Saturday, July 8, 2017

Student Engagement


One way to keep my students engaged is through academic support. My students will have more than a teacher; they will have a cheerleader, a mentor and a net to catch them when they fall. This will help them become confident in asking for help whenever they need it. I will give them everything they need in order to succeed now and in the future. I will know them personally so that I know their preferred learning methods, their strengths and weaknesses and everything in between.

Another way to keep my students engaged and motivated is through pocket cards. When students see me put their name card in the yellow pocket, they will know to straighten up. When it is in the red pocket there will be a discussion between the student and I in order to reset the attitude of the day and get their name card back in green. Until it goes to red, this method is interruption free and does not need explaining past the first day.

Thirdly, I will keep them engaged through decoration and display. Before the school year starts I will think about color psychology, posters and diversity, which will help students gain interest in my classroom from their very first step into it. Colors can affect our mood and I will use color psychology in order to help set the right learning mood and attitude each day. The right kind of posters can be an encouragement to students because of the diversity that they display. They can also be a helpful way to learn material. When students are happy walking into a classroom, they will be more engaged, thus, be better learners.

Monthly Newsletter

I will post the monthly newsletters on here as well as sending them home.
I will make a new post for each month's newsletter so you can click on the "Newsletter" label or use the search engine connected to this blog to look for the newsletters.

Vlog

I will be posting videos for homework. The videos will explain what the homework is and how to do it. This will help them because if the instructions were given to them at 9:00 am and they are doing homework at 6:00 pm, they may need the instructions reiterated. It will also be helpful to you because you haven't been in 3rd grade for decades! 😄
I will update this post with each video. If you need to find it, use the sidebar called "labels" and click on the "Homework" label, then click on the Vlog post.

About Mrs. Coldwell

Hi Parents and Students!

I am genuinely excited for the 2017-2018 school year! I know we will have a great year!

Let me start out with my contact information
Please allow me 24 hours to respond to you during the week and 48 hours on the weekend.
School= XXX-XXX-XXX
Cell phone= XXX-XXX-XXX
Office hours= Monday-Friday 7:30-4:30
Email= X@school.com



I have been married to Jeremy for 9 years. Together we have 2 kids, Richie (5) and Hailee (1). We lived in Nebraska for 5 years while my husband was in the Air Force. Then we moved to Texas for a year and a half, Georgia for two years and in 2017 we made our final move back to Texas.
I graduated from Winfield High School in Winfield, KS in 2007 and Grand Canyon University in 2017.

FAVORITES
Color: pink
Restaurant: Mi Cocina
Fast Food: Sonic
Drink: Water
Dessert: Cookies, Ice Cream, Cheesecake
Sports Teams: Green Bay Packers and Texas Longhorns
Holiday: Christmas
Movie: Sweet Home Alabama
Music: Country
Season: Fall
Vacation Spot: Panama City Beach

EXPECTATIONS
I want your child to SUCCEED and have fun doing it! In order to make that happen there will be high expectations. There will be homework every night. Sometimes that will be an actual assignment, other times that will be reading. Please support your child with their homework. They need you! Please give them time and a quiet spot each night to finish homework.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY
I will create a classroom that has easy-to-follow procedures, promotes kindness and diversity and is encouraging to everyone. I want everyone to have the same resources available but since there are students with limited internet access or limited parental support they must be able to find that in the classroom. They will feel supported by their peers as well as their teacher so that they can succeed.

Additionally, I want my classroom to be full of kind, selfless students that are willing to help their peers, especially if they are struggling. There are many students in the class profile that need the additional help. We will come together, as a class, to help those that are struggling so that no one stays behind. Students will leave my classroom at the end of the year with a bigger heart, a kinder touch and a more encouraging vocabulary. When one student falls, we all fall.


Helpful Links


Starfall 
This site helps students to learn the letters of the alphabet and how to read! 
http://starfall.com 

Mrs. Perkins 
This site teaches students sight words and also has Power Point presentations that reads the words to the kids.  It also has stories, flash cards, and word lists by grade level for students to practice at home. 
http://mrsperkins.com
 PBS Kids 
This site provides kids with reading and math practice and other fun games. 
http://pbskids.com 

Sesame Street Games 
This website allows children to play games that will help them to learn alphabet letters and sounds. 
http://www.sesamestreet.org/browseallgames
 Storyline Online 
Wonderful site! Streaming videos of children's book readings. 
http://www.storylineonline.net/
 Picture Books Online 
Animated story readings for kids. 
http://kids.aol.com/KOL/1/koljrstories 
Cool Math 
This site is great for building math skills.
http://www.coolmath4kids.com 
PRONGO 
Prongo.com is an educational website for kids. This site offers fun, interactive, and educational
games for kids.
http://www.prongo.com
Kids KonnectA great source of information on all 50 states (and a whole lot more)
http://www.kidskonnect.com/AlphabetizedList.html
Math PlaygroundPractice your math skills, play a logic game and have some fun
http://www.mathplayground.com/

Place Value
Identify the place value of large numbers.
http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/activity.jsp?sid=__shared&cid=emready@place_value&lid=4&aid=1026396248

MultiplicationPractice your multiplication facts.
http://www.multiplication.com

The Nine Planets - Just for KidsGreat site on our solar system, designed for kids
http://kids.nineplanets.org/

Reading and Writing

I understand that some kids do not enjoy reading. I understand that not everyone is on the same reading level (some are ahead, some are behind). If your child needs to stay in from recess or stay after school, in order to work on their reading skills, I will be happy to help! I encourage you to encourage your student to read at home even if it means they are reading comic books. Read to them and let them read to you.






Writing can be fun for some, but not for all. I will work hard to make the writing topics interesting. We will be writing narratives (telling a story), opinions (giving your opinion about a topic) and explanatory (tell about a topic). Within reason, students will get to choose their topic so that it is something that it is something that will get their pencil on the paper and their minds working. I love creativity! I want students to have fun writing papers!


This link will help students that need additional help with reading and/or writing.

This link has a lot of books online



Attendance

Your child's presence in school is a strong indicator of his/her future success. We encourage regular attendance and look forward to a successful school year with your child. We will follow the district rules for being late or absent from school.
If a child is marked absent, a phone call will be made to the parent/guardian.
If a child has 3 or more unexcused absences in a 4 week period, a warning notice will be issued along with a conference between administration, the parent/guardian, the student and myself. This conference will consist of making a game plan, as a team, to prevent truancy. 

After 3 or more unexcused absences, truancy officers get involved. 

Student Engagement

One way to keep my students engaged is through academic support. My students will have more than a teacher; they will have a cheerleader, a ...