Junior High WV History Class -- Can you help?

Dear Families of Junior High students,

It is my pleasure to delve into West Virginia History with your kids and mine

this year!  I have learned a few things about my adopted state, and I will know a whole lot more when we finish this course.  We all will!

Here's how I could use some help:  Do you or yours have any stories about life in West Virginia that could be shared with the students?  Farming, coal mining, growing up stories that may be in your family history may seem commonplace to you but would really enhance our class time.  Please consider coming in to share anything West Virginian with this class!

Another way to help: please send in the research report your child did last year in writing class.  I would like to have these shared aloud with the class. 

Lastly, on Friday September 7, Coal Country Mini-Golf is open at 3 pm and is

giving us $1 off admission to play after our THESIS day.  If you have not played here, you'll like that every hole is constructed from coal mining equipment! This will be a fun way to kick off our class! 

Warmly,

Liz DeRoos, for THESIS

Teachers Needed

Is everyone getting excited about THESIS starting again soon? Are you curious about what classes will be taught?

We will be posting the schedule soon, but we have one more slot to fill. The 4th-5th grade middle period (from 1:40-2:20) still has an opening for two teachers. Have you considered teaching a class, but you are waiting to be asked?

There's a great class that Liz DeRoos taught a few years ago that is math-based but feels more like arts & crafts. The kids who took that class had a blast learning math in a fun way. If you would like to teach this class, Liz will gladly help you to plan out the lessons for the year.

Or, do you have a desire to teach but you have something else in mind? Well, that's great! As I mentioned, this one class is the only slot we've yet to staff.

We've added three more classes to our class schedule this year--so we need your help!If this is not your first year as a member of THESIS, and you have ever considered teaching--now is the time to step up!

Please call Liz DeRoos, at 304.534.5822, or Selena Campbell, at 304.363.0944, if you are interested in teaching this 4th-5th grade class this year.

THESIS is a Co-Op

Did you know that our homeschool group, THESIS, is a co-op, or cooperative?

The definition of a cooperative is:

something owned collectively by members who share in its benefits.

And, of course, cooperative comes from the word cooperate, which means: to work together with others.

Therefore, the definition of THESIS is:

a homeschool group where we all work together and collectively share in the benefits of doing so.

And so, here comes the wonderful part -- Moms, we need you!

If you have some amazing ability when it comes to teaching a certain subject--math, art, basket-weaving--please let us know! As of the writing of this post, five elementary classes still need teachers, which includes two classes each for grades K-1 and 2-3, and one class for grades 4-5.

And, senior high students--are you proficient in a subject? Are you well organized? Please feel free to volunteer to teach a class (as long as it is okay with your parent).

Please know that we have an amazing year coming up, with more classes to be taught than ever before, and possibly even more families joining our group (we had 50 families representing ~100 children this past year). While this is exciting, it definitely requires that we emphasize that we are a co-op, and we all need to pitch in and help out, in some way.

With that in mind, when the registration happens in August (which is going to be different this year--more about that in a later post), we will have sign-up sheets for class helpers. Please take time to review these sheets and choose a class (or two) to help out with. Due to the volume of students that we have, we will be assigning helpers for each class, if we don't fill all the blanks with volunteers. So, if you'd like to pick out the class where you want to help, be sure to take a look at those sign-up sheets. (There will be a reminder of this, closer to registration.)

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer--the days are going to start getting shorter after today--and that you are keeping cool. When you are inside enjoying some a/c on the super-hot days, please give some thought to possibly teaching a class this year, or helping to coordinate an area of our group.

If you have any questions, or want to teach a class/be a coordinator, please give Selena (304-363-0944) or Liz (304-534-5822) a call.

Blessings!
Selena