I Accomplished A Little Bit More Today!

I am so happy. I was not so much of a slacker today. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but I have 2 major papers due. The paper that’s due for my first class is 10 pages, while the paper due for my second class is 15-20 pages. In addition to that, I had 3 small papers due. Well, today, I completed the 3 small assignments. Now I only have to do the 2 big assignments. One is due this Wednesday, 12/03, while the second one is due 12/10, my last day of class. Only two more weeks and I will be finished for the year. I don’t have to start again until the 2nd week of January. A month off from school. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. Just kidding. I know what I’m going to do- absolutely nothing. I am going to veg out on television and blogging.
Until next time people!

Scholastic Book Fair

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Next Thanksgiving…

I have a little something to get off my chest. This happens every Thanksgiving, but it really bothered me the other day. Like to hear it, here it goes…

One of my sisters likes to play games. I don’t know why she does, but she does. She is always trying to get out of bringing the Mac n’ Cheese.
“Oh,” she says, “I didn’t know you wanted me to bring it this year.”
(I’m thinking to myself) Well, haven’t you been bringing it for the past couple years? Isn’t that your specialty? Why do we have to go through this bullsh** every year? Why can’t you just bring the g**damn Mac n’ Cheese? Quit playing games!!!!!!!!!!!
Now ask me if she brought it this year. Well, ask. Nope, she didn’t. The other day I asked her could she bring the greens also. “Okay,” she said. So, when she finally decided to show up, I asked her where the Mac n’ Cheese was, she said…
“Oh, I thought you said you only wanted me to bring the greens”. If steam could really come out of my ears, it would have. So, I have just decided that I am going to learn how to make the Mac n’ Cheese my damn self. I am tired of the games. My family is so big, that it’s potluck. If you’re coming, you’re bringing something. I cannot afford to feed more than 30 people even if it’s for one day. I’ve gotten my recipes (Bobby Flay, Delilah the Mac n’ cheese queen, & Patti LaBelle) and am going to practice. That way I will not be dependent on anyone else for anything. I had my mouth all set for some Mac n’ Cheese. OOOOOO, she made me so mad!!! That, my dear sir or madam is my rant for the rest of the year!!!!!!!

HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY!!

Again, the title says it all. Now, I’ve got some shopping to do! Bye! Are you still here? Go! Leave! Go shopping or do something else! Just leave already!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

The title says it all. Have a good one!

Just Doin’ A Little Bit Of Cookin’!

Well, I actually accomplished a little something today. I ‘ve already made 2 of the 4 Sweet Potato pies. One’s in the oven cooking. As soon as that one’s finished cooking, I am going to cook the 4th and final one. After that I will start on the 3 Large Peach Cobblers I’m making. I will start cooking my turkey in the morning after thawing it out overnight in water.
One thing that I’ve learned is to save time where I can. I do that with Old Glory brand products. Their products are so much like homemade. My uncle from Louisiana who told me that he wouldn’t eat any black-eyed peas out of the can, ate theirs. My sister who told me that she wouldn’t eat greens out of the can, ate theirs. I also used their sweet potatoes out of the can. I just let my sons sample and they thought it was delicious.
Thank God I don’t have to provide everything though. Everyone else will bring the side dishes.
One of my sisters, A, is bringing the Macaroni n’ Cheese, while my other sister, D, is bringing her delicious potatoes. Rounding out the last of the side dishes is my other sister, S, who is bringing her famous, moist, mouth-watering cakes.
I’ll make the mashed potatoes, stuffing from scratch and other stuff in the morning. When I take my lil’ shortcuts, I come out smelling like a rose without sweating like a pig.
So, I hope your Thanksgiving dinner (however you choose to spend it) is as joyous as mines.

Advice To A First Year Teacher!

One thing that I’ve learned this year that I wish I would have learned last year is to use all of the resources available to me. Use the services of the Literacy Coach, the Math Coach, veteran teachers, anyone who can help. Use them. That’s what they’re there for!
Until next time!

On The Subject Of Special Education (Or That Old Good Times Episode)

I am watching an episode of “Good Times”. In this particular episode the writers decided to introduce the subject of retardation/ being hard-of-hearing. Maybe the issue was near and dear to them, I don’t know. It is so funny to see how Special Ed. issues were handled back then; sometimes it’s even funny to see how it’s handled now.

The episode I’m watching is about a little boy named Larry who nearly fell down the elevator shaft that wasn’t working. Do you remember that episode? He almost fell but Keith (Thelma’s husband) caught him at the last minute. Yeah, that’s the one. Well, the story begins with Florida bringing Larry home with her because she had to rescue him from a fight on her bus. She rescued him because he was getting picked on since he was incorrectly labeled mentally retarded.
So, Florida brought him home with her and called his mother so the boys wouldn’t continue the beating he was given earlier. While waiting for his mother, Florida cautions Keith and everyone in the house to treat him carefully since he’s “special”. They weren’t supposed to correct him or let him know that he was wrong. They were simply to smile and humor him.
In the meantime he plays games with the family and turns out to be surprisingly good at them. He even beats Michael at checkers, which leads Florida to a surprising conclusion- the boy isn’t “special”, he just can’t hear. So she decides to talk to his mother about it.
When his mother arrives and Florida speaks to her the mom won’t listen. Even when Florida tries to caution his mother that he’s hard of hearing, she acts like it’s something so horrible that she doesn’t even want to acknowledge it. When I think about how things were back then, it’s kinda’ funny (Not laughable funny, but ironic funny). That episode is about 30 years old and lots has changed. No that’s not true. Now that I think about it, I have to ask what has changed. That’s a good question. What has changed?

The Best Laid Plans…

Yes, you know how the saying goes. The best laid plans… Well, I took today and tomorrow off because I’m sick (wink,wink!). I planned to do a long list of chores and run a bunch of errands. Now, ask me if I got anything done!!! Nope, I sure didn’t. I did one load of laundry and ate. I understand that my body needs some rest, but I totally slacked today. Tomorrow, I hope to do much more than I did today.

Special Education Meeting @ Beaudry Building

For those of you seeking information on teaching Special Education for L.A.U.S.D. there will be a meeting held @ the Beaudry building @ 333 S. Beaudry, L.A., CA 90007

Taken directly from http://www.lausd.net:
Special Education Initiative: An informational meeting will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, December 8th for those considering a career in the field of Special Education. Topics will include the employment process, special education credentialing opportunities, as well as teaching special education in the District. Individuals with related experiences and a strong desire to make a difference in the lives of special education students are invited to register for the meeting by contacting Doreen Mendoza at careersinsped@lausd.net.

It Had To Be The Fiddle Faddle!!!

Yeah, strange title I know, but there’s actually a story behind it. Last week I went to training. I’d missed the training at my school, so I went to training at another school with my Math coach. I was late, but hungry, so I whipped out my Fiddle Faddle and proceeded to snack. I’d intended to put it away before I walked into the room, but didn’t. Anyway, as I walked into the room, someone shouted, “Hey, she has Fiddle Faddle!”
“Want some?” I asked.
“Sure,” said a couple of people as they took me up on the offer of delicious Fiddle Faddle!
I felt so welcome. Thank God for Fiddle Faddle!

I Nailed It Once Again!

Someone told me they thought that I should look into being a college professor. I said that I didn’t think that I could manage adults.
“Oh, pish,” she said, “it’s just like managing children.”
I questioned whether she was right or not. Well, as it turns out, she was right. Managing rude, unruly adults is exactly like managing rude, unruly children. I found that out last night as I completed my last presentation of the year.
Last week’s presentation was for my 2nd class. This week’s presentation was for my 1st class. I was confident I was going to do well on the presentation since I pretty much mastered it at APU. However, there was one factor I felt was out of my control- the human factor.
Let me begin by saying that my classmates are notorious for being extremely rude. They never stop talking, even when asked. The professor always has to ask more than once. Sometimes twice, sometimes three times. While the professor is lecturing, they are talking, sometimes louder than the professor. They are also on their laptops e-mailing, looking at pictures and instant messaging. One professor actually had to confiscate two laptops because the culprits were IMing and laughing so loudly during class. Really??? This is grad school, not pre-school.
Well, going into the presentation, I knew that that was what I had to contend with. But I had a plan. I was going to manage them just like I manage my students. I was going to do the clap (Dun, dun, dun,dun, dun) to get their attention. I also planned to raise my voice if necessary.
Do you think it worked? Yep, it sure did.
As I said I managed them just like I managed my students. I started counting down at 2 minutes, 1 minutes, 30 seconds, and finally counted down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 in a very loud voice. Once I established that I was not going to let them run the show, we did not have a problem. That is when I grabbed the hammer and commenced to nailing my presentation!
I love it when a plan comes together!

If Only…

One of my students keeps promising that he’s going to change schools. Promises, promises!!!

My Soul Looks Back In Wonder…

Yes, my soul does look back in wonder how I got over. I cannot believe that I am almost through this semester. About three weeks ago I thought that I could not possibly make it through. I was so overwhelmed. At one point I tried to take a step back and try to put things into perspective, but I was unable to. I simply could not think straight. BTW, I would never recommend anyone with 4 children to teach full-time while completing graduate school. It is nearly impossible. Even though I have had my mind made up since the beginning that I am going to make it through no matter what, it has still been tough (really an understatement). I have felt like quitting more than once. Yet, I am nearly finished. ‘Cause all of my good days, they outweigh my bad days, and IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII, I won’t complain.
Even though it’s been tough, my life and all of its travails have truly been a blessing to me with all of the growth I see on a personal, as well as a professional level. I would not trade my experiences for the world. They have made me who I am. I actually wrote a poem about it, click here to read it. I was quite proud of it because I made it up on the spur of the moment. I was shocked when I looked back on it and it made sense. Hmm, go figure!
I said all that to say that I am happy that it’s almost over. My soul truly does look back and wonder how I got ooooooo-over!!!

Knowing What You Don’t Want…

Knowing what you don’t want helps you to find out what you do want. I’ve found this out during many trials and tribulations. When I was really young, I didn’t have a clue as to who I was. That all changed when I read this anonymous poem about Standing for something or falling for anything. It was at that point that I wondered what I stood for. I didn’t know right away what I stood for, but I do now. Part of the reason I know what I do want is because I know what I don’t want and what I stand for. I stand for something so I will not fall for anything.

Just a little something to think about!

Swamped Me!

I have been so swamped lately that I haven’t had a chance to be my usual Post-a-holic self. This week I barely got any sleep. All this week, I went to sleep at around 12, just to turn right around and wake right back up at 5:45 a.m. I am so happy this week is over. Thank God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Nailed It, Part 2!

Once again I nailed my presentation. This is the same presentation that I was so stressed out about last week. The same one that I just completed at 4 a.m. this morning. It feels so good! Now, only 7 months to go and I will be finished!

Happy Birthday David!!!

Today, my baby is 11 years old. I can’t believe it. I love you little brown man.

Proud Me!

I am so proud of the work that I’m doing because right now, all of my students can read. A couple of them may only be reading two and three letter words, but that’s a great start considering last year, some of them didn’t know any alphabets and could only count to ten.

One of my students, Lexus, is so excited about learning and that he’s now mainstreaming to a general education class. He keeps asking me if he can go to his “other” class. I say yes and proudly send him.

I gotta go. It’s about 5:15 a.m. as I write this. It’s not a school/work day, but I still have to do my lesson plans, Phillise’s hair, clean the house, do a little grocery shopping, laundry…

So as always, here’s to continued success!

Growing Up With Tamales by Gwendolyn Zepeda

** Warning- This post is kinda’ long. Growing up with Tamales (2008), written by Gwendolyn Zepeda and illustrated by April Ward, is what I read to my students today. I purchased it at the AEMP training. For those of you who don’t know, AEMP stands for Academic English Mastery Proficiency Plus. It’s basically a program that employs useful strategies to help Standard English Learners (SEL) master the Academic language needed to be successful in school. Let me just say that I am so happy to have the training. I’m also happy to have found a vendor with a whole store full of books with Hispanic-centered stories.

I always tell my students that everyone needs to see themselves in a book, but I did not have a lot of books featuring Hispanic children and adults. That’s why I was so happy when I found a vendor at the AEMP training who has a whole store full of books featuring Hispanic children and adults.

Well, at the training, I found the perfect story to purchase and read to my students. Since we just finished reading Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto, this was a natural progression into Hispanic literature. That’s why I I read my newly acquired purchase to my class today. It has English and Spanish text. First I read the English text, then my assistant read the Spanish. Now, on to the review.

Before I read it, I asked my students if they wanted to hear it in Spanish. “Yeesssss,” was the resounding answer. As she read, My Spanish speaking students were absolutely mesmerized. A couple of them were smiling so hard I thought their cheeds were going to pop. They loved it. It was nice because I was including everyone. I wasn’t only being sensitive to my Black students, but my Hispanic students as well. I’m happy that my assistant is Mexican. That way, my students are totally comfortable in the class and they are represented by both of us. It was nice because they got a chance to hear someone else’s voice besides mine. Not to mention that they got to hear another language.

While my assistant was reading, one of my Black students raised his hand and said:

“She not reading right”.

“Well, Nu. It’s not that she’s not reading right. She’s just not reading in English because she’s reading in Spanish,” I said.

“I don’t like it,” he said. Well, Nu, I’m sorry that you feel that way, but the Hispanic students in the class need to see themselves and have a piece of their heritage present in the classroom. I read books all the time with Black people in it. Don’t you think they want to see someone that looks like them in a book sometimes? We have to be fair.

“Now, I will tolerate no more interruptions,” I said. “We will finish this story”. So, now that I’ve told an incredibly long story, I’d like to get to the review.

The children in the story, Lidia and Ana, are sisters. The story, told from Ana, the younger sister’s point of view, begins on Christmas day as they are making tamales. Ana, who is two years younger than Lidia, laments the fact that Lidia always gets the chance to do everything before she does. Ana is soooo mad. She’s six now, and she gets to mix the cornmeal, but Lidia gets to spread the dough on the corn husk leaves.

Taken directly from the site: http://www.gwenworld.com/tamales.html

[A]na wishes that she was eight, so that her hands were big enough to spread the dough just right–not too thick and not too thin.”

And so the years pass, and Ana turns eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen. But every year, big sister Lidia is always two years older. Ana envies her elder sibling and wishes she could do what Lidia does: put just the right amount of meat inside the tamales and roll them up; steam the tamales without scalding herself with the hot, hot steam; chop and cook the meat for the tamales without cutting or burning her hands.

When she turns eighteen, though, Ana knows she will keep making tamales and she will be able to do all of the steps herself in her very own factory. What happens after that? I guess you’re going to have to read it to see for yourself. Buy it or check it out at your local library.

This book was a great read with a rhythmic text that flowed nicely. The illustrations were very bright and colorful; very eye catching. I would put the age range at 2-100 years. Everyone would enjoy this book. I did. My students did also. One of the reasons why- Everyone needs to see themselves in a book. Yesterday, they did. I plan on buying many more books with Hispanic-centered themes.

What’s Working For Me in Math!!

For math, this is how I do it; this is what’s working for me. I begin with the whole class as a group. I then explain the assignment to the whole class, model it while checking for understanding, then break out into groups. Since there are 10 students, I take the lower half of students, while my assistant takes the higher half. I set the timer for 30 minutes. Once the timer runs out, we come back together and discuss what was right and/or wrong, and to check for understanding.

Lastly come IWT, which is called III (Intensive Instructional IEP Intervention) in Special Ed., during which time I work with those students needing extra help. This is also the time to work on IEP math goals.

This is working like gangbusters for me. If this will work for you, use it!

The Blending Method That Works For Me!!!

My students are fantastic at blending. I’m not kidding. I am so proud of them. If you walked into my class off the street, you would not know that my class was a Special ed. class.

The blending method I’ve been using is “vowel first” blending. This week, we are working on long vowels, specifically long “e” spelled ea. So, this is how I do it, just in case you don’t know. One of our spelling words was meal. So, before we began blending, I went over the long vowels Sound Spelling cards, paying a lot of attention to the long “e” spelled “ea”.

My next step was to go to the board and write _ea_ . I remind them that we are working on the long “e” sound. Long “e” says its name, e,e,e. I then ask for the sound. Once they tell me that it’s “e”, I add the last letter “l”. I cover the “ea”. If they get stuck, I remind them that it’s the lion card and that it says -ul when it’s at the end of the word. So, they tell me e-ul. The next step is to add the “m”. I cover the -eal, and ask for the sound. M-e-ul. Meal.

I was blending another way and it just wasn’t working, so I decided to try this and it is working out great. My students’ confidence is soaring. I’ve started mainstreaming my two 5th graders, the two 3rd graders and the lone 2nd grader, Nu. I keep and teach the 4th graders.

Nu is so proud of himself that he is going to another class for Open Court. He’s actually very excited. So excited, in fact, that he asks to go there in the morning. He can barely wait.

Barack Obama Elected President of the United States!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot believe this. I am absolutely stunned. Is this really happening? Has a Black man actually been elected President of the United States??????? Yes, it is true. History has just been made. Tears are welling up in my eyes as I write this. I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime. Maybe not even my children’s lifetime.

I thought that when it happened, racial tensions would not be like it is today. Recently, I saw (on the internet) a man with a t-shirt that said:

“N*****, it’s the White House.” Yet, he won anyway. I am so amazed. I am now wondering what the future holds. What indeed? I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to it.

Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hooray For The Time Change!

I love the “Falling Back” time change. Everything seems to move so slowly in a good way. I have more time with my family. I seem to have more time to teach. It seems like I even have more time in the morning. I don’t rush as much as I do when I “Spring Forward”. Hooray for the time change. I look forward to it every year.

Are You Going To Prove Them Right or Wrong???

“Are you going to prove them right or wrong?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” they asked.

Well, some people say that Special Ed. students:

• can’t learn
• can’t behave
• can’t stand in line properly
• can’t get along with other students
• etc..

I named a list of things as they sat there not believing that I was voicing what others thought but didn’t say.

“Well, are you?” I asked.

“No!!!” they said.

I want you to prove them wrong. I want you to prove to them that students in Sp. Ed. can learn; that you can stand in line properly; that you can get along with other students. Lil’ Man & Walter proved them wrong by raising their test scores +91 & +96 points in Math & +56 or more in English/Language Arts. Their test scores were higher than some of the general ed. students.

So, prove them wrong by acting right, doing your work, getting along with others, lining up in a straight line, and behaving yourself.

“So, once again,” I said, “are you going to prove them right or wrong?”

“Wrong!!!!!” they said.