Thinking
A lot goes into teaching special students. As I plan, create, take data, share with assistants, and take time to be a wife and mom I know that I am doing what God has called me to. This year has been great so far. I am on top of most things, and I feel like I am making a difference daily. I cannot wait to share all I have with you! Stayed tuned for great things to come.
Carrie-Anne
Tall Leaps with Small Steps
Monday, September 12, 2016
Sunday, September 11, 2016
New Year!
A lot has gone on!
I feel the need to share with others my successes and failures.
I am tempted to change the title of my blog to teacher of goo intentions because I have great ideas that I usually start, but the follow through or completion seems to be my downfall. I love teaching special education and feel this is my calling. Since I last blogged I have moved from Georgia to Kentucky. I am in my third year in Louisville and at my second school with the district. I am at a wonderful school with lots of support. I currently have 4th & 5th graders with various needs. The teacher who has the kiddos before me does a wonderful job at
preparing them and I get to really focus on skills and curriculum.
So far this school year has been great. I have two wonderful assistants who are amazing at helping the kids be successful and independent. We are working hard on work tasks, Unique learning, News2you articles, and assessment standards. As with a new school year I lost five 5th graders to 6th grade and gained 2 new students. The new kiddos need lots of supports for this transition and I have been very hard at work making visuals, social stories, and adjusting how I do things. These first few weeks have flown by and I look forward to sharing more of what is going on in our classroom.
Please think about helping our classroom by supporting our donors choose project.
Bounce, Fidget, and Learn
https://www.donorschoose.org/Cirby
I feel the need to share with others my successes and failures.
I am tempted to change the title of my blog to teacher of goo intentions because I have great ideas that I usually start, but the follow through or completion seems to be my downfall. I love teaching special education and feel this is my calling. Since I last blogged I have moved from Georgia to Kentucky. I am in my third year in Louisville and at my second school with the district. I am at a wonderful school with lots of support. I currently have 4th & 5th graders with various needs. The teacher who has the kiddos before me does a wonderful job at
preparing them and I get to really focus on skills and curriculum.
So far this school year has been great. I have two wonderful assistants who are amazing at helping the kids be successful and independent. We are working hard on work tasks, Unique learning, News2you articles, and assessment standards. As with a new school year I lost five 5th graders to 6th grade and gained 2 new students. The new kiddos need lots of supports for this transition and I have been very hard at work making visuals, social stories, and adjusting how I do things. These first few weeks have flown by and I look forward to sharing more of what is going on in our classroom.
Please think about helping our classroom by supporting our donors choose project.
Bounce, Fidget, and Learn
https://www.donorschoose.org/Cirby
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Next Year Mystery
Next year is always a mystery. I tried super hard this year
to find out exactly who I was going to have in my class. I am positive the
special education staff at the board was sick of me trying to be creative in
finding out at least something about who or what I would be teaching for 2012-2013.
I got pretty clever at coming up with new ways. One time I presented it as that
I HAD to know so I could attend the appropriate common core training my
district is having. (Our district divided the training into math or reading/ELA
then into k-2 and 3-5 then even more specifically into grade levels.) No luck
with that approach. Then as luck would have it I got a wonderful email saying a
list would be coming my way of the kiddos I would have. The list never came. As
always there was a glitch in the planning and they had to go back to the
drawing board. I know it isn't easy to place self-contained special ed
kiddos, but I really wanted to plan a lot during the summer. Well I did find
out that I only lost one student. They are thinking I am teaching 2nd-4th, but
they could change and I will know more when we are closer to school starting.
BOO is all I could say when I got that email.
Why do I want to know who I will have next year? Because I want to spend my summer thinking okay I don't have to worry about this one who just butted heads with me and if I have to have so and so again I will need to work on this and this, but alas I still have mystery on my hands.
I am attending the IDEAS Institute Designed for Educating All Students 2012 conference in St. Simmons Georgia this week. I have learned a lot so far and it is only the second day! Two more to go. I will be sharing my thoughts on my next post. But ya can't wait!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
An End Review
So comes the close of the school year 2011-2012. That's all I got! Really where did the year go? As a teacher you are constantly looking back at what you did and thinking did I do enough, did I do it right, was I fair to each of my students, what could I do better next year, what will I for sure NOT do next time, and on and on and on.... You get my point. This year brought it's challenges, but over all I felt like I had a successful year.
Looking back I see where I could make changes and how I have grown. It also makes me want to think what I will do differently next year. They say it's a good idea to set goals for yourself. I'm not sure that's what I want to do. When I look back I tend to say "well this wasn't done right because of this person, or this event happened" or "I would have met that goal if only _____, _____, and ______ had happened and I couldn't control any of that!" In light of my past blaming I have decided that I need to learn that I control what goes on in my classroom. I set the tone, I lead the students and my para and I need to take responsibility. So no goals for next year instead I will be the leader in my room! Is that a goal?
This year I officially self-titled myself as The Teacher With Good Intentions aka TGI. I'm sure you are thinking why and I will be more than happy to share. See I am a pro at finding great ideas on the internet. I download wonderful lessons, I pin great ideas to my school boards on Pintrest, I write wonderful lesson plans, I cut out and have materials made and ready and yet for some reason I didn't get to half of what I wanted to each week. I was very much intentional with my class, but I did teach special education and this happened- I better not get into that! (See paragraph #2)
Truly as I think back to all we did this year I do see lots of positives and acouple few places where improvements need to be made and I am content to book a close on this school year.
Be on the lookout for my next post: The new year mystery
P.S. let me just say it is not easy writing a blog and I am not one who has tons of ads and people reading it, but I sometimes have a hard time making sure what I have written sounds good, is placed in the right order, and truly something someone else would like to read!
Looking back I see where I could make changes and how I have grown. It also makes me want to think what I will do differently next year. They say it's a good idea to set goals for yourself. I'm not sure that's what I want to do. When I look back I tend to say "well this wasn't done right because of this person, or this event happened" or "I would have met that goal if only _____, _____, and ______ had happened and I couldn't control any of that!" In light of my past blaming I have decided that I need to learn that I control what goes on in my classroom. I set the tone, I lead the students and my para and I need to take responsibility. So no goals for next year instead I will be the leader in my room! Is that a goal?
This year I officially self-titled myself as The Teacher With Good Intentions aka TGI. I'm sure you are thinking why and I will be more than happy to share. See I am a pro at finding great ideas on the internet. I download wonderful lessons, I pin great ideas to my school boards on Pintrest, I write wonderful lesson plans, I cut out and have materials made and ready and yet for some reason I didn't get to half of what I wanted to each week. I was very much intentional with my class, but I did teach special education and this happened- I better not get into that! (See paragraph #2)
Truly as I think back to all we did this year I do see lots of positives and a
Be on the lookout for my next post: The new year mystery
P.S. let me just say it is not easy writing a blog and I am not one who has tons of ads and people reading it, but I sometimes have a hard time making sure what I have written sounds good, is placed in the right order, and truly something someone else would like to read!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
An empty blog and a great blog!
I really had high hopes for this blog! I have so much I would love to share with you all, but I have found that I need to find the time!
I did want to blog about this great blog I follow Kindergarten Lifestyle. She has lots of great ideas and I enjoy reading her posts. She also has giveaways. In fact she currently having a giveaway now. Just hop on over to http://kindergartenlifestyle.blogspot.com and check it out!
I have high hopes to get this blog going more and adding lots of neat things. Who would like to train me???
Happy Hump Day!
CA
I did want to blog about this great blog I follow Kindergarten Lifestyle. She has lots of great ideas and I enjoy reading her posts. She also has giveaways. In fact she currently having a giveaway now. Just hop on over to http://kindergartenlifestyle.blogspot.com and check it out!
I have high hopes to get this blog going more and adding lots of neat things. Who would like to train me???
Happy Hump Day!
CA
Friday, February 10, 2012
What a Week
Let me just say I am so glad it is Friday. I have felt very run down this week and am ready for a weekend break. Scratch that my mom is coming in the morning to help me organize Lilibug's room. I'm excited to get her toys and things nice and neat so she will know what she has instead of playing with the same old things. Just wish I didn't have to get up early!
Anyway- School was good this week. I started the week with an IEP meeting. So thankful I have not one but two wonderful student teachers who took over while I was in the meeting. We worked hard on the letter Vv, Georgia regions, habitats and sorting plants and animals into habitats, 3 branches of government, black history, beginning sounds, cooking skills, cleaning skills, and self-help skills. When ya list it out like that we did a lot. (Remember I work with severe and profound kiddos-or super special kiddos!) We will have to revisit government though. They just couldn't seem to get into it.
I am a little overwhelmed with state assessments. They are do soon and getting everything in order always seems to stress me out. I say each year I am going to do better with my time lines and I don't. I will say that I am super proud of the tasks I created and how well my kiddo has done on each. It is nice to be able to plan, create, teach, and see gains made.
Oh yeah I got all my Title 1 materials in! Only one item was a bust! I hate when you order something and it just isn't what you expected. The one thing I got was just ill made. It was a fine motor game and again not worth taking out of the package. Everything else has been great. I got a wonderful All Around Learning™ Circle Time Activity Set from Learning Resources that my kiddos loved and is easy to use and adapt for my kiddos needs. I also got a tunnel that my kids had to answer an educational/functional question correctly to go through it. Super fun and gross motor. I forgot to take pictures. I will try to remember next week. I'm still trying to get the hang of blogging. I need tips.
Okay I think that's a good recap of my week. I feel like I am getting in a lot of teaching time in the past few weeks and am praying it continues. I think my students are maturing and ready to sit for longer periods and comprehend more.
Hope you had a great week!!!
CA
Anyway- School was good this week. I started the week with an IEP meeting. So thankful I have not one but two wonderful student teachers who took over while I was in the meeting. We worked hard on the letter Vv, Georgia regions, habitats and sorting plants and animals into habitats, 3 branches of government, black history, beginning sounds, cooking skills, cleaning skills, and self-help skills. When ya list it out like that we did a lot. (Remember I work with severe and profound kiddos-or super special kiddos!) We will have to revisit government though. They just couldn't seem to get into it.
I am a little overwhelmed with state assessments. They are do soon and getting everything in order always seems to stress me out. I say each year I am going to do better with my time lines and I don't. I will say that I am super proud of the tasks I created and how well my kiddo has done on each. It is nice to be able to plan, create, teach, and see gains made.
Oh yeah I got all my Title 1 materials in! Only one item was a bust! I hate when you order something and it just isn't what you expected. The one thing I got was just ill made. It was a fine motor game and again not worth taking out of the package. Everything else has been great. I got a wonderful All Around Learning™ Circle Time Activity Set from Learning Resources that my kiddos loved and is easy to use and adapt for my kiddos needs. I also got a tunnel that my kids had to answer an educational/functional question correctly to go through it. Super fun and gross motor. I forgot to take pictures. I will try to remember next week. I'm still trying to get the hang of blogging. I need tips.
Okay I think that's a good recap of my week. I feel like I am getting in a lot of teaching time in the past few weeks and am praying it continues. I think my students are maturing and ready to sit for longer periods and comprehend more.
Hope you had a great week!!!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
IEP's
It's a wonderful Saturday night and I have been finishing up an IEP. I still really struggle with writing goals. Our district wants us to 70% or higher for mastery of a goal so I am very careful on what goals I pick. Sometimes getting a child to 70% on a task just won't happen. If there is a goal I want to work on with a student, but I don't think they will master it as 70% I write it down in the student's data collection binder and we work on it along with the main goals. Remember you don't have to include everything you will work on just the things that you feel are very important to help your student with his or her academics and being independent. I also write my goals with my data collection in mind. I want to make sure I can measure what I am asking the child to do.
I may be the only one, but I love writing an IEP. I find it to be therapeutic in that it gives me a chance to see what changes my student has made over the year and gives me a challenge to find just the right goals for us to work on in the year to come. Here are some tips/ideas I use/do when creating an IEP. *Note I work with severe and profound kiddos.
I didn't get to take more pictures. Okay I forgot to take more pictures! I actually spent Friday cleaning out a lot of things getting ready for my new items that I purchased with our Title 1 money. I was able to spend $1000 for educational materials for my kiddos. I just got the email tonight that the first round of items will be in my room when I walk in Tuesday morning! I'm so giddy with excitement. I turned my orders in back in early December and don't remember all that I put down. If I didn't have a doctor's appointment Monday I'd sneak in with the tutoring and get it all set up. (*Side note: Our school district has 4 day school weeks so Mondays are not a work day for us. We do offer tutoring on Mondays so I could try to go in and get it all up and ready if I wasn't already busy.) I do know that I got a mail center for my construction paper and I don't have a clue where I will put it. A challenge for me or my para to tackle on Tuesday. I'll take pictures and post them as I work on getting all the new stuff set up.
I didn't think this was going to be a long one, but I guess when you are sharing about something you love you just write and write. I am starting to implement my task trays with my students and see great success. Be looking for a blog on that soon.
I may be the only one, but I love writing an IEP. I find it to be therapeutic in that it gives me a chance to see what changes my student has made over the year and gives me a challenge to find just the right goals for us to work on in the year to come. Here are some tips/ideas I use/do when creating an IEP. *Note I work with severe and profound kiddos.
Does this ever feel like you? |
- I write the PLEP to be a true picture of the student. Too many times I have gotten a transfer kiddo and the IEP did not tell me anything about the student. I don't want that to happen if one of my students transfers out.
- I mix both core content goals and functional goals. I try to match what that student should be doing in the classroom or will need to do for state testing. Sometimes I have to include with full support or verbal and visual prompts so that I know the student will have success.
- I write goals that allow for my student to be as independent as they can be. I always have my overall goal for each of my students: instill skills that will allow them to do for themselves as much as they are able.
- I write my goals with data collection in mind. I found myself struggling too many times to come up with a way to show progress on a goal if I don't think about it as I write the goal.
- I always send a letter home asking the parents if they have any goals or skills they would like me to work on and include in the new IEP. I like having a draft written for the meeting, but I also want to make sure parents feel they have a say as well.
I didn't think this was going to be a long one, but I guess when you are sharing about something you love you just write and write. I am starting to implement my task trays with my students and see great success. Be looking for a blog on that soon.
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