Thing 20

This "thing" will eventually be useful but will take some work to find everything. In my profession of teaching math, I don't create very many word documents. I tried creating a math worksheet and could not find the math symbols (I assume they are there somewhere). Finally, I decided to work on my teacher letter that goes home with the kids on the first day of school. I used a newsletter template and it looks alright for a first draft. I'm sure something will need to be changed before it's time to send it out.

Welcome to Mrs. Peters' Basic Math Class

August 23, 2010

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News Flash! We use calculators in our class. Your student will have homework and will need a calculator for homework. Please do not buy an expensive calculator! If it will add, subtract, multiply and divide, it will be adequate. Walmart usually sells them for under $5.00. They will also use a calculator on TAKS. School Supplies There won't be a lot of supplies to purchase for my class. Mostly, each student should have a pencil every day. Not having a pencil was quite a problem last year. Students will also need paper for every class. I do not purchase tissue. I hope that each student can bring a box. Lastly, each student is expected to have a binder with index tabs to hold information for all their classes. Inspiration! GO MCDONALD MUSTANGS

It's Fall Again! Another summer has passed, our kids are another year older--we won't talk about what happened to us in that time (ha,ha). I'll take just a little time to tell you about me. I'm a 14 year veteran teacher and I'll receive my masters degree in December of this year. I have raised four children ages 29 to 23. The first three are girls and all have college degrees and my youngest is a boy who is serving with the Air Force in Afghanistan. What's Happening This Year This year we will use worksheets, computers, and projects to reinforce our math skills. Worksheets will be used in conjunction with notes to learn the basic skills. We have a computer program that will reinforce those skills. Your student will have access to that program from your home computer. If you don't have a home computer, he/she can stay after school to work on the classroom computers. More information on access from home will follow once every student is signed in to the system. Open House Middle School will host an Open House on September 16. It usually starts around 6:00 p.m. and runs through 8:00 p.m. (more information on exact times will follow). Please try to come! I'd love to meet you! Discipline I try not to need a principal in my discipline program. Most of the time, I am successful. I have found through experience that my students learn best when the class is orderly and quiet. That does not mean that we will not work in groups--sometimes we will. It also doesn't mean that we won't engage in a variety of learning experiences--we will. It does mean that all students will be expected to flow from one activity to another in a way that does not disturb other students and that does not interfere with my ability to teach. If I find that your student is having a problem controlling his behavior, I hope I can call on you for help. I truly believe that education is a team effort. The attachment to this newsletter asks for general information that will help me contact you. Please fill out the page and return it to school with your student. I love e-mails, so if you have access to one, please provide that also. Phone calls must happen from time to time, but we all work and I try to keep them to a minimum. Carol Peters Basic Math 972-882-5700 cpeters@mesquiteisd.org

I was really disappointed that I could not embed or link the page to my blog and I'm not sure I should have copied/pasted.

The newsletter application was great because it would have taken a special program for me to do it in Word. I will probably use the spreadsheet to track the academic progress for my students. I can also see using excell spreadsheets to track money and permission slips for field trips. That was the one collaborative use I could think of--each teacher on the team could input the data into the document for the students in her home room instead of having to take all the information to the team leader to input.

And, yes, it was very time consuming--but, interesting.

P.S. After viewing this blog post, I see why cut/paste is not a good thing to do. The formatting isn't compatible. Ah Ha!!