Dear students and families,
I am excited to again be on Team Taylor this year and to have the opportunity to be part of your education! This will be my fifth year teaching and going on four years in Franklin. Having taught every subject at some point in my career, every subject is equally as exciting for me. With that said, I am ecstatic to be your math and science teacher for the 2018-2019 school year!
I grew up on the North Shore in the city of Lynn. As a child, I loved spending time outdoors with friends and going on adventures. After graduating high school and some years later, I began my college education at UMass Amherst where I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Economics. Later I went on to pursue my career in education by attending UMass Boston and completing their master's program of education in 2016.
In my free time, I still enjoy spending time outdoors and exploring new places. Whether that’s through hiking, kayaking, biking, snowshoeing, and etc., I love experiencing the novelty of new places and people. I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands, so I enjoy the challenge of fixing things around the house or on my car. If I don’t know how to do something, I usually pick up a book or check the internet to learn. One final and important thing to know about me is I love watching football and the New England Patriots are my team.
During Math this year, you can expect to expand on the concepts learned in 5th grade. Some new concepts to be aware of are ratios and proportional relationships. While studying expressions and equations, we will learn to reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities. Additionally, we will be working with dependent and independent variables. In regards to statistics and probability, we will be to develop an understanding of statistical variability as well as be able to summarize and describe distributions. Throughout the year, we will continue to work on and extend our abilities with the number system. That includes adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying multi-digit whole numbers, mixed numbers, fractions, and decimals.
During our Science curriculum this year, we will be focusing on the structure and function of various systems and come to understand how these systems work by looking at the micro/macro levels of these systems. Some of the major topics we will be discovering are the physical sciences (mass, density, volume, endo/exo thermic reactions, heat transfer, and gravitational forces), earth and space sciences (plate tectonics, rocks, chemical weathering, gravitational pull, earth-sun-moon system, and the Milky Way Galaxy), life sciences (unicellular and multicellular organisms, cell parts, body systems, evidence from fossil record, and evolutionary relationships), and waves (diagrams of waves and light ways, parts of waves, and digital waves). The science curriculum will demand you to think and act like a scientist through various experiments and labs. Additionally, you will need to work cooperatively in groups with attention to detail.
Be sure to check our blog for monthly updates and important dates on our calendar. Google classroom will hold a document with the weekly homework and assignments.
Sincerely,
Mr. Kelley
