Hey, Ortega Kids This One for You! (Poll)

Mariah Escatel

Every month students in Mrs. Ortega’s eighth-grade honors language arts class are required to read a specific genre and take an AR test on that book by the end of each month.

“It can be a chore, especially when it’s a really boring boo, but reading genres that I don’t normally read like, classical books, kind of opened my eyes to see that it doesn’t have to be a YA book to be interesting,” said Kylie Brennan, an 8th graders in Mrs. Ortegas eighth period honors class.

Students, however, are still allowed and encouraged to read a book of their own as well. But the big question is. . .

Mrs. Debrittion’s Read all of our Goal Setting Essays

Mia Grasse, Gwyndalynn Kent, and Ashley Wolf

As most of you know, Goal Setting essays are very important at Stacey Middle School. They’re so important that Mrs. DeBrittion reads every one of them. At this point, every essay has been read and returned with comments.

Mrs. DeBritton loves reading every one of the essays and learning more about each of her students. She says she wishes she knew each of her students by name, but over 900 students are quite a lot of names to memorize.  Here are some tips to know if you did well;

1. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling must be correct.
2. Make the story interesting for Mrs. DeBritton.
3. Tell her about yourself.
4. Don’t add irrelevant information.
5. Students who did their best ability should all be fine.

StudySync Helps Many With Online Education

Gavin Mercado

Chromebooks are used for education purposes, right? Usually for math quizzes, AR, or even reading logs. There has never really been any major sites for language arts. Well, the Westminster Scool District has introduced a new Language Arts program called StudySync.

Ms. Walters states, “StudySync is our new curriculum for Language Arts and will often be used.”

When you first log into StudySync, there will be four dots. You must click them to get into your assignments and activities for that day. Many assignments include audio books, online worksheets, and perhaps even a Blast!

8th Grade Honors Next Year

Mika Mendoza

Will you be joining Mrs. Ortega in 8th-grade honors?

Mrs.Ortega who is happy to be running 8th-grade honors will only have ONE class of honors next year. The class requirements will be more difficult, as many students are in 7th-grade honors.

The first requirement is student must exceed normal reading standards for 8th grade and be reading at a 10th-grade level.

The second stipulation is the student must show initiative and participate regularly in class.

The third condition is that the applicant must be able to think outside the box, be creative.

“Students must be able to take risks when it comes to assigned tasks.” Mrs. Ortega would also like it if the students had a teacher recommendation.

8th Grade Honors Newspaper News

Elaine Tong and Justin Pham

The newspaper project specifically roots from Mrs. Ortega’s ELA classes. This project has a reputation as it is assigned each year.

To start off, students choose a grade-level book fitted to their taste that they have not yet taken an AR test on. They then have a month to finish and take the AR test. It is also mandatory to take notes in any form that involves annotating or post-it notes, which needs to occur during the time of reading.

As repeated by past students and Mrs. Ortega herself, this project is not one to procrastinate on. It requires lots of perseverance and is a project that is supposed to challenge students’ minds.