Back to School Night

1. Mrs. Benson’s Back to School Night

2. A Little About Me • This is my 9th year of teaching • I have my MA in Gifted and Talented Education • I love doing all the Colorado things…rock climbing, hiking, camping • Best way to contact me: mbenson@prospectridgeacademy.org

3. About 2nd Grade • Transitional year- Students learn about executive functioning and life skills to be able to handle in-class work and homework-practice. • High expectations- We set high expectations to be responsible, accountable, and prepared PRA students. • Responsibility is priority- We put responsibility, accountability, and ownership of their learning on our students because they can make good choices and self advocate. • We ask our students to be the problem solvers • Much of the time they come to us with problems they can solve

4. About 2nd Grade Continued • Cooperative Learning- Students will develop skills to communicate respectfully and work as a team towards a common goal (life skill) • We expect students to demonstrate respect to their peers, teachers, themselves, and other staff • Reasoning- All year we work on reasoning skills and how to support our answers with evidence from the text and to show multiple strategies of problem solving in math. • R.A.C.E.S. • Growth Mindset- We work with our students to develop an understanding of focusing on the process and not the outcome. We also help in understanding that mistakes are opportunities to learn. • Instead of saying “I can’t do this” try saying “I can’t do this, yet”

5. Allergies

6. Homework

7. Helpful Hints • Websites- where you will find classroom information • Websites are really important to check on regularly. That is where we will update any information about our classroom. Please explore it once or more times a week. • Subscribe and get alerts (please get out your phone!) • GLC- Megan Bartocci (praclassof2030glc@gmail.com) • Planners- will hold important dates (help with accountability). This is a big step in responsibility for our students. This is a tool and life skill we work on all year. They have what is coming up and when. It’s important that this stays in their backpacks and comes to and from school every day. • Specials- the schedule is on my website as well as the daily schedule.

8. Infinite Campus • Where grades are posted • Update information (contact info) • Grading Scale is 1-4 • 2s are normal in second grade because we don’t expect mastery right away and many skills are developmental. • Please refer to Standards Based Grading on my website

9. Positive Discipline • We are going into our fourth year of Positive Discipline • Help our students become problem solvers in and out of the classroom • Help our students become better at critical thinking • Help and expect our students to be accountable over themselves

10. Birthday Celebrations • Will usually be on the last, or second to last Wednesday of the month • Students may bring in non-edible treats to share (25 students altogether) • PJ day with backpack-sized stuffy • Dates will be in their planners and on the calendars of our websites.

11. Things to Come • PJ day (Summer birthday celebration) Wednesday the 28th • Tie-Dye the week of September 16th (more information to come) • Assessment Days: Sept. 3rd and 4th • Mrs. Benson will be absent for two weeks in November (the 4th-14th)

12. Q and A • Clarifications • Questions