Dear Parents and Guardians, My name is Nick Rossi and Im writing this to inform you that I will be your

childs teacher in [insert topic] history this coming year. Since I will be spending a great deal of time with your student during the next nine months, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and invite your family into my classroom so that we may get to know one another. Until we meet in person, I would like to provide you with some information about myself and my background. After growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago, I attended and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bacholers degree in History and a minor in Secondary Education. I plan to continue my education at [insert university] pursuing a Masters degree while I working at [insert school]. As a first-year teacher at [insert school], I have a number of goals set for both my students and myself during this upcoming school year. Primarily, my main goal is to develop the critical thinking, research and communication skills of my students through the lens of history. I will strive to challenge the way my students think about history by presenting multiple perspectives and encouraging my students to develop their own informed understanding of historical events of the past and the present forces that will impact the future. Throughout the coming year, your child will be building the aforementioned skills through the formal and informal analysis of a variety of primary and secondary sources, both archival and contemporary. In the coming weeks, I will be sending home a copy of the syllabus that will be used to guide the class. This document will address classroom goals, identify classroom procedures, as well as outline units and assignments. I strongly encourage you to review the syllabus, discussing the content with your child and directing any preliminary questions you have about the material to me using the provided contact information. While the foundation of my classroom goals may be academic, I will also work hard to support the mental, physical and/or emotional needs to your student. Specifically, I will make sure students have access to school-provided support systems as well as nurturing a classroom environment that will strive to ensure a mutual respect between students, value the input of all students and build the self-esteem of every student. As mentioned throughout, communication is vital to ensuring the best educational opportunities for each student. If you want to discuss your childs needs at any time, I am available by phone [insert phone number], email [insert email address] or by scheduled appointment. Additionally, I am dedicated to being involved in the growth of every student and will be contacting you periodically during the semester to discuss your students performance and progress. Im looking forward to having a great year and hope to meet you and your child very soon. Sincerely, [insert signature] Mr. Rossi