Welcome to Room 18! It is the beginning of a wonderful school year. My name is Mrs. Bueno and I am so excited to get to know your students. Expect your students to come home exhausted from all of the learning we are doing at school!
Schedule:
Our day will begin with reading using Open Court Reading. After recess, we will continue with writing and then Reading Intervention. Following Intervention, we will have Math, Lunch, and English Language Development. Our day ends with more reading using the Voyager program. We will have Drama, Dance and Visual Arts this year. I hope to have music as well, though I cannot be sure. Most of the students receive Speech services during the week. On Mondays, we will squeeze in Health/Social Development/Too Good for Drugs. Somewhere in our busy schedule I would like to also include Science and Social Studies. Since we have so much work to do, I expect the students to work hard, pay attention and take responsibility for their property and their learning.
Discipline:
We will use a color system/point system where they start out on green every day. If they misbehave I give them a verbal warning and then a yellow card. If there are still poor choices being made, the student will go to orange – and lose a privilege (time off recess, no free choice, loss of points). If the student continues, then he/she will go to red. Red is more than one priviledge lost. However, if the student is being an excellent learner, listening, helping others, etc., they will move to purple and receive a special reward (first choice at free time, extra points, etc.) I will send home daily notes in the beginning. After a couple of weeks, those students on green and purple will only get a weekly note, the others will continue with the daily notes. If your student gets a yellow, orange or red card, please follow up at home in the way think is appropriate. Too many red cards will result in a call from me for a parent/student/teacher conference. Students working on task and following directions will earn points that they can use in the classroom store on Fridays.
Homework:
Homework will be sent home every Mon-Thurs. It should take your student no more than 30 minutes. They may need your help with their homework. If it appears to be too hard, just have them do one or two problems and write me a little note on the paper. I will keep track of completed homework. The students are working on extra time on the jungle gym - if they all bring in their homework every day for 2 weeks. Please remember to read with your student for at least 20 minutes every night. It is still okay for you to read to them.
Things to have:
Please send in a sweater and a water bottle with your student to keep in the classroom. It gets chilly in the classroom with the air-conditioner on. Also our water fountain does not work, so it would be good for the students to have a bottle they can fill and keep at their desks.
Things to not have:
Several students have toy cars, mechanical pencils, scotch tape, perfume, and little feathery pens. While these things are super cute and fun, they are a HUGE distraction in the classroom. Please do not allow your student to bring these things to school.
National Boards/DonorsChoose:
This year I am beginning the process to earn my National Board Certification. Two of the assignments I will be expected to complete will include video of me teaching. When the time comes, I will be sending a permission slip home for your students to be in the video. It is very important for you to sign the permission and send it back as soon as possible. Also, from time to time I request donations for classroom items from Donorschoose.org. In order to get items donated to the classroom, I have to promise to send thank you notes from the students along with pictures of them using the items. I will send home permission slips for this if/when we get any items donated.