After a Long Absence, The Blog is Back

Hello Otter Families,

So sorry for the lapse in blog posts. I'll try to be more diligent with regular posts for the duration of the school year.

Since last time, we have had our Otter Awards assembly and quarterly auction. Congratulations to the many students who achieved academic honors. Two-thirds of the class was recognized for the second quarter, and remarkably, twenty students earned a 4.0 grade point average. This is a testament to the hard work that is happening on the Otter team. Thanks to you parents for all the support that you give your child. It really does take a village to raise a child!

I hope you all had a relaxing President's Week off from school. I got to go and see my youngest child participate in her last college swim meet. It seems like her first swim meet at five years old was just yesterday. Time flies by and before you know it, your children will be all grown up! Enjoy sharing these precious years them. I also was fortunate to be able to attend the California League of Middle Schools annual conference, where I learned a great deal about current happenings in middle school education. It was a good educational experience for me.

We are already halfway into the third quarter of school. Time is passing quickly and we still have much to do. This week I shared with the class a great secret to school success; participation. The most successful students are the ones who are enthusiastic and active participants in class. I told the kids that if they would do this, they would see many results. The day would go faster, school would be more interesting, school would become easier, and they would do better. If your child is struggling, please encourage him or her to try becoming an active participant.

Academically speaking, in math we recently finished our unit on percents and have moved on to probability. Probability is closely tied to our study of fractions, decimals, and percents. In social studies we just finished our study of ancient India and are just beginning our unit on ancient China.

In case you haven't heard, Dartmouth is being considered for California Distinguished School award. We are one of only 100 secondary schools out of 2600 in California. There are only three schools in Santa Clara county up for this award. This is really quite an honor. Our last stage of the process is an official visit and observation, which will occur this coming Thursday. The visitors will observe teaching practices in the classroom, as well as overall school environment. They will also get input from students, staff, and the local community. If your child has any Dartmouth wear please have him or her show school spirit by wearing it on Thursday.

This Friday, March 11 is a teacher in-service day. There will be no school for students.

I think that brings us up to date.

Until next week.

Mrs. Shimamoto