Hello Parents! We are extremely fortunate to have an ActivBoard installed in our classroom. The ActivBoard makes learning so much fun, and so much easier for the children to understand lessons. I'm looking forward to an amazing year. I would like to keep you informed about some of my classroom policies. All papers collected over the course of the week are filed and sent home on Friday. Any papers that are graded 76 or below can be redone for half credit with the exception of obvious answers like true or false, or tests. These corrected papers should be handed in the following Mon. It is not a good idea to wait several weeks to pass by before doing this. Completing homework on time is imperative, due to frustration levels that may arise if the amount of work increases in size. I have established a system to help my students organize themselves with their work. Each child has a homework folder with an assignment sheet inside. The assignment sheet is divided into subject areas with the day of the week listed above each column. I specifically inform the class to record homework assignments as they are written on the board. If a paper is not completed during class time, it must be placed in the folder, finished at home, and returned to me the following day. You may want to check on your child's folder occasionally. I plan to utilize this system for the next month or so, until I feel the children can handle the responsibility themselves. If an emergency situation develops such as illness, or even if materials are accidentally forgotten at school, a note signed by mom or dad will serve as a valid excuse, but the work must be returned the following day. Spelling test are given every Friday, unless a scheduling problem arises. The list is either taken from the reading workbook or the spelling textbook. Every Monday a pretest is given, those who receive 100 do not have to take the final test on Friday. Those who misspell one or two words have to rewrite them correctly on Friday. Each month a library book is assigned. A specific book report format is required for each reading genre. I usually schedule the last Wednesday of the month as the book report due date unless some unexpected event interferes. I use a ticket system as an incentive for fostering responsibility. Each child receives 10 tickets at the beginning of the week, but may lose tickets for various reasons such as a failure to pass in homework on time, forgetting to write ones name on a paper, causing distractions during class, etc. After 25 tickets have been collected, the student may earn a "free homework" which means an automatic 100. These "free" options must be approved by me first due to the importance of the work in question. I believe I have covered the important issues for now, but if you have a question, feel free to use my school e-mail. Sincerely, Mrs. Campbell