I am very excited to be teaching your child. Here are a few of the often asked about policies and procedures for our classroom. Please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns.
Planners
Each student has been given a personal, year-long planner. We write in these as a class every single day. I will display an example of what should be written and also discuss each aspect of the homework listed in the planner. If you have questions about homework, please check your child’s planner. I also post the nightly homework on my blog under the homework tab. It is the student’s responsibility to write down the correct homework assignments and to bring the planner back and forth to school everyday.
Homework
I see homework as a tool for children to revisit what we have worked on in class, create a routine, and show. Alternating weeks, the students will be given a vocabulary packet to complete that will be due on Friday. I also ask for a reading and math facts log to be completed and turned in on Friday. As fifth graders, the expectation is to read 100 minutes a week and do 30 minutes of math fact practice a week. This does not have to be divided evenly each night, but each child can make it work based on his or her activity schedule. You can find the reading log and math log under the Homework tab above. Because students can create their own schedule with reading and math fact practice, when they do their minutes is up to your family's schedules. It can be done from Friday to Friday or Monday to Friday, it is completely up to your family's schedule. Reading time can be reading independently, reading with an adult or a younger sibling, listening to books on tape (but if you do this, you must also follow along with the book) and should be a fun, enjoyable reading time.
Homework will be turned in the following day unless noted otherwise. We will have a nightly math page almost every single evening! If homework is not turned in, students will be required to fill out an OOPS slip and have it signed by a parent. If the homework and signed OOPS slip are turned in the following day, I will consider it completed on time. It is important to know that I will give appropriate amounts of work time in class for assignments to be completed. If students do not choose to use the time in class to do work, then their class assignments will also become homework.
Homework should not take more than 50 minutes a day. If you are finding your child’s homework takes more than that, please let me know and we will modify assignments that are too difficult. Also, homework should not be a frustrating battle every night. Students will be prepared to do the homework from our work in class, and if something becomes too frustrating, please STOP working on it, and send me a note.
OOPS Slips
Our OOPS slips are simply a way for me to keep track of students’ homework and to communicate with parents if their child forgot to turn in or complete their homework on time. For each OOPS slip that a student receives, they will miss 5 minutes of recess. If students receive four OOPS slips in a week, they will miss out on our Friday afternoon recess or activity. If students receive more than four a week, then we will need to have other consequences including missing recess and/or having a parent teacher conference with the student involved.
Word Work
We will alternate this year weekly between spelling and Wordly Wise, our vocabulary curriculum. Spelling words will be given out on Monday and a quiz of 10 words chosen randomly from the list will be given on Friday. How you and your child chose to study is completely up to you. I can give suggestions as needed, but this work will not need to be turned in. Wordly Wise lessons (there are usually 4-5 activities a week) will be assigned on Monday and all work needs to be completed by Friday, as well as being prepared for a quiz on these words. There is a reading passage at the end of each lesson that I expect students to read, but they do not need to complete the questions that go with the passage. In order for students to prepare for the quizzes, I post a study quiz online using the online program, Quizlet. It is a free account for your student and I post the word lists to this site so students can study. The quizzes often times use the words in context and are not just a memorized definition matching. A Word Work schedule for alternating between spelling and vocabulary will be posted on my blog for your reference.
Grading Explanation
On most assignments, I will make comments about individual problems or questions and then give an overall grade of 1-4. This rubric stands for:
4 or + The work is exceptional and the student’s explanation, quality of work, or evidence of
deep thinking is above and beyond my expectations.
3 or checkmark (v) The work is clear, well explained, and meets all explanations.
2 or check-minus (v-) The work meets some expectations, but may be somewhat unclear or have a few minor inaccuracies.
1 or minus (-) The work is inaccurate or unclear and does not meet expectations.
Please remember that each assessment or assignment will be graded on its own merit so that if your child receives a 2 on one, they may receive a 4 on another depending on the work done and shown.
Sometimes I only glance at work to get a sense of the progress being made, but do not use the assignment as a grade. If you see ungraded work, please feel free to review it. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns about graded material sent home.
I do not grade homework, but we do review it in class daily. I do record homework as complete or incomplete to reward the effort and behavior behind completing it.
Many assignments are assigned through Google Classroom, which is a Google based central platform where I can create, assign, and grade assignments and projects on the computer. Please feel free to look at your child's Google Classroom at anytime to view assignments, writing, or graded work. I will comment on their writing directly onto their document by using "comments" on the document. You can access Google Classroom through my blog with your child's Google login.
user name: lastnamefirstnamemiddleinitial@s.dcsdk12.org Password: Dcsd + lunch number
Birthday Celebrations and Class Parties
Celebrating students' birthdays in class is always welcome! I am always open to treats being brought in to acknowledge the day. We will celebrate birthdays during the last half hour of the school day. Please contact me in advance if you would like to bring something in for your child’s birthday or just send it in with your child on the day they would like to celebrate. Please know that we may have food allergies in class.
We will be having four class parties this year: Halloween, winter holidays, Valentine’s Day, and an end of the year party. I love having parent support to plan these parties so please contact me if you are able and interested or sign up at Meet the Teacher or Back to School Night. We will send home information about the parties several weeks in advance so that each family can prepare for it.
Attendance
When students are absent, I will collect the work that they missed in a "We Missed You" folder and leave it for them. They have two days for each day absent to complete the work and turn it in. If you would like me to send the folder home with a sibling at the school, please contact me as early in the day as possible so I can coordinate that.
If you know that your child will be absent ahead of time, please let me know in writing and I will provide them with their assignments when they get back. Please understand that much of a school day’s learning experiences cannot be replicated in homework. However, if your child will be missing a number of days, the following activities are ideas of substitutions for missed class work.
- Read and record a reading response as well as reading time.
- Keep a journal of places visited or experiences.
- Gather information about the places visited and prepare a report.
- Practice math facts or play math games from class.
- Free write in writing journal.
Behavior Expectations
I have the same expectations in my classroom that we have at Gold Rush as a whole. The school motto is “Go for the Gold”: Give respect, Own your actions, Listen and learn, and Do your best. I model and discuss my expectations for student work and behavior daily. As a class, I encourage students to work together to achieve a goal. If an individual student is caught exemplifying the school motto or classroom motto, they will earn a Golden Ticket and "Go for the Gold." Individually, if a student is not meeting classroom and/or school expectations, they will receive two verbal warnings and then will be required to fill out a “Think Sheet” to reflect on their behavior; your child will then discuss their behavior with me one on one. If a student displays consistent behavior problems, I will communicate with you my concerns and we will work on a plan to address those problems. If necessary, we will involve the administration as well to address the problems.
Snacks
We will have one quick working snack break every day around 10:00 (this time may change if students need snack before this time to tide them over until lunch) so please have your child bring nutritious snacks to school. This snack should not be an additional meal, but simply a quick and easy supplement. I encourage students to bring healthy, sustainable snacks to class which do not include candy, cookies, or sugar based items. Also, please have your child bring a water bottle to school that they can leave on their desks.
Communication
I will be posting on my blog, https://mrsbroeckersclassroom.blogspot.com/at least twice a month, if not more. I will notify you when a new post is made. Please read these so that you are aware of the learning taking place in our class. The blog is also a great place to look for resources, links, project information, homework, etc… I will send home graded work and whole school information in the Thursday folders. Email is a wonderful way to communicate with me and I can be reached at kelly.broecker@dcsdk12.org. I try to answer all emails within 24 hours.
