Thank you so much for visiting my schoolnotes page :)  Schoolnotes is a wonderful tool for parents/guardians to use throughout the school year.  If you check it every Sunday, you will be able to stay abreast of what your child will be busy learning at FSLMA for the upcoming week.  During the week of September 19th through September 23rd, Ms. Russell's wonderful students will be busy doing the following:

Monday:  Fort Service Learning Magnet Academy received a state award for being one of the top FAMILY FRIENDLY SCHOOLS in the state of Georgia for the school year of 2015-16.  Georgia's state superintendent, Mr. Richards Woods, along with other dignitaries will be visiting our school on Monday, September 19th.  Mr. Woods will be presenting Mrs. Coaxum and Mrs. Long with this award at a school-wide pep rally from 2:00-3:00.  All parents and family members are welcome to attend as well :)  The entire student body did a "dry run" this past Friday to practice how we will transition through the halls and filter in and out of the gym.  My class was BY FAR THE BEST BEHAVED CLASS OUT OF THE ENTIRE SCHOOL!!! Mrs. Alexander and I were SOOOO proud of them!  We gave them all kinds of positive praise and I put 5 marbles in the "Good Behavior" marble jar.  The students know that when that jar gets full, the entire class will be awarded with a class party. The jar is 75% full now!  Also, each student at FSLMA will be getting a free "Straight Outta Fort" t-shirt to wear on Monday at the pep rally, so please make sure your child wears jeans or jean shorts on Monday so we all match.  THANK YOU!!

• The beginning of the day Monday will be spent eating breakfast, taking their spelling pre-test, reading their Story of the Week for the first time, working on Touch Math, and continuing their academic curriculum on mobymax.com.  

Tuesday--Friday:  For the remainder of the week, we will continue with our normal routine.  

• Edmark station:  While the small groups are at the Edmark station, they read their story of the week to the teacher.  The teacher counts the total amount of words in the passage, then counts the total amount of words the student reads correctly.  On Friday when they read their story for a grade, the hope is that their correctly read word count will be higher than it was on Monday.  We also engage the students in teacher led discussions about the elements of the story (i.e., setting, characters, plot).  Reading comprehension questions are also completed.  By the end of the week, the students have a very good grasp of their story, and the words contained in that story.  

• Touch Math Station:  I create individual math packets for each student to complete at the Touch Math station.  Some are working on their number sense and number lines, some are learning how to subtract multi-digit numbers with regrouping, while others have started learning how to multiply.  The students use manipulatives, graphic organizers, dry eraser boards, and smart board programs to assist them with these math concepts.

• Computer Station:  Mobymax.com is the program the students log onto when they are at the computer station.  They work on a different academic content area each day (math, fact fluency, the alphabet, vocabulary, science, and social studies).  

• Independent/Life Skills Station:  When it is time for the students to visit this station, they do a variety of activities.  The life skills activities they work on are:
  • folding/sorting laundry
  • setting the table (plate, cup, napkin, fork, spoon and knife)
  • opening and closing different size containers (fine motor and life skills)
  • place beads on a pipe cleaner (fine motor and life skills)
  • sort nuts and bolts
  • sort coins
  • sort healthy food and treats
  • 5 food groups game
  • take out the garbage

• GAA:  Starting this week, I will begin administering the Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA) activities.  The 6th and 7th graders have to meet 2 ELA standards and 2 math standards. The 8th graders must meet 2 ELA, 2 math, 1 science, and 1 social studies standard.  I am positive that my 12 wonderful and smart students will do amazing on their GAA activities.  I will certainly keep you posted on how they do on these important lessons.  

As always, I have an open door policy.  Any family member is more than welcome to come by and see your child in their classroom.

Thank you for everything you do!!

Jody Hunsaker Russell, M.Ed.

Learning specialist/Functional curriculum

Fort Service Learning Magnet Academy

"The Best Middle School in the World"

706.761.1954 cell

Thank you for visiting my schoolnotes page!  Visiting this page every week is a great way to stay plugged into what your child will be doing in school for the upcoming week.  For the week of September 12th through September 16th, we will be busy doing many things.  Here is a rundown:

Edmark Station:  This week I will be assessing each student with a Discrimination Test.  This will assess them on their word recognition and phonics skills.  The results of this test will furnish me with the data needed to place them at their exact reading level.  We will also give each student  a story of the week linked directly to their exact reading level.  The story will be placed in their folder on Monday, and if you could practice reading with them during the week, that would be wonderful.  They will read it on Friday for a grade.  

TouchMath:  When the students visit the TouchMath station, they do multiple different math activities that are tailored to their IEP annual goals.  

Computer Station:  The students work on Mobymax.com when they go to the computer station.  The students work on a different content area (math, fact fluency, vocabulary, science, social studies, and reading) each day.  As their teacher, I am able to pull their results up through Mobymax reports so I can track their progress.

Independent station:  During this station, the students do a variety of things.  They have learned many life skills such as how to fold and sort laundry, open and close various size containers, set a table with a plate, silverware, and napkins,  sort nuts and bolts and sort coins.  There are also multiple file folder games that deal with matching the months and days of the week and sorting treats from healthy food.

Money Station:  When we work with money, we generally do it as a whole-class lesson, rather than a small group rotation.  I have been concentrating on the Dollar Up method.  This method deals with bills only, no coins.  If something costs $3.73, we are trying to teach the students that they give the cashier $4.00 (the next dollar up).  They have done really well learning this concept.  

Time Telling Station:  This is also taught as a whole-class lesson.  The students either complete file folder games where they match the digital time to an analog clock, complete worksheets where they write the digital time next to a analog clock, or we pull up www.interactivesites.weebly.com .  This is an amazing educational website with a plethora of interactive activities that we can pull up on the SMARTBoard.  The students really enjoy this!!

Social Studies:  With September 11th having just passed, I plan on discussing this tragic event with the students on Monday, September 12th.  I will be showing them a educational video on www.flocabulary.com that was created specifically for students grades 5-12.  They will also complete several activities after the video that will go in the grade book as a social studies grade.  

Homework:  The students will be have a five times each spelling assignment for their weekly homework again this week. They will take their spelling test on Friday, September 16th.  They will also have a weekly story that will come home that they need to practice reading.  Thank you!!!

Thank you for being wonderful and supportive parents!  I have an open door policy, and you are always welcome to come by the class at any time to see your child and their classmates in the classroom.  

Thank you again!

Jody Hunsaker Russell, M.Ed.

Learning specialist, Functional Curriculum

Fort Service Learning Magnet Academy

"The Best Middle School in the World"

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FSLMA'S OPEN HOUSE is this Wednesday evening at 6:30.  I will be there, and any and all family members and students are encouraged to attend.  

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Thank you so much for visiting my schoolnotes page :)  Visiting my schoolnotes page is a great way to stay plugged in to what your child will be doing in school for the upcoming week.  For the week of September 6th -- September 9th, we will be busy doing many things.  Here is a rundown:

Ms. Russell's station

• I have finished assessing each student with the Styer-Fitzgerald Functional Academics Curriculum.  They all did extremely well, which just thrills me :)  This week, I will be linking their assessment results to the actual curriculum.  In short, each student will begin learning right where they need to be.    

Mrs. Alexander's station (Touch Math)

• When the students visit Mrs. Alexander's station, they work on math that is tailored to their IEP annual goals.  Mrs. Alexander will also be busy administering the student's spelling pre-test.

Miss. Garrison's station (Edmark Reading)

• When the students visit Miss Garrison's station, they work on reading.  Some days they are quizzed on sight words, while other days, they read short stories and answer reading comprehension questions about the story.  They also practice writing their sight words (which are also their weekly spelling words).  

Computer station

• When the students get to the computer time station, they log into Mobymax.com and work on a different content area each day.  The various content areas are math, vocabulary, reading, science, social studies, and many more.  

Independent Station

• When the students visit the independent station, they do a variety of activities.  Many of them include life skills activities such as folding/sorting laundry, setting a table, opening/closing various size containers, grocery shopping file folder games, sorting nuts and bolts and sorting silverware.  They also complete life skill worksheets on certain days.  

Two to three times a week, we work on time-telling and money management as a whole group in the afternoons.  I am very pleased with my students' progress thus far :)    The days we do not work on time and money, we work on science and social studies.  This week, the students will be shown a powerpoint about presidents--past presidents, our current president, and the two nominees who are running for president this November.  They will complete two activities based off what they learned during the lesson on presidents.  I am excited to see how they enjoy this lesson.

Homework:  Each Monday, your child will come home with a sheet of paper with their weekly spelling words on them.  They are to write those words 5 times each, and turn it in on Friday.  On Friday, they will be administered a one one one spelling test.  If they miss any words on the test, the missed words will be repeated the following week until they are able to spell them correctly.  Please quiz your child on these words throughout the week.  Also, starting this week, in addition to the spelling words, each student will bring home their weekly story.  Their spelling words are pulled from these stories.  Please have your child read their story to you several times during the week because they will read it for a grade each Friday.  THANK YOU!!!

As always, I have an open-door policy.  Please feel free to stop by whenever, or call!  

Thank you,

Jody Russell, M.Ed.

Learning specialist, functional curriculum

Hello to my wonderful students and parents!!

Thank you so much for visiting my schoolnotes page :)  Visiting my schoolnotes page is a great way to stay plugged in to what your child will be doing in school for the upcoming week.  For the week of August 29th through September 2nd, we will be busy doing many things.  Here is a rundown:

Ms. Russell's station

• When the students work with me at my station, it is always one on one.  I have been busy assessing what they know and don't know through our new curriculum, The Styer-Fitzgerald Curriculum for Functional Academics.  We have been concentrating mostly on counting money (bills and coins), calculator skills, and functional reading.  This week, we will be moving on to telling time and time management.  

Mrs. Alexander's station (Touch Math)

• When the students visit Mrs. Alexander's station, they work on math that is tailored to their IEP annual goals.  The first few weeks of school, some of them completed work that was very easy for them to complete, but I wanted to make sure they had mastered those areas before I jumped right into something more difficult.  Sometime this week, I will be sending home your child's completed math work so you can see their progress.  

Miss. Garrison's station (Edmark Reading)

• When the students visit Miss Garrison's station, they work on reading.  Some days they are quizzed on sight words, while other days, they read short stories and answer reading comprehension questions about the story.  They also practice writing their sight words (which are also their weekly speling words).  

Computer station

• When the students get to the computer time station, they log into Mobymax.com and work on a different content area each day.  The various content areas are math, vocabulary, reading, science, social studies, and many more.  

We work on time-telling and money management as a whole group in the afternoons.  I am very pleased with my students' progress thus far :)  

Homework:  Each Monday, your child will come home with a sheet of paper with their weekly spelling words on them.  They are to write those words 5 times each, and turn it in on Friday.  On Friday, they will be administered a one one one spelling test.  If they miss any words on the test, the missed words will be repeated the following week until they are able to spell them correctly.  Please quiz your child on these words throughout the week..  THANK YOU!!!

As always, I have an open-door policy.  Please feel free to stop by whenever, or call!  

Thank you,

Jody Russell, M.Ed.

Learning specialist, functional curriculum

SCHOOL YEAR 2016-17 at FORT SERVICE LEARNING MAGNET ACADEMY

Welcome back to school students and parents!

My name is Jody Russell, and I am super excited about teaching your child this year!   This is my second year teaching at Fort, The Best Middle School in the World, and my eighth year working with children with exceptionalities.  Together with my amazing para-educators, Crystal Garrison and Margaret Alexander, we would like to welcome you :)

The Muscogee County Program for Exceptional Children has adopted a new curriculum for functional academics called The Styer-Fitzgerald Curriculum (www.styer-fitzgerald.com).  I was just recently trained on this new program, and am confident your children will be successful in meeting and/or surpassing their goals under this new format.  Feel free to contact me or visit the above website if you would like to know more about Styer-Fitzgerald. The content areas we will cover under the current curriculum are:

• Functional Reading
• Writing Skills
• Time Telling
• Time Management
• Money Management (bills and coins)
• Calculator Skills

We will also continue using Edmark Reading and the Touch Math system.  I have uploaded several documents under the FILES tab of this schoolnotes page pertaining to Edmark and Touch Math, so you can familiarize yourself with each program. 

Your children will attend to the following schedule:

8:30-9:00:  Arrival, unpack, morning work

9:00-9:30:  Breakfast in classroom/Signing Time

9:30-9:40:  Restroom/ hygiene

9:40-10:45:  First round of academic rotations

10:47-11:49: Connections/PE

11:50-12:22:  Lunch in cafeteria

12:23-12:35:  Restroom/hygiene

12:36-1:40:  Second round of academic rotations

1:40-2:20:  Whole class lesson--Time & Money

2:20-2:55:  Free Time

3:00-3:20:  Snack time/socialization

3:20-3:30:  End of day activities/pack up/restroom

3:40:  Dismissal/bus loop/car riders

 I have an open-door policy, and the parents/family of my students are always welcomed to visit the classroom to see what their child is busy learning.  Also, feel free to call me with any questions or concerns you may have in regards to your child and Fort Service Learning Magnet Academy.  Again, I cannot express enough how excited I am to be teaching your children this year.  

Thank you!

Jody Hunsaker Russell, M.Ed.

Learning Specialist/Functional Curriculum

Fort Service Learning Magnet Academy

email:  [email protected]

cell:  706.761.1954