Dear Parents/Guardians,
Greetings! It is that time of year again, and I am very excited to have your child in my classroom! I would like to share a little bit about my self, what your child will be doing in the classroom, and what my goals are for your child this new and exciting school year!
I am a graduated from Central Michigan Univeristy. Go Chipps! I studied Special Education and Language Arts, specifically for the k-8 grade levels. I am eager to apply everything I have learned from attending this school into my classroom.
During my course of study I researched how to best teach Middle School Writers, and how to keep them actively engaged. A very wise mentor teacher once told me "keeping the student engaged is one of the most important things to do in order to be able to teach them." I firmly agree with this teacher, and plan to make it my personal goal to keep your child engaged in what I am teaching them. In order to honor this goal of mine, I plan to allow the students to choose what they would like to write about. Freedom of choice, as you know is a very powerful thing for this age group. They like to feel they have some say in what they do.
During the course of the year, I will have a journal that students will write in daily. Students will be allowed to decorate their cover and make it their own. They can put photos, clips from magazines, quotes, or even drawings on the covers of their journal. My goal for this is that they are able to have something that reflects who they are. In this journal, students will be allowed to free write in it. At the beginning of class I will give students five minutes to write anything they want in it. They also will be allowed to free write in it outside of class if they choose to. My goal in this is to encourage students to write more frequently and to enjoy writing. I also may ask students to write reflections to readings in this journal or other small quick writes. When I assign writings I will collect the journals only to read what I assigned for them to write. I will give the students the option to put a sticky note on a page signaling me not to read a certain page if they would like. I also will always have a basket in the the room for them to drop their journals in if they would like me to read what they have written in their journal. My goal in this is to open the communication door between the students and I.
I also will be conferring with your kids about their writing throughout the year. This conferring time is to help them to develop into a stronger writer then they already are. During the session we will take a piece of writing they are working on and talk about it. We will talk about the things that are strong and some weaker points in their writing, and how to to implement new ideas and stylistic choices into their writing.
By the end of the year, my goals for your child are that they begin to enjoy writing if they don't already do, become efficient and affective in writing at least to grade level standards if not higher, for them to have explored how to write in the various genres, and taking great use of Author's Craft in their writings.
I promise to keep you updated monthly on what is happening in the classroom. I think it is important for parents/guardians to be knowledgable about what is happening in their child's life inside the classroom. I also will try to upload things onto my weebly weekly to keep you posted on different writing activities we may be doing. Feel free to check out the weebly and the different things I have already uploaded to it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my newsletter, and I look forward to meeting you and your child!
Sincerely your child's new writing teacher,
Ms. Conway
Greetings! It is that time of year again, and I am very excited to have your child in my classroom! I would like to share a little bit about my self, what your child will be doing in the classroom, and what my goals are for your child this new and exciting school year!
I am a graduated from Central Michigan Univeristy. Go Chipps! I studied Special Education and Language Arts, specifically for the k-8 grade levels. I am eager to apply everything I have learned from attending this school into my classroom.
During my course of study I researched how to best teach Middle School Writers, and how to keep them actively engaged. A very wise mentor teacher once told me "keeping the student engaged is one of the most important things to do in order to be able to teach them." I firmly agree with this teacher, and plan to make it my personal goal to keep your child engaged in what I am teaching them. In order to honor this goal of mine, I plan to allow the students to choose what they would like to write about. Freedom of choice, as you know is a very powerful thing for this age group. They like to feel they have some say in what they do.
During the course of the year, I will have a journal that students will write in daily. Students will be allowed to decorate their cover and make it their own. They can put photos, clips from magazines, quotes, or even drawings on the covers of their journal. My goal for this is that they are able to have something that reflects who they are. In this journal, students will be allowed to free write in it. At the beginning of class I will give students five minutes to write anything they want in it. They also will be allowed to free write in it outside of class if they choose to. My goal in this is to encourage students to write more frequently and to enjoy writing. I also may ask students to write reflections to readings in this journal or other small quick writes. When I assign writings I will collect the journals only to read what I assigned for them to write. I will give the students the option to put a sticky note on a page signaling me not to read a certain page if they would like. I also will always have a basket in the the room for them to drop their journals in if they would like me to read what they have written in their journal. My goal in this is to open the communication door between the students and I.
I also will be conferring with your kids about their writing throughout the year. This conferring time is to help them to develop into a stronger writer then they already are. During the session we will take a piece of writing they are working on and talk about it. We will talk about the things that are strong and some weaker points in their writing, and how to to implement new ideas and stylistic choices into their writing.
By the end of the year, my goals for your child are that they begin to enjoy writing if they don't already do, become efficient and affective in writing at least to grade level standards if not higher, for them to have explored how to write in the various genres, and taking great use of Author's Craft in their writings.
I promise to keep you updated monthly on what is happening in the classroom. I think it is important for parents/guardians to be knowledgable about what is happening in their child's life inside the classroom. I also will try to upload things onto my weebly weekly to keep you posted on different writing activities we may be doing. Feel free to check out the weebly and the different things I have already uploaded to it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my newsletter, and I look forward to meeting you and your child!
Sincerely your child's new writing teacher,
Ms. Conway