School has Begun! IMPORTANT UPDATES!
Posted on Saturday, August 15th, 2015 at 3:49 pmHi Everyone! Lots of information below, so please read everything and carefully.
Updates & Protocols:
It has been a busy busy busy week! I want to thank you for those who came to Back to School Night, wrote me about their child, or just stopped in to drop off supplies! You as parents and guardians are crucial members of my team. I need you guys as much as you need me. Please, at any time, if you have questions, email is best way to get a hold of me. I check it all the time, but if you write me after 5pm, I will more than likely see it the next morning. If you write about a concern, email can only go so far to solve the issue. I prefer we talk in person about any concerning issues face to face rather than exchange a multitude of emails. Mondays and Tuesdays are my longest days at the school where I attend and run certain meetings. Wednesdays-Fridays will be the best days to meet with me for anything.
Blog Check!
This blog is super important to check. If you look over to the right side of this page, you will see a section where you can subscribe to the blog. Click it and follow the instructions. Be sure to check your email inbox, as it will ask you to click a link to confirm the subscription. Once you have done that, overtime I make a post, you will be emailed the post I make.
As we start the year, I will add pages and information to this site.
Snack!
Snack is so critical for our students. I am going to try a new sign up system that will email you a reminder when it is your turn. I will be setting that up, so when it is ready, you will see it also to the right of this page at all times during the year. If I can’t get it up and running this weekend, we will need snack for this coming week (1st week of school). Please email me if you are willing to send healthy foods for our kiddos. We will be doing a group snack the 1st (maybe 2nd) week back only. After the 1st/2nd week, snack will individual and will end at 11:00am.
Volunteers & Room Mom:
It seems like this year I have a group of you who want to help read, do laundry, cut lamination, work in the garden, etc. I can’t tell you how great it feels to have a lot of you wanting to help.
Right now, we could use our rugs that we work on washed. They were washed last in the middle of last year. There is quite a few of them, but I know a few of you signed up to help. Please email me if you can take them ASAP.
We are still in need of a Room Mom! Jaida Ryan was our Room Mom last year and did fabulous things for our class. Jaida, if you would still like to be our Room Mom, Sarah Boudreaux is willing to help you out. If you can’t, anyone who loves to plan things for our class parties, send out reminders for field trips and events, you are the person we are looking for. Sarah is willing to come into the class and help out, but would like help with the planning aspect.
School Supplies:
A good chunk of you have dropped off school supplies. Ms. Emilee and I and your child will go through the supplies Monday. It will take us some time to get things in order, so there might be some need for volunteers to help us out. I will let you know when we cross that bridge. Please have your child bring in their school supplies Monday.
Schedule:
There is not going be a lot of things coming home (for those new parents who are used to homework, worksheets, etc.) We are working as a school to reduce paper usage and finding ways to conserve. Your child will be doing a huge percentage of their work in their binders, journals, and possible workbooks. When normalization has had its time to occur, for most of the children, (Oct. 1st) you are more than welcome to set up times with me to come observe our classroom in action, or if you want to meet with me to see your child’s work. Know that I am meticulous at keeping track of your child’s work and every year I make new changes to better my tracking system. I’ve made some curriculum decisions and changes to further enhance Dr. Montessori’s philosophy of “Follow the Child.” Every student is going to be at different levels in their education. I have made myself a Utah Common Core pacing guide of the standards that is organized by what I need to achieve monthly. I have passed this onto the other Lower El teachers as well. I use the Common Core standards as goals and as guidelines for how I will then use the Montessori materials to achieve those goals. This guide, I hope, will also help answer the famous question, “How far behind/above is my child in _____?”
What I can offer you at this moment is our weekly/daily schedule. It is subject to change and need adjusting, but I think I have it where it won’t much change. To my parents who have a child with a special need or have a love for knowing the schedule, I would print this out as a resource for your child and of course, you! 🙂
Work Charts & Classroom Work:
Your child will follow a work chart in my class. A change I have made this year is that I am not setting a set number of works your child needs to get done by recess. That may scare some of you, but know that I will be using the Utah Common Core Standards AND Montessori curriculum to keep your child on track (at their pace!) If a child is avoiding certain subjects, that is where Ms. Emilee and I will ask your child why they might be avoiding that area that they need to work on. It might be that they find it too hard, too boring, or need a different way to learn that subject. As a Montessori teacher, I will be looking for quality of work, not quantity of work. If you want to know what our work chart looks like, please click on the link below. You can use it as a tool to ask your child what they did that day.
Green is 1st grade, Blue is 2nd grade, Red is 3rd grade.
Some students may need a modified work chart. Should your child need a modified work chart, we will inform you of what that will look like and involve you in the planning process.
First Couple of Weeks:
1st Week of School– 1pm dismissal everyday! We will go over grace and courtesy and classroom procedures/expectations/rules and do team building exercises everyday this week
2nd and 3rd Week of School– The 5 Great lessons will be introduced with activities to follow. We will be talking about scientific theories during this time. Please note, the Montessori philosophy offers your child different theories from science and history. At no point in our school’s curriculum will we tell your child that this is the only theory you should believe or practice. Our job, in this environment, is to give your child different perspectives so that they see other points of views and learn more about our world and societies. I will always appreciate your family’s beliefs and values. What I do care about is that your child respects all the differences we will have in our classroom. I don’t tolerate any bullying, whether that be physical or emotional. Kids do joke and make statements, so please let me know if your child is unhappy at any time because some kids will not bring it to our attention and then it can fester into more of an issue.
Our class’s cultural curriculum will also be introduced during the 2nd week of school.
4th Week of School– Your child will be slowly introduced to more of their work chart and materials related to the Common Core Standards and Montessori curriculum.
Upper El Partnership:
This year, we will be working with Ms. Stephaney’s Upper El classroom. Both our classes will get together frequently to do activities, reading, and go on a field trip during the year. Thursdays will be our time to get together to do reading and other activities.
Phew! That was a lot of information to soak in. If you have any questions, please email me 🙂
Cheers!
Ms. Kaley