Dear Parents,
Introduction
My name is Stephanie Teitelbaum and I am thrilled to be your child’s Fourth Grade General Studies Teacher this year! Many of you may know me as a fellow parent or from my work in the JJC Preschool. I graduated from Florida State University with a major in Elementary Education. I taught at San Mateo Elementary in both second and third grade for seven years. I then moved to Twin Lakes Academy, teaching third grade for a year. My internships included both fourth and fifth grades. I then took some time off from teaching to raise my two beautiful daughters, Sydney & Emily. Sydney is a fifth grader at MJGDS and Emily is a third grader at MJGDS. I feel so fortunate to be back in the classroom doing what I love the most, and being at an amazing school with both of my children.
I am pleased to take this opportunity to welcome you and your child to Fourth Grade. I believe that a great learning experience begins with a cooperative effort from parents, students, and teachers. To foster this cooperation from you, the parent, I want parents to be well informed about what happens in our classroom. Fourth grade is a challenging year. It is a year for students to gain organizational skills, independence, good work habits, understand accountability, and learn many new concepts in all subject areas. With our efforts of working collaboratively, we will make this an incredible year of growth for your children.
Communication
Parent communication will occur weekly and sometimes on a daily basis through our classroom blog. I will add important notices weekly, so please check out our blog at www.mjgds.org/classrooms/4thgrade. I will send home any graded work each Friday in the white folders. Please go over these papers with your child and discuss the work it contains with him or her. If you have questions or concerns with any of the work coming home, please do not hesitate to send me a note, an email or call and leave a message for me at school. My work email is stephanie.teitelbaum@mjgds.org and I will return all phone messages within 24 hours of receipt (sooner if possible). I welcome all feedback, positive or negative.
Homework
Your child will have homework Monday-Thursday weekly, and occasionally a project that might require some work over the weekend. I am a parent too, so I will do my best to make all homework assignments useful, worthwhile and truly a review of what we are learning in class. The students should be able to complete their homework independently, so please try to help foster their independence. With Singapore Math being introduced this year, it is imperative that they do their work on their own. They will be using a different method then we were taught when we were their age and it is best for them to incorporate the skills learned in class. I would rather them attempt it on their own and bring in their work with a note saying that they had trouble, then for you to show them the way you were taught how to do the same concept. Thank you in advance for supporting our efforts to launch this new math program. There will be parent workshops offered throughout the year to help you understand the process so that you can better understand how to assist your child. I will put updates on our blog frequently to help you understand the vocabulary terms we will be using in math. In addition to math, we will have spelling, reading, language, and occasional science and social studies homework each week. Students are responsible for writing their homework assignments in their daily homework folder. It will go home everyday and is 100% their responsibility to remember to write it down, complete it, and return it daily. Homework should take each student 60-75 minutes to complete. If you find your child is unable to complete it in that amount of time, please let me know so we can discuss and make necessary adjustments. I will also post homework on the blog for students that are absent and for parents to know what is expected daily.
Procedures
We spend a lot of time during week one going over our rules and procedures. We model these procedures several times so that each child can master them and know what is expected. Students must know from the very beginning how they are expected to behave and work in our classroom environment. Once I have effectively taught, modeled and allowed the students to practice these procedures, the students are able to understand our ROUTINES and follow them daily.
Classroom Behavior Plan
Every child is expected to follow our classroom rules daily. We have a plan in place to help them understand the rewards and consequences for following these practices. It is set up like the game of baseball (going along with our classroom Sports Theme). Each morning they start out with a home run, after the first infraction they move their clothespin to a base hit, after the second infraction they move to strike one, after the third infraction they move to strike two, and after the fourth infraction they move to strike three. These infractions have many consequences throughout a 9-week period. We will be using a “Classroom Economy System” which is described in the next paragraph. Their behavior will allow them to earn money and/or lose money. They are also given a weekly conduct grade base on their behavior that week.
- Home run~ 1+ Excellent
- Base hit~ 1 Commendable
- Strike 1~ 2 Satisfactory
- Strike 2~ 3 Needs Improvement
- Strike 3~ 4 Unacceptable
These grades will determine their conduct grade on their report card. My goal is for all students to have success which is why I spend so much time at the beginning really focusing on our rules and procedures. I will modify special behavior plans if I see it is necessary. Your input and feedback regarding your child is the KEY to their success.
Classroom Economy
The students are actively involved in a year-long study of economics where they will earn credits and debits while maintaining a class bank and store. The unit will help students learn major-principles concepts, as well as use math skills on a daily basis. The students’ potential to earn credits and debits also helps me facilitate classroom management.
Some examples of how the students can earn credits and debits can be seen below:
Credits Debits
Turn in all work Missing an assignment
Follow morning procedure Not getting on task right away Complete all homework Forget homework
Staying on homerun all day Receiving any strikes
Maintain a clean work space Maintain a messy work space
Show extra kindness Disrespect to teacher/classmate
All earned credits and debits are logged in their credit/debit notebook which have been provided. At the end of each week they will calculate their total and receive a new log for the following week. At the end of the month, they will calculate their monthly total and earn a “Check” from the desk of Mrs. Teitelbaum. They will go to the class bank to cash their checks for “Baum Bucks”. It is their responsibility to save their money to use at our class store which will open approximately every 4 weeks. Any donations to our store would be GREATLY appreciated. I will be providing items such as homework passes, test passes, lunch with the teacher, extra computer time, etc…., but items such as books, pencils, erasers, small knick knacks, etc…would be great additions to our store. Gently used items are fine too. Students will rotate job opportunities of being a cashier, banker, & economist throughout the year. These jobs will all have salaries which will be added to their credits. Our regular weekly classroom jobs will also be worth credits, so if they fulfill their job expectations, they earn money. I will provide more information on our classroom blog as it is introduced to the class. Students will learn responsibility. They will learn to keep track of their money, how to save up for things that are important to them, the value of earning money, and how to take pride in their work, behavior and their actions.
Snack
Students may bring a nutritious snack and water to school everyday. Please do NOT send in other drinks, water ONLY. Please do not send in sugary treats. Apples, carrots, cheese, yogurt and other healthy treats are better options for great learning to occur.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I hope this gives you some important information to start this year. I am so excited for the opportunity to teach your child and watch them learn and grow this year. Welcome to fourth grade and let’s have a fantastic year together!!
Cordially,
Stephanie Teitelbaum