Frequently Asked Questions:
What should I send for snack? What time is snack?
Please send a healthy snack that can be finished in about 5 minutes. Some options might include pretzels, carrot sticks, crackers, fruit (already peeled oranges), etc. Students may bring a water bottle each day, but please do not send juice for snack. We will have snack at 2:00 each day.
What is the best way to contact you?
I check my email each day, usually after school and before I leave for the day. I will return your email or phone call within 24 hours, so if the message is urgent please make sure it gets to the front office. I am usually able to respond to messages immediately after school lets out, but if I am in a meeting, off campus for a district event, or am out at a training that day, it will take me longer to respond.
When do you take field trips? Do you take chaperones?
We usually take one field trip in the fall, around October or November, and in the past students have gone on a music field trip each year, organized by their music teacher. We take chaperones when the venue allows for it. Some venues have plenty of space available, and some venues only allow for a certain number of adults.
What should I do if my child is sick? Will they have to make up work?
We, of course, want your children at school every day, but we understand if an illness prevents them from coming to school. Please make sure you contact the office if your child is sick. They will make sure I receive the message. Send in a doctor's note the next day so that this may also be turned into the office. Because we do not teach through worksheets it can be difficult to make up missed work at home. Most missed work will have to be made up during the next school day at some point, and students will be expected to be more independent with this work as I will be moving forward with the rest of the class. I try to carve out some time during the day for a child who was absent to make up some missing work. Depending on the type of work, some missed days might require the child to make up a lot during class while some missed days children won't have much to make up. Please keep in mind that whenever a student misses class, he/she is missing the mini-lesson for each subject that day and is also missing out on valuable class discussion. Therefore, please try to keep absences limited to sick days and not vacations.
How do you assess children?
We have grade level common assessments in all subject areas, which students complete at the end of a unit. We also have math quizzes over spiraling skills. We assess a child's thinking in addition to his or her final product, because we want students to realize the value of their thinking and not just the correct answer. We try to score work and post it to the online grade book, where you can access it, within a few days of completing the assignment. The only subject in which the scoring takes longer than 2 or 3 days is writing, because to score these we sit down as a team and analyze the pieces together. For each nine weeks, we have 9 or more grades for writing, reading, and math, and we have between 5 and 7 grades for science and social studies. If your child scores below a 70 on any assignment, I will reteach the concept to the child either 1:1 or in a small group, and he/she will have a chance to redo the assignment to earn up to a 70 percent. We have designed our assessments to be rigorous so that they really show us a child's knowledge and effort over material we have taught. We want all students to be able to earn those As, but we also want them to understand they have to put forth effort in order to get those As. We really stress effort with our kids as a valuable life skill!
What should I send for snack? What time is snack?
Please send a healthy snack that can be finished in about 5 minutes. Some options might include pretzels, carrot sticks, crackers, fruit (already peeled oranges), etc. Students may bring a water bottle each day, but please do not send juice for snack. We will have snack at 2:00 each day.
What is the best way to contact you?
I check my email each day, usually after school and before I leave for the day. I will return your email or phone call within 24 hours, so if the message is urgent please make sure it gets to the front office. I am usually able to respond to messages immediately after school lets out, but if I am in a meeting, off campus for a district event, or am out at a training that day, it will take me longer to respond.
When do you take field trips? Do you take chaperones?
We usually take one field trip in the fall, around October or November, and in the past students have gone on a music field trip each year, organized by their music teacher. We take chaperones when the venue allows for it. Some venues have plenty of space available, and some venues only allow for a certain number of adults.
What should I do if my child is sick? Will they have to make up work?
We, of course, want your children at school every day, but we understand if an illness prevents them from coming to school. Please make sure you contact the office if your child is sick. They will make sure I receive the message. Send in a doctor's note the next day so that this may also be turned into the office. Because we do not teach through worksheets it can be difficult to make up missed work at home. Most missed work will have to be made up during the next school day at some point, and students will be expected to be more independent with this work as I will be moving forward with the rest of the class. I try to carve out some time during the day for a child who was absent to make up some missing work. Depending on the type of work, some missed days might require the child to make up a lot during class while some missed days children won't have much to make up. Please keep in mind that whenever a student misses class, he/she is missing the mini-lesson for each subject that day and is also missing out on valuable class discussion. Therefore, please try to keep absences limited to sick days and not vacations.
How do you assess children?
We have grade level common assessments in all subject areas, which students complete at the end of a unit. We also have math quizzes over spiraling skills. We assess a child's thinking in addition to his or her final product, because we want students to realize the value of their thinking and not just the correct answer. We try to score work and post it to the online grade book, where you can access it, within a few days of completing the assignment. The only subject in which the scoring takes longer than 2 or 3 days is writing, because to score these we sit down as a team and analyze the pieces together. For each nine weeks, we have 9 or more grades for writing, reading, and math, and we have between 5 and 7 grades for science and social studies. If your child scores below a 70 on any assignment, I will reteach the concept to the child either 1:1 or in a small group, and he/she will have a chance to redo the assignment to earn up to a 70 percent. We have designed our assessments to be rigorous so that they really show us a child's knowledge and effort over material we have taught. We want all students to be able to earn those As, but we also want them to understand they have to put forth effort in order to get those As. We really stress effort with our kids as a valuable life skill!