Parent letter
Dear Parent or Guardian,
I am so excited to be your child’s teacher this year! Your student is in for an engaging year of learning about American history. Let me begin first by introducing myself. My name is Mara Leane. I am originally from the northwestern Chicago suburb of Mount Prospect. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a history major, a secondary education minor, and endorsements in political science and English. I have had a passion for history and education every since I was very little, so to be able to combine those and work as a social studies teacher is a dream come true for me! While this is my first year teaching middle school, I feel that the University of Illinois has more than prepared me to embark on my professional career. I was afforded the opportunity to spend several semesters in college working in middle school classrooms, so I already have a fair amount of experience with this age range.
I have several goals for my students. My first goal is to help your student become a more advanced learner. I want to help my students learn how to productively take notes, efficiently read a textbook, accurately analyze a primary source, advance their writing skills, and practice public speaking skills. All of these skills are vital to succeeding in the real world, and as a middle school teacher it is my job to start to prepare my students to succeed not only in high school but also in the workforce. My second goal is to create a safe learning environment in which all my students feel comfortable and accepted. I would appreciate your help in informing me if a situation ever arises that you think will affect your student’s ability to learn in my classroom. That way we can work together to help your student.
In order to achieve these goals for my students, I vow to make a professional commitment to them. I will always work in their best interests and try to use student feedback and requests to be the type of teacher they need me to be. My classroom will be very student-centered, and all the students will have a fair amount of agency in terms of how they want to learn in my classroom.
I am able to be contacted via email at [email protected]. In addition, you can reach me through the school phone number 888-888-8888 at anytime. I am in my classroom a half an hour prior to the school start and an hour after school ends every day, so you can always drop in and talk with me during those times! If those times do not work, I am more than available to schedule appointments at other times as well. I look forward to talking to you all soon!
Sincerely,
Mara Leane
Student letter
Dear Students,
I am so excited to be your teacher this year! You are in for an exciting year of learning about American history. Let me begin first by introducing myself. My name is Ms. Leane. I am originally from the Chicago suburbs. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and majored in history. I have loved history since I was very little, so I am very excited to be able to share this passion with you all this year!
While you should prepare for an engaging year, it is also important to know that I have high expectations for all my students. I want to help prepare you to succeed in high school and the real world beyond by focusing on learning practical skills, which include how to take notes, analyzing sources, advancing your writing skills and much more. I will also work to provide a learning environment in which you feel comfortable each and every day.
In order to achieve these goals, I vow to make a professional commitment to you all. I will keep your best interests in mind, and I will ask for feedback from you to determine what are effective ways to teach each class individually. Our classroom will be very student-centered, and you will have lots of opportunities to decide how you want to learn this year.
You or your parents/guardians can contact me via email at [email protected] or through the school phone 888-888-8888 anytime. I am also in my room before and after school every day, so stop by if you need help with something, have a question, or just want to chat!
I look forward to meeting each of you and having a great year together learning about American history!
Sincerely,
Ms. Leane
I am so excited to be your teacher this year! You are in for an exciting year of learning about American history. Let me begin first by introducing myself. My name is Ms. Leane. I am originally from the Chicago suburbs. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and majored in history. I have loved history since I was very little, so I am very excited to be able to share this passion with you all this year!
While you should prepare for an engaging year, it is also important to know that I have high expectations for all my students. I want to help prepare you to succeed in high school and the real world beyond by focusing on learning practical skills, which include how to take notes, analyzing sources, advancing your writing skills and much more. I will also work to provide a learning environment in which you feel comfortable each and every day.
In order to achieve these goals, I vow to make a professional commitment to you all. I will keep your best interests in mind, and I will ask for feedback from you to determine what are effective ways to teach each class individually. Our classroom will be very student-centered, and you will have lots of opportunities to decide how you want to learn this year.
You or your parents/guardians can contact me via email at [email protected] or through the school phone 888-888-8888 anytime. I am also in my room before and after school every day, so stop by if you need help with something, have a question, or just want to chat!
I look forward to meeting each of you and having a great year together learning about American history!
Sincerely,
Ms. Leane
rationale
We know that parent involvement is a major positive factor in students succeeding in school, so by establishing some means of formal communication with my students and parents/guardians prior to the first day of school, I hope to get start off on a positive note where the parents and students realize that I truly hope to work with them to make the year a success (Emmer and Evertson 71). The topics included in these letters include an about me section, goals for students, my professional commitments to them, and a section that discusses how I can be contacted. These are all vital aspects to include in parent/student letters. I want my students and their parents to know a little about me so that they can feel comfortable coming to me with their concerns throughout the year. I want to get to know all my students (and their parents if possible) on a personal level, so I hope that by including some background information about myself in the introductory letters I will be able to start this mentality from the beginning. It is important to include the goals I have for myself and my students so that they can all know what to expect and why my classroom is going to be structured in the manner that it is. This will hopefully help resolve student uncertainties from the very beginning of the year if they have some idea of what to expect when coming into class on the first day (Emmer and Evertson 65). I describe my professional commitments to my students so that everyone can see that I am truly committed to putting the needs of the students above all else. Since I acknowledge in my parent letter that I am a first year teacher, I wanted to make sure that I explained how I plan on using student feedback to structure my teaching in the hope of reassuring the parents that their students will still have a good school year. Lastly, I wanted to be sure when I included my contact information that I have times before and after school listed where I am there every day that parents/students can just stop in and see me, but I am also very flexible and more than willing to make scheduled appointments to meet outside of those times. Ultimately, my goal in sending these letters is to complete the first step in establishing a dialogue between myself, the student and the parents/guardians that will continue through the rest of the year (Emmer and Evertson 71-72).