I am so pleased that you buzzed on line! Your interest in your child's first grade class website shows you feel your child's education is important. I hope you are sharing the fun and convenience of computers with your child at home, and will help them find the Cool Sites I have collected for them to browse. As the year progresses, I will have web pages available for your family to view samples of class work, photos of our students in action, tips for first grade parents on supporting children with homework and helping them meet state standards, as well as fun worksheets to offer extra practice or challenge to the year! Before leaving the site today, you might want to click on "Long, Long Ago," and enjoying viewing with your child, pictures of Mrs. Mac when she was in first grade.

I have enjoyed the short time I have spent with your children, and the students and I are looking forward to taking many exciting learning adventures together. My goal is to have everyone so convinced they are good learners and excited about what's going on in the classroom, that they can't wait to get here each morning.

In my teaching role of motivator, facilitator, and mentor, I will do all I can to help students achieve, recognize, and build on their successes. We will work together to gain mastery of the first grade academic skills, and implement them as we problem solve, produce group products, and become cohesive culturally.

Through conflict resolution training and monthly citizenship lessons, the program in Room 15 will promote individual responsibility for our actions and appreciation of common values, such as honesty, compassion, and hard work. We will promote recognition of the positive in others and teach peaceful resolution of social problems with "I Messages."

Our Room 15 scholars will have an opportunity to do group work, partner work and individual work, which will be authentically assessed using rubrics and portfolios, as well as performance, textbook- generated, and standardized tests. We will be talking a lot about what good readers do, learning to ask thin and thick questions, and determining what part of what we read is important. We will practice 'Mental Math,' orally decomposing numbers and putting them back together again. We will develop deeper math understanding with manipulatives, math labs, and games. We will do meaningful writing as we communicate with our penpals across the world (click on our Penpal link to learn more). Our scientific exploration will take us into outer space, and inside the embryo of an egg, as we use our class incubator to hatch a surprise in the Spring. We will invent string, dye fiber, and learn to weave as we study Native Americans....and so much more!

Finally, because I believe that an excellent education is a result of the student, teacher, and parents working together as a team, you will find a weekly newsletter on line, as well as a hard copy in the Thursday folder, informing you of what we have been doing in class, reminding you of any important up-coming dates or events, thanking you for ways you have been of service to the students in Room 15, and sharing with you any anticipated future needs. It is my hope that we stay in close contact throughout the year. If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to Click here to e-mail me.