Welcome to Queen Anne Elementary and Room 203!
I am so excited to begin the fifth year of our Queen Anne Elementary adventure! My goals as a teacher are to develop caring and nurturing relationships with all of my students and to provide a safe and exciting learning environment that will allow them to become strong and eager readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, thinkers, problem solvers and life-long learners. I have a passion for infusing a global perspective throughout the curriculum, and hope to help the students at QAE become global citizens that will go out into our world inspired to make positive contributions. 

This year, I look forward to helping our students, teachers and families form connections with our partner school, Dwankhozi Primary School, in rural Zambia. To me, being partner schools means that we become friends and learn together. I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Zambia to visit the school with a QAE team in June of 2013. Last June, a second QAE staff team visited the school, and we are currently looking forward to having one of the Dwankhozi teachers visit Seattle and QAE this fall. I am so excited about the learning and global connection opportunities this relationship will provide for all of our students, and look forward to finding even more ways to integrate it into our project based learning this year. (Check out the Dwankhozi Partnership tab on this site for photos and stories!)

I am also excited to grow as a teacher of technology this year. As a staff, we will be increasing our use of iPads as a tool to deepen our Project Based Learning, and we will be using Twitter (a brand new learning for me!) to share our classroom learning with the world. Both of these technology tools are exciting in their potential to make the words written in our 5 Pillars come alive for our students, both in and out of their classrooms.. 

Before coming to QAE in 2010 as a founding teacher and a parent (my son, Jack, is in Ms. Hunter's 4th grade classroom) I had most recently held administrative positions in Seattle Public Schools, at the elementary, middle and K-8 levels. Before my first employment with Seattle in 2001, I taught elementary and middle school for seven years in the Edmonds School District. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Washington State University, K-8 Teaching Credentials from University of Washington, and a Masters of Education Administration from Western Washington University. 

When I am not at school, I enjoy reading, traveling, playing soccer and spending time in the mountains with my husband John, my son Jack and our dog, Gracie.

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What we do at school all day...

Volunteering at Queen Anne Elementary

I hope that all of you find a way to help out at our school this year! It is a lot of fun for the kids 
and for the adult volunteers!  If you are able to make the commitment to volunteer regularly in the classroom, fabulous! We love having the help! At Curriculum Night (Thurs, Sept. 25th) I will show you how to sign up for classroom volunteer time slots on our volunteer spot website. When you sign up for a spot, I will work with you to determine what classroom work you are most comfortable doing. Ways to help in the classroom include working directly with the students, helping prepare for upcoming projects (cutting or copying paper), scanning student work for e-folios, emptying/stuffing go-home folders, etc.  

To work in the classroom on a regular basis, you must take a volunteer training session. (See 
school website for schedule into). In the training you will learn about classroom expectations, adult boundaries, addressing discipline, and how to use equipment and find supplies. You will also need 
to fill out background check paperwork, now required by the Seattle Public Schools for all volunteers who have any contact with children. Carla Kirch, our Administrative Assistant in the main office, can help you fill out this paperwork.

In addition to regularly scheduled classroom volunteers, there will be lots of opportunities for volunteers to help out.  You can sign up for a single time slot, volunteer for one of the classroom parent jobs (see list below), chaperone a field trip, attend a literacy celebration or school assembly, teach us about a special talent or skill you want to share, etc. If you can't get to our campus, you can visit the work we are doing on our classroom website and your student's e-folios and make comments from your home.     

Parent Classroom Jobs~
Robin Mohr (mom to Claudia in our class) has agreed to be our Room Coordinator. Thanks, Robin!
We are still working to fill the following positions: 

o    volunteer coordinator 
o    technology coordinator ~ download pictures, scan & post student work to student e-folios, 
      blog with kids
o    party planner ~ coordinate our two class parties, on Halloween and Valentines' Day
o    class photographer ~ take class photos throughout the year for the yearbook and website 
o    auction liason ~ coordinate a class art project for the auction in March

If you have any interest in taking any of these on, please let me know! Thank you all in advance for all of the support you will provide your kindergartener this year. It is invaluable!

Beginning of the Year Info

Parent Communication

I will be using this website, along with a new classroom Twitter account, to share all of the exciting learning that is happening in Room 203. I will regularly (my goal is each Sunday afternoon) post photos, videos, student and teacher reflections and logistical information on the Class Blog! tab of this site. Please make a commitment to visit our Class Blog with your student on a regular basis (I recommend every Sunday evening), helping your student reflect on his or her learning and helping us extend our learning beyond our classroom walls! Follow us on Twitter to know when updates to our blog happen, and encourage extended family members interested in the learning of your student to do the same. You are all real world resources that can add so much to our learning with your comments and questions! 

@msCLqae

At Curriculum Night, I will walk you through our classroom website and the resources it contains. I will also introduce you to your student's e-folio and teach you how you can help me capture your student's growth this year!

Classroom Supplies

nstead of having students bring school supplies, our school collects a $50 supply fee from each child. Supply fees are used to buy all of the classroom supplies, art and project materials needed in bulk and with our education discounts. Using community supplies teaches students to share with others and treat materials with respect so that they last longer. Checks will be collected the first week of school and can be made out to Queen Anne Elementary. If you are financially unable, just let me know. 

Pick up/ Drop off

On the first day of school, you are welcome to walk your child into our classroom and greet other kindergarteners and family members. When the 9:30 bell rings, I will ask the students to wave goodbye to their family members and come sit with me on the teaching carpet. Please do your best to say goodbye and leave. It is usually much harder for the parents than the students!! Before leaving the building, please take time to look at the "how do we go home" chart on the table outside our door. Make sure your information is correct if you gave it to me at Open House. If there is no information listed for your student, please fill in how they will get home. If they are picked up, please provide the names and positions of the people other than parents that have permission to pick up (ie. nanny, grandparent, family friend. )

After the first day, you are welcome to drop your students off at the playground 15 minutes before the first bell rings. When the bell rings, your students will line up on our class spot and I will come get them to start the day. At the end of the day, I will walk the students out as well. You are welcome to meet your student in the hall, out on the playground or in the designated pick up spot. Before taking your student, please make sure you make eye contact with me so we know they are safe. I will have an adult walk students riding a bus out to the bus lines as well. If your child is ever to go home in a different way than indicated on the "how we go home" chart, it is really important that you write an email to let me know. Often, kindergarteners will get mixed up! 

Snack

This year, we are moving away from a rotation of family-provided snacks and asking families to send an individual snack to school with their student each day. Please send healthy, nutritious snacks. During snack time, students will take turns sharing (show and tell with a theme). A sharing schedule will be handed out on curriculum night and then posted on our class blog.

Birthdays

At QAE we love birthdays. We love to celebrate them and realize this is an important part of elementary school. We also believe that we can celebrate them in a meaningful and fun way without filling our kids with sugar. Therefore, if you choose to celebrate your child’s birthday at school, you may do so by donating a book in their name to the classroom. We will sing happy birthday, read the book and celebrate without treats, snacks or gifts. Teacher birthdays will be celebrated the same way.

Extra Clothes

Accidents happen! Please send an extra pair of clothes to school in a plastic bag with your child's name on it. Your student will store the bag in his or her cubby to be used if needed. If you notice them wearing their back up clothing home for any reason, please send it back in because often accidents happen more than once a year in kindergarten! 

Homework

We will talk about this more in depth at curriculum night. However, the kindergarten team believes that kindergartners work very hard throughout the day and we don’t want them (or you) stressing about homework at home. Therefore, we will give families ideas of activities (both on-line and off-line) that can be done at home to help students’ learning - but it will be done on your own time frame. 

Orange Folders

Each child will have an orange folder that they will bring to and from home daily. They will bring home their daily work to show to you, as well as field trip forms, etc. Please get in the habit of checking this folder daily. If you have anything for me, please send it back to school in the orange folder as I check them daily.