To the Parents

To the parents of my students:

I look forward to having a good year at East teaching and spending time with all my students. I have aligned my curriculum with the Tennessee State Standards and Memphis City Schools curriculum guides for chemistry and biology in my classes. I have written a course syllabus but it is subject to slight changes now and then. I am always available to conference with any parent in my planning time. You also can click on the email tab at the top of any page to email me at MCS with your concerns and I will answer your email shortly aftter I receive it.

Last year was my first year at East High and I feel I found a good place with Mr. Curry as principal and good teachers on both sides of me at school - Dr. Pepper and Mr. Chevis. I network with my fellow chemistry and biology teachers as we share ideas and sources.

My only biology class last year had great Gateway test results. 27 out of 27 showed up for the test, 27 out of 27 passed the test, and 16 out of 27 were advanced. It was a very succesful effort for my first biology class in many years. I have been teaching mainly chemistry.

For my chemistry classes I will say that a lot of math is involved you must know how to solve for x. Algebra I is required before taking chemistry.

I urge you to look at the other pages on this site and find the syllabus for your subject and other information. I also have about a hundred pictures on the site showing my students from last year performing in labs and learning and having fun. You can get an idea of what your student will do in lab when they take my class. I also have a links page which will have many helpful links to help students in chemistry. There will be many tutorials for chemistry.

I do a lot of peer tutoring in class for those students who need more reinforcement of the subject matter taught. I am also available after school for tutoring with my students. It is best if the students have looked at the material and have questions for me before they come to tutoring.

Chemistry is a hard subject so for a student to do well they must study at home many nights. Many students will say they have no homework, when in reality they need to study and review the material taught in class. Without doing this, students will not score well on tests. Those students who do the best are those that are responsible enough to take their chemistry notebook home and study what they did and make a list of questions to ask me in class.

One of the best policies I have is that students are allowed to retake any test within 1 and 1/2 weeks after school and I will count the higher grade. It will never be the questions in the same order but will have a different order and different numbers, but it is the same material that is taught, to cut down on cheating. Not enough students take advantage of this policy, but I urge all students to do so.

I will be calling the parents of students who show behavior problems to alert the parent to the problem and to seek help in modifying the behavior.

Parents - please monitor your childs grades and conduct through progress reports, report cards, and talking to teachers. ALWAYS SEE YOUR CHILD'S REPORT CARD. Parents are always allowed to pick up the report cards or get a copy of the report card.

You may call me at 416-6160.

The following is my email address. Go to any page and click on the email tab and you can send me a message.

longcarlw@mcsk12.net

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