Years ago, parents indicated that they were getting too much email from the school.  Based on their feedback, I switched over to maintaining a class website, and found that it has the added benefit that information doesn't get lost or accidentally deleted.  I still send email for important, time-critical or personal communication but this website is where I post photos, information about upcoming projects and general news from our classroom. I tend to update my blog on the weekend, so Sunday evening is a good time to check in.  I know that websites are not for everyone and I welcome feedback!  Please let me know if you are struggling to find information.

A QUICK NOTE ON  MY GRADING PHILOSOPHY

BVSD requires 4th and 5th grade teachers to use Schoology as our "Learning Management System" and parents have access to the grades in this system.  However, the "grade" that you see in Schoology does not directly translate to the standards based grading system that BVSD uses for elementary school report cards.  While I don't use Schoology to formally calculate a student's "grade" for my class, I have discovered that a lot of my students struggle to turn in their work and Schoology does a really good job of tracking completion.  (This will be yet another good habit to build before middle school.)  If a child completes a task but gets the answer wrong, does not fully complete the assignment, or uses incomplete sentences for a short answer question, I will give them  partial credit to avoid the "dreaded zero."  If your child has a very low grade in my class, it's probably because they have a lot of missing work. I DEEPLY believe in giving feedback and building strong school habits, but I also want my students to be curious and more focused on learning than on jumping through hoops.  There will be plenty of time for them to stress about grades later!!  

We can discuss this more at Back-To-School night on August 19 (in person).