BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT

1. BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT Coral Room 8/27/2014

2. Who are the players? • There are 3 players in a child’s education: child, parent, and teacher. • Parents are responsible to get their children to school on time, providing them with a good breakfast, a healthy snack and lunch, and a good night’s sleep. • Students are responsible to do their best to learn, and to be prepared for the lessons. • Teachers are responsible to have the lessons and environment prepared.

3. ClassroomRules • We practice the following classroom rules: • Cooperate with your teacher and classmates. • Respect the rights and property of others. • Carry out your basic student responsibilities: • Keep track of your own supplies and assignments. • Manage your time responsibly. Allow enough time to complete your work. • Ask for help when you need it. • Do your own work. • Accept responsibility for your work and own choices

4. Behaviors • Whatisthisstarmychildkeepstalking about? • Everyonestartsat 20. They are given warnings. • If they have to move it to 15, theyare in a no-talk, no-travel and need permission to leavetheirseat. • Continued mis-behaviorresults in movingit to 10, wheretheywillhave to workduringtheirplaytime (recess). • Move itagain and younow have a 5 and have to write a teacher-approved note home. • I’vealsoheard about class links? • The class as a wholecanearn links. Whentheyreach the ground (or ceilingdepending on direction) theyearn a class reward session of somekind. • What in the world is a happy check? • Studentscanindividuallyearn happy checks. Whentheyreach 50 checks, theyget to go to lunch with the teachers.

5. I have questions… • I have questions, but I am unsure who to ask/email/call. HELP! • Mrs. Boothby is responsible for: • Math • Character Education • Spanish • Technology • 4th Science • 5th History • Mrs. Crouch is responsible for: • Reading • Language & Spelling • PE • Writing • 4th History • 5th Science

6. Is There Homework? • Homework will consist of projects and unfinished class work. Children all work at different paces, and sometimes there are jobs that take longer than others. We are trying to adjust the workload so no one is overwhelmed, but at the same time not let them off the hook for daydreaming or chatting. Our goal is to help the students feel responsible for their learning and their time. Any unfinished work for the day is to be taken home and completed that night. It should be turned in the next morning. To discourage students getting too far behind, we may keep students in for recess if they have not completed a lot of their work. • We do have some type of monthly project. This project is an at home project. We do not set aside class time for the students to do these projects in class. These projects could be in the form of a book report, cultural studies, or a research project. If you’d like to find out more, please visit our website and click on the Projects link.

7. ClassroomBirthdays Monthly Birthday Celebrations: This year we are going to celebrate birthdays a bit differently. We’d like to celebrate all of the month’s birthday on one day. We will have our monthly birthday celebrations on the following dates: • Friday, August 29th @ 1:30 pm – all July & August birthdays • Friday, September 26th @ 1:30 pm – All September birthdays • Friday, October 31st @ 1:30 pm – All October birthdays • Friday, November 21st @ 1:30 pm – All November birthdays • Friday, December 19th @ 1:30 pm – All December birthdays • Friday, January 30th @ 1:30 pm – All January birthdays • Friday, February 27th @ 1:30 pm – All February birthdays • Friday, March 27th @ 1:30 pm – All March birthdays • Friday, May 1st @ 1:30 pm – All April birthdays • Friday, May 29th @ 1:30 pm – All May & June birthdays You are more than willing to work with others in the class to coordinate a treat/healthy snack, napkins, drinks, etc.

8. Digital Curriculum • SRA, Spelling, and Mathscore oh my! • Digital Curriculum is a fancy term for “stuff to complete on the computer”! • Your child has a variety of things that we require them to have access to internet to complete. If you do not have a computer or internet access at your house, you can use the computers at the public library for free as long as you have a library card. • The goal is for students to have access to the curriculum at school and at home, so there should not be the excuse of “I forgot it at school”. • You should bookmark our website’s digital curriculum page: http://classrooms.mmcharter.org/coralroom/digitalcurriculum.html

9. Inc? Corr? Abs? Exc? Huh? • We use a grading software program that we input each week’s assignments into. • We will email out progress reports on Wednesdays and Fridays. When you receive a report, we have graded EVERYTHING! (Do not believe your child when they say, “They lost it. They don’t like me. They didn’t grade everything. It’s not my fault.”) • The following codes have different meanings: • Inc = incomplete. It may not be finished; there is no name; no student number; no date • Corr = corrections. The assignment has mistakes that the student MUST fix and turn back in. • Abs = absent. The stduentwas absent that day. That DOES NOT mean they don’t have to do the assignment, they are still responsible for doing the work. • Exc = excused. The student is excused from a particular assignment.

10. Field Trips • We have several field trips planned throughout the year. Mrs. Boothby coordinates the field trips for us, and has asked for pre-payment for all of them so avoid collecting little bits of money each time. That makes the planning and coordinating much, much easier. • The cost of field trips for the year is $110 per child. Pre-payment is required. Payments can be made in one, two, or three installments. The first payment is due September 5. The second payment is due in the beginning of October, and the final payment is due the first part of November. • We need a field trip driver parent to help organize the cars and seats. Let Mrs. Boothby know if you’d be interested. • The first field trip is to the Mother Lode Ropes Course in Coloma on Thursday, September 25th.

11. Volunteers • We always have something we could use help with. By this age, the students are quite independent in the classroom. • Setting up materials, correcting work, driving on field trips, and special projects are the types of help we are almost always looking for. We also need some help with Read Naturally, copying, Math Facts, and some one-on-one time with students to reinforce skills. We would love some help with Spanish, Character Education, Art & Garden Docents and more. • Please be sure to check out our volunteer section on our website: http://classrooms.mmcharter.org/coralroom/volunteer.html and also sign up to volunteer in class at: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e48aead29a5fe3-coral1

12. A Girl Can Dream…Right? • Every classroom teacher dreams of having everything they need to enhance and enrich the lives of every student. Then we wake up and realize it was just a dream and that money doesn’t grow on trees like our kids think it does. • We have a wish list of things we'd like to see in the classroom or get replenished from time to time. • You can find our wish list at the bottom of the General Information page of our website: http://classrooms.mmcharter.org/coralroom/generalinfo.html

13. Communication is KEY! • We would much rather deal with a question or tiny situation now before it turns into a festering, oozing and explosive volcano. • Once we get everyone’s Coral Contact Info sheet back, we will send out emails regularly, sometimes more than once a day! • We have a VERY detailed and explicit website that has almost everything you could need to know what happens in our classroom. We say almost” because we are not done adding to it. We also update it regularly. We also use REMIND, a one way text reminder service that sends out scheduled texts to parents that have signed up for it. Please get your cell phones out now and follow the picture’s instructions for registering for our classroom texts.

14. Contact Info: Email: chrystee@mmcharter.orglcrouch@mmcharter.org Phone: 916-630-1510 ext. 215