Fourth Grade Wiki Site
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Fourth Grade Team, 2012 - 2013
Pictured from L-R in back: Tamra Snell, Beth Finkle, Felicia Collins
In front: Laine Leibick, Anna Lundy, Sally Hunter
Lisa Bachman Portable A15 lbachman@austinisd.org
Felicia Collins Room #106 fcollins@austinisd.org
Beth Finkle Room #103 bfinkle@austinisd.org
Sally Hunter Room #101 shunter@austinisd.org
Laine Leibick Room #102 lleibick@austinisd.org
Anna Lundy Room #104 anna.lundy@austinisd.org
Tamra Snell Room #105 tsnell@austinisd.org
Welcome Fourth Grade Parents!
You will be truly amazed at the changes in your child over this next year. He or she will become a more independent young person and, yes, they will begin to sound like fifth graders by next May! We look forward to traveling with all of you on your children’s journey through fourth grade as we work to help them develop the personal, academic, social - emotional skills they will need the rest of their lives.
Our collective teaching experience totals over 100 years and we would like to share our observations on successful students. The most successful students are those who can “read” the people and events around them and respond appropriately. This ability to watch and listen and to adapt to different situations is even more essential than innate intelligence. Please help your child develop these skills by exposing him or her to a variety of cultural events and discussing appropriate behavior. Keep it simple - compare the behavior accepted at McDonalds with that appropriate at a more formal restaurant. Discuss how and why people should behave differently at a movie theater than at a ball game.
Make your child a full, contributing member of your family - assign chores or other responsibilities and let him or her deal with the natural consequences of doing the job well or of not doing it at all. Watch your children in social situations and help them become aware of ways they can improve relationships and interactions with both peers and adults. Fourth graders participate in many special events and field trips and we expect the children to treat speakers, docents, their classmates, and parent helpers with respect.
Fourth grade teachers will try to reinforce appropriate skills throughout the year with our “CHARACTER COUNTS!” program to develop positive character traits. We will stress the six pillars of Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship. Students will also be encouraged to complete at least eight service hours during the year. Please let us know if you have suggestions for service opportunities.
Beginning in school year 2012-13, Highland Park will be implementing a social-emotional learning component from Second Step. From Second Step's website description: "The Second Step program can take students from preschool all the way through middle school. Each grade level features developmentally appropriate ways to teach core social-emotional skills such as empathy, emotion management, and problem solving. And now we've added self-regulation, executive function skills, and Skills for Learning in early learning and K-5 to give kids that extra boost" (http://www.cfchildren.org/second-step.aspx).
A personal goal for us is to keep the fourth graders acting and feeling like kids. This is the last year they will truly belong only to their families - we encourage you to enjoy the time and make it last as long as possible.
Remember that the original goal of public education was to develop active, knowledgeable, and contributing members of society. Our children will benefit most and be happiest if we all work together toward this goal.
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