WELCOME LETTER
August 2013
Dear Students and Parents in 12TH Grade,
I hope your summer vacation was very exciting and full of amazing preparation for the new school year we are going to face soon. The upcoming twelfth grade school year will be a roller coaster filled with many thrilling events as well as very emotional moments. We will be saying good-bye to the last year at Bound Brook High School and we will also be saying Hello to a new world of opportunities when the doors to college open. I am pretty sure we will work together to preserve the best moments of this year in our memories to help us excel the possibilities to get into the colleges you have thought about going over next year.
My name is Mrs. Priscilla Gould and this is my second year teaching the 12th grade class of English as a Second Language/English. I would like to tell you a little bit about myself so we can get to know each other better. I have my B.A. in Secondary Education with a minor in Spanish and I am currently pursuing my Masters in ESL at Caldwell College. During my free time I enjoy any outside sports and activities such as hiking, volleyball, swimming, snowboard, and reading books. I also enjoy eating foods from different cultures; therefore, I have visited many countries from South America, Europe and Asia. I was born in Costa Rica and I moved to US when I was nineteen and I did not know how to speak English.
This year I have planned a few exciting experiences with trips where with my experience and the Department of Education’s support we will be able to explore the different cultures we have in our classroom and we will be allowed to plan a least three trips to areas where we can experience the mix of the American culture and ours. One of those trips will be to New York City where we will be walking over to Little Italy, Chinatown, and other areas of cultural interest. We will also visit at least two Colleges that offer opportunities to those students who would like to pursue a career where they can use their knowledge and language and show you how you can contribute to our country in the work force in places such as the F.B.I., different court services, the field of Education and many others.
In order to be prepared for this class we will need the parents to attend a meeting with the students and familiarize with the new regulations of the Department of Education on how we will introduce the use of Ipads, technology, and trip experiences into our school year. I will be sending you communication in regards to these events but I wanted to introduce you with some information about the upcoming year. In order to be organized and ready for this new school year I will ask you to go over the supply list your kids will need and have them ready for the first day of school since we will have a strong year full of education and great events. If you have any questions please feel free to reach me at the school from 2:00pm to 4:pm at (732) 987-6543 ext. 21
Sincerely,
Mrs. Gould
Supply list
Cultural Anthropology: Our Diverse World DVD
Literature The Human Experience by Richard Abcarian
One three-ring binder
Two folders
Rationale Standard #9- Collaboration and Partnerships
Priscilla Gould
Professor Purvin
Education Field Experience EDUC 230-02
Spring 2013
Rationale Statement
Statement of Standard Nine- Collaboration and Partnerships
“Teachers shall build relationships with parents, guardians, families and agencies in the larger community to support students’ learning and well-being.” (NJPTSB, 2004 Pg. 17)
Name of Artifact: Welcome Letter
Date of Artifact: February, 2013
Course: Field Experience EDUC 230-02
Rationale Statement:
The first artifact I had to create was my “welcome letter” for my English as a Second Language / English class. This assignment was created with the purpose of communicating my new students a brief introduction about my personal interests and myself. It also had an outline about the type of experiences the students were going to have in my class and the expectation of parents help in order to have their kids be successful in my class.
Throughout this experience I learned how difficult is to be a teacher. I needed to put myself in my “students’ shoes” and tell them in this letter what they needed to read to create their interest. It was so difficult to do it because I needed to introduce them to learning experiences and fun activities that my class was going to have; but most importantly I needed to bring this information into a letter where I could not use more than two lines to create their interest. I learned that this assignment could be very difficult when you try to fit this in a class where you have parents and students from all over the world and you don’t know who you are going to introduce yourself. I had to think about the "how I was going to say", "how it can be interpreted by students and parents" and if it was appropriate for my curriculum standards! These were very strong questions to ask myself and feel completely confident that I addressed them all. This experience made me learned how difficult is to become a successful teacher. We not only have to ask our students to use their critical thinking; but we as educators need to use ours too. It is amazing how this “simple” artifact made me realized that as an educator if I don’t like the arts, the creativity, the time-consuming effort and dedication, this career is not for me! Fortunately, these words pertain to me and reflect the person I am and what kind of educator I want to be.
I believe this artifact will help me in my future as an educator to remind me my initial steps to become the professor I wanted to be. We can’t ever forget how difficult was our beginning as educators because our students will have a difficult beginning every year when we introduce them to a new world of leaning experiences. Also, this artifact will always remind me the main ideas of standard nine and how we as educators of the future generations need to built a relationship with our future students and families; we need to be concern for our students’ well-being and work to help them excel in their overall learning experience.
References
Board, New Jersey Professional Teaching Standards. (July 2004) New Jersey
Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders. Retrieved from www.state.nj.us/njded/profdev/profstand/standards.pdf.
Professor Purvin
Education Field Experience EDUC 230-02
Spring 2013
Rationale Statement
Statement of Standard Nine- Collaboration and Partnerships
“Teachers shall build relationships with parents, guardians, families and agencies in the larger community to support students’ learning and well-being.” (NJPTSB, 2004 Pg. 17)
Name of Artifact: Welcome Letter
Date of Artifact: February, 2013
Course: Field Experience EDUC 230-02
Rationale Statement:
The first artifact I had to create was my “welcome letter” for my English as a Second Language / English class. This assignment was created with the purpose of communicating my new students a brief introduction about my personal interests and myself. It also had an outline about the type of experiences the students were going to have in my class and the expectation of parents help in order to have their kids be successful in my class.
Throughout this experience I learned how difficult is to be a teacher. I needed to put myself in my “students’ shoes” and tell them in this letter what they needed to read to create their interest. It was so difficult to do it because I needed to introduce them to learning experiences and fun activities that my class was going to have; but most importantly I needed to bring this information into a letter where I could not use more than two lines to create their interest. I learned that this assignment could be very difficult when you try to fit this in a class where you have parents and students from all over the world and you don’t know who you are going to introduce yourself. I had to think about the "how I was going to say", "how it can be interpreted by students and parents" and if it was appropriate for my curriculum standards! These were very strong questions to ask myself and feel completely confident that I addressed them all. This experience made me learned how difficult is to become a successful teacher. We not only have to ask our students to use their critical thinking; but we as educators need to use ours too. It is amazing how this “simple” artifact made me realized that as an educator if I don’t like the arts, the creativity, the time-consuming effort and dedication, this career is not for me! Fortunately, these words pertain to me and reflect the person I am and what kind of educator I want to be.
I believe this artifact will help me in my future as an educator to remind me my initial steps to become the professor I wanted to be. We can’t ever forget how difficult was our beginning as educators because our students will have a difficult beginning every year when we introduce them to a new world of leaning experiences. Also, this artifact will always remind me the main ideas of standard nine and how we as educators of the future generations need to built a relationship with our future students and families; we need to be concern for our students’ well-being and work to help them excel in their overall learning experience.
References
Board, New Jersey Professional Teaching Standards. (July 2004) New Jersey
Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders. Retrieved from www.state.nj.us/njded/profdev/profstand/standards.pdf.