Assignment: The First Days of School

"Welcome" letter

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year at Xxxx School and 7th grade Life Science class. I am
delighted to have your student in my classroom this year and look forward to sharing the school year
together with him/her. As a teacher, I will endeavor to create an educational partnership with you
and your student that will foster courage, determination, and passion for knowledge. In addition to
this, my commitment as an educators will be to provide your student with a nurturing and challenging
educational environment that will ensure his/her academic success in 7th grade.

I am so excited to meet you. My name is Ms. Hina Gulzar. I have a bachelors degree in
Microbiology and an MBA in Human resources. This will be my first year in the school and I am
already excited. I love this school and I love the opportunity to be able to get to know u and your child
over the coming year. My hope is for our continued communication to help your child learn and grow.
I was hoping you might be able to help me to get to know your child.
In 7th grade Life Science I expect students to BE scientists we will observe and question the
natural world, keep careful records of our activities in our laboratory notebooks, think critically,
perform experiments, and draw conclusions. The science curriculum will integrate mathematics,
reading, and writing. We will study cells, the human body, animals, plants and other subjects in Life
Science. By the end of the school year, your child will possess an age-appropriate understanding of
the scientific world and to be able to conduct scientific investigations on his or her own. I look
forward to sharing more about the science curriculum and the academic goals for the class at Back to
School Night.
Since the curriculum in 7th grade is very diverse and challenging, homework will be an important
reinforcement tool to help students achieve mastery with the standards. Homework will be assigned
to your son/daughter every evening, Monday through Thursday. It will reinforce concepts already
discussed in class and always be a natural extension of their class coursework. Many homework
assignments will require your student to study at home. When studying at home, students should

have a quiet, distraction-free environment. Throughout the school year, your son/daughter will also
be responsible for various assignments that may require a commitment of time on his/her weekend
to complete, however, these occasions will be limited and you will be given advanced notice of when
they will be assigned and when they will be due to the class
Since attendance and appropriate behavior at school are crucial to the learning process, it is
imperative that your son/daughter attends school every day as a mature and responsible
student. During the first week of school, I will be working together with my students to develop a set
of classroom rules, rewards and consequences. Your son/daughter should be on campus no later
than 8:25 a.m. Instruction will begin promptly every day. If an absence or tardy is unavoidable, your
son/daughter will have the opportunity to complete their missed assignments, but nothing can
recreate the classroom environment filled with student~teacher interaction when a student is late or
absent.
If you would like to meet me to discuss your child's performance or any other problems that
he/she is facing in class, you can feel free to meet me during lunch break hours, between 9.15 to
10.00. It will be appreciated if you tell me a day before to fix the meeting. Apart from this, you can
also email me at Hina.jaan@gmail.com to discuss any concern you have about your child.

Through our strong partnership, I will ensure that our common goal to have your son/daughter
reach his/her full potential with the standards will be realized. Please look for future communications
regarding behavior policies, classroom rewards and consequences, grading procedures, and daily
schedules. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank each one of you in advance for both
your support and partnership for the upcoming school year. I look forward to meeting you soon.

Sincerely,
Mr. Hina Gulzar.
7th Grade Teacher

A first day of school lesson plan.

For me, one of my biggest challenges would be getting my first day of school planned out. I would
want to make sure that I have enough activity to keep the kids engaged and occupied, but I also want
to set up my rules and set the tone for our year long classroom culture. It is tough balancing
classroom management, rigorous academic pursuits, and fun.
Before school starts, I will set out a pencil and a questionnaire on each desk. I will not have name tags
out. I want the students to sit wherever they want. Why? Because I believe it will let them feel sort of
special that they can choose their own seat and two, it will tell me who their friends are. I will get a
little, instant snapshot into my class from the first second of the year.

8:10 - 8:30am (20 minutes) Classroom Opening:

Students walk in, choose a seat, and begin working silently. As they are working on the
questionnaire. I walk around and take attendance. I generally look on the name portion of their
paper but, as is usually the case, not everyone puts their name on it so I quietly ask names. I
introduce myself at the same time. Making the visual name recognition matched to a face helps
me to learn the kids' names a bit faster.

8:30 - 8:45am (15 minutes) Morning Greeting:

After, I introduce myself and our morning greeting.

8:45 - 9:15am (30 minutes) The Important Thing about Me:

Next, I like to get right into academic pursuits before diving into rules. Since the kids are still in the
"honeymoon stage" in the first hour of school, I figure it is as good a time as any to get them
reading and writing. I will make them write and read the most unique and mundane qualities they
possess. The students then create a circle map of the most unique and mundane qualities they
possess.

9:15 - 10:00am (45 minutes) Classroom Rules:

Finally we begin in on the classroom rules. I have the students brainstorm a list of things they think

would make great rules in our room. "We" will then decide upon the 5 "umbrella rules" that would
encompass most of the little rules they came up with.

10:00 - 10:15am (15 minutes) Yard Rules:

After discussing class rules, we will do a bit of yard rules. What is our play area? Where do we line
up? How do we get into number order? How do we all play together?

10:15 - 10:35am (20 minutes) Recess:

(Time to breathe)

10:35 - 11:00am (25 minutes) Calendar Math:

When we enter into the room, I will introduce the procedures for Calendar Math.

11:00 - 11:30am (30 minutes) Math Diagnostic Test:

A math diagnostic test is next. On the first day I would want to make sure I get some semblance of
where they are math wise before I start in with Math Rotations. This diagnostic is all of the 4th
grade standards that they really should have mastered. It will give me little snapshot of their math
skills so I can plan from there. It will also help to keep the day "academic".

11:30 - 12:10am (40 minutes) Classroom Economy Introduction:

On the first day of school I would definitely get into my Classroom Economy. I will discuss earnings
and fines, expenses and jobs. I believe first day is a basic overview but it will really pump them up
for this classroom management tool.

12:10 - 12:50pm (40 minutes) Lunch:

Breathe and eat. :)

12:50 - 1:20pm (30 minutes) all Hands In:

At this point, the students will be given a large piece of white paper. I will ask them to trace their
hands, with arms. The kids then use the circle map to start drawing different aspects of their
personalities on the hand. This really is the beginning of their first homework project.

1:20 - 1:50pm (30 minutes) Clean Up and Homework Procedure:

We will learn our clean up procedure here. I will actually pass out the Procedure Manual for the first
time. This manual will be used in great detail in the coming days, but on day one, we will just read
the cleanup part. Then, I will pass out the planners given to us by my school. The kids write their
first homework assignment in it. Homework on day one will be:
Finish the All Hands In project
Have your parents sign and return the parent forms
1:50 - 2:20pm (30 minutes) Read aloud:
once the homework is written, students head to the rug for our first read aloud of the year.

2:20 - 2:30pm (10 minutes) End of Day Dismissal Routine:

I would love to share with my students our end of day routine, which consists of me standing at the
door, dismissing the kids from the rug. They put their chairs up and head to the door where I look
them in the eye and bow. I believe it will be a nice, calm way to end the day and will have a
connection with each child.
Now, breathe.

Create a seating chart for my classroom.

Note: I am using arbitrary names and grade level for this activity.