Parent Resources:
Parent Orientation-5th Grade
Ms. Kennedy, Mrs. Sanders, and Mrs. Monroe August 20, 2019
Ms. Kennedy, Mrs. Sanders, and Mrs. Monroe August 20, 2019
- Teacher Introduction
- Absences greatly affect learning. There is a strong connection between students who don’t perform well to students who are frequently absent. There is NO time in our schedule to help students who have been absent unless we keep them from related arts. From our attendance secretary, concerning absences: 1. Being out of town is not excused. Only valid reasons LISTED IN THE STUDENT HANDBOOK are excused. 2. Check-in late AND check-out early are BOTH counted as TARDY. 3. 5 unexcused absences result in a truancy letter. A written or printed (email) excuse must be submitted for EACH absence within 5 days of returning. A valid excuse (see #1) must be cited as the reason.
- A Good Night’s Sleep-Experts recommend ten hours of sleep each evening for a ten-year old. During the course of the year, we have so many sleepy children. Please help your child be successful in school by guaranteeing he/she is fully rested.
- Nurse’s notes-No medicine is available in the nurse’s office. A parent or guardian must bring any medicine (Tylenol, anti-itch cream, etc.) your child might use. It must be personally delivered to the nurse by the parent. No child should ever have any medicine with him/her.
- 9 Week Grading Period- Good Citizens earn no more than 5 marks each grading period.
- Reading- Levels are set by IReady testing, which will occur soon. If your child already has a book, and we find it’s not on their level, he/she won’t need to change. Your child has a reading challenge folder to record books read for the reading challenge. The record sheet must be signed by a parent beside each book’s name. We need your signature to verify that your child has read the book.
- Organizational Skills and Responsibility Issues- We will do our best to teach our fifth graders how to be organized and responsible for their work and other aspects of fifth grade. Please do NOT throw away anything in your child’s folder. Also, the office will no longer interrupt class to inform a child his/her water bottle or lunch box is in the office. Teachers will be notified via email, but we might not check our email until the end of the day. If your child forgets his/her lunch, he/she will need to stop by the office on the way to lunch to see if it is there. If not, the child will need to purchase a cafeteria lunch.
- Behavior Corrections-A behavior mark means your child needed a correction in his/her behavior, and we’re notifying you of that behavior. All children will make mistakes and will probably receive correction marks. The problem arises when a child receives several in a given time period.
- Communication- If you need anything or have questions, please write a note in the agenda to communicate with us. No absentee notes should be written in the agenda because we must turn these in to the attendance office. If you have a transportation change during the day, please contact the office-not via email! A teacher might be absent and not read her email.
- Field Trips-Tennessee State Museum-October 18th: science field trip-not yet scheduled; MTSU basketball game-November 5th; and MTCS-WWII speaker-date not yet determined.
- 4-H-This is a mandatory club for our students since it focuses on our learning standards. Class time is used for meetings. Your child will receive a 4-H booklet which explains each project.
- Holiday Parties- These are for the children, and we solicit your help with these. We want parents to come!
- Birthday Parties- Please invite all children in the class to a party, or send the invitations outside of the school day. We do not want any children to have their feelings hurt.
- Wish Lists- Thanks to all the parents who have sent in items from our wish lists. We don’t need any more band-aids or plastic sandwich bags, but the items we still need are posted on sticky notes on the whiteboard.
- Email- We will try to respond to emails during our planning period, which is 10:20-11:00. Please understand that we may have meetings during this time; we may not be able to respond until school is dismissed.
- Mrs. Goodwin wishes to remind you to please try to resolve any issues with the teacher before contacting the principal.
- Remember electronics that belong to students need to remain in backpacks during the day.
- When we have a school-wide drill, school messenger calls the number you have written on your child’s registration card. Mrs. Goodwin wants you to make certain your cell phone/landline will accept voice mail. Many times the voice mailboxes are full, and school messenger is unable to leave a message. When many parents see the missed call from Barfield, the office is swamped with parents calling to see what the message was or who was calling. If your voice mail isn’t functioning, school messenger also sends an email with the same message.
- Social Media-When taking photographs of your child, you have permission to post only photos of your child on social networks.
- Money-We are instructed not to give change when collecting money. Any amount over the designated price of the field trip or activity is considered a donation.
- Conclusion-We look forward to working with you and making this school year the best ever!