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!

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 a couple 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!

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

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

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.

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. 

What about you? Do you have any tips to share? Do you enjoy writing an IEP or do you dread it? Please share.

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.

My classroom

Yikes! I've been meaning to get back to sharing with you all about what's going on inside my classroom and have been so busy with so much else that I haven't gotten a chance. Well like I promised I have pictures of my classroom. I love seeing other classrooms and how they have set things up and I hope you enjoy mine as well. 

This is the back of my room. The door to the left is where you enter.

This is still the back of my room. A close up of my ABC puppets and my built ins. I have a love hate relationship with things being stuck in one space taking up a whole wall. Thankful for the storage.

This is the far wall from the door. I have my wonderful handmade color posters (thanks to my wonderful Paraprofessional) and my word wall. Again I have another built in counter for computers.

My messy desk and bookshelves. Like my dots? This is my first attempt to "decorate" my room.

More of the mess behind my desk as well as my puppets.

I have to have my own pot of coffee. I tend to drink coffee all day long.

The view from the far wall.

A view from the far wall showing my "sink/storage" area.

a different view of the sink area.

The view from my desk. I have an interactive whiteboard that is too high for my short kiddos so I use mats as steps.

Our calendar area. We do our morning meeting on our interactive whiteboard, but I like to have a visual up all day.

Sorry it's blurry. This is my work table. It is covered with my work tasks that I was organizing and taking pictures of for a future post.

 I do have a couple of more areas that I forgot to take a picture of. I'll have to add those soon. I am always trying to find the best solution for classroom arrangement. It is hard when I have to factor in room for gross motor and wheelchairs, but I love how my room is currently and don't think I'll be changing it anytime soon. I do have dreams of being a little more organized. 

I hope to be able to post more about my work tasks. I got a lot of my ideas from people posting to pinterest.com and would love to share how I am using each in my classroom. 

Happy Teaching! 

CA

Welcome!

Where do I start? Thanks to Pinterest  I have been enjoying reading teacher blogs and gathering many wonderful ideas and resources for my own classroom. Now it is my turn to let you all in on my wonderful world of teaching students with special needs.

First and foremost I must tell you that while my job is teaching teaching is not just my job. I am always thinking about my students and classroom. I cannot get on the computer without spending some time finding new things for my kiddos and classroom. If I do go out to shop 95% of the time it is for my kiddos. (The other 5% is for groceries!)

I began my teaching career after graduating college with a degree in early childhood. I started teaching in January of 2004. I taught Kindergarten as a resource teacher. That summer I married the man of my dreams and moved from Georgia to Kentucky. There I was not blessed with teaching in a public school, but did get an opportunity to teach 2 year olds at a day school. From there I went to be a nanny and from there I went to work as a paraprofessional for a special education class. This class was a moderate to severe class with kids in all elementary grades. In December of that year the teacher in my class quit. They offered me the teaching job as long as I went back to school to get my masters in special education. Never say you won't do something because you just might end up doing it. I swore I would never go back to school and yet I did. I taught at a great school in Danville, Kentucky from January 2007 until May of 2010. That summer we decided that Lilibug (our almost 2 year old daughter at the time) needed to grow up closer to family. Thankfully I was blessed with a teaching job teaching kindergarten to 3rd graders in a moderate to severe environment. I love it at my current school. I love the age group and have a great set up with a wonderful parapro! Wow thinking back and recalling my "teaching" history really brings back memories.

This is my second year at my current school and this is the first year I really feel like I get "it." "It" is the combination of all my schooling, training, and on the job learning coming together to make me. Check out this post on my other blog for more details: inspired.

This is a blog about teaching, sharing resources and ideas, but I do have a family and there could be some posts about that part of my crazy life as well.

My Lilibug at the beach!

Next blog: My classroom with pictures