson has started, if the student seems to not understand the subject, that is a tardy and the student must come after school during tutoring hours to make up that tardy. If the student is lucky enough to already understands what the topic is about, then that will NOT be a tardy. 

During testing days, if the student is not present or tardy; it will be an automatic absent or tardy and CANNOT make up for this action. If there is a medical excuse or something is seriously wrong, please immediately call the principal, counselors, nurse, or me to talk about how we can make up the attendance.

 

Class Safety Protocols

Hazardous Chemical Spills: in case of a chemical spill that is hazardous, students must immediately call for the teacher to make sure to clean up the mess and making sure an expert is able to clean the mess.

 

Class Grading Policy

• Minor/Spiral (10%)
  • Minor Grade
• Activity/Assignment/Participation (15%)
  • Minor Grade
• Review/Lab/Research (20%)
  • Major GRade
• Test/Quiz/Project (25%)
  • Major grade

If a student misses a day of important instructions and lessons, the student is required to come after school to make up the missing hours and to make sure they are not failing the class since the student hasn't done the activity that is required. If a student has not completed the condition of not coming after school due to a missing day whenever a semester ends, the grade will be entered as a 0 in the gradebook since there hasn't been any effort or actions made into completing this assignment(this would be fair!)

 

As the students and I will go around on a fun journey during the course of Biology, we hope to discover many different materials that is needed to cover in order for you to obtain the knowledge that is needed when you are enrolled in Biology.