DVR is Over!!!

Dear Readers,

I’ve been ridiculously busy getting ready for the District Validation Review, which is a review of the SpEd dept. to ensure that we are in compliance. Well, we were. We passed with flying colors. However, I don’t want to see another green folder (SpEd folder) for awhile. I, along with my assistant & my co-teacher, had to clean up the green folders that’d been neglected for years. A green folder only requires up to three years of IEPs. Well, one of the folders had IEPs back to 2003. So, believe me when I say that we had our work cut out for us.

I am so happy it’s over. The day of I was spazzing out. I found a hole in my dress that I don’t remember seeing there when I put it on. Thank goodness I had a sewing kit in my car. I got it, went to the restroom and sewed it up. The only problem was that I couldn’t print, and hadn’t been able to in since Monday. I was completely frazzled. I even cried! That was huge for me because I’m not a public crier. I mad it through it though. The person in charge of the DVR was very personable and helpful. It wasn’t stressful. The stress I had was self-imposed. It was because I just didn’t know what to expect.

I wanted to go home right after it was over. Not so! We had parent conferences that I had to stay for. After that, I came right home and went straight to sleep. I was simply exhausted. The only thing I did in my classroom the next day was a DO NOW & grade checks. It was a pretty easy day. After the school day crawled by, I came home and crashed. I went to see Kingsman: Secret Service and was extremely happy with it. It was so good. I’ll write about that in another post. Bye for now!

Go Ahead, Call My Boss!

Dear Readers,

The title was too long to finish writing how I feel, so I’ll write it here. “Go ahead, call my boss. I have nothing to hide,” is what I thought as I gave this mom my number to call the head of the SpEd department. She’s one of those “shoot first and ask questions later” kind of people.

There’s such a big backstory on her and the situation I’m currently experiencing. My first meeting with her started off friendly enough. However, my thoughts about her changed once I saw how she attacked the 9th grade English teacher over her son’s grades which he earned. Little did I know that I would be the next one.

During our meeting, she was cordial enough. She then took me totally by surprise when, out of the blue, she began launching accusatory questions at me about a “C” grade. Even when I showed her his grades, she was still not satisfied. It was at this point that she stomped out of the room and apparently went straight to the Assistant Principal’s office. She told the AP that I attacked her, was unfriendly, and that she didn’t want to deal with me. I could tell by the AP’s voice and intonation that she believed the parent. I was insulted for a hot second until I realized that I didn’t care. I went to speak to the AP in charge of SpEd and let him know her M.O. He let me know that he had my back and that he would defuse the situation if it came down to it. I thanked him and went on my merry little way.

Did it end there? Of course it didn’t. That would have been too easy. The REAL problem began when the 311 report was run and the SpEd Director noticed that two students were assigned behavior intervention services. Wouldn’t you know that he was one of them? I sent home notices that she would not return. I called her and she would not answer. I even tried to schedule meetings with her that she would agree to and not show up. She began insisting that he receive the services even though she didn’t even know what they were. She began to try to bombard me with e-mails. That’s when I promptly told her that she could speak with my boss or one of the SpEd coaches if she would feel more at ease. I gave her both their numbers and wished her well. You know what, she never even gave them a call. In fact, she hasn’t even shown up for any parent conferences since then. It was not a surprise to me. I knew that she was one of the those people who try to bulldoze their way through to get their way when they know that simply asking will work. Those types of people puzzle me. I just don’t understand it. Has she never heard, “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

I have not had to deal with her since then but his IEP is coming up in May. I’ll keep you updated on that. Bye for now!

My Threshold! Part 2

Dear Readers,

One thing I’ve learned to do it to listen to my body and know when it and I have had enough. Well, I tried to anyway. This sickness came out of nowhere. I’ve been down since Sunday night. I went to work on Monday because I had an IEP and just didn’t want to submit lesson plans. It was easier to go to work. So, I thought.

I got to work and could barely walk. I felt like I was walking in slow motion, in water, in a snowstorm. Yeah, it was really that bad. I had chills and a fever at once. Not to mention the scratchy throat and the achy muscles.

I left immediately after the IEP at 2:30, picked up Phillise, and got in bed until 3:00 p.m. the next day. I only got up then because I had to pick Phillise up and I had a presentation to do at my school @ 4:30. If not, I would have asked my mother-in-law or my sister to get her and stayed in bed. I’m still in bed as I write this on Wednesday night @ 6:40 p.m. I’m going to work tomorrow though. I’m a little weak and dehydrated but I’ll be okay.

It’s good to know your threshold. I make a habit of knowing when I’ve reached mine. As I recuperate, I will say bye for now!

The Little Engine That Could!

Dear Readers,

I am pleasantly surprised with my students! I’m seeing leaders emerge with strengths they, or I, in some cases, didn’t even know they had. What am I talking about? I’m talking about my students coming alive and developing their life skills.

One of the activities I introduced to them when we came back from break was jigsawing. In one of my last post I stated how I put the onus on my students for asking for extra time and getting their missed work from when they were absent. I know they are only in the 9th & 10th grade but within the next 3-4 years they will be young adults in charge of their own lives. So, they need to have certain skills. Two skills they really need and that are very important to have are self-advocacy & self-reliance. They are beginning to do well with self-advocacy skills, so now I’m training them in self-reliance. Many times during the last semester, the work would be right in front of them but they would not take to time to try to uncover it. I thought and thought about how to help the overcome their learned helplessness but it was tough. Let me tell you that learned helplessness runs deep. They were so used to believing they couldn’t do it that they stopped trying.

Well, by lecturing them, supporting them, and helping them realize that they can do it, they have begun to advocate for themselves and to rely on themselves. It’s one of the best feeling in the world to see that light bulb go on and have someone realize they can do it. I always think of The Little Engine That Could when this happens. I should read it to them. They’re so young they probably haven’t heard of it. I’ll see. Back to the lecture at hand. I’m happy to see them blossoming. I’ll keep you updated.

What is Your Disability?

What is your disability? That is a question I asked of my students. In my first period class, I have 10 students. Of those 10, only one student knew that he was diagnosed with ADHD. The other ones had no idea what their disability was. So I gave them the assignment that I sussed out over the break. Since I introduced them to jigsawing, I printed articles for the three disabilities in my class- Specific Learning Disability (SLD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Autism.

Here’s the breakdown. Of my 26 students, 1 has Language & Speech Services (LAS), 2 don’t have the lab with me, 4 have autism, and 2 have ADHD, with 16 having SLD. I split them into groups, gave them the articles and the link for the Google sheet to answer the questions they would later transfer to their ppt. or Google slides presentation. I then explained their roles and let them tear apart the article and answer the questions. They were free to research any questions that were not answered by the article. I’ll discuss the outcome in another post. Just color me impressed!

Bye for now!

Techy Me! or Challenge Accepted!

Dear Readers,

I work at a Blended Learning School. It’s a format that combines technology with traditional learning. When I took the job I was so out of my league. However I issued myself a challenge to get into that league. CHALLENGE: Learn and incorporate as much technology into the classroom as possible within the next couple of months. At the time I was hired, I hadn’t used much technology in the classroom except my classroom blog and iFilm.

However, I knew at this school I had to step up my game. So, I did! I accepted the challenge. Not only that, I saw the challenge and upped the ante a bit.

Usually, I can’t see my progress as it’s happening. However, in an earlier post, I briefly wrote about my Quickening process (click here). I also wrote about some of the programs I was using (click here). If I can think of anything else, I’ll post it. For now, here are the programs I’ve learned.

• Kahoot! online quiz program that automatically compiles correct & incorrect answers for me,
• Edmodo to post my power points, make quizzes, and display instructions,
• Haiku, used by our SpEd. department,
• Pinnacle to take roll & track grades,
• Class Dojo for behavior management,
• my school website to upload digital agendas,
• my other school website to download important documents & answer PD surveys,
• Google docs,
• Google sheets,
• Google forms,
• Google slides
• Online stopwatch for tracking time,
• Weebly website to post links and work from core classes.

Not sure, but I think that’s all. One last thing I’m very proud of is how I’m using Google sheets to make my exit slips for the month. I was using Google forms to send them daily, but discovered it was quickly filling up my Google drive and causing too much work for me. I knew I needed to find an easier and more efficient way to get the job done. I played around with Google sheets and figured out how to do it. Happy to say that I’m no longer creating daily exit slips; I’m now creating them monthly. If you’d like to know how, shoot me an email @ specialedandme@gmail.com.

 

 

So Behind!

Dear Readers,

I am so behind. I have at least 6 posts stacked up, waiting to be finished. Most of them were written a couple of week ago, so now I have to back date them. Give me a couple of days to get them all out. Fair warning! I’m going to post multiple times/day until I catch up. I’ve done it before and will do it again. Let the posting begin!