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

child s tea cher in [insert topic] history this coming year. Since I will be spending a grea t 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 a ttended and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bacholer s degree in History and a minor in Secondary Education. I plan to continue my education at [insert university] pursuing a Master s degree while I working at [ insert school]. As a first-year teacher at [insert school], I have a number of goals set for bot h my students and myself during this upcoming school year. Primarily, my main go al 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 stud ents 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 a nd informal analysis of a variety of primary and secondary sources, both archiva l 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 cl assroom procedures, as well as outline units and assignments. I strongly encoura ge you to review the syllabus, discussing the content with your child and direct ing any preliminary questions you have about the material to me using the provid ed contact information. While the foundation of my classroom goals may be academic, I will also work har d to support the mental, physical and/or emotional needs to your student. Specif ically, 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 mutua l respect between students, value the input of all students and build the self-e steem of every student. As mentioned throughout, communication is vital to ensuring the best educational opportunities for each student. If you want to discuss your child s needs at any ti me, I am available by phone [insert phone number], email [insert email address] or by scheduled appointment. Additionally, I am dedicated to being involved in t he growth of every student and will be contacting you periodically during the se mester to discuss your student s performance and progress. I m looking forward to having a great year and hope to meet you and your child very soon. Sincerely, [insert signature] Mr. Rossi