Algebra 1A/B Syllabus

Algebra 1A/B Syllabus

Teacher: Mr. Justin Bonner

Email:

Room: 4-302

Dear Students and Parents:

Welcome to Algebra 1A/B! I am super excited to get started in meeting you and beginning to set the tone for high school mathematics. I have a Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of South Florida and I was previously a Project Engineer at Johnson Controls Inc. I am passionate about trying to make a positive impact in the community that I have lived in for the majority of my life. The chance to provide transformative, opportunity-expanding, wall-busting, super EXCITING mathematical experience for your child is what motivated me to leave the engineering field.

By enrolling at THE Boca Ciega High School, your family has made a commitment to high standards and work ethic. I feel the best opportunity to get everything your student can from this class is when I can reinforce the expectations that you have for your child at school. If at any time your student is feeling unmotivated, behind, or frustrated in anyway, please let me know immediately. I am here for your student, and will reflect on my practice to make the most out of the experience for both your student and myself.

Thank you for your time! I am looking forward to working together to make this school year amazing!

Sincerely,

Justin Bonner

Mr. Bonner’s Policies and Procedures

Required Materials

- School-wide organizational binder with both college-ruled paper and graph paper

- Pencils (NO Pens for class or hw unless required)

- Available at home: pens, colored pencils, rulers, highlighters

- Optional: students may wish to purchase a scientific calculator, but I will provide these for in-class use.

- Optional: I do not supply tissues for student use. Students with sniffles are expected to bring their own.

Tutoring Schedule

–I will be available in my room from 2:15 pm until 3:15 pm to offer assistance on any material there may be struggles with. It will be on a first come first serve basis, utilizing group effort to make the most of this time.

Grading Scale

- Grades in Algebra 1A/B will be points-based.

- Each day, students will typically earn 32 points. 12 of these points will be awarded for the completion of the homework. The other 20 points will be gained through remaining on task through the class period. Note that only classwork organized in the school-wide binder will be graded (not loose papers).

- Students will take both Mid-Unit Assessments (worth 150 points each) and End of Unit Assessments (worth 300 points each).

- At the end of each quarter, grades will be given by dividing earned points from the total possible points.

- Students may earn bonus points throughout the year by way of participation. There will not be bonus work given at the end of the quarter to boost student grades.

- Any discussion about a grade discrepancy must happen within one week of the grade being entered into Portal.

Agile Mind Textbook

- As we have transitioned to the new Florida Standards, Pinellas County Schools has adopted the Agile Mind textbook for all Algebra 1A/B courses. These texts are fairly different from the old textbooks, as the new standards emphasize conceptual understanding over rote practice.

- The textbooks are consumable, which means your child will be allowed to write in them. We will also be ripping out and organizing pages from the textbook into the student binders. If your child loses his/her binder, it will be his/her responsibility to reprint the relevant pages. Please email me for instructions for printing a PDF of any lost pages.

Parent Contact

- Regular and consistent parent contact is essential to building strong relationships between home and school.

- I am free to schedule a parent meeting virtually any time after school. We can meet at BCHS or—depending on schedule—I can meet at an alternate convenient location.

Homework Policy

- Homework will be assigned regularly, if not nightly. Please check bocaciega.org or your student’s binder for each assignment and due date.

- On days that homework is due, we will spend class time processing homework and correcting errors. For this reason, homework grades will be given primarily on completeness and not correctness.

- Please see my tutoring schedule above for opportunities to get help outside of class. Tutoring is also available Tuesdays-Thursdays in 4-101.

- Late homework will be given no credit. Any homework left at home on the due date will be treated as late unless hand-delivered by a parent before class.

Pirate Pact and School/Classroom Rules/Restroom Policy

- The Pirate Pact and Code of Conduct goes a long way in establishing the rules that we need to have a positive classroom. Students should expect me to enforce school-wide expectations such as (but not limited to) tardies, electronics, dress-code, and behavior.

- I will work in every way to resolve issues with professionalism and dignity in class. If there is ever a case where you feel that I did not meet this standard, please reach out immediately so that we may resolve the issue. Your child’s education is too important to be wasted on misbehavior or misaligned expectations.

-The students will not line up at the door prior to dismissal, we will be focusing from bell to bell with instruction and will not be able to set time aside for preparing to get dismissed before being dismissed.

- Restroom policy: There will be a pass located in the classroom, as long as the pass is available the student may use their best judgement on restroom use. If there becomes abuse of the restroom responsibility given to the students we will move onto having 4 passes available to each student to use, but I expect that our students will be able to use the restroom responsibly.

Absences and Attendance

- Students absent from my class for one day (even if it’s an excused absence) will have missed 90 minutes of material. I would expect that a good student would stay after school at least 30 minutes to catch up, and this is by far the easiest way to recoup the 30 points missed for each absence.

- Students who have an unexcused absence for an assessment may earn an F for that assessment. Students with an excused absence will make up the assessment on the day they return to school.

- I encourage any student who knows they will miss a day to either stay after school beforehand to get the material, or arrange with another teacher to get a pass to my class so that he/she can participate during another period.

- Any more than one absence a month usually leads a student to being totally lost in class. Please monitor student attendance on Portal routinely, and contact me with any outstanding issues.

- As per the PCSB Code of Conduct, students will have one extra day for each absence to make up any missed work.

In lieu of signing and returning this syllabus, please visit the following link on a computer, tablet, or cell phone in order to complete a short survey for me to best capture your contact information. Thank you!!

Visit: goo.gl/au5Bty