Peter Litsas Buchholz High School th 5510 NW 27 Ave Gainesville, FL 32606 April 8, 2014

Dear Parents or Guardians: I am pleased to introduce myself to you as your childs teacher in Biology. My name is Peter Litsas and I am a graduate of the University of Florida where I majored in Wildlife Ecology, and Conservation and minored in science education through the UFTEACH program. This major and minor gives me a broad background in many areas of science and education which I believe helps me to re late the topics in science to everyday life. This year I am beginning instruction with Florida Sunshine State Standards Nature of Science benchmarks. These benchmarks are all about the act of conducting science, i.e. how to design an experiment, steps of the scientific method, etc. I find it important to begin the semester with a clear foundation of how science is conducted to be able to develop the students into independent thinkers. We will then use this foundation to do much of our learning about life science through a variety of different exploratory labs and hands on activities. Due to the nature of this course and the amount of student centered activities planned, it is very important for all students to attend class and be on time. It will in most cases not be possible for a student to make up a missed lab, and lab reports will be a large percentage of your childs grade, 40%. The remainder of your childs grade will be broken up as follows: 10% quizzes, 10% behavior and participation, 25% tests, a nd 15% final exam. I have purposely excluded a homework grade as it is included in the students lab report grades. I would like to now extend an invitation to you to come to meet with me at any time. I have an open door policy in my classroom. Also if you have any question you can reach me via email at email@email.email or via telephone/text message at (904)555-5555. I encourage you to feel free to contact me with any concerns or questions. Also, the school is holding a parent night on xx/xx/xxxx, I look forward to meeting with you then. On the following page I have included a section for you to include your contact information and signature of receipt of this letter. It is going to be an awesome year here at Buchholz and I am looking forward to a great experience getting to know all the students.

Parents or Guardians April 8, 2014 Page 2 Sincerely,

Peter Litsas Biology Teacher __________________________________________________________________________________________ Parent(s) or Guardian(s) Name(s): ________________________________________ ________________________________

Telephone 1: cell:__________________ home:_______________ work:___________________ Telephone 2: cell:__________________ home:_______________ work:___________________ Email 1: _________________________________ Email 2:_______________________________ Signature:______________________________Signature:________________________________