2014 CLASS INFORMATION #2     Rooms 9/10

Dear Parents,

We look forward to working with you and your children in a partnership to further build on their education.

The students of Room 9 & 10 work in a team teaching situation. This means that most times we work in a group of 60, sometimes we work as separate classes and sometimes we work in smaller groups with the support of teachers, SSOs & parents. Steve is the school ICT coordinator and has Wednesdays out of the classroom to fulfil his role. We are delighted to have been able to enlist the services of Jane Moore on Wednesdays.

Parent Communication

We recognise that a student’s education requires a strong partnership with parents therefore effective communication with parents is a high priority for us.

As we said in our welcome letter, 2014 we will be using a class blog as our classroom hub. This will serve as a great link between home and school. It will enable all parents to keep up with the current affairs of the classroom, see what homework is set for the week, view pictures and much more. You will be able to view all pages and written material via the link below. However to be able to comment, provide feedback and ask questions you will need to use your Google ARDPS Account.

This is the direct address of the 2014 Room 9/10 Class Hub - http://room910.blogspot.com.au/ or you can access the blog through our homepage, then click on the class blogs menu link.

In addition to the Hub, we will be using a small memo book for private parent correspondence and student’s weekly individual spelling Tests.

This year we have started our online Ardtornish Community (Ardtornish+) We hope all parents can become a part of this. A step by step tutorial can be accessed at http://googleattitude.blogspot.com.au

Curriculum

The students are taught and assessed according to the guidelines set out by the Australian National Curriculum. Both Room 9 and 10 students will have specialised lessons in Science, Japanese and PE.

Camp

We have a camp booked at Woodhouse Activity Centre in Week 10 of Term 1 (31^st March – 2^nd April). The cost is expected to be around $160 after subsidising from fundraising. We hope all students attend as this is a wonderful social and confidence building opportunity for them. In the past the camp has proven to be very beneficial to our classroom. More information will be given out in a couple of weeks.

Brain Break

This year students in our room will be able to graze on healthy food around 10:00 am as long as it doesn’t interfere with their learning. e.g. they should not be eating food while on the computer or doing a science experiment.  Brain break is not the same as recess and so the only foods we wish children to eat at this time are healthy, unprocessed, natural produce. Therefore only fruit or vegetables, pre-cut and in a container for safety and hygiene reasons.

Homework & Diaries

Students will not be using a diary this year as Homework will be placed on the blog every Monday. Mostly students will not be expected to complete tasks in one night. We will usually mark homework on Friday. We do not expect students to spend longer than 30 minutes on one night.

Teacher / Students Relationship

We are committed to maximising learning outcomes for all students. We establish a warm and friendly class atmosphere where we work as a team and support and value each other. Our class expectations are based around respect for ourselves and others;

·         Do be gentle, don’t hurt anybody.

·         Do be kind and helpful, don’t hurt people’s feelings.

·         Do be honest, don’t cover up the truth.

·         Do work hard, don’t waste time

·         Do look after property, don’t waste or damage things

·         Do listen to people, don’t interrupt

We encourage risk taking and original thinking. We cater for a wide range of student learning styles and abilities so all students experience success and are appropriately challenged.

Behaviour management

promote positive and responsible behaviour when managing students. Students making responsible choices are rewarded with a privilege. The privilege list is used throughout the day and recorded each afternoon. When students have achieved 30 privilege days their name is entered in the Golden Book.

We will also be using Class Dojo. This online behaviour management allows us to be much more specific about positives and negatives. It also allows you as parents to monitor your child’s day to day behaviour.  You should have received the Class Dojo login note last week.

Classroom Assistance

In addition to our focus on charity work, this year students in our class will be doing some community service activities. We hope this will happen every 2^nd or third week – Room 9 on Monday at 11.10am and Room 10 on Friday at 2.15pm. We will need extra adults so that the students can work in smaller groups. If you are available to assist in any way during these sessions, with excursions or in the classroom please speak to one of us and we will let you know when and what we require.

Sharon McAskill, Steven Whitehead and Jane Moore