News from the Principal, Mr. Gerry Talley
Hello parents, and welcome to Tidehaven Intermediate School. We are beginning this school year with a great staff and a new, more rigorous curriculum. You will find that your student will move from rote memorization of individual facts to a deeper conceptual understanding. As students acclimate to our new curriculum, they may face some difficulty. Please be patient and allow them to rise to these higher expectations. To assist students we have in-class tutorials, peer tutorials, after-school tutorials, blitz days, Saturday seminars and private pull-outs. The curriculum itself also offers help to the students and parents through the C-Scope parent portal located at http://www.cscope.us/parentportal/. Here you will find an abundance of web-based assistance.
I have said this many times but know that you are always welcome here. We invite you to voice your concerns, ideas and certainly any compliments. We have already initiated many ideas given to us by parents and students last year. To accent this belief, we will again have at least two “town hall meetings” this year which will be an open forum for academic and operational dialogue. Everyone is invited and our first one this year will be September 13th at 5:45 in the school café.
After 25 years of observing, I have determined that much of student success is dependent on habits and attitudes. Almost all “A” students use the following techniques to increase their success rate. I would encourage all students to use these strategies.
- Form study groups- exchange phone numbers with classmates and text them when you are struggling with a concept or problem. Meet in the library in the mornings to review difficult concepts. Without an avenue to get immediate feedback on problems they find difficult, many students will shut down. Immediate feedback is the key to success!
- Ask questions in class
- Go to tutorials
- Use flashcards
- Draw concept pictures, thinking maps, mental images
- Start studying two days prior to a major test
