arrival

I had a professional day today (how weird is it to be on-campus and technically not be there?) I have had so many great subs this year, both during the long time that I was without an assistant and on the days I've been out. I've had great subs. Today's wasn't one of them.

I left some things for her to prep for tomorrow, things my assistant would've done if I was there. I left written instructions. I went over it with her. I left a picture of the finished product so she could see how it went together. . .

Complete waste of paper. NOTHING was done right, and it was wrong enough that my little perfectionists will not abide it. Ugh.

Anyway, after being sad about that waste of natural resources. . . I did have one thing to perk me up.

It's here! (Except my three copies of workbook B . . .) I'm stoked, because my kids actually like Reading Mastery (Yes, haters, they like it) and some are close to the end of RM Classic 1. The first day we started reading in the storybooks, one of my kids declared it awesome. They love the storybooks, because they like that they can read a lot of words correctly without picture prompts and understand the story. "It's not a baby book." (Interesting how Level D guided reading books are babyish, but the orthography isn't. It probably helps them that I've shown them that the letters gradually change to regular font.)

We're going to go ahead with the language arts component next week. I'm not sure how they'll feel about it. They like the reading portion, but they also understood the urgency of working hard on reading. ("Once I read better, I can get cooler books on library day.") They don't seem to realize that they have language deficits. They can tell me amazing things about their special interests, solve complex problems, create great things with legos . . . but falter when I ask them to put something under their chair or say that the picture goes above the story. We did positional words during our location/movement unit, but they didn't seem to realize that they should know those concepts.

We'll see. Tomorrow it's off to do more progress reports and try to re-cut all the pieces for the project we're doing . . . ho hum . . .

anger button

I escaped to my mentor's classroom today for a moment, referral in hand. She blinked in surprise; I hardly ever use office referrals, and usually only after a huge incident. It had been quiet.

It's (student,) I said, he's sassy, rude, and defiant today. This particular child, dear to my heart like all of them, has improved a lot this year. He's normally anxious and sad when he acts inappropriately, not measured and cruel-tounged. I have less sympathy for it, I told her.

She grinned, and I thought it was just because she's the complete opposite of me in what kinds of kids with emotional disabilities she works best with. She pulled out a sheet from one of her socio-emotional lessons entitled "Angry Button." It was illustrated with a surly child. "That's (student) right now. And that's your angry button." She laughed, but it was true. I have more patience with children who are completely out of control or are obviously upset, but get annoyed with ones who are hurtful or defiant with calm intention.

I'm trying to get better at it quickly, because I know my reaction is part of the problem.

Above is one of the pictures from our DonorsChoose Thank You projects. We finally got all of our materials back (on time!) I put in another project, but it hasn't been approved yet. I had enough points to do a special request, so I'm asking for an iPad. 

For our St. Patrick's Day display, my mentor and I used the pots of gold activity from The Teacher Wife. The littles (and her kids, the bigs?) wrote about a person who is worth more to them than gold. I loved how cute it looks in the hallway, and we managed to hit goals for all of our kiddos from grades 1-5 in one swoop.

Some of my littles also made these leprechauns from The First Grade Parade and wrote about a time they felt lucky. One of my littles had the hardest time pounding out one sentence for this, but most of them were pretty motivated by the craft.

We read Julia Cook's My Mouth is a Volcano and did this cute activity from Mrs. Miner's Kindergarten Monkey Business.

We're going over contractions right now, so we made these contraction kites I found at The Weekly Hive. I'm kind of conflicted about teaching them (and some of our word wall words) because our reading program will not cover them for a while. I'm also conflicted about doing spelling with our word wall words because they are words my kids absolutely cannot read. I spend more time each week teaching them to read the words, rather than have them memorize the spelling. Plus, our WWWs aren't grouped in a logical (to me) way.

Tomorrow I have a professional day, so I left some pretty cool plans. I'm hoping they have fun. 

my caseload, it keeps a-chanigin'

I'm going to try to get in a post over the weekend, but I'm at my parents house recovering from the plague (you should've seen my swollen joints yesterday. . .)

I lost my kinder-baby about a week ago. Her family moved out-of-district, so she's at a new school. Her new district has called already because they don't have a class like mine for kinders (especially with high iq.) I'm not ruling out boomerang-ing. We'll see.

I have a new friend that may be starting next week, dependent on the IEP team's decision. And I'm concerned about how to do my literacy block (story of my life) because I probably don't have materials on his level. I'll figure it out, though, nbd.

On another note, I received word that my request for Reading Mastery was approved. Yay!

drinking the kool-aid

Friday couldn't be soon enough this week. My assistant was out for 3 days this week, which only served to remind me: a) how awesome he is and b) how much I've delegated to him, even though he says I don't give him much to do. On the upside, I taught (essentially) solo for half of the year, so it wasn't too rough.

The week after Valentine's day was National Engineers Week. My littles engaged in a few engineering projects, although not as many as I had hoped for (I planned a TON that we didn't get to complete.) I think that's one of the things I'm going to plan out over the summer before next year. They had a blast creating things, but I think that next year I need to put more emphasis on genuine problem solving. Although, truthfully, the one activity that had the most components of our design process (aka problem solving model) caused the most stress/meltdowns among the little people.

Here's (some of) us with our hoop gliders:

We also did lots of other things that I have no pictures of.

Anyway, if you're wondering about the title of the post. . . 

I don't know how it is where you're from (and depending on if you're regular or special ed, YMMV) but around here direct instruction doesn't exactly mean Direct Instruction. And scripted, systematic, Direct Instruction is kind of a bad word. Kind of like basal reader, except somehow worse.

But, I was trained in DI. My college program lived/breathed/thought DI. And we learned how to test, place, adjust, remediate, supplement, modify, enrich . . . but most of that was done with a curriculum in mind. Every classroom I went in (13 observations, 2 internships, and one practicum = 15) used at least one scripted curriculum. (The school I did practicum in was school-wide DI! Regular ed kids used Reading Mastery.)

When I walked into my classroom in August, my first question was: "Where is my curriculum?" (Answer: "What do you mean?")

My school uses a Balanced Literacy approach. We have no core curriculum program for literacy. We use the workshop model. I have never seen it done, because it happens in regular ed classrooms. I could go observe now at my school . . . if I had time. We didn't really cover guided reading in college. I'd never seen anyone do conferring. It's foreign to me. So I read. Guided Reading, Literacy Workstations, The CAFE Book, Daily Five, everything I heard about. My literacy coach tried to help, but we come from very different training and I work with very different kids than she's used to. 

I think I'd love what they're doing . . . if I taught regular ed. But I don't. So I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, so to speak. I borrowed Reading Mastery 1 Classic from a colleague (because there's tons of RM stuff in our district's SpEd division) and I'm requesting that they buy my class Reading Mastery Signature Grade 1 (possibly other levels, too, as my kids come in/out.) I'm going to do Fast Cycle through Classic unless it seems like I need to slow down, and two of mine should be through it pretty quick (I started them at lesson 60 per the assessment guide, and they got through a lesson today super-fast and very easily) then continue on in the signature series (because we need the writing and language instruction, too!) 

So, if you know anyone who uses RM in their classroom that blogs, can you point me their way? I want to make sure my literacy block is still extremely interesting and engaging . . . but also efficient and systematic and effective. Yeah.

Also, two things I really love:

1) Engaged little people! (Bonus points for being engaged in good and not awesome evil!)

2) My enthusiasm for this one probably makes me a little weird, but . . .

snow, penguins, and bees

I am really bad at keeping up with this whole blogging thing.

Really, really bad. It's been over a month.

Anyway, so I got a new assistant. Which was actually amazing. Although spending over half the school year without help has turned me into a bit of a control freak. Like I wasn't bad enough already.

Also, I've taken four days off. Four. In a month. I am trying not to feel guilty about it. One was a mental health/doctor visit day, two days I was sick with the plague, and this past Friday I was at our state Council for Exceptional Children conference.

My littles have done some pretty cool things in January and February. We did our New Year's Resolutions (why had I not already posted this?) using the template from Step Into Second Grade. My littles loved it, especially the glitter and pom-poms. I was really glad to see them seriously consider what they needed to work on.

Then, we got our leveled library from DonorsChoose!

It doesn't look like much, but that's $800 worth of books.

All set up!

We did a lot of winter/snow activities in January, including this one inspired by both The First Grade Parade and Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade. My assistant (who'd only been there two weeks) asked if I was obsessed with snow and snowmen. Um, no. It's January. Snow, snowmen, and MLK are the high points. . . 

Speaking of Martin Luther King, Jr., we made our own MLK posters. I got the link to the activity from The First Grade Parade. Although I think covering MLK is important, I almost wish I had waited until next year to tell my littles much. He died? Someone shot him? Someone shot him. Is someone going to shoot me? Or my mama? I don't want to die. Will I ever die? When I get old? I don't want to get old! It was awful. 

On a lighter note, we did some engineering work. I'm gearing up for Engineering Week to start tomorrow, too. (Our school is an engineering magnet school.) This was the only picture I could find where you couldn't really see the kids. They used a 4th grade engineering kit to build this car independently. The two littles working on this are only six and seven (1st grade.) They impressed a lot of people at my school.

Oh, we made penguins in January, too. Mostly to dispel the notion of my snowman obsession. They were from Erica Bohrer. They were supposed to write about penguins to go with it . . . but that was on my mental health day. It apparently didn't go as I planned.

I saw an activity that Heather from Heather's Heart did with her kids to work on blends. I sometimes have my morning littles work in teams to find/think of words that have certain blends. I made a little chart for them to reference when challenging each other to a friendly game during our learning games time in the morning. The little definitions on them are actually mostly for the adults in the room (my mentor couldn't recall the difference, then I started doubting myself. . .) 

Finally, Valentine's Day. I don't mind the holiday at school with the kids, where we focus on friendship and familial love, but I really hate Valentine's Day as a romantic holiday. Because I'm cold and bitter like that. Anyway.

I needed a hallway display like woah because we were having a bunch of visitors and the new years stuff was getting old. I'd seen some cute ideas on Pinterest, but I wasn't sure what I could do that would be cute + super academically relevant. I loved the bees from A Cupcake for the Teacher, but I was undecided. What to do with them, what to add . . . I finally had an idea. I made a sheet for each little (yes, everyone got to be included in this one!) with their name on it. Everyone had to write why each of their classmates was a good friend. We were bee-ing good friends! (So corny. . .)

You should keep in mind that anything that looks not-too-hot about the bees is my fault, not anything wrong with the craft packet, because I didn't actually buy it since valentine's day was the day before payday and i was broke I decided to do this last-minute. So, all the awesomeness was her, any lopsided bees was me. 

So, tomorrow I'm off to professional development at another school, plus trying to nail down my stuff for Engineering Week. 

P.S. - If I made an Engineering Week unit for elementary and put it on TPT, would anyone even be interested? I don't know how much demand there would be, much less if I could even make it look attractive and engaging . . .

procrastination (and a small freebie-ish thing)

Kara gave me a blogger award . . . and I'm totally not with it enough to do more than just give her a shout out right now. I think if I listed seven random things about myself right now( per award rules,) they would all start with, "I am stressed out because . . ." But, if you're actually reading this, go check her blog out.

Three things:

- One: I get a new paraprofessional. TOMORROW. Guess when I found out? In the middle of the school day today. Guess who doesn't know? My kids. Guess who is going to be hating life tomorrow because we don't deal well with change? Anyone that comes anywhere near my room.

Also, they didn't even tell me this guy's name. Yes, that's right, GUY. I, um, am not good with talking to guys. I, umm, got teased a lot at lunch today. About my new man. *gulp*


- Two: I have a cute display in the hallway. Pictures tomorrow because I was going to lose the game if I didn't pack up my stuff right then. (My mentor and I occasionally try to race out of the school. This sounds slack, but it never happens until we've both worked at least 30 minutes past quitting time. I won today, but usually loose.)

- Three: I made labels for my new leveled library (that should arrive tomorrow if UPS doesn't randomly leave the box somewhere!) They fit the layout for the Post-It 1 Inch circular labels. If you by chance want labels to go on your books to label them by guided reading level, click for the PDF on Google Docs:

Levels A - C

Levels D - F

Levels G - I

Levels J - L

Clutter-Free Classroom, Week One

I've never done this whole "linky party" thing before, but when I read about the Clutter-Free Classroom Project that's going on, I knew I had to join in. As a first year teacher, I'm still getting my organizational system down. Add that to my classroom not being finished until after I'd had students for a few weeks and not getting my bookcases until December, I feel like I'm behind the game. At the beginning of the year, I was embarrassed for our principal and assistant principal to come into my room. It's so much better now, but . . . ugh. It's definitely a work in progress. 

The challenge for Week One was to take "before pictures." Some of these are cringe-worthy . . .

Our Classroom

As you walk in . . . you'll notice that there are no desks. I teach a primary-grades special needs class (emotional disorders,) and I only have 4-5 kids at a time. This means my room is kind of small compared to the regular classrooms in my school, and it's positively minuscule compared to some I've seen on blogs.

And here's my whole room, from the far side. To the right in this picture are my cabinets, which I don't have a good photo of. Both of these photos were from right before break, so there are a few things I've organized this week that you'll see below.

Teacher/Group Area

At the beginning of the year, I had my desk and the parapro desks away from the main tables. I'd wanted this so that the parapro and I would keep engaged with the students. This worked for me, but not for her. Now that I have no parapro (but interviews are ongoing!) I have my desk behind me so I can quickly get to the phone or my e-mail without interrupting our learning. 

Here's our small group table, my desk, and my bookshelves. My laptop sits on my desk, so I can get to it quickly to check e-mail or google the correct spelling of Lusitania. The bookshelves are much more organized than they were in August, but they still need intensive work . . . 

These magazine files (IKEA!) hold our current work in each subject (reading, writing, math, science, and socio-emotional.) I need to make labels for each of them to make it easier for a sub to find things, but since I was reminded once again on Friday that I'm not allowed sick days . . . it's not at the top of my list. If I have to have a substitute anytime soon . . . we'll have bigger problems than just finding materials quickly.

Here's my teacher toolbox, inspired by Create - Teach - Share. It just got finished on Friday, actually.

One of my two teacher bookshelves. It is a mess. I think my first step will be adjusting the shelf heights. They're not really working for me. The second thing? Finding if I can get rid of the books on the top and bottom shelves. I inherited them, so I think they're school property. I'm going to ask my mentor and AP about it, because I don't use them. 

This is my calendar area and behavior chart. Obviously this picture wasn't taken this week, but it still looks the same. I want to clean up my random-note area near the phone.  I think I could maybe make a cute bulletin board?

Classroom Library

Okay, this is one area that had given me a lot of trouble. Just Monday it looked . . .

Ugh. Atrocious. Our "most loved" books were stacked on the top shelf, lesser ones neat but hard to look through on the second. Dry erase slates piled on the bottom. Tons of unused space, but no organization at all. Yuck.

I finished with this at 4:30 on Friday. My mentor walked in right as I was finishing to say goodbye, and she stopped mid-sentence and was like WOW. I still need to figure out what to do with those last few books and the square containers, but it's so much better. These books are all organized by category. When I get my new leveled library on Wednesday (thanks, DonorsChoose!) they will be organized separately. 

I just got this bookcase at the end of December, so it's on my to-organize list. I want to get the shelf heights changed here, too. My leveled library is going to go here, and should take up the middle two shelves. I think our personal book baskets will stay on top, the lap desks on the bottom, and our bucket-filler buckets will move to the top of the black bookcase. 

The Closet

Ummm. I don't really want to show you these pictures. If the library was pretty atrocious, this is horrifying. . . 

It is a wreck! So much of the stuff in here that I inherited is just taking up space, and the three things I put in here (puzzle mat, stuffed animal bin, and crate seats) are just lying on top. I really need to work on this. I've tried several times, and got a lot of things into plastic boxes and put up the little metal shelf, but it's still . . . ugh. And, umm, triangular. Yeah. It matches my irregular octagon room. 

So, there you have it. I'm pretty pleased with how my room is now compared to in August, but I know it still needs lots of work. I'm hoping that this project (and learning from other teachers completing it) will help get me motivated and give me more ideas.