The countdown is on.

August is a time of craziness for teachers.  Throw parenthood into the mix and you enter a new level of craziness.  Aside from getting your classroom ready you have to get your own kiddo ready - school supplies, new shoes, haircut, etc.  (I have to cut Erik's hair.  He has a lot of anxiety with scissors and trimmers around his head and screams and wiggles around - it's SO FUN.  Oh boy... ha) 

Anyway, gone are the lazy days of summer.  Because starting last week, I've been kicking it into high gear.  I remember my ex-husband saying that he didn't see much of me in September.  I tend to keep long hours at school and on the home computer, putting together visual aides, behavior modification tools/contracts, picture schedules, etc. to help my students get through their school day.  That's the thing about teaching a special needs class.  All of my kiddos will need that extra something to help them get through their day.  The tricky part is figuring out WHAT that something is.  But before you can start on that, you have to get to know them.  REALLY know them.  You have to get past that honeymoon period of perfect behavior - which can last as long as early October.

I have 12 students on my roster so far.  (Currently I can have up to 13.)  Of those 12, I'll have 3 students returning.  I'm well aware of their strengths and weaknesses.  However, I'll have 9 brand new students - which is a lot for me since my kiddos stay with me for three years.  So I'm anxious to meet them and get our year rolling.

For now, I've been in and out of my classroom decorating, getting bulletin boards papered and the classroom library together - you know - the fun stuff.  It's always so funny walking into that empty shell of a room in early August and thinking that same thought of "Holy crap.  How on earth will I get this all done?"  But it always comes together.  And for that first week of school, your room is GORGEOUS and shiny and organized and so clean...  But that doesn't last long.  ha ha 

Since this is my 3rd year in this room, working with K-2, I am starting to get the hang of what I need to do in order to keep my room more organized.  For example, I have my classroom library organized by topic.  But some books fall in that murky territory of "either/or."  And the kiddos would just throw the books anywhere so they could get to the next center.  So I've made new picture labels for the book bins and coordinating book labels - - which need to be put on all of the books.  Pretty labor intensive.  It took me about three hours just to create and print all the labels.  However, it's going to pay off in the long run when the kiddos can simply match the label to the bin picture and get going on their way.  They're happy and I'm happy.  Phew!

Here are some "before" pictures of the room.  (You'll see my son, Erik, in some of the shots.  He liked going to my room and playing with his train which he could run all over the hardwood floors with. He actually let me work for a whole hour and a half that day!)

"After pictures" coming soon!

Also, I've only got about 7 more chapters to read in Fred Jones and I'll be posting those "cliff notes" as soon as I'm finished.  I'm trying to cram in as much reading time as a I can so I can get started reading Debbie Diller's Math Work Stations book!

Learning How to Use this New Toy

Finally got a chance to sit down and use my new Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet tonight!  It was super easy to set up.  Just installed the driver using the CD that came with it and then plugged it in via USB port to my PC and it was ready to go!

It's going to take some time to get used to drawing on a tablet but seeing the image on the monitor.  Anyway, to practice I made the crude self-portrait below.  It took me about 20 minutes to get the hang of things.  I suspect it'll get much quicker the more I practice.

Hmm.  Guess I made myself pretty thin in this self portrait.  =)

Creating my own digital art work - or - WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING WITH MY SUMMER.

If you've been following along, you'll know that Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is what got me to thinking, "Hey wait.  I CAN DO THIS."  But then I wondered HOW I could make all that cool stuff I was seeing from teachers like Krista Wallden,  Miss Kindergarten, and the amazing Deanna Jump (who has made over one million dollars on TpT).

I already had Adobe Photoshop on my home PC and new some basics via my "Photoshop for Dummies"  book.  I scoured teacher forums like AtoZ to find out how teachers were creating the materials they were selling and learned about digital artwork.  I still wasn't sure that was the way to go so I decided I needed to try out some freebies before paying for it.  Enter Krista Wallden who offered dozens of free digital artwork packages (and still might) - PERFECT for the beginner like me to try out.  I downloaded free colored stars, borders, fonts, hands - all kinds of goodies and started this blog.  I created the background of this blog on photoshop and the header using PicMonkey.  Then I started creating my center signs on photoshop but started running into stumbling blocks.

For one thing, you can't sell materials on TpT that use copyrighted images.  Big no-no.  And while I was using some of Krista's images and others I'd purchased from KPM Doodles, you still have to give these folks the credit for the images you're using - which is only fair - even though they were free or your purchased them.  Now, my center signs actually have google images on them which may or may not be copyrighted.  But since I'm not selling them, it's okay.  The name plate owl images were purchased from KPM.  So I have to give her credit for the clip art.

So I started to think.... wait a sec.  If I'm every going to sell anything on TpT, then it would be beneficial to create my own digital clip art and stop using everyone else's.  So I started with my Puzzle Center sign, got on photoshop and started messing around.  First I thought I would free hand puzzle images, scan them, and then color them in photoshop.

But when I zoomed in, I could see sketch marks, eraser marks - everything shows up.  So then I decided to "draw" them in Photoshop.  But all I knew to "draw" with online was a mouse.  Try making a non-shaky free hand line with a mouse.  Yeesh.  After MUCH fixing, the new piece looked like this:

And it STILL looked like crap to me.  I'd seen all of these GORGEOUS hand-drawn images in Photoshop from other people and wondered how they did it so smoothly with a mouse.  So I got on YouTube and started watching video tutorials and finally learned what you all probably already knew.  I guess I've been living under a rock.

They're not using a mouse at all.

I know.  I was shocked to learn that I'd been making this as hard as possible on myself.  If only I'd known more about technology, I would have realized that they were using a GRAPHICS TABLET.  Hallelujah!  

The next step was to google graphics tablets and read up on what they do, how they work, which is the best for what I'm trying to create, etc.  If you aren't familiar with graphics tablets, they're basically a tablet that connects to your computer via USB port or wireless technology and you use a stylus to create images on your computer screen via the tablet.  From there you can manipulate the images and create your own digital artwork!

SO, after reading what seemed like a million reviews on Amazon about these tablets, I decided to purchase the Wacom Bamboo Create Pen and Touch Tablet.  It should arrive in a few days and I'll give it a try.

More on this later!

Who Doesn't love a free 100 Grid?

Sorry, I've been a little MIA lately.  This week I celebrated *cough* my 45th birthday.  My boyfriend and family went WAY above and beyond so I've been a little busy!  But I DID manage to create a few 100 grids.  What I've found with my kiddos is that they don't understand where the numbers "pick up" at on the grid.  So I tried color coding the last and first digits of each row the same color so they could "match" them.  We'll see if it works.  I also made the more traditional rainbow grid and thought they could choose their own this year.  Giving choices gives them total ownership!  It's a win-win.

If you are using any of my stuff, I would appreciate it if you could become a follower.  Thanks!  :)

Still reading good old Fred Jones, by the way.  Just starting Chapter 11 which looks promising; "Succeeding from Day One."  I think what I'm going to do is offer up one giant post when I'm done of all of his KEY POINTS.  Like a cliffs notes version.  So keep an eye out!

Name Plates and more Fred Jones

Decided to create some color-coded owl name plates for the kiddos this year.  The stoplight colors are red (Kinder), yellow (1st grade), and green (2nd Grade).  This will help my classroom aide distinguish learner levels early on.  I'll also use them to split the kiddos up into three teams for review games on Friday. 

Last year I discovered the best way for me to put name plates on my kiddos' desks - VELCRO.  I laminate and velcro them to the desk.  This way the kiddos can rip them off and take them to small group math activities and centers with them.  Last year they used their number lines a LOT.

Back to Fred Jones.  First of all, has anyone read this book before?  What's up with making it oblong and heavy as hell so it's near impossible to read unless it's on a table?  I hate that!  I'm trying to read this sucker in bed - very tricky - and then today to make it even harder on myself, I tried to read it balanced on a floatie in the pool.  So yeah, I should get props for that one.  (Gee Fred, you couldn't make the book triangular and weigh as much as an anvil?  Phew!  We lucked out there!)

So last time I talked about Fred, it was chapter 3 or whatever and he was talking about WORK ETHIC and said this can be installed by actually checking the student's work as they did it and giving them atta boys.  HOWEVER, as I progress, I'm finding out that you can OVER DO IT and create learned helplessness.  So he mentions to "praise, prompt, and leave" to avoid helpless handraisers and to use VIPs (visual instruction plans) for everything you teach.  So if you're teaching addition with carrying, you would make a VIP that shows each step and each new part is a different color - and they're numbered.  So instead of "tutoring" helpless handraisers, you can simply walk up, see where they're at, point to the VIP and say, "Next, do step #4," and move on.

I remember making VIPs when I taught middle school.  They really do work.  A little time consuming to make but definitely worth it.  And they actually ACCELERATE learning!  Give it a try.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, the (gigantic, heavy, pain-in-the-butt-to-hold) book is called "Fred Jones Tools for Teaching."  Check it out.  Good stuff.

Reading Center and a little tip from Fred Jones

Here's the Reading Center sign which is similar to the Listening Center.  Next up, Puzzle Center.

Just in case you're wondering, no, this is not the final product.  I'll take them to our laminating center, paste them on one piece of poster board (probably blue because that's my literacy color - green is math, orange is science, etc.) and laminate the whole thing so that it'll be an approx 16" x 22" poster.  Easy peasy.

Now, as for Fred Jones.  I've been re-reading Fred because I can never brush up on classroom management enough.  I've been trying to read a little bit before bed each night.  Last night's snipit that stuck out the most was how to get kiddos to have a good work ethic at such a young age.  The answer is so obvious but also not easy to accomplish.  It's simply to check their work as they're doing it.  Makes sense, right?  You put a kiddo on a center when they're independently able to do it, but then do small group at your table and don't keep an eye on them.  They know you're not watching.  So they start to goof off and then eventually get in trouble.  This happened a LOT last year - especially after Christmas break.

This might sound like an easy fix but it's going to be tricky.  First of all, I do centers in order to do my necessary small group work.  It's hard to be in two places at once.  I'm going to have to figure out how to utilize my classroom aide at this time a little more efficiently so that I can get out there and check on the kiddos.  All they need is to get back on track, a few atta-boys and TA-DA - work ethic is born.

Phew.

More from my Listening Center.

As I mentioned in my previous post, it's crucial to include as many images in your signs as you can when you teach kiddos with special needs.  Some of them will be non-readers and the images will help them out!  So here's the Listening Center Expectations that I'll be laminating underneath the other sign.  Feel free to print these out.  I did use some clip art from Google but nothing was copyrighted and I'm not making any money off of these, so here ya go:

What is Special Education anyway?

Unfortunately, there's a stigma with being put in a "special education" classroom.  The term "special education" has been used negatively so often that parents are terrified when it's brought up at school, even if their child would benefit from having services.  I have always taught in self-contained special education classrooms.  This simply means that my students are with me for the majority of their day.  I am their home room teacher.  However, if they can perform at grade level in math or reading, I will do my best to get them in a general education classroom for that subject.

Kiddos that need extra help with curriculum benefit by being in my classroom for several reasons.  First of all, I have a much smaller class than my colleagues.  In my school, a typical 1st grade classroom can have as many as 30+ children.  Try teaching differentiated instruction with 30 1st graders and no help.  Close to impossible.  Meanwhile, my classroom size is currently maxed at 13 and I have one classroom Aide.  Secondly, I don't have to follow curriculum guidelines.  It's impossible to do so when 13 children are all over the map with learning.  Instead, I follow their IEPs (Individual Education Plans).  This means that while I teach 1st grade math, I can stop and spend two days on one topic - even three - if that's what it takes to help the students understand the concept.  Some of them can move on and work with my Aide on more challenging concepts, while others need stronger visual supports to help them through each lesson.  Another benefit of being in my classroom is that I have visual supports all over the place.  Think schedules, classroom rules, center charts - you name it - I've got pictures to go with the words to help non-readers or emergent readers. Anyway, I can go on all day long.

I'll tell you what Special Education ISN'T.  It's not a room full of "retarded kids."  And BOY does that term get under my skin QUICKLY.  Whoo.  I had a parent last year who wanted his child out of my room because he was under the impression that my other students couldn't talk.  So his student wasn't getting the social skills she needed to succeed.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  I invited the parents to visit my classroom and they were shocked to see a group full of happy, curious, and VERY CHATTY little kiddos.  I teach a classroom with kiddos who have learning disabilities.  To talk to them, you wouldn't even know they're in a special education classroom at all. 

When you get older kiddos with disabilities, like my son who is 14, the differences are more noticeable.  Erik is in a "Life Skills" classroom.  This means that while he still works on academics, they're more geared toward living independently rather than how to write an expository essay.  He is currently working on how to write his name, bathrooming independently, and vocational skills.  Because Erik can't communicate to me what he does at school, his teacher is kind enough to send me pictures of him in action.  This was the first year that Erik began serious vocational skills and she took a picture of him doing one of his "jobs" in the school - collecting bins from other classrooms - and emailed it to me:

...which promptly led to many happy tears.  But that's another story.

I always send new students home with a letter of introduction in the fall.  I explain to parents that I know what it feels like to sit on both sides of the table at IEP meetings.  I know how scary it can be when your child is "labeled" or when you have to send your 3-year old off to school with a backpack bigger than they are and you hadn't planned on them starting school for another two years.  I know what it's like to look at an IEP for the first time and wonder what the heck it is.  I feel like my experience with my son has only made me a stronger teacher in the classroom.  I treat my students how I want Erik to be treated.  I strive to make every connection possible because every little success - no matter how small - is like climbing a mountain.

THAT'S what special education is.  Does that make sense?  I may have rambled... 

Getting ready for fall with some new center signs!

Fall will be here before I know it, so I've been busy making stuff for my classroom.  I facebook a lot - too much actually - BUT, it's become a great resource for fantastic teacher-made pages.  These pages often lead to blogs or Teaches Pay Teachers accounts with OODLES and I mean OODLES of everything imaginable for the classroom.  While I"m not ready to jump on the TpT bandwagon quite yet, it did inspire me to look into making some of my own materials.  But first I had to find out how they were making them.

Through forum searches I found out that people are using various programs like Photoshop (which I already had) and digital clipart that they were purchasing online.  I'm sure they use other goodies as well but for right now, this is what I know.  I decided to look into the digital clip art first and found a couple of good sites but one in particular, KPM Doodles, stood out.  I like her work, she doesn't charge a membership fee, and her prices are reasonable.  Before I knew it, I had racked up about $27 worth of clip art images through her site.  But I wanted to try some stuff for free first - just to see if I could actually use it and to see if it was worth it.  You can actually find free digital clip art online too.  There's a gal named Krista Wallden who was offering a TON of free digital clip art via her TpT account that I found through her blog; The Creative Chalkboard.  In one night I downloaded two of her fonts, several of her colorful shape collections, some border samples, and more.  After I got these all sorted out on my PC, I started playing around and found that I could actually make this stuff on my own.  I'm sure I'm doing it the long, hard way.  But I'm doing it, none-the-less.

My first project is to make new center signs for my listening, reading, and puzzle centers.  These "posters" will include the center's title, as well as the expectations for that center.  Special shout out to my stepdad, David, who bought me an AWESOME Epson printer for my birthday a couple of days ago.  The images are printing nicely and they look very professional!  Thanks, David! 

It's a work in progress but here's a sample of part of the Listening Center sign:

They're just 8.5 x 11 posters that I'll put together and mount on posterboard and then laminate.  It's a small step but I feel like I'm heading in the right direction.

Back to work!

Bloggety blog blog

After two days of goofing around, I finally produced a totally do-able blog that doesn't look half bad.  Thanks to Google, I can find out anything I need to know, from how to make your own custom header, to how to put it on.  But it still took me two days to iron out the bugs. 

There are a LOT of teacher blogs out there.  And man do they look COOL.  I find myself wondering how these folks knew how to make such awesome blogs.  Everything from plain ol' design smarts to tech know-how.  Heck, I have a hard time putting a decent color pallet together and I have an art degree! 

So, to those other 1324981732 teachers out there that have the most awesome blogs in the world, I most humbly salute you.  I also hope to join your ranks in the future. 

If I can, then the number will be 1324981733.

Here we go.