Education is not the filling of a pail,

but the lighting of a fire.
 

                                                          William Butler Yeats

Dear Parents/Guardians:

Welcome to the first science newsletter of the 2008-2009 year.  I hope you and your family had an enjoyable summer and are looking forward to an excellent school year.  I call this "cranial crank-up time" as all of us get used to waking up at a very early hour and begin to remove the cob webs that accumulated during the summer break.  

Science classes will be supported by my web site www.mrsthall.com.  Obviously, this is an evolving enterprise.  I'm sure we will be constantly finding new and useful items to post, so check the site often.  Suggestions are always welcome!  

Looking ahead to the next few weeks, we will begin preparing for our field trip in early October to the Christa McAuliffe Challenger Learning Center at Framingham State College.  To help reinforce the learning of several state frameworks, all students will be part of a "mission" to Mars and a planetarium show titled "Tilt".   Many details of the trip will be coming home shortly.  Please watch for them.

In addition to reading below, please read the letter I’ve written to your child.  I’ve outlined what we will do this year in science, what my expectations are for them and what they can, in turn, expect from me.  At the very end of the letter is a statement that I would like you to read and hopefully reinforce with your child.  That statement says that through a three-way effort (you, your child, and me), we will work to ensure their success.

I am available nearly every day for a call, email, extra help or a conference if you see the need.  Please do not hesitate to let me know, no matter how small the problem.  I can tell you from experience that showing students that we are all on the same team and that parents and teachers have an open door to communication are two of the best ways to ensure their success in school.  I look forward to seeing you during our Open House and I hope you will feel free to contact me at the school any time you feel it necessary.

I truly enjoy teaching science to middle schoolers and am very excited about our plans for the coming year.  Helping children understand how their world works is most rewarding.  We know there are great science mysteries yet to solve and all children like to solve mysteries.  I hope that by year's end my students will not only have mastered the state standards, but, perhaps more importantly, have reinforced their curiosity about the natural world around them

Finally, below, please provide whatever information you deem appropriate; sign so I will know you have seen this letter, and have your child return it to me by Thursday Aug. 28th.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation in what I know will be a most successful year for your child.

Sincerely,

 
June Thall                                        
jthall@franklin.k12.ma.us                

508 541 2130

_____  Check here if you would like, periodically, to receive email updates of a general nature---what your child is presently studying, suggested questions (with answers) to discuss with your child around that topic of study, etc.  Please provide email address here

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