Welcome to 7th Grade Geography! 2022-2023

 

Welcome to Miscoe Hill Seventh Grade!

It is with pleasure that I write this post reconnecting with many families that I have gotten to work with in the past, and introducing myself to others that I look forward to meeting and working with this school year.

My name is Heather Langdon, your seventh grader’s Social Studies teacher. My classroom is in the green hallway of Miscoe, room 433.  It is down the main hallway, take a right, up the ramp, and all the way down.  My classroom is the second to last room on the right. 

I have been working in the Mendon Upton School District for 23 years, and I consider it home.  My family is invested in the town and the schools with the lofty goal of bringing up highly educated, creative, and innovative thinkers for our world. I know how special my position is as a teacher, and I hope that my work with your child inspires them to be the best they can be.  I hope we can work together to do this!

This post on my blog is just a  simple introduction and to establish communication with you,  as I believe it is a major part of the success of your child’s learning.  Throughout the year, I will be using email as a means to contact you, and I would like you to also feel no hesitation to contact me throughout the school year with concerns or questions so that your child will have a successful and happy seventh-grade year.  My email address is hlangdon@mursd.org.

Another means of communication is the use of a Google Classroom.  Our district has used this platform for several years now with great success, and it will be used this year for all of my classes.  Students will be able to join the Google Classroom for geography when we get together on our first day of school.

I look forward to meeting you all at Open House!   

Keep enjoying the summer :)

Heather Langdon

Technology Boundaries

 Dear Families and Students, 

We hope this email finds you enjoying the warmer spring weather and sunshine!  

As a Seventh Grade Team, we have been invested in teaching our students about setting appropriate boundaries when it comes to technology use in our classrooms.  According to a majority of parents, based on research from the 2020 Pew Research Center,  71% are concerned about their students getting too much screen time.  We agree!  As teachers, it is a major concern as anxiety disorders, addictive behaviors, and disconnections occur more readily in our students.   We believe in creating structures that keep technology in its place,  and we have created a good balance between using technology and using hard-copy books and literature to offset the digital.  In many instances, we give students the choice of completing the activity or assignment digitally or hard-copy.  This empowers students to use technology in meaningful ways, focused on what product they want to produce, depending on the activity. 

At the start of each class period, students place their phones in pockets at the front of the room. We have set up this structure since the start of the year,  but recently, we noticed that fewer students have been following this procedure.  We ask for your help at home in reminding our students that iPhones are not allowed in the classroom, in desks, or in pant pockets during class.  Each student must place their phone in the phone pocket at the start of class, or keep their phones in their backpack in their lockers. We have put this structure in place to create a healthy boundary and set class time apart from online “social media” time.  Notifications and the tendency to get on the iPhone is so tempting!  With the phones in their place, we can focus on our content skills and curriculum study.   

We also ask that you speak to your child about iPad games.  We understand that games are very readily available on the internet and on the iPad.  Even so, these games take up a lot of energy and time from your students’ learning.  They also feed into mindless behaviors and waste valuable learning time.  A discussion at home would help us as we are giving this message in school, but we are finding reminders are necessary.  Our messaging is focused on students using self-control, focusing on their priorities, and using school time appropriately.  We know that having your support system at home working collaboratively at the same message will help our students set boundaries around technology use.  

We thank you for your cooperation and collaboration around setting boundaries with our technology use in school.  Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns!

Sincerely, 

The Seventh Grade Teachers