Welcome to Aimee Finkelstein's class
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About Ms. Finkelstein
Welcome back!
I am very happy to say that this will be my fourth year at Coronado. I have never worked with a more devoted and committed staff and adminstration. We really are a fantastic team. We all share the same common goal: to educate your children in a caring, safe, and warm environemnt.
I am originally from New York City, as is evident by my accent! I have been in Tucson for about 12 years. I have a daughter who is starting her junior year at Ironwood Ridge, and I have a 22 year old son who has been attending NAU, though at present he is not in school.
I have nine pets and your children will be hearing a lot about them. I have traveled extensively and lived in France for a while. You will hear much about my love for dachshunds!
I like to have fun in my classroom and I am sure throughout the year you will hear about some of my antics. As the old Danish comedian and pianist, Victor Borge, said, "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." It is a wonderful way to bring people together. Children are more responsive and learn better in an atmosphere of laughter and acceptance.
I have several objectives that I would like to accomplish with your children. First and foremost, I want them to feel comfortable and safe in my class. Bullying behavior is an absolute no-no. Secondly, I want to give them the love of reading. My challenge for the students who don't like to read is to find the right books for them. I am usually quite good at matching up students with the right books to pique their interest. Kids need to have a say in what they read.
I can't really provide you will a daily itinerary since there are so many potential interruptions. If students are having a hard time grasping a concept I will need to take more time and, likewise, if they master the material faster than anticapted I will quicken up my pace. Fire drills, testing, etc. also take us off course.
Some of the areas I will spend time on is to teach children that reading is not a passive experience. Good readers interact with their text and respond to it intuitively. This is called metacognition and we will be talking about and practicing metacognition all year. The other thing that I will hit hard is teaching the children the "language of 9th grade English" so that when they enter that first year of high school they are really ahead of the game. This involves teaching them the different levels of questions. Ask your children about metacognition and the level questions; it will be wonderful reinforcement for them, and will probably be very interesting to you.
Students should be reading an average of 20 minutes at night and recording it in their reading logs. Homework is not given on a daily basis, however I do give homework about two times a week. This is where I can really use your help. Please make sure that your children are turning in their work. If a student is missing more than two homework assignments I will call you. Also, please be sure to provide us with a password to check your child's online grades. An e-mail address and working phone numbers are also a great help so that we can stay in touch. Please check at least once every two weeks. Even if you don't have a computer, please give us a password and you can check online grades at the library. PLEASE BE SURE THAT STUDENTS BRING A SILENT READING BOOK TO SCHOOL EVERY SINGLE DAY!
First quarter we are doing a lot of vocabulary. Students will have a short vocabulary quiz almost every Friday. We are also doing a short story unit. Most short stories will be from classic authors such as Poe, O'Henry, and Chaucer. I want students to learn the importance of the various elements of literature by rewriting parts of the stories they are reading. For example, with Tell-Tale Heart, students had to rewrite the story from a different perspective. And I must say they did a superb job!
We will be starting John Steinbeck's The Pearl within a week or so. This is a wonderful book to teach theme, foreshadowing and symbolism.
The second unit will be our Pirate Unit which is fascinating, informative, and lots of fun. All the while students must be reading books on their own and recording them.
The third unit is on Animal Farm. We start by looking at Russian history and the last royal family of Russia, The Romanovs. Mrs. Nelson comes to all my classes and gives a wonderful presentation on historical events of that time of the Romanovs. One can't read Animal Farm without knowing the historical events that the book was based on.
And lastly for fourth quarter, we do the Holocaust which seems to have the most impact on the students in a very positive and profound way.
So that is my brief overview for the year to come.
I look forward to working with your children. We have a fantastic group of students.
Thank you and here's to a fabulous year!
Sincerely,
Aimee B. Finkelstein |
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