Freshman Newsletter

This monthly newsletter will provide updates on important dates, reminders, classroom news, and more.

We hope this is helpful in keeping families informed!

• 1/7 - Q2 Report Cards
• 1/9 - Science Fair/National History Day
• 1/19 - MLK Holiday - No School
• 1/27 - College of Health and Human Services Tour
• 1/30 - Guest Speakers

Happy New Year!! To start this year off, students will get their introduction to Economics and Personal Financial Literacy. We will start off with the basics of economics, learning about why societies have economies, and what types of economies exist. Students will then take their first quiz on January 14. After this, we will begin our unit on Macroeconomics, which will take us into next month.

This year, students will get the chance to learn from Ms. Grady, my partnership teacher this semester. Ms. Grady is a student at UNCW, who is finishing her teacher training as my intern. She will start by observing, but will end up teaching one to two classes with my supervision and support. Please be on the lookout for an email from her coming soon!

This month, we will be wrapping up our National History Day projects! Students will be presenting for judges on Friday 1/9, and I am confident that all of their hard work this semester will pay off! This should be a great experience for students to get the chance to practice their presentation skills, and then hopefully, move on to regionals.

Math 1/2

In January, we will kick off the semester with Variation and Function Composition relationships. There will be no unit assessment for this, just a quiz mid-month. We will then move onto the Other Functions Unit, which will cover Square Root Functions, as well as Inverse Functions. During this unit, students will be able to identify many characteristics of all functions, including their domains/ranges/maximums/minimums/etc. Please encourage your student to be actively engaged, ask questions, and complete corrections for all quizzes and tests.

Math 2/3

In January, we will kick off the semester with Variation and Function Composition relationships. There will be no unit assessment for this, just a quiz mid-month. We will then move onto the Other Functions Unit, which will cover Square Root Functions, as well as Inverse Functions. During this unit, students will be able to identify many characteristics of all functions, including their domains/ranges/maximums/minimums/etc. Please encourage your student to be actively engaged, ask questions, and complete corrections for all quizzes and tests.

January is the start of our Excel Unit. This course helps students understand the powerful and useful tools available in Excel, and how students can use them to improve productivity.

Students will learn about features and capabilities within Excel through real-world activities for a fictional company. Becoming proficient at using the features of Excel, you’ll improve ways in which ideas and information are organized, filter, and present data.

Students will also create spreadsheets that clearly and effectively deliver targeted data and computations to intended audience. Students will then review and practice using GMetrix to prepare for the test for their Excel Certification.

Excel Unit Review

• Module 1: Introducing Excel fundamentals
• Module 2: Managing worksheets and workbooks
• Module 3: Formatting cells
• Module 4: Managing tables and arranging data
• Module 5: Using formulas and functions
• Module 6: Getting and transforming data
• Module 7: Visualizing data
• Module 8: Preparing to print and checking for issues

Students will also participate in student led class activities to enhance presentation skills while using Cornerstone projects and Try_Its to reinforce learned skills.

Assignments/Projects/Quiz/Test

• Student led activities
• Module guided notes.
• Project Presentations
• Partner and independent projects
• GMetrix Test
• Try_Its Activities

Focus On

• Checking Due Dates
• Desktop version of Excel.
• Submitting assignments on time!

Other critical resources used to earn certifications for this course:

GMetrix, Certiport

January

Welcome to a new year of learning!

As we enter 2026, we will explore Asian art and poetry. We will study central themes of nature and ancient philosophies in both mediums. Much of this will tie back to what students learned last semester in Ms. Mannion’s World History course and give students a clearer understanding of the connections between history and literature throughout time. We will begin with a virtual field trip to Smithsonian museums to view and research art from India, China, and Japan. From there, we will delve into Japanese fixed-form poetry (haiku and tanka) before applying learned concepts to Shakespeare's sonnets. Students will be required to read, analyze, and write poetry in this unit. This is by far one of my favorite times of year to teach Asian literature as it gives students a chance to reflect on the past, live in the present, and set meaningful goals for their future. Expect to hear a great deal about nature and philosophy over the next month or two.

Lastly, we will also resume weekly SAT/ACT vocabulary study to help students with academic-level reading comprehension.

As always, reach out anytime if you have questions.

In January, we will have our annual science fair Friday January 9th. In Biology class, we will learn about Organic Molecules with several chemistry labs, Six Kingdoms of Life, Cells with Microscopy and Energy Processes with experiments.

1. Parents welcome to Canvas! In order to be a parent observer in each of your child’s courses you will need to have them generate a code for each class.

   
   

   Step 1) Student will log into a canvas course.

   Step 2) Student will click on their image icon on the top left and click on settings

   Step 3) Once on the settings page, student will click on Pair With Observer on the right.

   Step 4) Parent/Guardian will use this code to join the course when they log into canvas as a parent.

   Step 5) Student will repeat the process for each canvas course. Enjoy!

   
   
   
   

The best way to contact teachers is via email.

• Ms. Mannion - morgan.mannion@nhcs.net
• Mr. Bishop - bryan.bishop@nhcs.net
• Mrs. Talbert - danielle.talbert@nhcs.net
• Mrs. Carver - lillian.carver@nhcs.net
• Mrs. Gault - agnes.gault@nhcs.net