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