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Our T.R.A.I.N.s are our
Training in Responsibility And Independence Notebooks.
I wonder if everyone knows the story of how Relay came to be, and how the train came to be our symbol? From the condensed history of Relay, I read that "Even though Peter Cooper lost the race with the Tom Thumb he started the era of the Iron Horse on August 28, 1830 in Relay." Trains were still horse-drawn in those days, and horses had to be changed along the route. The places where horses were changed out was called a relay, and a relay was located where the town of Relay stands today! You can read about it at
http://www.bcplonline.org/info/history/hist_ar_hist.html#Relay
In honor of this history, I created T.R.A.I.N. as the acronym for our organizational strategy to maintain communication and to help students develop good habits. Students should carry their T.R.A.I.N.s to my classes and home each day. We will use our T.R.A.I.N.s every day to help us develop organization skills, responsibility, and independence. These skills will serve students well throughout their school careers.
This book is a tool for helping each child become accountable for communications between home and school, which seems to be a lost skill for some fifth graders. We are like parts of an equation: student, parent, teacher...if any of us is missing from the equation, we all have a problem! I will check the books each day for communications from home, and I ask that students and parents check through each evening. When parents initial the day in the agenda book, I will assume that includes viewing the T.R.A.I.N. also.
It contains:
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a pouch for any money that the student needs to carry for field trips, book orders, picture day, fundraisers, etc and absence/tardy excuse notes
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looseleaf paper for notes between home and school -- students do not write on these pages
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pockets for important papers and notices being sent home/returned to school: newsletters, flyers, calendars, menus
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agenda books or assignment pads
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class documents such as Student Behavior Handbook, Class Handbook of Procedures & Rules etc, and Daily Behavior Ladder Documentation
Students will check their T.R.A.I.N.s each day for anything to report to me and to add any handouts to their books. Parents should check with students daily and remove handouts to be used at home.
Rules for the T.R.A.I.N. 
DO:
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bring your T.R.A.I.N. to class and home every day
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keep your T.R.A.I.N. in great shape -- it has to last ALL YEAR!
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keep your T.R.A.I.N. clean -- messy T.R.A.I.N.s make for bumpy rides!
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share your T.R.A.I.N. with your parents each day
DON'T:
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eat or drink on your T.R.A.I.N.
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doodle, color, scribble or write on or in your T.R.A.I.N. -- only parents and teachers
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put in or tear pages out of your T.R.A.I.N. unless instructed by teacher or parent
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let anyone else have your T.R.A.I.N. or leave your T.R.A.I.N. on the bus, in the car, at home or school
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lose your T.R.A.I.N. -- if you miss your T.R.A.I.N., you will have to replace it
"The teacher can't give the child everything the child needs, and neither
can the parent, but when they work together as a team, the child has the
very best chance of succeeding."
-- Warner & Bryan
The Dream
I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child's mind
And they fashioned it with care.
One was a teacher; the tools she used
were books and music and art;
One was a parent with a guiding hand
and a gentle loving heart.
And when at last their work was done
They were proud of what they had wrought.
For the things they had worked into the child
Could never be sold or bought.
And each agreed she would have failed
if she had worked alone.
For behind the parent stood the school,
and behind the teacher stood the home.
-- Ray A. Lingenfelter
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