Welcome to Mrs. Kirks Fifth Grade Class!

Welcome to the 5
th
grade, and to the 2014-2015 school year. I hope you have had a great
summer. I am excited to be a member of such a great staff at Peruvian Park Elementary
and to have the opportunity to work with such amazing students. I have great
expectations for every student, and believe this will be a productive and exciting year for
everyone.

Mrs. Kirks Teaching Philosophy

The teachers in my life that have served as role models have had a few attributes
in common: they were always excited about their subjects, clarified difficult topics,
demonstrated a personal interest in my learning, as well as my life outside of school, and
put information into context, so that its relevance to the real-world was evident. My
approach to teaching is to exemplify these characteristics, and model the importance of
being a life-long learner by facilitating learning, rather than simply delivering
information to students. In my lesson planning, I always take into consideration students
different learning styles, rates, and needs. Having taught in diverse environments, I have
come to understand the importance of teaching to the student, not simply to the text.
Ultimately, my goal as a teacher is to prepare students to be productive and
innovative members of a global society. This objective requires skills such as critical
thinking, creativity, logical reasoning, problem solving, collaboration, public speaking,
and the ability to view an issue from multiple lenses. This school year, my hope is that
your student will refine and build upon these skills.


Mrs. Kirks Background and Contact Information
Though this is my sixth year teaching, it is my first year at Peruvian Park
Elementary, and Im excited to be a part of such a great community. I graduated from
Utah State University with a B.A. degree in International Politics. During college, I lived
in Logrono, Spain, studying Spanish Language and Literature. After college, I moved to
Washington, D.C. and worked in the personal office of Massachusetts Senator Edward
M. Kennedy.
Though these were incredible and educational opportunities, after working at
Rowland Hall-St. Marks School in Salt Lake City and volunteering in various agencies
throughout college, I realized how much I loved working with upper elementary students.
I then attended Westminster College in 2009 and obtained a Masters degree in
elementary education. I have since taught 6
th
grade at Butler Elementary in Cottonwood
Heights as well as at Glendale Middle School in Salt Lake City. In my spare time, I love
to travel, backpack, run, ski, read, and spend time outdoors with my silver lab, Izze.

Contact Information:
Please email me (halley.tucker@canyonsdistrict.org) with any questions or concerns. It
is the quickest way to communicate with me. I will answer email or phone messages
within 24 hours. If there is a more urgent message for your child, please call the office.

Behavior Management
In 5th grade this year our class model are based on the Kohlbergs Stages of Moral
Development, Love and Logic, and Peruvian Parks tradition of SAFE, RESPECTFUL,
and RESPONSIBLE behavior. I am committed to making my classroom a safe and
challenging environment and engaging my students through the curriculum as well as
getting to know them and interacting with them one-on-one. To do this, I believe in
reinforcing positive behavior, and explicitly teaching rules and expectations. Meeting the
needs of my students is a very crucial part of my teaching. In order to encourage
meaningful discussions and interactions, we will engage in varied cooperative learning
activities and presentations.

What will my student learn in 5th Grade?
At Peruvian Park, we follow the Common Core curriculum for Language Arts and Math
and the Utah State standards for all other subjects. These standards are all available
online at http://www.schools.utah.gov/core/.

Below is a simple, but non-comprehensive, outline of the major curriculum areas we will
cover.

Social Studies
U.S. History and Government
Language Arts
Reading: Informational and Literary Texts
(Interactive Journals, Greek/Latin Roots, novel studies, higher-level comprehension skills, and
word work)
Writing: expository, narrative, argumentative
Listening and Speaking
Mathematics
Problem solving and reasoning techniques
Working with numbers greater than 1 million, place value
Multiplication and Division of multi-digit numbers
Fractions, Decimals, Percents and their relationship
Data analysis, Graphing, Probability
Geometry
Measurement
Pre-algebra
Science
Chemical and Physical Change
Earths Changing Surface
Heredity
Magnetism
Static and Current Electricity


Compacting Curriculum
As this is a SALTA class, I will be compacting the curriculum in both math and reading.
SALTA students will move through the core curriculum at an accelerated rate to allow
time for deeper understanding and application of 5
th
grade concepts and skills.

Homework
o Math homework will be sent home on a nightly basis, and I will be using higher-
level problem solving questions from multiple resources, including Envision
Math, Singapore Math, M3, and Exemplars.
o If your child is struggling with an assignment, I ask them to attempt it for no more
than 30 minutes, then bring me a note from their parents/guardians the next day. I
will assist them with the rest of the assignment at recess.
o There will ALWAYS be 30 minutes of reading assigned each night.
o Your child will be presenting a current events story every other week.
o A genre-specific book report will be due each month.
o Further long-range projects will be assigned throughout the year.
o Aside from special projects and incomplete work, students will never be given
homework over the weekend.
Instructions and details for each assignment will be available on the class blog:
(http://mrskirksfifthgrade.blogspot.com/). For any other questions, please email me at
halley.tucker@canyonsdistrict.org

Absent Work
In efforts to prepare your student for middle school, I emphasize that they are responsible
for asking the teacher for missing work. If a student is absent, they will update their ELA
and Math Journals using the class master copies. Then, they will collect any additional
assignments from the Extras basket. Your student has two days for every day missed to
make-up the missing work. After that time, it is considered late.

Attendance
I will make contact with you if your child misses three consecutive days of school. If
your child misses six days of school, you will be contacted by the front office.

Mastery Grading
Your student will receive grades this year in Language Arts, Mathematics and Science.
There have been some great changes in the way we are doing mastery grading this year.
Below is a list of the possible marks that your student may receive in each standard area.
3M = Mastered
2NYM = Not Yet Mastered, but making good progress
1NYM = Not Yet Mastered, and making poor progress
3* = Early Mastery

Weekly Communication
The class blog (http://mrskirksfifthgrade.blogspot.com/) will be updated each week with
the coming weeks events, copies of assignments, important announcements, and learning
objectives. Please let me know if you do not have Internet access available at home,
and I will make alternative arrangements with you. I also recommend you check the
school website (http://peruvianpark.canyonsdistrict.org/) periodically for more
community happenings and school-wide news.