Math 6 & Math 8

Mrs. Harkins
  • Greetings, students and parents!  I have taught middle school math since 2004 and absolutely love working with students of this age!

    I am passionate about helping all students realize they can indeed be successful in a math classroom!  We do practice and review of skills with lots of games in my class and I offer choice with tiered assignments sometimes, so students can choose whether they need more practice with the skills as taught in class or are ready for a challenge. Students usually grade their own homework practice, but I also look it over to give feedback. Students are then encouraged to make edits and resubmit for further feedback to truly master the concepts. 

    A Clayton secondary policy is that homework will not count towards the overall class grade because it is intended to be risk-free practice. After that practice we will have progress checks and other in-class checks for understanding. These are formative assessments that should be corrected and retaken to further develop an understanding of the concepts before we reach the unit summative assessments. Math is not a race, though, and a student is not a failed mathematician just because the skills weren't mastered by a certain date. Therefore, students may still meet with me for continued practice and retakes as needed on previous unit assessments as long as they are also keeping up with our current unit of study. When assessments are retaken, the new grade always replaces the previous grade.

    I am available Tuesdays-Fridays after school until 4:15 for students to meet with me for help or extra review.  They may want to check with me ahead of time to ensure I do not have another commitment on a particular day and time, but appointments are not necessary.

    Students will find all the needed information and resources for my class on our Google Classroom page.