August 12, 2015

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Hello and welcome to the 5th grade! My name is Erin Schmidt and I am very excited to be
your childs teacher this year. I am so pleased to see so many familiar faces as well as new faces
in our community of Rock Stars.
While I am privileged to learn more about you and your child, I would like all families to
know me. This is my fourth year of teaching at Field Elementary. I hold a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Communication from Bellarmine University where I also minored in History. I have a
Master of Arts in Teaching in Elementary Education from the University of Louisville.
In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family. This includes my husband, Nick,
and our three children, Derrick, Autumn and Emily. We also have four large dogs, Ben Franklin,
Jimmy Carter, Rush Lim-Bark and Harry Truman. I enjoy spending time at our family pool,
reading, traveling, playing in the park with my family, and anything that contains coffee.
Fifth grade is an exciting year for children as they continue to grow and learn. I will strive
to provide your student with a solid academic foundation as he or she prepares for middle school
and the rest of their academic career. My expectations are high, and I will challenge students to
go above and beyond standards; however, my approach will be a differentiated one that works to
meets the needs of a community of scholars in a positive, caring, learning environment. I know
that my teaching styles are different than most of my colleagues but Im okay with that
I believe one key to a childs academic success is establishing a strong community both
within the classroom and within a strong home/school connection. Everyday students will rate
their behavior in their agenda and this agenda must be initialed by a parent/guardian each
night. Students will also bring a take-home folder containing letters and information. If I need to
contact you about something minor, I will send a note home in the agenda, unless specified to
contact you another way.
You can reach me multiple ways. You can reach me at school at 485-8252. If you call
during the day, I may or may not be able to take your call. You can always leave your name and
number with the office and I will return your call as soon as I can. I will always be at school
between 8:50 and 3:45 but cannot guarantee time before or after school without notification. I
am usually at school around 7:45 each morning and I stay until 4:30 most evenings, depending
on my childrens schedules.

You can also reach me through email at erin.schmidt@jefferson.kyschools.us. While

email is my preferred method of contact, it is the best way to reach me after school and
sometimes during school. I will do my best to respond to every email within 24 hours but please
know that I may not check my email as often on the weekends or during breaks. If I am unsure
of the answer to a question you have, I may respond stating that I will look into your question
and fully respond once I have the given information.
Each week, I will send home a newsletter for families. There will be a small section for
upcoming dates as well as information regarding our class. For those with internet access, please
visit our class website at http://rockstar5thgraders.weebly.com/ . I will post weekly newsletters
to this website each week. You can also use the QR code below to access our class website.
Thank you and I look forward to working with you and your child this year!
Erin Schmidt

Upcoming Dates
August 11th Open House at 5:00 PM
September 7th No School
September 15th Field Trip to JA Biztown ***Look
for information to be sent home soon. We will
need as many volunteers as possible to make this
field trip a success
October 2 6th No School
October 6th Parent/Teacher Conferences