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CLASS INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS
SCHOOL: DESTREHAN HIGH SCHOOL
TEACHER: JAMES E. BERTRAND JR.
CLASS: World History
E-Mail : jbertrand@stcharles.k12.la.us
Web-Site: http://www.stcharles.k12.la.us/Domain/757
Welcome to the 2024 Spring Semester at Destrehan High. This semester I will be teaching the World History course offered here at DHS, and I look forward to a wonderful experience with all of my students and their parents.
Whether you are a student or a parent, my primary purpose is in seeing that you have a very rewarding and successful experience with my class and our school. I will work hard, and do my best to insure these outcomes. Throughout this document you can find the basic class rules, procedures, grading scales and requirements for class.
All of this information and more is available on my school website, but you can find every detail of student work within each student’s St. Charles Parish Google Classroom account, which is quite a useful tool for student learning, organization, and keeping up with school work. With these technologies, access to student work, assignments, homework, study guides, class activities, and teacher feedback are just a click away for both students and parents to examine. I look forward to an awesome semester and I hope you find your time with me to be productive, successful, and enjoyable.
Please check my DHS website and the student Google Classroom account each week. Throughout the year, you will be able to find daily updated details about what events are going on in class during the current week and what homework has been assigned. Due dates for tasks are also included here as well as dates for upcoming assessments. You can also find links to important resources for class such as websites or class reading assignments, and documents of significance such as our class syllabus, parent letters and test study guides.
Please make sure you have access to your grades through Powerschools parent and student portals. If you do not have your password and id, please check with the front office for the proper forms. Students may access their grades on Powerschools by checking with the counselling department for their password.
I will be contacting parents through the School Status platform, a new app that we are using in St. Charles Parish Schools to make contact with parents much more streamlined, easy and effective. You will receive texts, emails or phone calls from all teachers this year to keep you updated on your child throughout the year, and you can contact the teachers anytime by using the number provided to you through school status as a personal teacher contact number. It’s really a wonderful app that I think we will all find useful.
Classroom Code of Conduct:
Class Management / Class Discipline Approach
At Destrehan High School we take a Restorative Approach to discipline. Our primary focus, in conjunction with teaching and learning, is to build positive and working relationships. My discipline management plan will be consistent with the following restorative action steps:
- Remind – students will be reminded of rule(s) or directions
- Redirect – students will be specifically redirected to the task at hand
- Relocate – students will be relocated to either reflect upon (mis) behavior, calm down, or removed from a potentially disruptive situation (If necessary)
- Reflect – students will be guided to reflect upon what happened, what could have prevented the situation, and how to make amends to the appropriate parties (If necessary)
RESPECT EVERYONE: Respect yourself, your classmates, your teacher and the learning environment by adhering to rules concerning when to speak or not speak, throwing away trash properly, refraining from eating prohibited foods in class, staying seated, and treating others with dignity.
OPTIMIZE LEARNING- ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE: To remove distractions, cell phones will be collected at the beginning of each class, stored safely by the teacher, and returned at the end of each class. This technology with social media, games, cameras, and the billions spent by tech companies to keep people using their phones has become a massive barrier to learning. Therefore I will be removing this distraction. Focus on your learning, do not eat in class except for permitted items at permitted times. Give your best effort, keep your head up, don’t sleep, no Air Pods or Ear Buds, or Apple Watches used in class, and be aware of our purpose in class
ATTENDANCE AND TIMELINESS ARE ESSENTIAL: Come to school, be in your seat before the tardy bell, and complete class assignments and homework on time.
RESPONSIBILITY-BE PREPARED EVERY DAY: Bring your materials to class, have your work ready, have a highlighter, pencil/pen on hand, and study for your summative assessments.
SUCCESS- DRESS FOR IT: Wear the proper uniform, no hoodie on your head, keep your shirt tucked in, keep your ID on, and your pants pulled up with a belt on.*The class discipline steps will be bypassed and a referral will be automatically written for administrative consequences for serious violations such as not turning in cell phones and personal technology before class, using a cell phone, or other unauthorized technology during class, fighting, cursing, bullying, harassment and disrespect to the teacher
GRADING:
Grades will be divided into 4 quarters in the Spring Semester designated as (Q5, Q6, Q7, and Q8). The school board has eliminated midterm exams and final exams from the grading system and they will no longer be administered in class. The formula for calculating the final grade in this class is as below:
(Quarter 5 + Quarter 6) divided by 2 equals the first half semester grade of B3.
(Quarter 7 + Quarter 8) divided by 2 equals the second half semester grade of B4.
(B3 is then added to B4) and divided by 2 to equal the final semester grade designated as S2.
CLASS GRADING SYSTEM:
All class assignments are divided into the two categories below. Each category of grades is weighted differently in accordance with St. Charles Parish Schools regulations.
TESTS (summative assessments)-- 60% of class grade (usually we have one summative per week and 11 are planned for the entire semester)
CLASS ASSIGNMENTS (formative assessments)--40% of class grade
(these include individual classroom assignments, reading activities, timelines, writing, notations, etc., all completed in class to form the student’s knowledge. Homework will not be issued in this class and will not be part of the formative grade.
MATERIAL CLASS REQUIREMENTS:
Students will need the following in order to take part in class.
- A Chromebook at school, provided by the school, and access to the internet at home with your Chromebook, or a computer of some sort for home use. Most of our school work will be in Google Classroom with your Chromebook.
*Join your class with the proper Google Classroom Code which will be provided in class.
- A notebook of some sort to write on and keep information organized, along with a pencil or pen to write with.
- A pencil or pen to write with each day in case you need to put down some notations or reminders.