Planning for 2017/2018

May 1, 2017

Dear Parents/Guardians of J. Turner Hood School Students,

It is hard to believe that we are closing in on the final months of the school year. At this time, it is common to begin thinking about next year and the classroom placement of your child. As you can imagine, the placement of almost 400 students into classrooms is a major undertaking. The main goal of the placement process is to ensure success for all students. Our priority is to build “balanced” classrooms. Balanced classrooms contain students with a variety of skills, work habits, strengths, needs, and personalities. Although we cannot guarantee that children will be placed with a friend, we do ensure that each child has a familiar face in the classroom. All members of the J. Turner Hood School staff will be involved in the placement process to make sure that we have pertinent information for each child’s placement. We are committed to creating equal access learning opportunities for all students.
 
It is our plan to have a traditional classroom structure in our school. In this model, single graded classrooms are offered at all levels. In a single graded classroom, the students are identified as being in the same grade. They work together as a classroom community for one year. The students then are regrouped into a new classroom with a new teacher for the next school year. This classroom structure would involve the students spending most of their day in one classroom environment and having one teacher provide instruction in all academic areas. Although one teacher would be responsible for the students’ learning, traditional classrooms will engage in collaborative learning opportunities with other classrooms. Furthermore, the students in all grade levels may participate in flexible grouping or switching depending upon the practices of the designated grade level.

Our co-teaching model has been very successful and we will continue to implement this structure across grade levels at our school. This structure involves one classroom teacher and another qualified teacher working together as a fluid classroom community to engage in learning opportunities on a regular basis. In this model, the teachers share the responsibility of student learning and resources. Therefore, your child may experience a classroom structure that is an alternative to the traditional model.

As parents, we have a tendency to want to “fix” things for our children. Please remember that adjusting to new situations is a life lesson that we all want our children to learn. Be assured that the J. Turner Hood School is and continues to be a safe place for children to gain these skills. That being said, we recognize that you may still have thoughts that you would like to share with us. We ask that you submit these thoughts in writing prior to May 8, 2017. This information will be considered during the process. With our priority of “balanced” classrooms, we cannot honor teacher requests; so please, do not request specific teachers by name. We will not honor any specific teacher requests. Letters received after the specified date will not be considered, because of the tight timeline of the complicated placement process.

We appreciate your support in our efforts and your trust in the professional knowledge and skill that we bring to this task. We all want the children to be as successful as possible.

Lastly, please note that class placements will not be finalized nor will they be shared until Move-On Day, which will be held in June (more information to come!). 

Sincerely,

Mr. Glen S. McKay, Principal