Room+103

August 2011

Dear Family, Welcome to Junior Kindergarten/Kindergarten located in room 103 at the Martin Luther King Jr. School. My name is Tori Corpas (Ms. Corpas) and this will be my sixth year teaching at the King School. For the past five years, I have taught first grade in Room 206. Before teaching full time, I was a student teacher in Ms. Galante’s first grade classroom at the King School.

When I learned about the Chinese Immersion grant and the possibility of our school having a Dual Language Program, I was extremely enthusiastic about it. I have always been an advocate for the program and I felt honored to be asked to speak in front of the school committee in support of the program. Therefore, I was overjoyed when I was given the opportunity to teach the Junior Kindergarten/Kindergarten class for the Dual Language Program. The Chinese Immersion Program is an amazing and unique opportunity for your child.

The King School is a wonderful place where children are nurtured and challenged to be their best. I am excited to help each child in Room 103 develop great social skills, provide great hands-on experiences in the classroom, and differentiate each lesson to meet your child’s individual needs. My experience as a first grade teacher and co-coordinator of the Martin Luther King Jr. School’s Summer Literacy Camp has prepared me to know how to teach and differentiate lessons to reach a range of learners. In addition, in order to help me prepare more for this new endeavor, I have observed JK/K classrooms, attended great seminars on how to effectively teach JK/K students, and did a lot of research. As a result, I am very enthusiastic to embrace this new chapter at the King School as a JK/K teacher.

I am also very happy to introduce you to Denise Toomey (Mrs. Toomey) who has worked as a teaching assistant at the King School for seven years. Denise is an extremely talented, resourceful, and kind educator who has worked with grades junior kindergarten to eighth within the Cambridge Public School system ever since 1986. Her experience includes working at the Amigos School as an assistant in a Spanish Immersion classroom. A proud mother of three children and recently a grandmother, Denise is also a wonderful person and colleague.

Mrs. Toomey and I look forward to meeting each family of Room 103. It is going to be an amazing year! Please note that I made a classroom blog for the families of Room 103 to view. I hope to add classroom pictures and videos to the blog as much possible over the school year. My blog address is: ktdarm103.blogspot.com.

Sincerely,

Ms. Corpas tcorpas@cpsd.us [|ktdarm103.blogspot.com]