About me: I will be starting my 13th year teaching at Landis. I was born and raised in Indiana and lived on a farm for most of that. I have two dogs, their names are Cinnabar and Reecee. Cinnabar is a big brown teddy bear who loves to give kisses out to whoever she meets. Reecee  enjoys running the fence line with the neighbor’s dogs.  They like barking at cars as they go past, sleeping and chasing other animals in the back yard. The children will hear stories about them frequently. Indiana is my favorite college basketball team and Notre Dame is my favorite college football team. Other interests of mine are watching NASCAR, going camping, going to the beach and spending time with family and friends. 

     Communication: As I have said, I believe that positive interaction between you as a parent and myself benefits the children greatly. Please feel free to contact me at school. A great tool that you can also reach me by is E-mail. My e-mail is woodwasr@rss.k12.nc.us. I do check it during the day, so I’ll try to answer any questions you may have in a timely matter. You can also visit the class web site at www.schoolnotes.com/28088/shawn.html. I will try to update this each week. This will provide a variety of information about the school, classroom and other helpful information. On this page, you may click an item to automatically receive the updated web pages when I make a change. There are also links to the county’s web site, which provide valuable tools that you may usu. I will also send a weekly note home each Monday. This will give you highlights of the week, what we are going to learn that week and other information. You are also welcome to visit our classroom. I check it in the mornings and afterschool.  If you do come visit, please go to the office first to sign in and get a visitor sticker, then come on down. Thank you in advance for doing this for the school. If you would like a conference, we can schedule one while the children are not in class. I am able to meet in the mornings before 7:15 and most days after school. While the kids are in class, I like to be able to give my attention to them.

       Volunteers: Volunteers are always welcome to come and do something special for the kids.  We will have two parties: Christmas and End of the Year. Parents will be asked to help provide supplies for this and to help out at the party. We will also send treat bags a few times during the year. What I have found is that I can send a note home when we are going to send home treat bags, parents can send supplies in, then if a parent or two could help put the bags together after school in the classroom, that eliminates having to send everything home, then back to school.

Homework:  This is most children’s favorite item, or (should I say least favorite!) The kids will have homework most nights. The will have reading, math, language arts sheet and they will need to study their spelling words each night. Some nights, they may have social studies and science as well.  As far as their reading, they need to read a book from home. I would prefer them to read with an adult.  If your child runs out of books to read, please send me a note and I can send some books home for your child to ready. I do expect the children to turn their completed homework in each morning. If you have a question about a problem, just send me a note and we can go over it at school.  On language arts nights, they may have some reading comprehension, may have to write spelling words in a sentence or another language arts activity. I don’t want homework to be a difficult task each night, but do want them to have an extension from school to home. 

Lunches:  Lunch is very crazy. I will not have the kids sit in ABC order or have a seating chart unless they need be in one. In order for the children to eat in the time that we have, I have the children spend the first few minutes eating quietly, then they may “chat” with their neighbors sitting next to them. I would also like the children to eat some of their lunch before they start eating their ice cream and cookies.  If you happen to come eat lunch with your child, please sign in first. You and your child can eat at a back table or with us.  If your child is having a birthday and would like to send cupcakes or something in, that would be fine.

Recess: One of the children’s favorite parts of the day is recess. We will try and have recess each day. If it is nice, we will go outside. My goal everyday is that everyone comes in the same way they went out. The first few minutes, we will stretch and do some type of organized play. I also have the kids do an “obstacle course”. This is running around the different playground equipment in an organized way. When they finished, we may play some kickball, basketball or let them just “play”. I do have playground equipment that we will use from the room. Instead of  sending stuff from home, we will use the stuff from our room. This eliminates things getting broken and feelings getting hurt with things brought from home. I also DO NOT let the kids play tag or any form of a child chasing another. This eliminates children running into others and hurting one another. If the weather is such that we can’t have outside recess, we will have inside recess. I have things that children can play inside as well. When the temperature gets cooler, the children will need to have a jacket so that they may go outside. 

Finally: I would like to say I am really looking forward to working with both you and your child this year. I hope that this will be your child’s best year so far! I know that ALL children will make great strides academically and socially this school year.

       Class Behavior/ Management:

I would like for all of my students in my classroom to have the opportunity to learn. I am a strong believer that learning is difficult when distractions are happening in the classroom. As a teacher, I feel as if it is my job to be sure that ALL children have the opportunity to learn without distractions. I want each of them to have a safe educational area to learn in each day. I am a firm believer in consistently in our classroom, routine throughout the day and having high expectations for myself and my children in our room. In our classroom, I do stress being nice to others, using manners, being honest, truthful, taking responsibility and being an overall good citizen. I would like for each child to think before they speak/ act and ask themselves, “is this something nice to say or should I keep my thoughts to myself”. Over the course of the year, I want my children and myself to become better citizens, learn from our mistakes and make good choices. I want the children to understand that the better the behavior and more responsibility that they take in our room, the more fun that we can have during the day and school year.

In our classroom, we will use the following discipline plan:

Rules:

-Respect other people and their property

-Listen and follow directions

-Being prepared for all classes (homework)

-Walk in a quiet and straight line

-Work quietly

-Be prepared to learn each day!!

If a child chooses not to follow our discipline plan, the following consequences will occur:

1st consequence: Warning

2nd Consequence: Quiet Lunch

3rd consequence: Quiet lunch, loss of a classroom activity and parents will be notified.

4th consequence: Child will go to office

**Certain behaviors can cause children to go to the office immediately**

It is my goal that no child will have to have quiet lunch, lose a classroom activity or go to the office. If you have any questions concerning your child’s progress, please feel free to contact me. 

       Class Schedule:

8:00- 8:40 Specials

      Monday: Guidance every other week

      Tuesday: Music

      Wednesday: Art

      Thursday: PE

8:45- 10:00 Math/ Language Arts

10:05- 10:50 Writing

10:55- 12:10 Math/ Language Arts

12:10- 1:22 Lunch/ Recess

1:25- 2:10 Social Studies/ Science

This week in reading, we are reading a realistic fiction story called “The Talking Cloth”. In this story, Amber learns about her heritage from her Aunt Phoebe. Some of the key words are: collection, embroidered, royalty, symbols and wealth.

     In social studies, we are beginning our study on being a good citizen. Some of our key words are: common good, volunteer, recycle, government,  consequence, election, ballot, candidate and jury.