March 2026

If you click “Newsletters” above, you’ll see the daily agenda we use in class. If your child is absent, or if you’re simply curious, you can check there to see exactly what we plan to do each day.

The 4th Nine Weeks begins on Monday, March 16, when the month is already half over.

For English, we have 8 class days until the ELA STAAR test.

For Encounters, we have 12 class days until the Challenge of the Mind projects are due.

We're left with three weeks of March, and April begins with a 5-day weekend.

I'm quite pleased with the students' performance on the Mock STAAR. We scored higher than all of the other district advanced students.

For the 8 days before the real STAAR, we will focus on editing/ revising and summarizing fiction and non-fiction texts. These two areas are where we scored the lowest. By April 9, the students will be ready for whatever STAAR hands them.

Students will continue to work on their papier-mache (due April 30), and their project covers (due March 26). Let me just remind you that, per district policy, late assignments in advanced classes incur a penalty of 10 points per class day. Also, you can check your child's grade at any time using Skyward. If the assignment shows as missing but there's no 0 or 01, that just means I haven't entered a grade.

Non scholae, sed vitae.
Not for school, but for life.

At a team meeting that quickly spread far beyond basketball, Kara Lawson, head coach of the Duke University women’s basketball program, delivered a message she calls “Handling Hard Better.” Her point is direct: we cannot control how hard life will be, but we can control how well we prepare ourselves to face it. Instead of wishing for fewer obstacles, she challenges her players to become stronger, more disciplined, and more resilient.

That philosophy guides our classroom as well. The work will not become easier because the standards drop. It will become easier because students grow in skill, confidence, and stamina. Reading more complex texts, writing with greater precision, and thinking more deeply require effort. But with steady practice, what once felt overwhelming becomes manageable.

As parents and teachers, our role is not to remove every difficulty from a child’s path. It is to help them build the habits, character, and persistence that allow them to meet challenges without shrinking from them. When we focus on helping students handle hard better, we prepare them not just for the next test, but for the demands of life beyond school.

Use Skyward to keep track of your child's grades.

Go to www.galenaparkisd.com
Go to the Student/Parent tab
Find Family Access Link
Look for either: "My Messages" → Settings, or "My Account" or "Email Notifications" on the sidebar.
Enable grade-related alerts and set the low-score threshold you prefer.
Click Save.