Congratulations!

Congratulations to me on being selected as a participant in the Governor’s Teacher Network (GTN). The network is composed of 450 teachers representing three-fourths of the state's local school districts. We represent 375 schools in all eight regions of our state. As a whole, we will spend the next year collaborating, creating professional development sessions and materials, or instructional resources for students and teachers across the state, and presenting to our colleagues. The initiative is led by the NCDPI staff, along with the Governor's office. We have already started working on our projects and the collaboration has already proved to be motivating and inspiring. My area of focus is a work in progress.... stay tuned!

Special Ed Bloghop

I am linking up with Jamie from Tales of a Carolina Girl to share your best advice for the beginning of the school year. Click on the link to below for lots of great advice!

://talesofacarolinagirl.blogspot.com/

Name: Laural

Job Title: EC (Exceptional Children) Teacher, Resource and Inclusion

Grades: 2- 5

# of years on the job: 3. Prior to that I worked as a substitute teacher and an aide in a multi-handicapped room with 7 students, 1 teacher, and 4 aides.

Best Advice:

Create a schedule for special ed students first. Then, create the general ed schedule around the special ed schedule.

Keep your sense of humor.

Stay positive no matter how strong a storm you face.

Build relationships with students, parents, teachers, the janitor, the secretary, admin, the librarian, the tech teacher, the gym teacher, the art teacher, and anyone else you come across.

Curriculum Review Day 1

School is out, but I am lucky to be working with teachers to prepare and review curriculum for the 2014-2015 school year. Apparently the fruits of our labor is nationally recognized. How cool is that?!!! 

Lots of folks are accomplishing lots if tasks. I am working with a group of EC teachers to match ELA standards to researched strategies  for 4th and 2nd graders. I am amazed at the amount collaboration that this project entails on a yearly basis. Check out Ed.gov Office of Innovation and Improvement to read about how our school district  is "showing off"!

Get ready to learn

Today in the resource room:  Two students are standing in front of the smart board. One is explaining with enthusiasm the game they are going to play. This game will be all about 2D and 3D shapes. His energy is contagious and they are smiling. His words before they push the start button...."Get ready to learn!" 

This makes me happy.

Great afternoon

We had a terrific ERD today! Lots of great ideas for anchor charts, websites for writing lessons, and teacher led PD. Thanks Mrs. Jordan!

Straws and pipe cleaners

Here we are creating geometric shapes with pipe cleaners and straws. Another hands on activity!

We LOVE reading!

Lucky me, I start each school day in a 4th grade classroom with an amazing and inspiring teacher. Together we strive to increase the reading skills of the special ed and general ed population in this class. We LOVE reading. Our students are exposed to multiple modes of practicing fluency. We use whole group and individual fast phrases, www.easycbm.com reading passages for hot and cold reads, and we just started using Whole Brain Teaching's SuperSpeed1000. The kids love it and the teachers get goose bumps watching the kids use it. If you haven't added this your list of resources for fluency practice, you are missing out! Below is a picture of the graph we use to chart team success and a picture of a team practicing their words! 

Success with Reading A to Z

    This website has a plethora of reading resources. I use A to Z leveled books as a supplement for my students. After determining a student's reading level using the benchmark assessments, each student is assigned a leveled book, the discussion questions, and the phonics and comprehension worksheets that correlate with the book. My students' reading abilities range from level F to level L. Each student takes a folder (that includes the book and  assignments) home to read aloud to an adult or read independently Monday - Thursday. Students are required to answer in complete sentences using the question in their answer. On Friday, everybody returns the folder, book, written responses, and takes the comprehension quiz for the book they read that week. If students answer the comprehension quizzes with at least 80% accuracy on 4 out of 5 weeks, they earn the privilege to move up a letter in the leveled reading system. This gives them the practice they need at the "just right" reading level and increasing the difficulty every 4-5 weeks keeps them challenged.  We graph their progress and everybody is excited to see the progress.

    My students are successful with this reading program. They are practicing phonics, reading books that interest them, being held accountable for their reading, producing higher order responses, engaging with the text, and most importantly, they are making progress.  

     Check out Mrs. H.'s Resource Room blog to see how she is using A to Z Reading in her resource room.

     Thanks Reading A to Z Reading Click here for Reading A to Z website.  Click here to follow them on twitter.

A Peach for the Teach: Task Completion FREEBIE!

Thanks, A Peach for the Teach: Task Completion FREEBIE!: In formulating behavior supports, it's pretty common for teachers to use a task-reward process. A lot of research lately is drawing teac...



This freebie is printed, laminated and ready for implementation TOMORROW. Feeling grateful to my general ed teacher staff. They support my efforts and they support my students.

Teaching My Friends!: The No Excuses List

A "No Excuses" list  is such a great idea! This is #1 on my list of things to do this week. Students write i for I, don't use capitals, and forget to use punctuation. These are things they KNOW how to do, they just don't do it. In my classroom, we talk frequently about being responsible. This will reinforce responsibility for classwork. Thanks, Teaching My Friends! blog.

Read this great post by...
Teaching My Friends!: The No Excuses List: By the time my friends reach 4th and 5th grade, there are some things that should be non-issues. There are some things I should not have to ...

Mastering goals

3 students have mastered sight word goals this week alone! The proof is in the practice and the data!

A to Z

After completing A to Z reading benchmark assessments, my students have been reading one book a week on their reading level. They are also completing the discussion questions for the book that focus on sequence, compare and contrast, fact and opinion, analyzing, and main idea to mention a few. Their books are not too hard and not too easy, but just right. After 4 weeks, 5 of the 6 students have independently passed the comprehension quiz on 4 out of 5 trials with 80%  or better accuracy!

Starting Monday, they have will have earned the right to read at the next reading level! 3 will move from F to G. 1 will move from H to I. 1 will move from K to L! 

Couldn't be prouder!

Reason to celebrate!

If there are 7 students and each student mastered an IEP goal in READING, how many goals were mastered? Answer: 7  Yahoooooo!  I absolutely love it when my students show off their academic skills. Way to go! This is more evidence that 2013-2014 is off to a great start!

Learning Style Chart

Interesting! As you can see, my students thought they were mostly auditory, but post test results show otherwise. Hmm.. We had a great discussion about learning styles, what that means, and how to use this information to advocate for ourselves in our learning.

Auditory learners unite!

Auditory learners unite! 
After today's PD, I learned that I am an auditory learner(learning by listening). Who knew? I would have guessed visual learner(learning by looking) and definitely not kinesthetic (learning by touching).
The purpose, of course, was how to differentiate instruction based on our students'
learning styles. You can determine your learning style by taking this online assessment
http://www.educationplanner.org/index.html
Did you know you usually teach the way you learn? Uh-oh! My auditory learning
style is probably not helpful for my EC students. Did you know that

80-90% of HS dropouts are kinesthetic and 90% of prison inmates are kinesthetic learners.

What's next? Change in lesson plans for tomorrow.  First, a pretest questions for my cupcakes. "What do you think your learning style is? " Place your answer on the chart. Next, online quiz (teacher will provide read aloud of all directions, questions, and answer choices). Then, chart your learning style, again and group discussion.

If they know their learning style, they can learn to advocate for themselves in the classroom. If I know their learning styles, I can better meet their needs. And that's what it's all about.

 

College essays
We just returned from visiting two universities. My oldest daughter is a junior and my youngest daughter is a freshman.  Listening to the admissions counselor talk about writing entrance essays and the need to be well rounded as an individual validated what teachers at the K-12 level do every day.
Colleges want to read prospective student essays that show "intellect and voice". K12 Teachers want that, too.  The student ambassadors that walked us all over campus were confident, articulate, and actively engaged in their college lives. K12 Teachers want that, too! As a mom and a teacher, these students were inspirational to watch. Of course, teachers want their students to be successful academically. Teachers also  want their students to walk and talk with confidence and intelligence. I pride myself  on encouraging my students to feel good on the inside, talk loud and proud,  to be respectful, to make eye contact, and to take on responsibility. Clearly, the parents and teachers in the lives of the college student ambassadors we met this weekend believed in that, too!

Work Box Party! 
All summer long, I researched work boxes/task boxes. I could NOT wait to implement this system for some of the students at our school. I created a pinterest board and labled it...yes, that's right! Task boxes http://www.pinterest.com/lauralsj/task-boxes/ There a  LOT of great ideas!
Last week I held a task box party for the general ed teachers whose students would benefit the most. Our fabulous Autism Specialist prepared and shared a powerpoint, we had some real life examples and we had party favors! Everyone received a set of workbox numbers, a plastic shoe box with a lid and some great ideas of how to start. I am thrilled that these teachers were willing to try a new idea in their classroom to benefit their student with disabilities. I am flattered they allowed me guide them into new territory to encourage student independence and learning.
Stay tuned...pictures coming soon.

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Hello late bloomer!

I'm a late bloomer. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up until just a few short years ago. Once I decided, though, it's been 100mph. Thankfully, my husband, daughters, and family are supportive. I teach exceptional children in North Carolina. My students are mostly LD, grades 3-5. I LOVE teaching.
Did I mention I am a late bloomer? This is my first blog post and am excited to share and reflect on my journey as a teacher!