Team Paramaribo

Request for Volunteers: a message from the 8th Grade Civics Department

Next week in 8th grade Action Civics, students will be learning about the founding, success, and modern resilience of HBCUs across the US. We would love to make this learning experience more meaningful by helping students build personal connections to these institutions.

We are looking for volunteers who attended an HBCU to help students see and understand these Universities' ongoing impact. If you would be willing to participate in a brief conversation and Q&A with students about your experience and how your HBCU education continues to serve you today, please complete the following form and Mr. Boyd will get you more details: HBCU Alumni – Fill out form

Attendance and Absences

Families may submit student absence excused notes by:

Submitting information electronically via AspenGO (preferred method)
Submitting a hard copy excuse note to the Attendance Counselor
Emailing DealAttendance@k12.dc.gov

We can once again accept absences excuses via email, as this is the only way to electronically attach documents. Please note information received via email may be processed more slowly than excuses submitted via AspenGo.

Save The Dates!

March 12th: Pi Day Celebration in class
March 12th: NO STUDENT LED CONFERENCES, cancelled due to snow day calendar shifts
March 13th: Sign-up Deadline for the SWW Math Competition
March 13th: Professional Development/Wellness Day, No School for Students
March 14th: Pi Day!!
March 28th: SWW Math Competition
April 3rd: End of 3rd Quarter
May 29th: Battle of the Books, more information below

Classroom Supplies Wishlists

We are so incredibly thankful to everyone who has sent in supplies so far - you are all truly appreciated!

If you would like to donate to your student's classrooms, here are the Amazon wishlist links:

Ms. Wesselhoft's Wishlist

Mx. Gomez's Wishlist

Mr/x. Winston and Ms. Clark's Wishlist

Ms. Patsalos' Wishlist

Ms. Sagan's Wishlist

Ms. Sun's Wishlist

Any donations can be sent to the school with this format:

ADCA c/o Teacher Name

3815 Fort Dr NW

Washington, DC 20016

English and Language Arts with Mr. Winston

We had a wonderful time in class reading The Giver, identifying how Jonas has changed from the start of the story to now.

Next week, scholars will revise their final drafts for their narratives based on a scene from The Giver. The final deadline for revisions to this assignment (scored as a Summative Assessment on Aspen) is Sunday, March 15th. We will also keep strengthening our CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) writing skills by responding to a prompt for Chapter 19.

As always, please encourage your scholars to read for 20 minutes each night and to send me a message on Canvas if they have any questions.

Math with Mx. Gomez

Next Thursday is our Pi Day celebration, and we’re excited to celebrate all things circular in math! To make the day extra fun, we’re asking families to send students with a store bought, nut free dessert that’s circular—think cookies, donuts, mini pies, cupcakes with round tops, or anything in the spirit of π!

Thanks for helping us make our Pi Day mathematically sweet!

6th Grade Accelerated Math

This week, we focused on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers. Next week, students will have a review day before taking their RCT on Tuesday and Wednesday. The assessment will cover operations with integers, plotting positive and negative numbers on a number line, identifying and reflecting points on a coordinate grid, solving one step equations, and interpreting rates in real world scenarios.

Friday’s BCR included similar problem types to help students prepare for the RCT. Students may use Amplify over the weekend to review their work and study.

We’ll finish the week with a fun celebration of Pi Day!

7th Grade Math

In Math 7, students have spent the past few weeks learning how to write and solve equations and inequalities. They have also been practicing how to interpret these equations and inequalities within real world scenarios. This is our final week in the unit, and students will be bringing home a Solving Equations & Inequalities Study Guide, which is due Wednesday, March 11th.

We will have one additional practice day to reinforce these skills before wrapping up the unit. Then, on Thursday, we’ll finish the week with a fun Pi Day celebration!

Please encourage your child to stay on top of their assignments and reach out if they need support.

The School Without Walls Math Competition

The School Without Walls Math Club is holding our fifth annual DC middle school math competition, and all of your middle schoolers are invited! The competition will take place on March 28th, 2026 at School Without Walls High School. We will begin with an individual round, then a team round, and an elimination round for all of the top-scoring individual students.

The competition runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. We will also offer tours of School Without Walls if participants are interested in applying in the future.

Please note that space is limited and only the first 150 students to sign up will be able to compete. Students can sign up here: Middle School Math Comp Sign-up Sheet. This form should be completed by March 13th at the latest!

Summer Math Acceleration Camp (SMAC) Information

🔎Please direct all questions to DealSummerMath@k12.dc.gov.

As you may know, Deal offers an in-person math acceleration program each year for students who are currently taking Math 6 or Math 7. Students who demonstrate mastery of standards on the Middle of Year (MOY) i-Ready and the End of Year i-Ready (EOY) i-Ready by earning the required score will be invited to participate in SMAC 2026.

We will also offer a summer online asynchronous opportunity for students who will not be available for SMAC. To be invited to participate in the online asynchronous acceleration program students must earn the required score on the MOY i-Ready assessment and share the reason why they are not available for SMAC.

SMAC Boost | June 22 - 25; 9:00 - 12:00 noon (must attend all dates)

SMAC Dates | June 29 - July 23; 9:00 - 12:00 noon (must attend all dates)

Asynchronous Math Acceleration Program (Zearn) | June 22 - July 23

📎 Follow Along at Home

Families and students can explore the curriculum, preview lessons, and access resources using the link below:
🔗IM Accelerated Math Curriculum

🔗IM Grade 7 Math Curriculum

World Geography and Cultures with Ms. Wesselhoft

Next week, students will take their Unit 5 Population Growth Assessment (Summative Criteria A & D – two grades).

After the assessment, we will begin Unit 6: The Americas. This is a slight adjustment from our usual syllabus order—we will return to the Europe unit later.

During the week, students will:

Map the countries of the Americas

Identify major physical features of the region

Learn and practice key geography vocabulary

Analyze thematic maps to better understand the human and physical characteristics of the Americas

Here is the new wishlist link if you would like to donate to the Geography classroom.

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/O9VNS5ZC4A1S?ref_=wl_share

Earth and Space Science with Ms. Sagan

Hello Scientists!

This past week included several labs investigating the movement of ocean currents and heat exchange to help students understand how the movement of water and air around the globe moves heat and affects the climate and air temperature of locations.

Next week we will wrap up our short Oceans, Atmosphere, and Climate unit with our Amplify End of Unit assessment on Monday. This test will be an IB grade since there is no summative assessment for this mini unit-please encourage your students to study using this Blooket: https://play.blooket.com/play?hwId=69a8c27ef8038e0a856ada75

We will finish out the week by introducing our Weather and Water unit on Thursday, followed by a long weekend!

Roots!!

We had our final Roots quiz of Term 3 on Friday and will wrap up our Term 3 Roots with our Roots summative next Wednesday, 3/11. Students should complete their paper study guide and use this Blooket to study their Roots: https://play.blooket.com/play?hwId=69a9b24ecc55af75a6a5d52b

Notes from MLL Support

Last week students practiced using Academic Language for Discussion in preparation of Access Speaking at Teacher-led stations. Next week students will continue with HMH and iReady. We have also implemented a celebration wall for top earners who finished HMH segments and passed iReady lesson at a minimum of 80%.

Ms. Sun’s Amazon Wishlist

World Languages Newsletter

Read the weekly Deal World Languages newsletter to find out more about the happenings in Chinese, French and Spanish classes, including units of study and upcoming assignments and assessments.

https://app.smore.com/u/emily.bullock5

Library Corner

Deal students will have the opportunity to sign up for our Deal Battle of the Books team in April this year. Until then, they can read the books! They have learned about the program from Mr. Reichlen during ELA library visits. They can borrow physical copies of the 10 books from ELA teachers and the library. They can borrow e-books and audiobooks from SORA and Libby (DC Public Library) or purchase personal copies. More information about the district competition and a list of the books can be found at the following link:

https://dcla.org/DCLA-Battle-of-the-Books

Read the library newsletter for February! Check out great opportunities for reading challenges, using DCPL databases, Black History Month resources, and more at the link below:

https://app.smore.com/n/x3k0a