Mme Forrest et Mme Porras

1. Mme Forrest et Mme Porras 2013-2014

2. 9:00 am Class times reminders! 11:53 am – 12:38 pm 3:30pm

3. My name is Jamie Forrest. • I was married to Chad in 2007. • I became a mom September 1, 2011 to Grace Elizabeth. She wasn’t supposed to come until October 27th! • I have been teaching since January, 2000. I have taught grades 9-11, 6-7, 3 and now 2! • I finished my Master’s in Education: Curriculum • and Instruction this summer. My focus has been • technology, second language learning and literacy. • My passion in Education is reading and literacy, • but I love math too! • I love to read, crochet, and play with Grace.

4. Thank you so much for coming!!! • My name is Valeska Porras • I am in my 4th year in the Baccalauréat en éducation program at the University of Regina. • I am trilingual; I can speak Spanish, English and French. • My husband’s name is Jason and he is a Social Worker. • We have a beautiful little girl – who is also in • Grade 2 – named Izabella! • We also have two dogs named Paco and Suka. • I have been a coach with Girls in the • Game since 2009. • I have worked for the U of R as a tutor in • French and as a TA in French for the • Language Resource Centre. • I am so excited to be teaching your child!

5. Please note: This may change as the year advances. Also, the times are a little more fluid in grade 2. I may extend one subject one day to accommodate an activity, and shorten it the next.

6. We ask that if your child is absent, please contact the school first. Please call 791-7365 to inform us of your child’s absence. Please leave your child’s full name, their grade, the name of their teacher, and if possible, the reason for their absence. If you have time, it would also be nice if you could send me a quick email as well, though this is not necessary. My email is j.forrest@rcsd.ca. Please DO NOT assume that telling just me is enough. If I am ill, or if the computers aren’t working, the school will need to know where your child is.

7. There are many elements that I will be taking into consideration while deciding on your child’s grades. I take into account physical work that appears in their workbooks, duotangs and notebooks. I also take into account the answers given in class while teaching. Finally, I take into consideration any assessments that I have done over the course of the term. There is no one “test” or assignment that will decide their final grade. Also, some of the outcomes you see on the report card are goals for the end of the second grade. For the first two report cards, you may see NY or I because we are still working towards the final outcome. Please take into consideration any comments I have made before getting upset or concerned about these marks. Sometimes NY or I is right where they should be!

8. There will be very little homework this year that will be “new” at home. One “homework” that will fall into this category is something that your child is to do with you. This will sometimes happen in Religion or Fully Alive. There are often things we have the students to ask you about your life, your family situation, or their lives as a baby. The other “homework” that falls into this category is reading. I ask that your child read 15 minutes a night in French. This will help support what we are doing in class and will help improve their reading. The only other homework your child will bring home are things that they need to finish up because they ran out of time in class.

9. Contexte With the new Integrated Curriculum for Kindergarten to grade 2, there are no longer traditional subjects. All the student learning outcomes are to be taught through guiding questions (or themes). For example, our first unit is about Friendship. We will be studying traditional outcomes from Social Studies, Math, Science, Art, etc through the topic of friendship.

10. My thoughts Reading is one of the most important and fundamental skills your child needs to develop in the primary grades. As your child advances to the older grades, they will come to rely more and more heavily on this skill. Grade 2 is a very important year in their schooling as it is the last year that we can focus solely on developing their reading in French. After this year, your child will begin learning English as well as continuing their French studies. Just as the way to improve as a hockey player is to play hockey, the best way to improve reading, is to read!

11. Program I will be combining two different approaches to teaching reading this year: The Daily 5 / CAFÉ and Guided Reading. The Daily 5 and CAFÉ is a program that will explicitly teach reading strategies to students. I will teach a strategy, we will discuss the strategy, we will practice the strategy with a group read aloud, we will post the strategy on our CAFÉ board, then the students will practice these strategies during silent reading. The strategies are broken down into four parts: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding vocabulary. Other components of the Daily 5 / CAFÉ program include listening to reading, writing, word work (spelling), and speaking about books. Each day, a lesson will be taught focusing on one of these pillars of the program, then the students will practice skills at one of 5 stations. The students will get to visit each station twice during a 5 day cycle. Once we get the stations up and running, I will be working with individual students teaching focused lessons and doing assessments during the center time. Guided reading will come into this in that the books that the students will be reading during Daily 5 and while they are working with me will be books at their reading level.

12. In math this year, we will be learning about Patterns and Relations, Numbers up to 100 (working with them, addition and subtraction), Shapes and Space, and working with Concrete Graphs and Pictograms. We will also be using the Mathletics program that was introduced at St. Mary two years ago. Mme Porras will be teaching math until Christmas holidays, then Mme Forrest will be taking it over.

13. Science is now part of Contexte in the new grade 2 curriculum. However, some of the “Big Questions” are more science based and these will be covered by M. Duguay. We will be working with him in our planning and assessment throughout the year.

14. Religion and Fully Alive • RELGION THEMES • Christian Identity • Faith Development • Prayer and Sacraments • Scripture • FULLY ALIVE THEMES • Friendship (e.g., honesty; making good choices) • Strong families • Prenatal life and birth • Life as a gift and the responsibilities associated with that gift

15. There are many ways you can help in the classroom. Some ways are just once in a while (like sending treats or supervising field trips) while other require more regular commitment (like exchanging guided reading books, helping with guided reading, etc) If you can help with classroom activities like guided reading, liturgies and art projects, please let me know by email if you can be in the class on a scheduled, weekly basis. I will set up a schedule with you to be with us in the classroom. Special note: In order to volunteer at the school in any capacity, you must have a criminal record check. If you provided the school with one last year, you need only fill out the Declaration Respecting Criminal Record Form which I can provide upon request. If you provided a criminal record check two years ago, it must be renewed this year with a new one.

16. I like to take my students on 1 or 2 curricular related field trips each year. I have not planned these yet. When I have details in place, I will let you know and provide you with any details. There may also be trips at Christmas and the end of the year, though again, there are no details available at this time. I do believe that, wherever we go, the more parent supervision we have, the more successful the trips will be for everyone! So, be prepared to be bugged for your help when the time comes!

17. Highlights – If you are interested in ordering, please fill on the forms provided tonight. If you aren’t, please sign and return (without all the information) because it still helps us get free stuff for the classroom! Scholastic – I do monthly Scholastic book orders. I will be sending out the first later this week or early next week. All purchases must be made by cheque – no cash please.

18. St. Mary phone number: 791-7365 My email: j.forrest@rcsd.ca Mme Porras’ email: v.porras@rcsd.ca Our class blog: http://mmejforrest.wordpress.com/ Thank you to all those who have already subscribed to our class blog. If you have not done so, I highly encourage you to subscribe. I will be updating the blog with classroom information rather than sending daily or weekly emails. I will be using the blog to post any information destined to ALL PARENTS in the class. I will be using emails and/or phone calls when I have to contact parents individually about their child. Please use the school phone number or my email to contact me. I am also signed up for a new service called Remind101 that will allow me to send a last minute “Oh my goodness I forgot to tell them” text message to your phone. If you wish to sign up for this service, send me an email or note in the agenda and I will send subscription details. This will only be used when important information was forgotten. Regular updates will be posted on the blog.