Dear Families, January

31, 2017

Greetings in this new year! I trust this finds you well. We are well into our third grading
quarter, hard to believe how quickly this year is going. There are a number of things that are
new or are coming up that I wanted you to be aware of. First of all, we are fortunate to have Mrs.
Heather Stockton, a teacher candidate from the University of Arizona, with us this semester. She
actually spent 1.5 days with us last fall, fulfilling a practicum requirement and now is doing her
student teaching with us. She is a positive asset to our classroom, contributing more and more
as the weeks go on and enabling us to do much more. Please read her introduction:

Hello to parents and students!

My name is Heather Stockton. I am in my fourth and final year of my elementary education degree
through the University of Arizona. This semester I get to be in Ms. Metzlers classroom for the whole school
day, every day!
My husbands name is Andrew, and we are expecting our first baby in March. We plan to name her
Alice and couldnt be more excited for her to join our family! My husband and I are both from Tucson, so we
are lucky to have lots of family close by. We love to spend time with them! I also like to play music and board
games, read novels, and go hiking and camping. I am looking forward to all of the learning this
year! Sincerely,
Mrs. Stockton
We want to send a big thank you to the families of Miah, Jesus, Miguel,
Kassandra and Airam for providing peppermints and/or water during our School
City Testing last November. They helped our minds stay alert and every little bit
helps! We have the second and final School City Benchmark Testing coming up in 2 weeks, so we
would again welcome sugar-free peppermints, natural peppermint gum and bottled water sent
again if you are able. A big thank you also goes to Briannas family for a supply of dry erase
markers and erasers, to Renes family for Kleenex and to Miahs family who bought a protractor
for every student in class! Thanks everyone! If you want to continue to contribute, please
consider donating mints, gum, bottled water, Kleenex, and we always are looking for sources of
lined paper.

This year we have been introducing students to using technology to do assignments. This
includes some internet research, work with Microsoft Office Word and creating Power Point
Presentations. If you have computers at home and the programs to do assignments, I invite you
to have your child do assignments and save them on a flashdrive. When they get to school they
are welcome to print out their work. They can also send assignments to me as an attachment for
feedback. I know they will be expected to do this more and more as they continue their
education and am happy to help them get a head start.

Coming up on Feb. 9 and 10 we have two half days to allow time for
Parent/Teacher/Student conferences. Please see the attached schedule. I may be contacting you
for a conference. If you dont hear from me and would like to request a conference time, please
indicate your 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice on the attached form and return it to school with your child.

Our School City Testing is the week of February 13-17. It is extremely important to have
your child to school every day possible, but especially this week. If they are absent, they will
need to make up the testing when they return and not with the class, which is not ideal. This
test will give us updated data and help us know where to focus as we get closer and closer to the
AZ Merit Testing in March and April (Dates have not been determined yet.) In fourth grade
students will be taking the AIMS Science test as well as the Reading, Math, and Writing portions
of the AZ Merit. More information on that will follow.

As a class we have not been completing our 20/20 reading assignments. There are usually
6 or 7 students who do the assignment regularly. This is a school-wide expectation and a
research based practice. Please let us know if your child needs more books at their level to be
reading for 30 minutes at home every night. By this time, they should be reading chapter books.

As always, feel free to contact me any time you have a question or concern. Thank you for
your continual support! Ms. Metzler and Mrs. Stockton

Calendar

Feb. 9 and 10, half days for P/T/S Conferences

Feb. 13, Picture day!

Feb. 13-17 School City Benchmark Testing

Feb. 13-17, Love of Reading Week!

Feb. 22, February Birthday Celebrations

Feb. 23 and 24, no school for Rodeo Days

Parent/Teacher/Student Conference Schedule Ms. Metzler and Mrs. Stockton

Thursday, February 9 Friday, February 10

12:15-12:45 12:15-12:45
12:50-1:20 12:50-1:20
1:25-1:55 1:25-1:55
2-2:30 2-2:30
2:35-3:05 2:35-3:05
3:10-3:40 3:10-3:40
3:45-4:15
4:20-4:50
4:55-5:25
5:30-6pm

If you would like to schedule a conference, please request your 1 st, 2nd and 3rd preferences and
return this form to school with your child asap. Thanks!

My name is _____________________________________________________________________________________

My childs name is _______________________________________________________________________________

I can best be reached at

_________________________________________________________________________.