How time flies!

It is hard to believe that it is already September. Since my last post, we have made more new friends. We are fortunate to be teaming with Miss Vermillion’s students. She is teaching a K-1 combination class that recently started at Palmer Way. Many of you have seen her in our classroom for the past couple of weeks.

This week we had vision and hearing screening for all kindergarten students. If your child had any difficulty with the screening, you will receive a letter from the nurse’s office.

We have several important events coming up: Parent Conferences and Fall Break. I will be sending a sign up sheet in the next homework packet with a schedule for parent conferences. Please choose three different time slots and rank them in order of preference so that I can schedule time to meet with you. These first parent conferences are a valuable opportunity for us to get together and share information about your child. I look forward to meeting with all of you.

For the first time, we will be on break for two weeks this fall. Although it is nice to have some relaxing time, I want to be sure that my students are maintaining those critical skills that we learned during the first weeks of school. I will be sending home a packet of practice work so that students are prepared to resume our academics where we left off at break. Don’t worry, it won’t be a huge amount of work. It should be just enough to keep up our momentum of learning!

I have a new email address. Ms.Whitaker@gmail.com This is the BEST way to reach me and ensure that I will be able to respond to questions, etc. I am working on creating the voice to email feature that would allow parents to “call” and leave a message to my email.

We have one regular volunteer in class. Thanks to Lily’s mom for coming on Thursday mornings during Bear Group rotations! If you would like to volunteer, please let me know and I will get a volunteer form for you.

Thanks to Marelia’s family to donating prizes for our prize box.

Diana Whitaker

Welcome to the 2011-12 school year!

Welcome to the new school year. The beginning of the year is always an exciting time! It is hard to believe that we have already been in school for 16 days.

Here is a little bit of background information about myself. Besides being a teacher, I am also a single mom of four sons, ages 10, 13, 16 and 19.  They keep me very busy when I’m not at school. I completed my Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction: English as a Second Language in 2009. I am very passionate about the importance of oral language development for ALL students. Strong listening and speaking skills are the foundation for success, not only in school, but in life.

The first weeks of school are all about bonding, learning the classroom routines and settling in to the learning environment. We have been focused on developing the classroom community which helps the children feel safe and comfortable.  Our class motto is “It’s all about the learning!” One of the first things I try to instill in the children is that mistakes are a part of learning. I do not want them to try to be perfect. “If you were perfect, you would already be in college.College doesn’t have center time.” I strive to make learning a process for my students that recognizes their best efforts and encourages them to stretch and take risks, without fear of making mistakes. I often point out mistakes that I make so they understand that I am not perfect either and that I am still learning too!

My goal is to post updates to this blog weekly. Sometimes life gets in the way so I promise to do my best.

I look forward to Back To School Night tomorrow.

Ms. Diana Whitaker