Class times reminders!
•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.
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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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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.