Special thanks to all the good folks who served as chaperones for our Crater Lake trip. Sunburns aside, it was a great trip.

It’s tax time, which gives many of us the heebie jeebies. But if you think filing once a year is tough, try filing every week the way our students do in the Checkbook Project. They’re getting pretty darn good at it, too. Some of the kids have reached the $1000 mark in their registers, while others are being dropped from participating at all due to recurring problems maintaining a positive balance. This is troublesome. While it may merely be a classroom economy, it should be a red flag to parents. Students who struggle with the Checkbook Project typically have poor study skills (they don’t complete assignments), poor attendance, behavior problems, or poor spending habits (when they do have money, they blow it on impulse purchases). You’ll learn a lot about your child by asking him or her to bring home that checkbook! Speaking of good study skills, our Oregon Coast Outdoor Ed trip is scheduled for May 29th and 30th. Basic requirements for attending include being up-to-date with significant assignments, and staying out of trouble.

In class this week we’ll be continuing our Book Clubs (which are being read almost entirely in-class), taking on a new set of vocabulary words, introducing Lewis & Clark in history, and finishing up our algebra unit with a test on Thursday.  Here’s the homework for this week: Monday, April 15th; Tuesday, April 16th; Wednesday, April 17th; Thursday, April 18th.