Here it is March and we have about 8 weeks left. The Study Skills class is working on test preparations as is my Advisory class. We are trying to get a few standards signed off as we continue toward the end of the year. Please be aware that we have “Student Led Conferences” on April 1st and I look forward to seeing each of you. If you have an individual issue that you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact me and we can certainly set up an appointment to talk.
As we are coming to the close of the semester and quarter, we are finishing up taking notes from lectures/class instruction. Most of the students have done pretty well in this phase. Hopefully, they will continue to take notes in their other classes and get more experience at this skill.
We have just finished working on a unit based on Listening Skills and will take it into Taking Notes from a Lecture. This will be one of the more difficult units to work on for our students since it will involve both skills, notetaking and listening. The students mastering of this skill will enable them to retain more information and understand the difference between “just taking notes” and “taking notes that will help”.
Our Study Skills classes have started working on lessons based on “How to read a textbook and get the most out of it”. SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. By using these steps, students will be able to take the informaiton and comprehend and remember more than they would simply by reading the material. We are beginning our work with the “survey” portion where a reader scans the material for boldfaced words, sub-topic headings, etc. When they move to the “question” portion, the reader will write out questions using “who, what, where, when, why, and how” to try to answer when they get to reading the material. By the time they are finished, they should have better retention of the material. We will be working on SQ3R for some time with actual hands-on practice using textbooks in class.
Depending on their schedule, the students will be turning in their Daily Diary on Monday or Tuesday. From that we will review where they are are spending their time, whether it is constructive or not, and where they can fit in study time. The goal is to help them with their study time and make the best use of it. If your child is in my Study Skills class, please take a few minutes and go over their Daily Diary with them.
We have started a series of instructions and projects pertaining to time management. Many students (and adults) have problems trying to figure out how to spend their time to get the most accomplished (whether work or fun). Hopefully, upon completion of this unit, they will have the tools to plan, follow through, and evaluate their time use and management.
My name is Walter Kloepfer and I am a new teacher at HTH.
I retired from the U.S. Coast Guard after serving 20 years on active duty. While in the Coast Guard, I completed my Bachelors Degree at Indiana University. Since retiring, I have been a human resource assistant and then a manager for a fish processing company and followed that with three years as a city manager in the “bush”.
After over three years in Emmonak, I decided to go back to school and get my teaching credentials. I attended Alaska Pacific University and in 2002, received my Master of Arts in Teaching and went back to Emmonak where I have enjoyed teaching for the past seven years. We changed over from the standard grade system and started a “levelized” program that was standards based. I was the high school English teacher for the past 5 years (prior to that I taught a self-contained 8th grade class for two years) and while I enjoyed being out there, it was time to rejoin “city life”.
I have three adult children and five grandchildren (one of whom is in 2nd grade). All of my children graduated from Wasilla High School and continued on with advanced education.
Currently, I am one of the two Special Education Teachers and also teach Study Skills at HTH and look forward to being part of the HTH family.