Hello!

Dear Salam Academy Middle School Parents and Families,

As of today, I will be taking over as your child’s science teacher. Some of you already know me well, but others do not. My name is Maggi Mars Brisbin, and I taught middle school science at Salam Academy last year. As an undergraduate, I took a pre-med curriculum and was officially a biology major (GPA 3.93). I completed 2 semesters each of chemistry, organic chemistry, and university physics. So, even as a biology major, I am proficient in the other sciences as well. After studying abroad in Australia and Ecuador, I felt a stronger pull towards natural science than medicine and attended graduate school at Stony Brook University. I studied marine science (GPA 3.75), which was an interdisciplinary program including core classes in biological, chemical, geological, and physical oceanography. This program relied heavily on a firm understanding of all aspects of science, not just biology. I have taught general chemistry, microbiology, and marine biology at the university level and I have taught marine biology and conservation policy to high school students receiving college credit. I have also taught outdoor environmental education for middle school students, grades 5-8. These experiences have shaped my teaching philosophy and I strongly believe in hands on activities to make science, and learning in general, fun.

It is difficult to have a new teacher in the middle of the school year, but I am going to work my very hardest to make this transition and the rest of your child’s school year successful. In order to make this possible, I would like to build an open relationship with parents and families so that information can flow freely between us. I am going to be closely following the student handbook in my classroom management and discipline policies. Based on my experience last year, the most common discipline issues are classroom disruptions. Students will receive a verbal warning, followed by a written warning. If another warning is needed after the written warning, a lunch detention will be assigned. All written warnings will be posted on GPA and lunch detentions will be accompanied by an email. Because I believe so deeply in hands-on, active education, there will be an experiment or activity in class at least once a week. Because experiments can include boiling water, using glassware, or even using scapulas for dissections, attention and awareness is imperative. On experiment days, students will receive one verbal warning and then will be asked to leave the class and miss the activity, which will have an effect on his/her grade.

Homework will be assigned nightly and will include readings from the workbooks, online quizzes on the textbook’s web page, watching and summarizing short science videos, working on science vocabulary, doing online lab experiments, finishing class work, and writing lab reports, among other things. The week’s homework and due dates will be posted on the class blog page so that parents will always be aware of what is expected of their students. Links to sites that are needed to complete homework and weekly lesson plans will also be available on the class blog. In addition, I will be updating grades on GPA at least once a week, so please stay current on whether or not your student is doing his/her homework.

 To find your class blog, visit brisbinscience.blogspot.com. In the top left corner there are four buttons (home, 6^th grade, 7^th grade, and 8^th grade), click on your students class. Please sign up to receive email alerts from the class blog by entering your email on the right side of the page.

My email address is maggi.mars@gmail.com and my mobile is 631 871 9089. Please feel free to contact me with questions and concerns. I am looking forward to a successful science program at Salam Academy and more than anything need the support of parents and families to make this possible.

Sincerely,

Maggi Mars Brisbin, M.S.

P.S. please return the attached index card with your current contact information including an active email address and phone number.