Welcome to Equinox!

1. Welcome to Equinox!

2. Curriculum Night 2010 • Introduction to our Classroom Community • Responsive Classroom • Curriculum Overview • Parent Communication • Volunteering • Questions? • Ticket Out

3. Who is Equinox? • 84 Vibrant Learners • Classroom Teachers • TA • Paraeducators • Case Manager • Speech & Language Pathologist • Guidance • Related Arts Teachers • Classroom Volunteers • FAMILIES!

4. Responsive Classroom * The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum. * How children learn is as important as what they learn: Process and content go hand in hand. * The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction. * To be successful academically and socially, children need a set of social skills: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control. * Knowing the children we teach-individually, culturally, and developmentally-is as important as knowing the content we teach. * Knowing the families of the children we teach and working with them as partners is essential to children's education. * How the adults at school work together is as important as their individual competence: Lasting change begins with the adult community. From the Northeast Foundation for Children’s Responsive Classroom Guiding Principles

5. What is special about 3rd & 4th graders? Adapted from Yardsticks by Chip Wood

6. To be successful academically and socially, children need a set of social skills: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control. • School & Classroom rules • Student Entry/Dismissal • Logical Consequences • Student Work Expectations

7. Balanced Literacy Instruction • Independent Reading • Guided Reading • Shared Reading • Word Study/Spelling/Fundations • Handwriting • Read Aloud • Independent Writing • Guided Writing • Shared Writing

8. Themes2010-2011 • Community Building • Weekly Inquiry Science • VT Government/Election • VT Geography & History • Systems of the Human Body • United States Geography/Geology • Earth & Environment (Landforms & Earth Materials)

9. Math instruction is aligned with Best Practices in Teaching Mathematics Number Sense Operations Computational Fluency Data and chance Patterns Geometry Measurement Mathematics

10. Homework Math connected to your child’s program Spelling practice 20 minutes of reading each night Reading Log due weekly

11. Home-School Communication • Weekly Update • Monday Folders • Progress Report Conferences • E-mail & Phone • Website & Blogs

12. Important Messages • Please contact our TA, Amanda DeCarlo at ext. 5814 with any urgent messages (dismissal changes, etc.) • If you cannot reach Amanda, please call Carmen Portelli at ext. 5805

13. Volunteering • Contact your core teacher for in-class Volunteer Opportunities • School Wide/Equinox House Activities • Field Trip Chaperones • FAP = Families as Partners • Equinox FAP Representative to the Advisory Council needs to be elected via ballot

14. QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

15. Ticket Out On a small piece of colored paper, please write ONE thing you learned about Equinox! Thank you for coming tonight!