-
CLASS INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS
SCHOOL: DESTREHAN HIGH SCHOOL
TEACHER: JAMES E. BERTRAND JR.
CLASSES: Honors Civics
E-Mail : jbertrand@stcharles.k12.la.us
Welcome to the 2024 Spring Semester at Destrehan High. This semester I will be teaching the Honors Civics course offered here at DHS for our Freshmen, and Senior World History classes. I look forward to a wonderful experience with all of my students and their parents. The Louisiana Department of Education has put in place a new set of Civics Standards as well as a new framework for the lesson scope and sequence. With this in mind, there will be some changes to content coverage, but essentially the class remains the same in its coverage of U.S. government, citizenship, law, and economics.
Whether you are a student or a parent, my primary purpose is to see 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 Google Classroom each week. Throughout the year, you will be able to find weekly 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 on these sites, as well as dates for upcoming summative assessments. You can also find links to important resources for class, such as websites with our extra reading assignments and documents of significance, such as our class syllabus, parent letters, study guides.
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, easier 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.
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.
Classroom Code of Conduct:
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 hoodies, keep your shirt tucked in, keep your ID on, and your pants pulled up with a belt on
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)
- Conversation-student and teacher will discuss the behavior issue, and a plan for future actions will be created.
- Conference-student, teacher, parent, and administration will meet to make decisions for current and future actions.
*These 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 Fall Semester designated as (Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4). In the Spring the school uses Q5-Q8 for quarters.
The formula for calculating the final grade in this class is as below:
(Quarter 1 + Quarter 2) divided by 2 equals the first half semester grade of B1. (B3 in spring with Q5 & Q6)
(Quarter 3 + Quarter 4) divided by 2 equals the second half semester grade of B2. (B4 in spring with Q7 & Q8)
(B1 is then added to B2) (B3 & B4 in Spring) and divided by 2 to equal the final semester grade designated as S1.(S2 in Spring)
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 15 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.
HONORS BONUS: For each quarter an honors bonus will be added to a student’s grade based on the following criteria: A=+7, B=+5, C=+3. The maximum grade which can be attained in this class will be a 107%.
MATERIAL CLASS REQUIREMENTS:
Students will need the following in order to take part in class.
- The school Chromebook provided by the district
- Something to write with of the student’s choice (pen, pencil)
- Something to write on of the student’s choice (paper, notebook, etc.)
***There is no textbook, and no handouts, and nothing to physically turn in
Weekly Homework
Homework will be assigned on specified Mondays through the semester. The assignment will be posted on the board in class, in Google Classroom, and on my website. Students will be provided with a homework agenda for the semester, but this schedule may change if the need arises. When the assignment is due, all students present in class will take part in a Socratic Seminar for review of the assignment. Students usually receive two weeks to complete the homework annotations before the due date and Socratic Seminar discussion.
Homework will be in the form of a reading assignment from selected chapters of a variety of Great Books within the study of government and economics throughout human history. You can find these selections on my website and there is a pdf document that can be downloaded with all of them. I will post these specific text selections on a weekly basis in google classroom.
Students will annotate these reading selections within Google Classroom using both highlights and comments in the margins, in preparation for a Socratic Seminar where students will have the opportunity to present what they have learned and discuss the main topics of the reading. Students will receive 20 formative points for full completion of annotations, and may earn a full 20 points for an informative and well versed talking point at least once during our Socratic Seminar.
Students do not have to speak if they don’t feel comfortable or prepared, but they will receive a blank grade for the Socratic seminar, which will not hurt, but not help their grade. A bonus points will be awarded for each valid speaking point, up to 3 bonus points for 3 additional valid talking points in the seminar.