Coming soon to a classroom near you... MONDAY!

Assalamu alikum,

Can you believe it? Summer vacation is coming to an end and now school is right around the corner. School starts this Monday, August 26th.

Some quick reminders;
Make sure students arrive between 7:50am and 8:05am. Students are marked tardy after 8:05am. The uniform policy has gone out to all families. Please take the time to review it before school starts. There is no hot lunch so please make sure to send in lunch with the students. Our lunch is at 10:30am during the school year. There will also be a short snack break in the afternoons before salat. Remember that soda, candy, cookies, cake, etc. are not permitted.  Chips (not spicy) are fine for lunch but not for snack.

A quick note on communication with the teacher;
I know many sisters have seen me active on Whatsapp with the Sisters of Tawheed group and that my cell phone number is posted there. I find it important to separate my work and home life and to have consistent systems of communication with my parents. For this reason, I keep Whatsapp and my cellphone for personal use and community activities. I will not be using either for school communications. There are still plenty of ways to reach me. You can e-mail me, message me through Orbund or Class Dojo, contact the school to setup a phone conference during my prep, or schedule a conference ahead of time. While I am very good about checking for messages, please keep in mind that messages sent after school may not be returned until the following day although I will try to respond same day if possible. Messages after 9pm will definitely not be seen until the next day.

A note about the first week;
This first week of school we will be learning routines and procedures for the classroom and different areas of the school. We will go over expectations a lot. I will also begin assessing students to find out where we are coming back from summer. I have a lot of fun activities planned as well. I will post more later discussing these routines and procedures with parents.

I look forward to seeing all my students on Monday and ask Allah to bless us with a beneficial year filled with learning, excitement, happiness, and most importantly to lead us to be better Muslims in our understanding and practice of Islam.

Jazak Allah Khayr,
Sister Patti Picard

One week! Are You Ready!?! Learn about the teacher.

Assalamu alikum,

We are one week away from the first day of school. ***Quick note: Please make sure to check your e-mails regularly for e-mails from admin and teachers with important back to school information. If you haven't yet, please make sure to subscribe to the blog.  (If you are viewing this on a phone, scroll down to the bottom to view web version. In the web view, the Follow by Email is on the right.) You will get an email whenever the blog is updated.***

With a new year coming, I want to introduce myself for the new Tawheed families. My name is Patti Picard. I am originally from the state of Maine from a small town called Unity. After high school, I attended the University of Maine at Farmington where I majored and received my Bachelors in Secondary Education - Area Science in 2005. After accepting Islam in 2006, I decided to move to an established community where I would be able to freely practice my faith and have access to masjids, markets, and be able to raise my children among their community.

In 2006, I moved to Dearborn, Michigan to continue my teaching career. I've been teaching for 13 years at Islamic schools in this community. I have taught elementary for 7 of those years and middle school and high school for 8 of those years. Two years ago, I decided to further my education and pursue my graduate degree so this July I graduated with my Master's in Curriculum in Instruction. 

Teaching is a passion but I enjoy my time outside the classroom discovering new places and seeing new sights. At home, I loved spending time in my gardens. I enjoy growing organic vegetables and planting new foods for my family to try. In my flower gardens, I focus on planting host and nectar plants for native butterfly species. My goal is a be a registered Monarch Waystation. 

Now that the summer harvests are in full swing another at home activity I enjoy is canning fresh produce to enjoy through the summer. I visit local farm markets for local fresh produce. This summer I have canned family favorites; pickles, salsa, and tomatoes. I still have a lot planned. 

When I'm not at home, our family enjoys traveling to see places in the United States with beautiful scenery and unique nature.  A few times a year, I lead nature walks at local parks to share the wonderful we have with members of our Tawheed Community. 

I hope to share many more enjoyable experiences with my students this year. I look forward to seeing everyone on the first day of school. If you have any questions before then, feel free to send me an e-mail at tawpatti@gmail.com.

Jazak Allah Khayr, 

Sister Patti Picard

School is Almost Here, Yay! A few notes about supplies...and other things

Assalamu alikum,

In sha' Allah, you have had an wonderful summer and that this post finds you in the best of health and iman.

In just two short weeks school will be beginning.

If you are using a computer or laptop, make sure you have subscribed to this blog page to get the most up to date information. Check out the links on the right. They contain information and content that we use in the classroom. For tablet of smartphone users, you will need to scroll the page down to the bottom and click "web version". You will then see the links of the right to subscribe and see important documents.

The administration sent an e-mail a couple weeks ago with the supply list. In sha Allah, you have been able to find everything in the list. I tried to shorten the list as much as possible and only included the items we will be using on a regular basis. It is important that the students come with their materials during the first week of school as this is when we will be organizing materials, setting up binders, labeling everything, and practicing classroom routines, including how to store and care for our classroom materials so they will last all year in good condition.

Binders: I have asked for 1 binder. They only need to be the 1-inch binders. The binder will be used for organizing our classwork. Please make sure it is a hard-sided binder, not soft plastic.

Composition Notebooks: Please make sure to get the composition notebooks and not the metal spiraled single subject notebooks. Thank you.

Pencils: This one may have been a head-scratcher. "Why only yellow #2 regular wooden pencils, Sister Patti?" "What's the problem with mechanical pencils?"  In my teaching experience, mechanical pencils quickly become a problem in the elementary classroom for the following reasons;

• lead runs out quickly or breaks often
• students don't have extra lead
• class gets interrupted by students exchanging and passing lead
• students borrow pencils, lose them, and now their friend is mad
• students argue over mechanical pencils
• students pull them apart and play with the parts during class and then don't have anything to write with. 
• plastic pencils don't last, aren't recyclable, and contribute to landfill waste, something we try to cut down on as responsible global citizens

As a solution, pencils will be a community supply. Everyone will use the same ones. Mechanical pencils, printed pencils, etc. will not be used and will be sent back home with the student for use at home. I used this system last year with great success. Other community, or shared, supplies include; rulers, tape, glue, scissors, coloring utensils of all kinds, erasers, lined and construction paper. 

Water bottles: Please send your child with a reusable water bottle, labeled with their name. Single-use plastic bottles are also a major source of landfill waste. In the classroom, their thin plastic makes them easy to tip over. Students also have the habit of punching holes in the caps, making them leaky.

In the next few posts, I will be explaining classroom routines and procedures in detail along with the rationales behind them. By giving you, the parent, as much information into how our classroom operates as possible, a stronger learning partnership is formed between school and home. 

Don't forget to finish up those summer workbooks and Arabic packets and in sha'Allah I'll see you on August 26th!

Jazak Allah Khayr, 

Sister Patti Picard