Welcome Parents:
With a new school year upon us, let me take this time to introduce myself. My name is
Mr. Jones and I am your child’s 6 th
grade Language Arts teacher. I currently have a
Master of Arts degree in middle childhood education with a certification to teach mathematics and language arts. This is my sixth year teaching Language Arts at Gray
Middle School.
I hope to see you all at open house where I can go into detail about my procedures and expectations for the school year. Prior to open house I need to share with you some supplies your child will need for my class. Each student will need a:

1-inch three-ring binder (with dividers)

Loose leaf paper in the binder

Journal (composition notebook or spiral notebook)

Pack of notecards
The three-ring binder should have four sections: 1) DLQ, 2) Vocab Workshop, 3)
SpringBoard, and 4) Graded Work. The binder will be used for DLQ (Daily Language
Question), which is the warm-up activity students will do every morning Monday-
Thursday for the first five minutes of class. The second section is for taking notes on the vocabulary workshop. Every vocabulary workshop unit has 20 vocabulary words; we will take notes on five words a week for four weeks, and then test on those 20 words at the end of the fourth week (we will review throughout the four weeks). The third section is for activities students complete within the SpringBoard program. This is a new Language
Arts program that the Boone County School District purchased last year for every middle school to use. The fourth section is for anything I grade and give back to the students (i.e. tests, quizzes, handouts, etc.). Loose leaf paper will need to be in Sections 2 and 3. The notecards will be for students to make flashcards of the vocabulary workshop words
(easy and effective way to study).

A school-wide requirement is an 8-pocket folder. Typically, students use this for homework assignments for each class and any important papers that need to go home.
I have a webpage to keep parents and students informed about what’s going on and what will be going on in my classroom. To access my webpage, simply visit Gray’s homepage, http://www.gms.boone.k12.ky.us/, click the “Contact Us” link at the top of the page, leave the search bars blank and click the “Submit” button. On the right side of the page will be a list of teacher names in alphabetical order. Find my name and click “Profile”.
Then, click the link that reads “Click Here to View Online Classroom” on the right side of the page.
I will email all of you a weekly update every Friday letting you know what we did the past week and what we will be doing the following week.
I also use Remind101, a safe and easy way for teachers to communicate to students and parents. It is a website for teachers to send text messages to students and parents without cell phone numbers being exchanged. It’s just one more way for students and parents to be informed of homework assignments and upcoming tests, and it’s using the form most of us use on a daily basis – text messaging. To sign up, text @mrjonesl to (859) 905-
3986. After @mrjones is the lower case l as in leaf, not the number 1.
To receive my weekly updates please detach the bottom of this page with your email address on it.
If you have any questions, please contact me via email, andrewr.jones@boone.kyschools.us.
Sincerely,
6 th grade Language Arts teacher
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