Bienvenidos a Octavo Grado! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all classwork and homework.  Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Sr. McCormack's office hours:

Monday    3:15-4:00

Friday      3:15-4:00

 Click here for the Course Overview

*A useful resource to help with the conjugation of -ar, -er and -ir verbs: click here

*Here is an outstanding website to help you with your listening skills.  It will also help you build your proficiency.  It is a site that is sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin.  Please click here to view it.

Weekly Assignments 5/20 - 5/24

We are going to continue studying our food unit as we finish composing our essays about how we can repair the earth.  We will also begin solidifying our final project ideas, which is to explain how to cook a typical dish from a Spanish speaking country using the affirmative and negative imperative verb forms. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 5/13 - 5/17

We are going to begin our last chapter about Latin American cuisine and the culture that surrounds it.  We will also be taking a short exam about direct and indirect object pronouns.

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 5/6 -5/10

Monday we will learn about Cinco de mayo.  Also , this week we are going to continue working with Direct Object Pronouns as we explore Indirect Object as well.  We will become confident in using the object pronouns as we move into our final unit of study.  We will explore the tasty cuisine from different Latin American countries and the unit will culminate in a cooking show format wherein we will have the option to cook something for the class as part of the final project. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/29 -5/1

This week we will begin working more closely with indirect and direct object pronouns as well as continuing to work with the future tense.  We will also start preparing for our food unit and the Spanish cuisine cook off. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/15 - 4/19

This week we will continue learning the future tense as well as continue writing an introductory paragraph to our "Cómo mejorar el medio ambiente" essays.  We will also put our Spanish language to use by creating cartoons.  After everything eighth grade has been working on it will be a nice creative way to have fun with the language.  The name of the website we will use is goanimate.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/22 - 4/26

This week we will be spending Monday in the computer lab finishing up our cartoons.  Then it's off to the swell.  Any questions about the trip are welcome until we ship off on Tuesday morning.

Weekly Assignments 4/15 - 4/19

This week we will continue learning the future tense as well as continue writing an introductory paragraph to our "Cómo mejorar el medio ambiente" essays.  We will also put our Spanish language to use by creating cartoons.  After everything eighth grade has been working on it will be a nice creative way to have fun with the language.  The name of the website we will use is goanimate.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/8 -4/12

This week we will continue to focus on the Earth and our role as stewards for the environment.  We will begin writing our essays about the topics we have chosen as well as debate the pros and cons of certain alternative energy.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/3 -4/5

This week we will look at the environment and decide on ways in which we can improve the natural world or make people aware of both the positive and negative impacts that humans have on the planet.

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/18-3/22

This week we will be wrapping up our unit on natural disasters and we will be celebrating the Spring Equinox as the Mayans do.  It will be a busy week, but it will give us more reason to appreciate Spring Break. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/11 - 3/15

This week we will continue to discuss natruaral disasters and heroic acts of everyday people.  We will also begin creating our own broadcasts that will incorporate a real world event as well as some creative segments that may or may not be supernatural. We are going to continue working with the past tense forms in addition to learning to use reported speech.

Classwork                                                                               Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/4 - 3/8

Holy Smokes. We just finished an incredible unit/units undersatnding various components of the past tense. Ater being a part of the First Innaugural Mcgillis Film Festival, I must say that the Mcgillis Film Festival must live on.  Our next unit will be a little less playful, but very meaningful nonetheless.  We will develop a complex skill dealing with reported speech and the medium will be newscasting. We will talk about real world events and events that have affected the world. The culminating project will be to give a real news report about a real news event.

CLASSWORK                                                                                    HOME LEARNING

Weekly Assignments 2/25 - 3/1

We will make our final edits on the Sundance films and show them to the eighth grade on Friday. We will also begin a new unit on natural disasters and acts of bravery.  We will will learn a lot of vocabulary that will enable us to recount a story about a disaster that has happened in the recent past.

 Classwork                                                                                                   Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 2/20 - 2/22

We will be filming our Sundance films both Wednesday and Tursday.  Friday is the tentative day to host the 8th grade McGillis Sundance Shorts Film Festival.  We will also spend the week catching up on missing or incomplete assignments. 

Classwork                                                                                 Home Learning

Weekly Assignments   2/11 - 2/15

This week we will continue working on our screenplays for our mock sundance film festival.  We will begin filming once the screenplays are complete and hopefully air the flims on Friday.  We will also continue working with various past tense verb forms.

Classwork                                                                                                     Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  2/4 - 2/8

 We will begin our own interpretations of our "La Odisea" projects as we further our understanding of the imperfect tense, especially learning how the the auxillary verb "HABER" works.  We will gain some insight into how certain Hispanic cultures celebrate different holidays and we will discuss how those celebrations differ from our own.  Furthermore, we will continue with our individual shorts project, which is going to be a compilation of short film ideas to be presented in a Sundance format in front of the entire 8th grade student body upon completion. 

Classwork                                                       Home Learning

 Weekly Assignments  1/28 - 2/1

We will continue to read from "La Odisea" while we begin a new project.  The new project consists of developing characters, creating a plot and  writing a sequel to the "Billy La Bufanda" saga.  This will be an ongoing project that will culminate in a whole class production.  Aside from movies and literature we are also exploring culture through Mexican cuisine and how much food is a part of Latin American culture.  In doing so we are going to take a field trip to La Macarena restaurant on Friday.  We will leave school at lunch time and return in time for the final period of the day.  I suggest that each student brings between $10-$15 dollars.  Most items on the menu are under $10  but with drinks and a tip $10 might not be sufficient.

Classwork                                                      Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/21 - 1/25

We will have a very truncated week coming up with the holiday on Monday and the first day of W.O.W on Thursday. Keeping that in mind we we will start a new unit the following week.  The two days that we will be in class this week will be spent reading some passages from the Odyssey as well as preparing for our field trip to a Mexican restaurant, which I'm hoping will happen in two weeks.  You will be getting an email from me as to when we will go after all of the logistics are ironed out.  I wish everyone a restful and fun-filled three day weekend!

Classwork                                   Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/4 - 1/19

We will cement our understanding of the preterite and imperfect tenses by reading a truncated version of The Odyssey.  We will read certain passages as a whole class, then we will read portions of the story in small groups and act out the book in our small groups using a technique called reading theatre.  We will also take an exam on the preterite, imperfect, and present progressive tenses.  There will be an oral compontent to the test as well.

CLASSWORK                                                          HOME LEARNING

Weekly Assignments  1/7 - 1/11 

We will continue studying the imperfect and past simple tenses.  We will use our knowledge of the imperfect in order to read some passages from the Odyssey (La Odisea).  We will also begin preparing for a cumultive test in order to check for understanding of the four basic skills of language comprehension.

Classwork                                                                  Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/2-1/4

We will review some simple past tense verbs the present progressive and we will dive into the imperfect past tense in order to prepare for the reading of the Odyssey (La Odisea).

  Classwork                                                Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  12/10-12-14

Last week we worked diligently on our storybird stories, which are all very unique and super creative.  Well done 8th Grade!  The week that is upon us will allow us to use our productive and expressive language skills.  We will interview one another about our each other stories and it will be done in the fashion of reporters interviewing a famous author, something I am sure can beome just as creative as the stories themselves.  In terms of grammar we will continue to build on what we know and increase our knowledge of the direct/indirect object pronouns while learning progressive verb forms.  Disfruten el fin de semana!  Hasta lunes.

Classwork                                     HomeLearning

Weekly Assignments  12/3-12-7

We will continue working on our Storybird stories.  Since there will be testing this week we may only meet twice so Monday we will spend more time collaborating in our pairs on our stories and we will develop plots.  Depending on how far we get on Monday we may be back in the lab on Friday.

Classwork                                       HomeLearning

Weekly Assignments 11/26-11/30

We will be building on many of the grammar points that have been threads throughout the first trimester while grasping the direct and indirect object pronouns that are pervasive in Spanish.  Our medium will be literature.  We will read a few short stories and extract the grammar points from them in order to understand how language is used in literature.  This week we will be focusing on past tense and reported speech using direct and indirect object pronouns.  This brief unit will culminate in a theatrical representation or publication of the student created story ideas.  The publication will hopefullly be posted using a web tool called storybird.

Weekly Assignments  11/12 -11/18

Com se va...?   How does one go? We are going to continue using the preterite while building vocabulary by using the command form of verbs.  The week will culminate with a scavenger hunt using Smart technology in order to listen to directions and find a hidden object.

Weekly Assignments  11/5 -11/9

Unfortunately there is another amendment to the schedule.  I apologize for this.   I am looking forward to a week that goes uninterrupted.  

The exam that was scheduled for Wednesday has been moved to Friday.  We will have a combined 8th grade calss on Wednesday.

My 8th grade class will teach Sr. Campbell's 8th grade class the game of Culpable. The exam will cover the cultural aspects that we have explored such as the Mexican Revolution, The Running of the Bulls and the benefits/detriments of technology.  

The grammar points that will be covered on the exam will be the differences between the verbs ser and estar (present and past), the preterite tense of the verbs ser, ir, hacer, tener poder, estar and a small part will be on the conditional tense. 

Weekly Assignments  10/29 -11/2

This week we will be wrapping up our unit on identity by preparing for an exam.  The exam will cover the cultural aspects that we have explored such as the Mexican Revolution, The Running of the Bulls and the benefits/detriments of technology.  

The grammar points that will be covered on the exam are the differences between the verbs ser and estar, the preterite tense of the verbs ser, ir, hacer and a small part will be on the conditional tense.  We will Review all week culminating with a game of Jeopardy to reinforce what we have reviewed.  The exam will be given on the following Wednesday.

Weekly Assignments  10/22 -10/26

This week I will be gone for for the first three days.  I will be with the 6th Grade students backpacking in the Uintahs.  In my stead Mr. G will teach on both Monday and Wednesday.  He will be conducting his lessons about the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona and the controversy that surrounds Bulfighting.  I will return to teach class on Thursday and Friday.  We will continue our work with the Preterite, which is necessary in order to talk about specific events in the recent and distant past.

Weekly Assignments  10/15 -10/19

Weekly Assignments   10/8/- 10/12

Weekly Assignments   10/1-10/5

Classwork                    Homework

Helpful Links:

www.studyspanish.com, www.notesinspanish.com, www.newsinslowspanish.com, www.123teachme.com, 

http://periodicoescolardelpablosorozabal.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/la-conjugacion-de-los-verbos-recursos-didacticos-para-primaria/

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/adv02.html?v=g

The 6th grade Sustainable Pathways project is centered around transportation, especially in relation to fossil fuels and emissions.

During the Fall, students completed research projects on both fossil fuels and alternative energy sources. We also spent time outside collecting data on idling cars during Lower School pick-up.

Using this knowledge and data, the students embarked on a project to create informative websites, film infomercials, and create posters that will be used to inform and educate the McGillis community on ways to refine their transportation choices to lessen their impact on the environment. The websites the students created can be found here:

http://smogblog.weebly.com

http://theworldneedsachange.weebly.com

http://apollutionsolution.weebly.com

http://o-zonesquad.weebly.com 

The students will be hanging their posters and showing their infomercials in the coming weeks. We hope to see positive change when we collect further data in the months ahead.

Click here for the class web page: 8th Grade Outdoor Education 

To view the full OEA structure during a students' middle school experience, click here.

Welcome to 8th Grade English

Study Hall/Office Hours:

Monday afternoon: 3:15 - 4:00p.m.

Thursday morning: 7:30 - 8:15 a.m.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

RESOURCES

Click on the links below to access a sample of the MLA documentation style, the Keyhole Essay format and our course overview. Students will use this format for all typed essays and paragraphs in 7th and 8th grade English, and I will review this information in class. 

8th Grade Keyhole Essay and Outline Format

MLA Style Example

Grade 8 Course Overview

WRITING CONTESTS:

The link below is a source for some of the better writing contests for students. Essay, poetry or short story contests can be wonderful motivators for students who are interested in writing. Although the occasional class assignment may work for writing contests, it is not my goal to offer writing assignments with specific contests in mind. However, I will be happy to work individually with students who are interested in writing a for any of these contests or others.

Academic and Writing Contests

GOOD BOOKS: Click below to link to a list of books that have received The Michael L. Printz Award for Teen Literature. This award is given annually to books that demonstrate the qualities of literary excellence in young adult literature.

Michael L. Printz Award Winners

WEEKLY SCHEDULE:

True Grit Essay Topics

May 20-24 (ERB Week)

Monday 8B/Tuesday 8W: Discussion of American Romanticism and Introduction to Into the Wild. Homework: Read chapters 1-3. Begin working on graduation speeches.

Tuesday 8B/Wednesday 8W: Working on graduation speeches/ Homework: Read ch. 4-5

Thursday: Graduation speeches/ Homework: Read ch. 6-7.

Friday: Homework: Bring a ROUGH DRAFT of your graduation speech to class today. Read ch. 8-10 and finish your graduation speeches.

May 28-31 (Memorial Day Weekend--No School on Monday)

Tuesday: Graduation speeches due today! Homework: Read ch. 11-13

Wednesday: (8W Only) TBA

Thursday:

Friday:

Please visit the following site for the full class website.

http://mrwaterhouse.weebly.com 

Welcome to 8th Grade Geometry! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all math work. Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Mr. Waterhouse's office hours: 

Tuesday 7:30-8:10 AM and Thursday 3:15-4:00 PM

You may contact me at anytime via email at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and I will reply within 24 hours. Thanks.

Welcome to the third trimester of 6th grade Visual Arts. Students will spend approximately three weeks in each of the following classes: Painting and Drawing taught by Ms. Sanchez, Ceramics taught by Mr. Canales, and Printmaking taught by Ms. McDermott. The session dates are as follows:

Session 1: March 5 - April 3 

Session 2: April 9 - May 1 

Session 3: May 7 - June 5 

Course Overview for Ms. McDermott's Printmaking Class

Course Overview for Ms. Sanchez's Painting and Drawing Class

Course Overview for Mr.Canales's Ceramics Class

To view the full OEA structure during a students' middle school experience, click here.

Please click here for the website: Ancient History

Welcome to Mrs. Gauthier's 7th grade English class!

Monday afternoon: 3:15--4:00 pm

Thursday morning: 7:30--8:15am

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

RESOURCES

Click on the links below to access a sample of the MLA documentation style, the Keyhole Essay format and the course overview. Students will use this format for all typed essays and paragraphs in 7th and 8th grade English, and I will cover this information in class as well. 

MLA Style

7th Grade Keyhole Essay and Outline Format

Grade 7 Course Overview

WRITING CONTESTS: The link below is a source for some of the better writing contests for students. Essay, poetry or short story contests can be wonderful motivators for students who are interested in writing. Although the occasional class assignment may work for writing contests, it is not my goal to offer writing assignments with specific contests in mind. However, I will be happy to work individually with students who are interested in writing for any of these contests or others.

Academic and Writing Contests

GOOD BOOKS: Click below to link to a list of books that have received The Michael L. Printz Award for Teen Literature. This award is given annually to young adult books that demonstrate the qualities of literary excellence.

Michael L. Printz Award Winners

We will finish the year by reading Lord of the Flies, a short novel about a group of English boys who are marooned on a tropical island when their plane crashes. There are no adult survivors, so the boys are left to fend for themselves. At first they enjoy their freedom and relish the adventure. But soon their excitement is replaced by fear as they are forced to deal with the realities of wilderness survival. The boys create their own society, complete with rules and rituals. As time progresses, they begin to lose habits of civilized life and their primal, darker human instincts emerge. We will continue our study of vocabulary in context, figures of speech and grammar for the final weeks of the year. 

May 13-17

Monday: TEST TODAY ON MUCH ADO ABOUTR NOTHING!!  Homework:

Tuesday (7W Only): Grammar review

Wednesday: ETHICS IN ACTION DAY. NO ACADEMIC CLASSES

Thursday: Lord of the Flies. We will read chapter one together in class. Homework: Read chapter 2

Friday: Lord of the Flies. Homework: Read chapter 3 and answer the reading questions handed out in class.

LOF Chapter 3 Homework Questions

May 20-24 (ERB week)

Monday: Vocabulary words handed out. We will review the homework questions and work on figures of speech in Lord of the Flies. Homework: Read chapter 4 and complete the reading questions. Vocabulary definitions are due on Thursday.

LOF Chapter 4 Homework Questions

LOF Vocabulary Homework

Tuesday/Wednesday: Review homework questions and discuss chapter 4. Homework: Read chapter 5.

Thursday: Vocabulary definitions due today. I will check and them and we will review them in class together. Quiz Friday. Homework: Read chapter 6.

Friday: Vocabulary Quiz. Discuss chapter 6. Homework: Read chapter 7-8 for Monday.

May 28-31

Tuesday/Wednesday: Working in groups on chapters 5-8. Finding evidence in a text. Homework: Read chapter 9.

Thursday: Homework: Read chapter 10.

Friday: Homework: Read chapter 11-12 (Finish the book for Monday).

June 3-6

Day 1: Discuss the end of the book

Day 2: TBA

Please visit the following site for the full class website.

http://mrwaterhouse.weebly.com

Welcome to 6th Grade Science! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all math work. Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Mr. Waterhouse's office hours: 

Tuesday 7:30-8:10 AM and Thursday 3:15-4:00 PM

You may contact me at anytime via email at   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and I will reply within 24 hours. Thanks.

Welcome to 6th Grade Math! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all math work. Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Please visit the following site for the full class website: http://larsenmcgillis.weebly.com/

Mrs. Larsen's Office Hours:  Monday 7:30-8:10 a.m. and Thursday 3:15 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Please feel free to contact me anytime via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  I check my email between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.  When you email me I will respond within the next 24 hours unless it is a holiday or a weekend.

Bienvenidos a Octavo Grado! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all classwork and homework.  Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Sr. McCormack's office hours:

Monday    3:15-4:00

Friday      3:15-4:00

 Click here for the Course Overview

*A useful resource to help with the conjugation of -ar, -er and -ir verbs: click here

*Here is an outstanding website to help you with your listening skills.  It will also help you build your proficiency.  It is a site that is sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin.  Please click here to view it.

Weekly Assignments 5/20 - 5/24

We are going to continue studying our food unit as we finish composing our essays about how we can repair the earth.  We will also begin solidifying our final project ideas, which is to explain how to cook a typical dish from a Spanish speaking country using the affirmative and negative imperative verb forms. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 5/13 - 5/17

We are going to begin our last chapter about Latin American cuisine and the culture that surrounds it.  We will also be taking a short exam about direct and indirect object pronouns.

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 5/6 -5/10

Monday we will learn about Cinco de mayo.  Also , this week we are going to continue working with Direct Object Pronouns as we explore Indirect Object as well.  We will become confident in using the object pronouns as we move into our final unit of study.  We will explore the tasty cuisine from different Latin American countries and the unit will culminate in a cooking show format wherein we will have the option to cook something for the class as part of the final project. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/29 -5/1

This week we will begin working more closely with indirect and direct object pronouns as well as continuing to work with the future tense.  We will also start preparing for our food unit and the Spanish cuisine cook off. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/15 - 4/19

This week we will continue learning the future tense as well as continue writing an introductory paragraph to our "Cómo mejorar el medio ambiente" essays.  We will also put our Spanish language to use by creating cartoons.  After everything eighth grade has been working on it will be a nice creative way to have fun with the language.  The name of the website we will use is goanimate.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/22 - 4/26

This week we will be spending Monday in the computer lab finishing up our cartoons.  Then it's off to the swell.  Any questions about the trip are welcome until we ship off on Tuesday morning.

Weekly Assignments 4/15 - 4/19

This week we will continue learning the future tense as well as continue writing an introductory paragraph to our "Cómo mejorar el medio ambiente" essays.  We will also put our Spanish language to use by creating cartoons.  After everything eighth grade has been working on it will be a nice creative way to have fun with the language.  The name of the website we will use is goanimate.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/8 -4/12

This week we will continue to focus on the Earth and our role as stewards for the environment.  We will begin writing our essays about the topics we have chosen as well as debate the pros and cons of certain alternative energy.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/3 -4/5

This week we will look at the environment and decide on ways in which we can improve the natural world or make people aware of both the positive and negative impacts that humans have on the planet.

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/18-3/22

This week we will be wrapping up our unit on natural disasters and we will be celebrating the Spring Equinox as the Mayans do.  It will be a busy week, but it will give us more reason to appreciate Spring Break. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/11 - 3/15

This week we will continue to discuss natruaral disasters and heroic acts of everyday people.  We will also begin creating our own broadcasts that will incorporate a real world event as well as some creative segments that may or may not be supernatural. We are going to continue working with the past tense forms in addition to learning to use reported speech.

Classwork                                                                               Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/4 - 3/8

Holy Smokes. We just finished an incredible unit/units undersatnding various components of the past tense. Ater being a part of the First Innaugural Mcgillis Film Festival, I must say that the Mcgillis Film Festival must live on.  Our next unit will be a little less playful, but very meaningful nonetheless.  We will develop a complex skill dealing with reported speech and the medium will be newscasting. We will talk about real world events and events that have affected the world. The culminating project will be to give a real news report about a real news event.

CLASSWORK                                                                                    HOME LEARNING

Weekly Assignments 2/25 - 3/1

We will make our final edits on the Sundance films and show them to the eighth grade on Friday. We will also begin a new unit on natural disasters and acts of bravery.  We will will learn a lot of vocabulary that will enable us to recount a story about a disaster that has happened in the recent past.

 Classwork                                                                                                   Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 2/20 - 2/22

We will be filming our Sundance films both Wednesday and Tursday.  Friday is the tentative day to host the 8th grade McGillis Sundance Shorts Film Festival.  We will also spend the week catching up on missing or incomplete assignments. 

Classwork                                                                                 Home Learning

Weekly Assignments   2/11 - 2/15

This week we will continue working on our screenplays for our mock sundance film festival.  We will begin filming once the screenplays are complete and hopefully air the flims on Friday.  We will also continue working with various past tense verb forms.

Classwork                                                                                                     Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  2/4 - 2/8

 We will begin our own interpretations of our "La Odisea" projects as we further our understanding of the imperfect tense, especially learning how the the auxillary verb "HABER" works.  We will gain some insight into how certain Hispanic cultures celebrate different holidays and we will discuss how those celebrations differ from our own.  Furthermore, we will continue with our individual shorts project, which is going to be a compilation of short film ideas to be presented in a Sundance format in front of the entire 8th grade student body upon completion. 

Classwork                                                       Home Learning

 Weekly Assignments  1/28 - 2/1

We will continue to read from "La Odisea" while we begin a new project.  The new project consists of developing characters, creating a plot and  writing a sequel to the "Billy La Bufanda" saga.  This will be an ongoing project that will culminate in a whole class production.  Aside from movies and literature we are also exploring culture through Mexican cuisine and how much food is a part of Latin American culture.  In doing so we are going to take a field trip to La Macarena restaurant on Friday.  We will leave school at lunch time and return in time for the final period of the day.  I suggest that each student brings between $10-$15 dollars.  Most items on the menu are under $10  but with drinks and a tip $10 might not be sufficient.

Classwork                                                      Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/21 - 1/25

We will have a very truncated week coming up with the holiday on Monday and the first day of W.O.W on Thursday. Keeping that in mind we we will start a new unit the following week.  The two days that we will be in class this week will be spent reading some passages from the Odyssey as well as preparing for our field trip to a Mexican restaurant, which I'm hoping will happen in two weeks.  You will be getting an email from me as to when we will go after all of the logistics are ironed out.  I wish everyone a restful and fun-filled three day weekend!

Classwork                                   Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/4 - 1/19

We will cement our understanding of the preterite and imperfect tenses by reading a truncated version of The Odyssey.  We will read certain passages as a whole class, then we will read portions of the story in small groups and act out the book in our small groups using a technique called reading theatre.  We will also take an exam on the preterite, imperfect, and present progressive tenses.  There will be an oral compontent to the test as well.

CLASSWORK                                                          HOME LEARNING

Weekly Assignments  1/7 - 1/11 

We will continue studying the imperfect and past simple tenses.  We will use our knowledge of the imperfect in order to read some passages from the Odyssey (La Odisea).  We will also begin preparing for a cumultive test in order to check for understanding of the four basic skills of language comprehension.

Classwork                                                                  Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/2-1/4

We will review some simple past tense verbs the present progressive and we will dive into the imperfect past tense in order to prepare for the reading of the Odyssey (La Odisea).

  Classwork                                                Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  12/10-12-14

Last week we worked diligently on our storybird stories, which are all very unique and super creative.  Well done 8th Grade!  The week that is upon us will allow us to use our productive and expressive language skills.  We will interview one another about our each other stories and it will be done in the fashion of reporters interviewing a famous author, something I am sure can beome just as creative as the stories themselves.  In terms of grammar we will continue to build on what we know and increase our knowledge of the direct/indirect object pronouns while learning progressive verb forms.  Disfruten el fin de semana!  Hasta lunes.

Classwork                                     HomeLearning

Weekly Assignments  12/3-12-7

We will continue working on our Storybird stories.  Since there will be testing this week we may only meet twice so Monday we will spend more time collaborating in our pairs on our stories and we will develop plots.  Depending on how far we get on Monday we may be back in the lab on Friday.

Classwork                                       HomeLearning

Weekly Assignments 11/26-11/30

We will be building on many of the grammar points that have been threads throughout the first trimester while grasping the direct and indirect object pronouns that are pervasive in Spanish.  Our medium will be literature.  We will read a few short stories and extract the grammar points from them in order to understand how language is used in literature.  This week we will be focusing on past tense and reported speech using direct and indirect object pronouns.  This brief unit will culminate in a theatrical representation or publication of the student created story ideas.  The publication will hopefullly be posted using a web tool called storybird.

Weekly Assignments  11/12 -11/18

Com se va...?   How does one go? We are going to continue using the preterite while building vocabulary by using the command form of verbs.  The week will culminate with a scavenger hunt using Smart technology in order to listen to directions and find a hidden object.

Weekly Assignments  11/5 -11/9

Unfortunately there is another amendment to the schedule.  I apologize for this.   I am looking forward to a week that goes uninterrupted.  

The exam that was scheduled for Wednesday has been moved to Friday.  We will have a combined 8th grade calss on Wednesday.

My 8th grade class will teach Sr. Campbell's 8th grade class the game of Culpable. The exam will cover the cultural aspects that we have explored such as the Mexican Revolution, The Running of the Bulls and the benefits/detriments of technology.  

The grammar points that will be covered on the exam will be the differences between the verbs ser and estar (present and past), the preterite tense of the verbs ser, ir, hacer, tener poder, estar and a small part will be on the conditional tense. 

Weekly Assignments  10/29 -11/2

This week we will be wrapping up our unit on identity by preparing for an exam.  The exam will cover the cultural aspects that we have explored such as the Mexican Revolution, The Running of the Bulls and the benefits/detriments of technology.  

The grammar points that will be covered on the exam are the differences between the verbs ser and estar, the preterite tense of the verbs ser, ir, hacer and a small part will be on the conditional tense.  We will Review all week culminating with a game of Jeopardy to reinforce what we have reviewed.  The exam will be given on the following Wednesday.

Weekly Assignments  10/22 -10/26

This week I will be gone for for the first three days.  I will be with the 6th Grade students backpacking in the Uintahs.  In my stead Mr. G will teach on both Monday and Wednesday.  He will be conducting his lessons about the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona and the controversy that surrounds Bulfighting.  I will return to teach class on Thursday and Friday.  We will continue our work with the Preterite, which is necessary in order to talk about specific events in the recent and distant past.

Weekly Assignments  10/15 -10/19

Weekly Assignments   10/8/- 10/12

Weekly Assignments   10/1-10/5

Classwork                    Homework

Helpful Links:

www.studyspanish.com, www.notesinspanish.com, www.newsinslowspanish.com, www.123teachme.com, 

http://periodicoescolardelpablosorozabal.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/la-conjugacion-de-los-verbos-recursos-didacticos-para-primaria/

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/adv02.html?v=g

The 6th grade Sustainable Pathways project is centered around transportation, especially in relation to fossil fuels and emissions.

During the Fall, students completed research projects on both fossil fuels and alternative energy sources. We also spent time outside collecting data on idling cars during Lower School pick-up.

Using this knowledge and data, the students embarked on a project to create informative websites, film infomercials, and create posters that will be used to inform and educate the McGillis community on ways to refine their transportation choices to lessen their impact on the environment. The websites the students created can be found here:

http://smogblog.weebly.com

http://theworldneedsachange.weebly.com

http://apollutionsolution.weebly.com

http://o-zonesquad.weebly.com 

The students will be hanging their posters and showing their infomercials in the coming weeks. We hope to see positive change when we collect further data in the months ahead.

Click here for the class web page: 8th Grade Outdoor Education 

To view the full OEA structure during a students' middle school experience, click here.

Welcome to 8th Grade English

Study Hall/Office Hours:

Monday afternoon: 3:15 - 4:00p.m.

Thursday morning: 7:30 - 8:15 a.m.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

RESOURCES

Click on the links below to access a sample of the MLA documentation style, the Keyhole Essay format and our course overview. Students will use this format for all typed essays and paragraphs in 7th and 8th grade English, and I will review this information in class. 

8th Grade Keyhole Essay and Outline Format

MLA Style Example

Grade 8 Course Overview

WRITING CONTESTS:

The link below is a source for some of the better writing contests for students. Essay, poetry or short story contests can be wonderful motivators for students who are interested in writing. Although the occasional class assignment may work for writing contests, it is not my goal to offer writing assignments with specific contests in mind. However, I will be happy to work individually with students who are interested in writing a for any of these contests or others.

Academic and Writing Contests

GOOD BOOKS: Click below to link to a list of books that have received The Michael L. Printz Award for Teen Literature. This award is given annually to books that demonstrate the qualities of literary excellence in young adult literature.

Michael L. Printz Award Winners

WEEKLY SCHEDULE:

True Grit Essay Topics

May 20-24 (ERB Week)

Monday 8B/Tuesday 8W: Discussion of American Romanticism and Introduction to Into the Wild. Homework: Read chapters 1-3. Begin working on graduation speeches.

Tuesday 8B/Wednesday 8W: Working on graduation speeches/ Homework: Read ch. 4-5

Thursday: Graduation speeches/ Homework: Read ch. 6-7.

Friday: Homework: Bring a ROUGH DRAFT of your graduation speech to class today. Read ch. 8-10 and finish your graduation speeches.

May 28-31 (Memorial Day Weekend--No School on Monday)

Tuesday: Graduation speeches due today! Homework: Read ch. 11-13

Wednesday: (8W Only) TBA

Thursday:

Friday:

Please visit the following site for the full class website.

http://mrwaterhouse.weebly.com 

Welcome to 8th Grade Geometry! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all math work. Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Mr. Waterhouse's office hours: 

Tuesday 7:30-8:10 AM and Thursday 3:15-4:00 PM

You may contact me at anytime via email at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and I will reply within 24 hours. Thanks.

Welcome to the third trimester of 6th grade Visual Arts. Students will spend approximately three weeks in each of the following classes: Painting and Drawing taught by Ms. Sanchez, Ceramics taught by Mr. Canales, and Printmaking taught by Ms. McDermott. The session dates are as follows:

Session 1: March 5 - April 3 

Session 2: April 9 - May 1 

Session 3: May 7 - June 5 

Course Overview for Ms. McDermott's Printmaking Class

Course Overview for Ms. Sanchez's Painting and Drawing Class

Course Overview for Mr.Canales's Ceramics Class

To view the full OEA structure during a students' middle school experience, click here.

Please click here for the website: Ancient History

Welcome to Mrs. Gauthier's 7th grade English class!

Monday afternoon: 3:15--4:00 pm

Thursday morning: 7:30--8:15am

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

RESOURCES

Click on the links below to access a sample of the MLA documentation style, the Keyhole Essay format and the course overview. Students will use this format for all typed essays and paragraphs in 7th and 8th grade English, and I will cover this information in class as well. 

MLA Style

7th Grade Keyhole Essay and Outline Format

Grade 7 Course Overview

WRITING CONTESTS: The link below is a source for some of the better writing contests for students. Essay, poetry or short story contests can be wonderful motivators for students who are interested in writing. Although the occasional class assignment may work for writing contests, it is not my goal to offer writing assignments with specific contests in mind. However, I will be happy to work individually with students who are interested in writing for any of these contests or others.

Academic and Writing Contests

GOOD BOOKS: Click below to link to a list of books that have received The Michael L. Printz Award for Teen Literature. This award is given annually to young adult books that demonstrate the qualities of literary excellence.

Michael L. Printz Award Winners

We will finish the year by reading Lord of the Flies, a short novel about a group of English boys who are marooned on a tropical island when their plane crashes. There are no adult survivors, so the boys are left to fend for themselves. At first they enjoy their freedom and relish the adventure. But soon their excitement is replaced by fear as they are forced to deal with the realities of wilderness survival. The boys create their own society, complete with rules and rituals. As time progresses, they begin to lose habits of civilized life and their primal, darker human instincts emerge. We will continue our study of vocabulary in context, figures of speech and grammar for the final weeks of the year. 

May 13-17

Monday: TEST TODAY ON MUCH ADO ABOUTR NOTHING!!  Homework:

Tuesday (7W Only): Grammar review

Wednesday: ETHICS IN ACTION DAY. NO ACADEMIC CLASSES

Thursday: Lord of the Flies. We will read chapter one together in class. Homework: Read chapter 2

Friday: Lord of the Flies. Homework: Read chapter 3 and answer the reading questions handed out in class.

LOF Chapter 3 Homework Questions

May 20-24 (ERB week)

Monday: Vocabulary words handed out. We will review the homework questions and work on figures of speech in Lord of the Flies. Homework: Read chapter 4 and complete the reading questions. Vocabulary definitions are due on Thursday.

LOF Chapter 4 Homework Questions

LOF Vocabulary Homework

Tuesday/Wednesday: Review homework questions and discuss chapter 4. Homework: Read chapter 5.

Thursday: Vocabulary definitions due today. I will check and them and we will review them in class together. Quiz Friday. Homework: Read chapter 6.

Friday: Vocabulary Quiz. Discuss chapter 6. Homework: Read chapter 7-8 for Monday.

May 28-31

Tuesday/Wednesday: Working in groups on chapters 5-8. Finding evidence in a text. Homework: Read chapter 9.

Thursday: Homework: Read chapter 10.

Friday: Homework: Read chapter 11-12 (Finish the book for Monday).

June 3-6

Day 1: Discuss the end of the book

Day 2: TBA

Please visit the following site for the full class website.

http://mrwaterhouse.weebly.com

Welcome to 6th Grade Science! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all math work. Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Mr. Waterhouse's office hours: 

Tuesday 7:30-8:10 AM and Thursday 3:15-4:00 PM

You may contact me at anytime via email at   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and I will reply within 24 hours. Thanks.

Welcome to 6th Grade Math! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all math work. Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Please visit the following site for the full class website: http://larsenmcgillis.weebly.com/

Mrs. Larsen's Office Hours:  Monday 7:30-8:10 a.m. and Thursday 3:15 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Please feel free to contact me anytime via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  I check my email between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.  When you email me I will respond within the next 24 hours unless it is a holiday or a weekend.

Bienvenidos a Octavo Grado! This site should be used as a resource to view classwork, homework, and upcoming due dates. Students must continue to keep a planner in order to stay up-to-date with all classwork and homework.  Students are responsible for all work even if this site is inaccessible.

Sr. McCormack's office hours:

Monday    3:15-4:00

Friday      3:15-4:00

 Click here for the Course Overview

*A useful resource to help with the conjugation of -ar, -er and -ir verbs: click here

*Here is an outstanding website to help you with your listening skills.  It will also help you build your proficiency.  It is a site that is sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin.  Please click here to view it.

Weekly Assignments 5/20 - 5/24

We are going to continue studying our food unit as we finish composing our essays about how we can repair the earth.  We will also begin solidifying our final project ideas, which is to explain how to cook a typical dish from a Spanish speaking country using the affirmative and negative imperative verb forms. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 5/13 - 5/17

We are going to begin our last chapter about Latin American cuisine and the culture that surrounds it.  We will also be taking a short exam about direct and indirect object pronouns.

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 5/6 -5/10

Monday we will learn about Cinco de mayo.  Also , this week we are going to continue working with Direct Object Pronouns as we explore Indirect Object as well.  We will become confident in using the object pronouns as we move into our final unit of study.  We will explore the tasty cuisine from different Latin American countries and the unit will culminate in a cooking show format wherein we will have the option to cook something for the class as part of the final project. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/29 -5/1

This week we will begin working more closely with indirect and direct object pronouns as well as continuing to work with the future tense.  We will also start preparing for our food unit and the Spanish cuisine cook off. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/15 - 4/19

This week we will continue learning the future tense as well as continue writing an introductory paragraph to our "Cómo mejorar el medio ambiente" essays.  We will also put our Spanish language to use by creating cartoons.  After everything eighth grade has been working on it will be a nice creative way to have fun with the language.  The name of the website we will use is goanimate.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/22 - 4/26

This week we will be spending Monday in the computer lab finishing up our cartoons.  Then it's off to the swell.  Any questions about the trip are welcome until we ship off on Tuesday morning.

Weekly Assignments 4/15 - 4/19

This week we will continue learning the future tense as well as continue writing an introductory paragraph to our "Cómo mejorar el medio ambiente" essays.  We will also put our Spanish language to use by creating cartoons.  After everything eighth grade has been working on it will be a nice creative way to have fun with the language.  The name of the website we will use is goanimate.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/8 -4/12

This week we will continue to focus on the Earth and our role as stewards for the environment.  We will begin writing our essays about the topics we have chosen as well as debate the pros and cons of certain alternative energy.  

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 4/3 -4/5

This week we will look at the environment and decide on ways in which we can improve the natural world or make people aware of both the positive and negative impacts that humans have on the planet.

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/18-3/22

This week we will be wrapping up our unit on natural disasters and we will be celebrating the Spring Equinox as the Mayans do.  It will be a busy week, but it will give us more reason to appreciate Spring Break. 

Classwork                                                                       Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/11 - 3/15

This week we will continue to discuss natruaral disasters and heroic acts of everyday people.  We will also begin creating our own broadcasts that will incorporate a real world event as well as some creative segments that may or may not be supernatural. We are going to continue working with the past tense forms in addition to learning to use reported speech.

Classwork                                                                               Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 3/4 - 3/8

Holy Smokes. We just finished an incredible unit/units undersatnding various components of the past tense. Ater being a part of the First Innaugural Mcgillis Film Festival, I must say that the Mcgillis Film Festival must live on.  Our next unit will be a little less playful, but very meaningful nonetheless.  We will develop a complex skill dealing with reported speech and the medium will be newscasting. We will talk about real world events and events that have affected the world. The culminating project will be to give a real news report about a real news event.

CLASSWORK                                                                                    HOME LEARNING

Weekly Assignments 2/25 - 3/1

We will make our final edits on the Sundance films and show them to the eighth grade on Friday. We will also begin a new unit on natural disasters and acts of bravery.  We will will learn a lot of vocabulary that will enable us to recount a story about a disaster that has happened in the recent past.

 Classwork                                                                                                   Home Learning

Weekly Assignments 2/20 - 2/22

We will be filming our Sundance films both Wednesday and Tursday.  Friday is the tentative day to host the 8th grade McGillis Sundance Shorts Film Festival.  We will also spend the week catching up on missing or incomplete assignments. 

Classwork                                                                                 Home Learning

Weekly Assignments   2/11 - 2/15

This week we will continue working on our screenplays for our mock sundance film festival.  We will begin filming once the screenplays are complete and hopefully air the flims on Friday.  We will also continue working with various past tense verb forms.

Classwork                                                                                                     Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  2/4 - 2/8

 We will begin our own interpretations of our "La Odisea" projects as we further our understanding of the imperfect tense, especially learning how the the auxillary verb "HABER" works.  We will gain some insight into how certain Hispanic cultures celebrate different holidays and we will discuss how those celebrations differ from our own.  Furthermore, we will continue with our individual shorts project, which is going to be a compilation of short film ideas to be presented in a Sundance format in front of the entire 8th grade student body upon completion. 

Classwork                                                       Home Learning

 Weekly Assignments  1/28 - 2/1

We will continue to read from "La Odisea" while we begin a new project.  The new project consists of developing characters, creating a plot and  writing a sequel to the "Billy La Bufanda" saga.  This will be an ongoing project that will culminate in a whole class production.  Aside from movies and literature we are also exploring culture through Mexican cuisine and how much food is a part of Latin American culture.  In doing so we are going to take a field trip to La Macarena restaurant on Friday.  We will leave school at lunch time and return in time for the final period of the day.  I suggest that each student brings between $10-$15 dollars.  Most items on the menu are under $10  but with drinks and a tip $10 might not be sufficient.

Classwork                                                      Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/21 - 1/25

We will have a very truncated week coming up with the holiday on Monday and the first day of W.O.W on Thursday. Keeping that in mind we we will start a new unit the following week.  The two days that we will be in class this week will be spent reading some passages from the Odyssey as well as preparing for our field trip to a Mexican restaurant, which I'm hoping will happen in two weeks.  You will be getting an email from me as to when we will go after all of the logistics are ironed out.  I wish everyone a restful and fun-filled three day weekend!

Classwork                                   Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/4 - 1/19

We will cement our understanding of the preterite and imperfect tenses by reading a truncated version of The Odyssey.  We will read certain passages as a whole class, then we will read portions of the story in small groups and act out the book in our small groups using a technique called reading theatre.  We will also take an exam on the preterite, imperfect, and present progressive tenses.  There will be an oral compontent to the test as well.

CLASSWORK                                                          HOME LEARNING

Weekly Assignments  1/7 - 1/11 

We will continue studying the imperfect and past simple tenses.  We will use our knowledge of the imperfect in order to read some passages from the Odyssey (La Odisea).  We will also begin preparing for a cumultive test in order to check for understanding of the four basic skills of language comprehension.

Classwork                                                                  Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  1/2-1/4

We will review some simple past tense verbs the present progressive and we will dive into the imperfect past tense in order to prepare for the reading of the Odyssey (La Odisea).

  Classwork                                                Home Learning

Weekly Assignments  12/10-12-14

Last week we worked diligently on our storybird stories, which are all very unique and super creative.  Well done 8th Grade!  The week that is upon us will allow us to use our productive and expressive language skills.  We will interview one another about our each other stories and it will be done in the fashion of reporters interviewing a famous author, something I am sure can beome just as creative as the stories themselves.  In terms of grammar we will continue to build on what we know and increase our knowledge of the direct/indirect object pronouns while learning progressive verb forms.  Disfruten el fin de semana!  Hasta lunes.

Classwork                                     HomeLearning

Weekly Assignments  12/3-12-7

We will continue working on our Storybird stories.  Since there will be testing this week we may only meet twice so Monday we will spend more time collaborating in our pairs on our stories and we will develop plots.  Depending on how far we get on Monday we may be back in the lab on Friday.

Classwork                                       HomeLearning

Weekly Assignments 11/26-11/30

We will be building on many of the grammar points that have been threads throughout the first trimester while grasping the direct and indirect object pronouns that are pervasive in Spanish.  Our medium will be literature.  We will read a few short stories and extract the grammar points from them in order to understand how language is used in literature.  This week we will be focusing on past tense and reported speech using direct and indirect object pronouns.  This brief unit will culminate in a theatrical representation or publication of the student created story ideas.  The publication will hopefullly be posted using a web tool called storybird.

Weekly Assignments  11/12 -11/18

Com se va...?   How does one go? We are going to continue using the preterite while building vocabulary by using the command form of verbs.  The week will culminate with a scavenger hunt using Smart technology in order to listen to directions and find a hidden object.