Connections & Communication

Letter to Home (Algebra I)

Dear Parents/Guardians:

My name is Mr. AJ. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and welcome your child to my class for the forthcoming school year. I am extremely excited to build meaningful connections with you and your child for academic success. We will kick off another year with excitement, engagement, and growth! As your teacher, I want to be your role model and stimulate students' learning interests and passion for academic excellence. I will always be here for you to give support. As a student, I expect active participation and make the most out of it from my classes. As parents/guardians, I expect you to stay in touch with me for your children's success. You're welcome to attend events hosted by our Student Council to enhance school-family connections. Please read through this letter for some important information and never feel hesitate to reach out to me with any questions!

Best Regards

Andie Jia

I will do my best to help your child to succeed!

01 My Responsibility and Expectations

To put it in simple words. Here are my responsibilities as a teacher:

Prepare all necessary academic materials and lessons.
Incorporate assistive technology into teaching when necessary.
Use a variety of instructional methods to meet the needs of all students.
Provide necessary academic, social, and emotional support to students.

As a parent, you should:

Communicate with your children and teacher for any academic-related questions.
Do not shame or castigate your children for bad grades on the progress report card.
Attend the parent-teacher conference if you are able.
Please do not make any phone calls between 11pm and 6am and during the school hours. However, you're welcome to email me with any questions, and I will respond within 24 hours.

As a student, you should:

Attend classes regularly and submit all academic assignments.
Comply with the classroom rules and expectations.
Communicate with your teacher and classmates if you need help.

02 About Me

My name is Andie Jia (you can call me Andie or Mr. AJ) and I have lived in different places in my past 21 years. After graduating from Benilde-St. Margaret's School (Minnesota) in 2020, I spent two years at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) before moving to Arizona State University. During my college career, I have shadowed and tutored different mathematics classrooms in Ingraham High School (Seattle, WA), Cleveland High School (Seattle, WA), Apollo High School (Glendale, AZ), and Corona Del Sol High School (Tempe, AZ). When I am not teaching, you can always find me baking, sleeping, and working out at gym!

03 My Educational Philosophy

I firmly believe that my classroom is a place where students will gain knowledge and confidence from. As an educator, it's my responsibility to make mathematics less dreadful to learn.

Here are the six educational principles that I will uphold for teaching:

No students shall be discriminated against their race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, disabilities, or culture.
Mathematics is a versatile subject to discover, overly focusing on grades defeats the learning purposes.
Success always comes after failures. Please always gear up and be ready for the challenge.
Step out of your comfort zone to explore, because you only live once.
I teach with empathy and flexibility, not just intelligence.
Always believe in yourself and overcome failures with confidence

04 Grading Policy

I will use the Standard-Based Grading (SBG) method in all classes to avoid negative pressures and accommodate all potential behavioral and learning disabilities. Exam scores are determined equally by the weight of homework assignments and SBG items, each of which is worth four points. The arithmetic mean of all graded items determines a student's grade.

The grace period is 20 days, everything will be penalized 2.5% (0.1 pts) per day unless you use a Late Waiver. Although they can turn it in after the grace period ends, students will earn a set score of 1.0 after the grace period, regardless of quality.

Additional information on grades will be disclosed on the syllabus.

Grading Scale

4 - Exceeding Expectations - 100

3 - Meeting Expectations - 87

2 - Approaching Expectations - 75

1 - Below Expectations - 65

Learning Objectives Mastery - 90% of the Final Grade

End-of-Semester Final Exam - 10% of the Final Grade

Calculation

If a student earned scores of 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 4, and 4. I will compute the grade as:

(87 + 100 + 100 + 87 + 75 + 100 + 100) / 7 = 92.71 (A-)

HOME COMMUNICATION

01 Broadcast Messages

First and the foremost, I am not sending hundreds of emails to overwhelm my students and their parents. Under the following three circumstances, I will inform all my students and parents:

Class Cancellation
Upcoming Unit Exams
Word of Encouragement

02 Individual Emails

Individual emails allow me to provide my students academic and mental support throughout the academic year. Parents and guardians will receive an individual email from me if:

Their children have a failing grade after the unit exam.
Consecutive unexcused absences.
Multiple or consecutive missing assignments
Strange behaviors (extremely silent or excessively talkative)

Connections to UDL

01 Overview

UDL, or Universal Design for Learning, is a systematic approach to instructional design and behavioral management in educational settings. To minimize the achievement gap and the need for accommodations while striving for academic excellence, I will strictly uphold the three principles of UDL: Multiple Means of Engagement (MME), Multiple Means of Representation (MMR), and Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMA). I believe the implementation of UDL-infused strategies will make my students succeed!

02 Multiple Means of Engagement (MME)

The First 3 Minutes of the Class

Before giving the main lesson, I will activate the classroom by asking my students how they want to fulfill the learning objectives in meaningful ways. I will also incorporate the KWL Chart activity into the lesson plan so that my students have the opportunity to tell me what they want to know and how they expect me to teach.

During the Class

Icebreaker questions are good ways to kick off a day. In every class, I will ask my students an icebreaker question as a way to establish connections based on their responses. Encouraging my students to write their quarterly goals on the decorations is another approach to boosting engagement. For example, students can write down what they want to achieve by the end of the first quarter on the Halloween-themed decorations.

03 Multiple Means of Representation (MMR)

Why MMR?

Students have different ways of learning, some students are auditory learners while others may learn better by reading. Thus, it's crucial to represent the academic content in a variety of ways to meet the needs of diverse learners.

How MMR?

I will re-configure my classroom in a way that students will sit in a group setting during the class. Each table provides students with different learning tools. That is, students who prefer learning from visualization sit at a table closer to the whiteboard, and those who like individual tasks, are given some worksheets and tasks to collaborate on. Whether students are given text, videos, audio, or visualization dynamics, my goal is to help students reach the mastery level.

04 Multiple Means of Action and Expression

Why MMA?

High-stake exams can be intimidating and usually cause anxiety for students who have disabilities or whose native language is not English. Hence, having options for students to showcase their mastery removes grade anxiety.

How MMA?

Even for mathematics classes, there are more ways to assess my students' command of knowledge than a single-set exam. For example, I can give my students the following options as the replacement for the final exam:

Group or individual present on a grade-appropriate topic.
Small Group Teaching
Test Corrections (demonstrate their mastery by retaking the exam, but everyone gets only one retake)