Mrs. Lail's 1st Grade

My name is Rebecca Lail. I am pleased to welcome you and your child to my first grade class. I am excited that we will be spending the year together and getting to know each other. I have been teaching for the past twenty years. I taught for three years at Milan Elementary, where I was the coordinator for the gifted and talented program. For the past sixteen years, I have been teaching at Bright Elementary. I have taught 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^{th grade}. This experience has given me a great perspective on where the students are coming from and where they need to be when they complete a grade level.

I am looking forward to working with you and your child this school year. A new school year is always exciting and full of promise. The first grade, like any new school year, is full of unique challenges. The boys and girls are required to become much more independent than they were in Kindergarten. They are learning to read, and begin computation skills.

Hopefully, this does not sound too overwhelming. The good part is that all of this happens gradually and your children will be very ready. You will be receiving a copy of Indiana’s Academic Standards, which dictates the curriculum that I will be following this year. Mastery of these standards is my goal for your child during this school year.

We will have snack time during morning and afternoon recesses each day. Afternoon recess time is the time that students may share birthday snacks if they chose to bring them. As per school policy, all shared snacks must be store bought. I am asking that children bring their own snack every day. Please include a healthy ‘brain food’ snack and of a quantity that can be comfortably eaten during this time period.

The boys and girls may bring water bottles to drink in class. Please bring in bottles that have twist off lids rather than pull off lids, for sanitary reasons. All bottles need to be taken home each evening to be replaced or washed.

Concerning discipline, I use the Rosmond Plan in my classroom. John Rosmond is a leading authority in classroom management. Each child will have a behavior chart in their take-home folder. Please review the chart each evening and initial each evening. Each page will have one week of ‘boxes’. The first two boxes in each day is a warning. The remaining three boxes in the day will result in increasing consequences. The third box will result in a lost recess. The fourth box will result in lost recesses for the next day. Finally, the last box will result in an office visit. I have had great success with this behavior plan. The students understand the classroom rules and the resulting consequences. By the second semester, I have found that most students rarely need to lose any of their boxes.

Homework does increase as the students move up in grade level. With this said, I have found that our extra long school day is packed with learning and is exhausting at this age. Kids need balance in their lives. I realize that families lead very busy lives outside of the school setting. Many students participate in sports and various other extra-curricular activities. In light of this, I attempt to limit homework to some degree, but that ultimately depends on how hard they work in class to master the Indiana Academic Standards. A permanent homework assignment in my class is for each child to read for 15 minutes each evening. I believe that Reading is the key to their success in school. Additionally, there may be assignments sent home for completion. Please review your child’s Take-Home folder each evening

My school email address is rlail@sunmandearborn.k12.in.us

I am looking forward to our partnership concerning your child. I love teaching and I especially enjoy working with children. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns throughout the school year.

Rebecca Lail