1. Welcome To Back to School Night!
Anoushae Beram
Grade 5
Universal American School of Dubai

2. A little about me… I hail from the USA
I am currently in my eighth year of teaching
I have taught in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Dubai
My top three loves: my family, college football, and food!

3. My Teaching Philosophy
Student interests and passions are important in fostering intrinsic motivation.
Education is a partnership. Teachers are students and students are teachers.
Each student is unique and his/her individuality is appreciated. My goal this year is to help each student become a leader in their own way.

4. Home Learning: Recorded in Agenda daily
20-30 minutes needs to be spent on reading- with a follow up record of their reading (my kids are doing this on a google doc that I have access to)
-Work not completed in school must be completed at home (to prepare them for middle school)
-Reinforcing activities from the day’s lesson
-Pre-teaching of a lesson to come (watching videos- reading materials ahead of time)
-All assignments not to exceed 50 minutes, keeping in mind that students have large amounts of arabic homework as well.
-This would be communicated through the planners provided- gone over in class ahead of time.

5. The Year- An Overview 6 units of inquiry Exhibition – Feb-April
Reader’s Workshop
Writing - Narrative, Informational, Persuasive
Math - Everyday Math, summative tests, IPP’s

6. Home Learning: Recorded in Agenda daily
20-30 minutes needs to be spent on reading- with a follow up record of their reading (my kids are doing this on a google doc that I have access to)
-Work not completed in school must be completed at home (to prepare them for middle school)
-Reinforcing activities from the day’s lesson
-Pre-teaching of a lesson to come (watching videos- reading materials ahead of time)
-All assignments not to exceed 50 minutes, keeping in mind that students have large amounts of arabic homework as well.
-This would be communicated through the planners provided- gone over in class ahead of time.

7. Assessment Communication
Writing - modeled, guided (formative - not for grade), independent (summative - for grade).
The formative piece will be marked, sent home for review, and corrections will be made for the good copy. The graded rubric will be signed by parents and returned to me. This grade will not go towards the report card grade.
The summative piece will all be done in class and the rubric with the final grade will be sent home to be signed by parents. This grade will go towards the report card grade.

8. Reading - most information will be coming from conferencing with students during reader’s workshop
Graded activities directly aligned with the common core standards will be given periodically throughout a reading unit and results will be sent home to parents to be signed and returned to me
“Comprehension check” activities aligned with the common core standards will be given throughout a reading unit

9. Math - IPP’s
After each summative test, an Individual Profile of Progress (IPP) will be sent home to be signed and returned to me
Unit of Inquiry - assessments at the end of each unit will be sent home to parents to be signed and returned to me

10. Official Reporting Periods
Report Cards
Grading scale is 1 to 4.
1 = student is working well below expected level and requires continuous support
2 = student can do some of the work but requires support
3 = student is working at the expected level independently for the most part
4 = student is working above the expected level independently

11. Communication
Please subscribe to my blog as soon as possible and you will be notified of any new postings
My blog will be updated daily with any new announcements, reminders, etc
Please check the blog whenever you receive a notification! This is our primary source for communication

12. Just FYI!
*Macbooks: filing cabinet, charged every day, google classroom
*Reading workshop: book bins, classroom library, just right books
*Writing: Writers notebook with TOC
*Math: Math journal
*UOI: Electronic projects and field trips

13. Thank you!