Welcome Letter
September 5, 2019
Dear MAMS Families,
Welcome to eighth grade English Language Arts (ELA)! I hope you have had a fun-filled and relaxing, yet productive summer, and that you are as eager as I am for the school year ahead!
My name is Samantha Dansky, and I will be your child’s ELA teacher this year. Prior to teaching, I attended The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) for my undergraduate studies, and have more recently attended Montclair State University for my graduate degree. I began teaching at Matawan-Aberdeen Middle School in 2012 as a sixth grade teacher, but have spent the majority of my career teaching eighth grade. From having taught these two different grade levels, I want you to know that your child has already worked so hard to learn so much before having entered my classroom earlier today. And with this in mind, for your son or daughter’s last year here, I will work my hardest to make sure your child becomes the best reader, writer, and speaker s/he can be by the time June 24 comes knocking on our doors.
Throughout the duration of the 2018-2019 academic year, your child – along with his/her peers – will be exploring some of the most enjoyable stories of middle school, all of which revolve around life's struggles and triumphs endured between the 1960's and our present day. In our ELA curriculum, your child will have the opportunity to conquer specific reading skills and strategies by examining short and longer, fiction and nonfiction texts. Furthermore, we will be using aspects of Writer’s Workshop as a tool to sharpen our writing skills. I love teaching writing because it gives me the opportunity to show students that choosing certain words to use in a carefully crafted order can change a reader’s perspective (watch the YouTube clip “The Power of Words” posted by Andrea Gardner to see what I mean). Students will be offered choices of what to write about during each unit so that they can feel proud of their work after making revisions based on teacher and peer feedback. Reading, writing, and speaking units may include short stories, literary and song analyses, research tasks, poetry, drama, and speech presentations.
My goals for your child are:
- to enjoy a good book,
- to view reading and writing not as required components of ELA, but as outlets to obtaining knowledge and strengthening communication skills, and
- to utilize learned reading, writing, and speaking skills in other subject areas and outside of school.
I am excited about working together in making your child’s last year at MAMS unforgettable! As the months shift from September to June, I will do everything I can along with your support to facilitate your child in maximizing his or her learning experience here within the MAMS family. As today marks the first day of school, remember that the transition from middle school to high school is a journey that involves building both knowledge and character.
I encourage you to contact me at any time, and I look forward to a successful, fun, and thought-provoking year!
Sincerely,
Samantha D. Dansky