A Long Week of Preparing...

It is finally Friday and boy am I tired! This last week my school district had a long week of in-service and working in our classroom. For the most part I had my classroom set up and ready to go a few weeks ago, except for a few things I'm working on. In the midst of "trying" to get my final schedule set, I decided I needed a break. I had just picked up these Squigz a few weeks ago at a teacher sale in Cedar Falls, Iowa. These "little fun suckers" are just that! I was building stuff to hang from the desk, whiteboard, windows, etc. Who would have thought that suction cups could be just as fun as legos? My intention of buying these were for my student with autism. I thought it would be a good cool down activity and some how incorporate learning colors. 

Another thing I finished in the classroom this week is finishing all my labels for my organization nightmare! I downloaded the label from TPT for only $4.00! It was totally worth it since it came with already done labels and then one page of editable ones. I have these little circles everywhere in my room (book bins, supply containers, manipulatives)! Another little tip that I found amazing is that if you use circle velcro adhesive dots to attach it to your bins you can reuse the labels on different containers if need be.

My mom has been sending me tons of "teacher" shirts that last few months, but this last one she sent made me laugh so hard and give me a little more "umph" on my last week of preparing for the new year. 

Well, Monday brings on the new school year. 

Ready or not here I come!

 

 

Kiss Your Brain

When working with students of special needs, I found that every chance you get you should give them positive reinforcement. This may range from verbal praise to candy to a sticker to a classroom reward. Most of the time verbal praise will do the trick but every once in a while I like to praise with candy. I mean really...who doesn't like candy?!?!?! This is when I found the "Kiss Your Brain" candy bucket on Pinterest. I love the idea of this and that it is filled with Hershey Chocolate Kisses! All summer I have been contemplating what kind of container to use for this project. I thought about buying a container in the kitchen items at Walmart, an empty ice cream bucket, or just a candy dish. Yet for some reason in the middle of the night I woke up to realize why couldn't I use a Tide packet clear plastic container. The next morning I ran to my local Dollar General (because that is all we have in the middle of nowhere) to purchase my clear Tide packet container. Then the "Kiss Your Brain" container was born!

 

I plan to use this positive reinforcement after my students work hard after finishing a homework assignment or a progress monitoring probe for me. I want them to do their best, so if it takes a little "kiss" to get the job done. So Be It!!!

Sorry I'm Not Ignoring You

It has been a long last few weeks. I promise I haven't been ignoring you. Between having visitors in Iowa to going home for a week to help out to coming back and finishing up classroom things and going to some training days, I have had a busy last three weeks. Reversing back to visitors in Iowa, I was so excited to have my mom and family friend, Tracy, come to help me clean out my classroom and finish setting it up. Little did they know that they had a HUGE endeavor ahead of them!

I am SO BLESSED to have these two women in my life! They both did a tremendous job on helping finish up the huge projects in my classroom! Little did I know that they would get the floor this CLEAN!

My Momma was so excited to come and help me set up my classroom! Especially that I decided to use yellow and black as a bulletin to match her business colors!

 I was so excited to find my TouchPoint posters that I had made as a freshman in college!

 Thank you Mommy and Tracy!

Summer School Comes To An End...

This Thursday will mark the last day of summer school in Cedar Falls. It seems like I have been only working with these students for only two weeks. I have really enjoyed this experience because it has jump-started my brain to think like a lower elementary teacher. Unlike older elementary students, stickers, candy, and smelly markers still motivate these little minds. I have seen this end of the school year gift all over Pinterest and decided to do a different spin on it. 

I found the fun cups at Dollar Tree for, of course, $1.00, then bought the Kool-Aid packages for $0.13. A cheap and adorable gift for my four summer school students. I also filled the cups full of smarties because I always call them my "group of smarties". 

Cheers to another fun night of cutting lamination :)

Parent Communication

Today was a long fight with technology in the school building. I received access to all of my IEPs at the end of last week and I was itching to get them all printed to start going through them. Well 1 1/2 hours later... I finally had them all printed! I spent most of my afternoon going through them at home will making my IEP at a Glance sheets for myself and the students' classroom teacher. From what I've heard from a few teachers they've never received their special education student's IEPs to look through. I believe that this is extremely important for both of the general education teacher and special education teacher to work together, but in order to do this each teacher needs the same information. This is the reason why I have put together my IEP at a Glance sheet. I will post this at another time! 

Along with going through my IEPs, I also set up my parent communication binder. Communicating with my students' parents is extremely important, therefore I need a place to document when and what was discussed to refer to at a later date if need be. I found this freebie at TPT. I love the fun creative covers along with the organized and clean-cut forms.

I like to have this sheet, so that I can fill to the student's tab and find out their address, parents' names, and phone numbers.

Each student has four of these sheets to document any conversations had with their parents/guardians.

Already found a spot in the classroom!

I See Floor!

Today I spent about 5 hours in the classroom and little to say the least I can finally see some of the floor! I had several teachers, including the janitor, stop me in the hallway or come down to the classroom to say I have done a great job of cleaning out the classroom. The only thing I have left to clean out is the lower cabinets. Thank goodness! I'm hoping I can have all of the garbage and floor picked up by the end of this week. 

If you didn't know I absolutely love Pinterest! I have used a lot of things from Pinterest in my classroom. One of the ideas for my classroom is the crate shelving unit. This is made up of plastic crates that I bought at Walmart and then zip tying them all together. The trick to this project is to put the crates together by stacking the crates on top of each other. Then put the columns together one by one. Check it out!

I cannot believe how sturdy this shelving is! Who would have thought that plastic crates would be so durable!

I also stole this little idea from a pin. I absolutely hate the noise of a pencil sharpener so this is perfect for my classroom. No sharpening during the school day! I found the cute little metal tins in the dollar bin at Target and just printed and laminated the find off of Pinterest and PERFECTO!

Another positive for the day is that I picked up my school computer and iPad today! Although the computer is a Mac (which I am not too familiar with!) I absolutely love it so far! On top of this, I received access to all the IEPs for the school yesterday! I have been patiently waiting on this for a very long time. Now I just need to find out which students will be mine.

I am spending my night cutting one of seven rolls of lamination I completed today while watching Law & Order...my favorite! Tomorrow is another fun-filled day in the classroom!

Happy Anniversary!

There has been a little bit more progress in my classroom. I am continuing to "pitch" things in the garbage. I really want to start fresh in this new classroom and to get rid of the clutter. Right now it looks like a complete disaster zone! Check out the new pictures!

 

I finally got one shelf organized! This will be in my classroom library!

Also, I want to wish my parents a happy 31st anniversary! I definitely wouldn't have made to where I am today without the both of them! They truly radiate pure love and how to succeed together as a couple! I LOVE YOU BOTH!

 
 

Little By Little

My friend, Taylir, and I have been working hard in my classroom to get everything cleaned and moved. God bless her! It is unbelievable on how dirty things can get and it doesn't help that I'm a germ-a-phob and OCD freak. So we have been washing every manipulative with bleach and Dawn soap to get all those germs and the grimy feeling off every little piece. I have also purchased all brand new storage containers to hold all the manipulatives and extra school supplies. (This is my OCD kicking in so that EVERYTHING matches!) I'm striving for a clean slate this year! Here is a little sneak peak of what we have been up to...

  
More photos to come once all of the furniture is moved and everything is clean!

Summer School

Summer school is in full swing and we just finished our first week! I was blessed to start getting the practice of working with the little ones and have students who just finished kindergarten through second grade. I was so excited to get the little ones so that I can get my brain to start thinking as a little one would. During summer school, we focus on reading and math for a solid two hours, with of course a little recess in the middle. 

I wanted to share something that I have been using this week and that is the system that I use to practice and assess my students' knowledge of sight words. Many people use the Dolch system, but I prefer the Fry Words system. I found a premade package on TPT that I absolutely love!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fry-Words-Mega-Pack-All-1000-Words-282162

This mega pack is the best thing I have ever bought off of TPT. It is totally worth the $12.00, because who really wants to spend their time on creating all of this! My summer school students have been loving the chance to master a level and go home with one of the certificates that are included in this pack. 

Here is a picture of my finished product after hours of cutting on the cards. 

Note to readers: Use a paper cutter instead of hand cutting all of the words!

 

I Got the Key!

Last Friday, I finally was able to get into my classroom. A friend of mine who also works at the school was willing to meet me Friday morning to show me what classroom was mine. She also shared with me that my classroom may get changed when the new principal arrives, due to the fact that right now the fourth grade classrooms are separated one on each side of the building, so don't get too comfortable yet. Great! So, I have sent an email to the principal in order to get the ball rolling on this discussion.

Here are some pictures of the classroom she showed me:

This is the view from the hallway door.

To the right of the door. I have a parking lot entry, which will be great for moving everything in.

The divider wall, which I'm not too enthused about but will have to deal. Look at all of those manipulatives!

From the front of the room.

 Overall, I am pretty pleased with my first classroom.I'm just working on some cosmetic things for the classroom.

First Teaching Job!

Now that I am actually getting my head wrapped around the idea that I am no longer a college student and finally a teacher, I have started on preparing for this next school year. At the end of April 2013, I accepted my first teaching job! Even though it was a long process with interviewing and finishing my student teaching, I found a job that I fell in LOVE with! I will be teaching a special education classroom for kindergarten through fourth grade. Even though this seems like it can be a wide age range, I will be teaching in such a small community that I feel that I will be able to focus on my students individually. 

This Friday, I will be going to scout out my first classroom! I am so excited to start getting things ready for the new school year and want to be prepared as much as possible. So if there are any senior teachers out there who have any suggestions for a first year teacher, please share!

I will post pictures on my next posting to show the looks of my classroom!