Sunday, June 3, 2018

My First Day Project - Student Records & Family Involvement

Student Records 

Because I will be graduating with a dual endorsement in elementary education K-8 and special education P-12, I will have a lot of students with IEPs, 504s, or behavior plans, because I will be prepared to work well with them. This will create a lot of extra records.

I plan on having the majority of my records, especially confidential ones like IEPs, BIPs, grades, or student information in my desk.

Students will turn in work in a "turn in bin" on top of the shelves that hold their mailboxes. I will send homework home through their mailboxes - however, I don't plan on giving them lots of homework. I will discuss this more in my post about procedures.

I plan on grading summative assessments and class work but I also want my students to do a lot of self-evaluating rather than having me grade everything. I want them to self-evaluate their homework, their behavior, etc. Inside their bins on shelves, students will have a notebook or binder for self-evaluating themselves. At the end of every day they will self-evaluate their behavior and evaluate their homework at the end of every week or biweekly period.

Summative assessments and class work will be kept for grading and evaluating and then will be distributed back to the students in portfolios at the end of each semester, for students to see how far they've come, or how much they've learned, through the year.

I'll monitor progress through the summative assessments and class work that I keep, to see how my students are understanding the concepts taught. During the day and through formative assessment I will be able to see quickly how my students are understanding the lesson and what they are learning, so that I can correct any misconceptions or misinformation as quickly as possible.

Family Involvement: 

I hope that I get plenty of parent volunteers and help because I believe that a close interaction between the teacher and parents is key to a very successful school year. However, I know I can't control how much they help out or volunteer. But I can control how I interact with them.
It's important to me to start on the right foot when interacting with families, and this begins before we all meet at the open house. On the first day of school, I will to send out a newsletter introducing myself to the parents and talking a little bit about my qualifications as their child's teacher, as well as my contact information and what they will expect from me in the way of family communication throughout the year.

On a bi-weekly basis I will send newsletters home to families, to let them know what we're learning about in class. Parents can always email me anytime, and we can schedule phone calls as well if they have concerns or anything they need to talk about considering their child.

I will call home when student behaviors warrant so, whether great or troublesome. I want to call home when students are doing well, not just when they are having difficulties.

Conferences will be held twice a year or as the school requires. Anything discussed in a conference will not be brand-new to the parent or caregiver(s). Any behavior issues or things their child has done very well will be discussed often or as necessary. Conferences will be student-led, with the child taking the caregiver or parent through their learning that semester/year with a portfolio of their worst and best work.




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