St. Thecla School
Parent Night
Mr. Cerjak
Grade 4 Room 207
Teacher website: http://teacherweb.com/IL/StThecla/MrCerjak
Welcome to Parent Night 2009! We’re thrilled you came and thank you for attending. We are off to a great start as the students in Room 207 are preparing for a very eventful and memorable year. I hope the following information will help to create a productive relationship between home and school. Parental involvement in education is proven to have a positive affect on student success.
Your Partner in Education,
Mr. Todd Cerjak
HOMEWORK:
Please have your child complete their homework as nicely and neatly as possible and return it to school the next day. Students are required to write their homework in their daily planner to remind them of their at-home academic responsibilities. Students can also check my website for homework reminders, spelling lists, upcoming dates, and other classroom information.
Although there will be some exceptions, homework is assigned Monday- Thursday in the following manner:
Monday- Write each Spelling Word 3 times & complete assigned reading
Tuesday- Language Arts worksheet & Math Practice page
Wednesday- Language Arts worksheet & Math Practice page
Thursday- Study for Spelling Test & Art/Writing Cumulative Activity
(Please note: Your family weekend time will be respected. Therefore, no Friday homework will be assigned. This gives your child time to recharge, catch up if he/she was absent, enjoy family time, church, recreation, and rest. So only make up work and projects should be done over weekends. These include book reports, creative stories, art projects, group presentations, and dioramas. However, when there’s a long holiday weekend, there might be an assignment for Monday prior to returning to school. On occasion I will provide students with extra- credit homework to enhance their computer research, thinking, and writing skills. J
Please send a note if for some reason your child cannot complete scheduled homework on time. Students learn organization, format, and adherence to deadlines through homework responsibilities. Therefore, points will be deducted for late work unless for emergency or illness reasons. If an absence occurs, due to illness or a family reason, homework must be made up in a day or two. In the case of an extended illness students will be given one week to complete their assignments. Instructions and a due date will accompany any long term projects.
READING COUNTS & BOOK REPORTS
Your fourth grader should be spending at least 20-30 minutes each night reading! I cannot stress that enough. Those students who read on a regular basis are better prepared for the skills needed to excel in fourth grade and beyond. A love of reading should be instilled early and reinforced through the student’s life. I encourage your child to make frequent trips to the Chicago Public Library so they are always in a “reading mode”. Please check my website under the heading- 4th Grade Recommended Reading for a list of books to spark young minds.
Last year, St. Thecla implemented a new reading software program called Reading Counts. It encourages reading, builds vocabulary and reinforces comprehension skills. Our students benefited greatly from this new technology tool and we will again be reading for Reading Counts!
Further, as part of our school reading development and writing enhancement, students will be asked to complete book reports monthly. Each child will be asked to read an on-level chapter book that they can complete in a timely manner to write a book report on. Book report forms will be handed out on Mondays and each student will have two weeks to complete the book (or part of the book if it’s a longer chapter book) and two-page book report. Further information will be provided at a later date. Happy Reading! J
SPELLING SCHEDULE
On Monday the students are given a spelling pretest. This pretest provides me with a baseline as to which spelling words or phonemic patterns we have to work on in class. All words on Monday’s pretest must be correctly and legibly written 3 times for Monday’s homework and passed in on Tuesday. (Please note that the Weekly Spelling Words can also be found on my website.) We work on our spelling words throughout the week in games such as BINGO and SPARKLE to reinforce learning. We also do workbook activities to further enhance our vocabulary and spelling skills. Each Friday, we have a final review before we are assessed on our weekly spelling words.
At the end of each trimester, I administer a Sight/Dolch Word spelling test that enables me to assess where students are in their everyday spelling. This score, along with spelling unit test scores and everyday work, factors into the overall spelling grade.
DISCLIPLINE
St. Thecla students are expected to come to school prepared to learn. They are required to respect all authority and one another. Students are to focus on the subject at hand; this requires that they listen and work quietly so as not to distract others from their work. On the first day of school the students and I developed a list of rules to help us learn and work together. This is called The Fish Philosophy.
Don’t forget to…..
ü Bring smiles and enthusiasm everyday by choosing your attitude
ü Be friends with your classmates and make their day
ü Eat a nutritious breakfast each morning
ü Get plenty of sleep
ü Exercise your body and mind to do your very best
ü And…..HAVE FUN!
To help instill a sense of ownership and responsibility we will be using a standard stoplight system to monitor personal behavior. All students begin each day in good standing (green)
If a student breaks the rules they turn…
Yellow: Warning! Slow down and think about your behavior and our classroom & school rules.
A parent note will be sent home regarding the behavior and the steps needed to correct it.
If the behavior continues, or escalates the student turns…
Red: Stop! The student will be moved to a time-out desk for a short period of time. A final note will be sent home regarding the infraction. A parent conference will be set-up so we can correct this behavior in the future.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
As part of my positive reinforcement approach to good behavior, we will be using an Earn & Return Card. These cards feature 10 spaces that are punched when a student accomplishes a special task. These tasks may include: helping others, writing neatly, doing outstanding overall work, and participating in class, to name a few. This year we will also motivate good classroom behavior by using an interactive magnet board, called Journey to Good Behavior. Each time a classroom behavioral expectation is met, we will add a magnet to the board. A reward will be given to the class when the board is filled!
OUR TEXTBOOKS
Reading & Everyday Spelling by Scott Foresman Publishing- Language Arts
World of Language by Silver Burdett Ginn Publishing- Language Arts
Blest Are We by Silver Burdett Ginn Publishing- Religion
Math by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Publishing-Math
Science by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Publishing- Science
Our Country’s Regions by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Publishing- Social Studies
CONFERENCES
Please make an appointment in advance if you wish to speak to me regarding your child. I can meet with you before school, or after, except Wednesdays because of faculty meetings.