Attendance Every school day is filled with important learning opportunities. It is important that students come to school everyday on time, prepared, and ready to learn. Westchester students should arrive at school no later than 8:00a.m. Any student who arrives after this time should be taken to the office by an adult to receive a tardy notice.
Mrs. Burns understands that unscheduled events happen that are out of our control and sometimes causes students to miss school. If your child is absent from school please send a note explaining the absence the day that they return. Students will be able to make up their missed assignments either at home or school (depending on the assignment).
School is dismissed at 2:30p.m. If there are any changes to your child's dismissal plans please send a note the morning of the change within your child's homework folder. If unplanned dismissal changes occur please do not email these changes to Mrs. Burns, because there is no guarantee she will have an opportunity to check her email throughout the school day. Instead call the school and notify the front office of the dismissal change.
Classroom Management Classroom agreements are necessary to ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn in a safe environment. Mrs. Burns will be working with the crew to establish the agreements they feel will ensure that each student is able to fulfill their hopes and dreams for this school year (see crew agreements tab soon). Once the crew agreements are established if students do not follow the crew agreements, Mrs. Burns will be using Magic 1, 2, 3 classroom management plan. Please review the classroom management plan here. When all students as a crew are recognized for following the crew agreements, the class will earn softies (pom-poms) into the crew's softie box. When the softie box becomes full, students will be rewarded a class celebration. Class celebrations will be decided by students listing suggestions and voting on their celebration of choice. The celebration with the most votes is the type of celebration the class will have. Parents will be notified of the celebration via email and/or text if they have signed up to receive text from Mrs. Burns via Remind. (Please see the bottom of the homepage or the parents link tab for instructions on how to sign up.)
Homework Folder Each student will have a green homework folder. This folder will be sent home and must be returned to school daily. Inside of the homework folder parents and students will find a weekly homework packet that should be signed by an adult each night. Your signature indicates that your child did complete his/her homework for that night. Please check this folder each day to review important documents and return the documents within the folder by the due date. Notes (i.e. change of dismissal plans, doctor's notes, etc.) for the teacher should be placed inside of the homework folder for Mrs. Burns' review.
Homework Policy Homework provides the opportunity for students to practice previously taught skills and develop exceptional study habits. Homework will not begin until after the first six weeks of school.. It is assigned to students Monday-Thursday, but is not due in it's entirety until Friday of that same week. This allows some flexibility in completing assignments due to after school commitments. Homework will consist of students reading a "Just Right Book" for pleasure for 20 minutes each night and completion of a math activity.
On Fridays Mrs. Burns will allow students who have completed all of their homework each week to have lunch and a movie with the teacher in the classroom. These students will be rewarded a small token for demonstrating responsibility for their own learning. Mrs. Burns does understand that occasionally unscheduled events take place that will prevent students from completing their homework. If this should happen please inform Mrs. Burns in writing before that week's homework is due. If Mrs. Burns is not made aware of your child's inability to complete his/her homework by the Friday that homework is due your child will be unable to participate in lunch and a movie with the teacher and be required to eat lunch in the cafeteria.
Snack/Birthday Policies Snacks are not allowed during school hours, but water bottles are and should be kept inside of your child's locker at all times. Crew members' birthdays will be acknowledged on Fridays during Community Circle. Each child will receive a birthday bracelet the week in which their birthday is acknowledged at CC. No other birthday treats/parties will happen during school hours. Please contact Principal Lofstrand with any questions regarding these policies.
Conferences During the first six weeks of school Mrs. Burns will focus a lot on getting to know where your is child academically, socially, and emotionally. Therefore, parent/teacher conferences will be held after first term reporting has been sent home. Information regarding signing up for a conference will be sent at a later date. At anytime, after your initial conference, should you need to meet with Mrs. Burns, please contact her via email. In March your child will conduct his/her student led conference. Information for student-led conferences will also be sent at a later date.
Communication Please visit the weekly newsletter section of this website regularly. Weekly newsletters are created to inform families of what is happening in room 206. Mrs. Burns will attempt to have newsletters posted on Monday of each week.
Thursday Communication Folders Each Thursday your child's communication folder will be sent home. Within this folder you will find important school wide documents. The side marked "Keep at Home" are documents that need to be removed from the folder and kept at home for your review. The documents placed on the side of the folder marked "Return to School" are documents that need to be reviewed, completed, and returned to school by their due date.
Grading Students are assessed in a variety of ways. Mrs. Burns uses observation, classroom participation, and individual conferencing as informal assessments. Formal assessments include, but are not limited to activity pages, tasks, and tests. In grading student work, Mrs. Burns uses a check system. Below you will find what each check represents on returned work.
✔+ = 4 Student consistently met the grade level standard. ✔ = 3 Student often met the grade level standard. ✔- = 2 Student is progressing toward the grade level standard.
Volunteers All of the work done for and with students would not be possible without wonderful volunteers. Mrs. Burns and/or the room parent will be in contact with families regarding volunteer opportunities.