Dear Parents and Caregivers,
This letter is to
introduce myself as your child’s teacher and to outline the expectations I have
about learning and behaviour in room 6 in 2013.
Learning and Behaviour
Children should all understand
by now that the main reason for them being at school is to Learn and that the best way to become better Learners is for them to become better self managers. I will be continually encouraging
children to manage their own behaviour and learning, and to take increasing
responsibility for their own lives. Please assist me by encouraging your child
to take responsibility for themselves, in every area of their lives, as much as
possible. Poor self management will lead to ineffective learning and can
disrupt teaching.
Teacher Contact Details
Please note that we have a class blog up and running this year and that
I will be using the blog for all communications with parents about news,
events, homework and anything else that may be going on around the school. The Blog
address is: http://room6stmarysrotorua2013.blogspot.co.nz/
You may contact me by email at any time. I check my mail at least twice
daily Sunday to Friday. My address is david@stmarys.rotorua.school.nz
I am also happy for you to contact me by cellphone, or at home, for
urgent matters, at any time. Please come and ask if you would like my cellphone
number.
If you have any other questions about room 6 in 2013, or if you have
any issues or problems you wish to discuss, please contact me sooner rather
than later. I have an open door policy, but please be aware that some days can
be very busy. The mornings are not a good time, unless it is brief, or in an
emergency. After school, later in the week, is the best time for me to meet
parents.
Please make sure you sign up for the beginning of year teacher
interviews next week. Go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz
, enter the event code that was in the newletter, and follow the steps to book
a 10 minute interview time to discuss your child’s learning for the year.
Homework
Homework is a delicate subject
that arouses a variety of opinions among parents and I wish to make my
philosophy clear from the beginning. The most important homework for young
children is personal reading and this will be my main homework focus for the
year and the only absolutely compulsory homework. It is often apparent, at the
beginning of the year that some children are not reading anywhere near enough
on a day-to-day basis, outside of school. When possible children should be
reading for a minimum of 20- 30 minutes a day, outside of school, (usually in
the evening) including holidays and attempting to read a range of materials at
their level e.g. fiction books, non-fiction (fact) books, children’s magazines,
and appropriate online materials aimed at children. Putting in the reading
mileage (reading a lot, often) helps learning in all areas. Many independent learners even at 7-9 years
old are reading for several hours a day. Please note it is free for Rotorua
residents to join the Rotorua Public Library and children’s books are free to
take out. Children may also borrow books from St Mary’s School Library and my
own personal class library.
Reluctant readers can be hard to motivate at home. One technique that I
found worked well with my own son at 7-12 years old was to model reading
behaviour by reading my own book or newspaper on the bed next to him as he read
(and ready to answer questions). Of course some of the younger members of the
class will need direct assistance in reading their books to you. Some children,
who need extra help will go onto the Home Reading Program and will receive
books to take home on a Monday, to be returned on Friday. Children under the
standard will also receive one-on-one tutoring in reading to try and give them
an extra boost to catch up. Books are not systematically sent home with all
children at the Middle School Level.
If possible I would like to
see children spend about 5 minutes a night on memorizing their basic facts,
including times table facts for the more able mathematicians, for instant
recall. This is mainly a memory exercise for gaining factual knowledge, rather
than a purely maths one, and will greatly assist classroom teaching of
increasingly complex math’s strategies. It is a simple fact that many children
need someone to help and motivate them.
Repetition out loud is one way to reinforce the basic fact to memory,
especially if it part of a competition or game. Online math’s games such as
tut-pup can also be a fun way to learn basic facts and I am encouraging
children to sign-up to tut-pup so they can practice basic facts at school and
home, by competing against other children online. Please remind your child that
they need to choose a level or a times table that is challenging, not one that they
can already do. Many children in the class will understand the math’s concept
that 3 x 5 is 3 groups of 5 and can work out that the total is 15 (especially
if given equipment, or by using skip counting), very few know 3x5=15 as an
instantly recalled fact.
Children will also usually
receive a written or research task for homework for the week, or they may be
referred to a link on the class blog. The task may be linked to our school term
Concept. This term our concept is Communities. I am also encouraging the
children to use the class blog and to look at the posts and links at home, as
well as at school. Homework can be done in the homework book or on a
computer. In 2013, for spelling, we will
be running our Smartwords program again, but essential word lists are available
on request for those parents who like using these lists. Some families are very
busy and some children are very tired by late afternoon, so it is up to parents
to judge how much a child is capable of doing each day and week. Again, please
note that the 20-30 minutes reading a day is the only ‘must do’ homework on
‘most’ nights. If a child is too tired or angry forcing them to read is not
advised, leave it until tomorrow. If a child persistently refuses to read
please come and see me. I will post the homework on the Class blog each week.
Please ask for a paper copy to be sent home if you require one.
Middle School Teaching Program
The children will be writing about personal experiences this term and
learning about explanation writing, which will be linked to our concept of
Communities. In RE we will be doing the Jesus Strand as well as looking at Lent.
In reading I will be looking at introducing the children to a wide range of
comprehension strategies. The children are currently being grouped for maths
and will receive teaching, at their stage, on place value and addition and
subtraction strategies. We are looking at the Statistics Strand in maths, which
is highly relevant with the National Census coming up soon. Here’s hoping for a
productive year of learning in room 6 in 2013.
Yours Sincerely
David Bach
Classroom Teacher
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