Snow, snow, go away!

A snow day here and there is always a pleasant surprise, but this is getting a bit extreme. It looks like our 'normal' routine will have to wait until March to resume.

With all of the snow days and long weekends, it's important to keep your student's routine consistent. Bedtime, wake time, etc all should remain somewhat the same. This makes their transitions back to school much better. Keep a close watch of their diets and activity, as well as necessary medications, etc. All of these factors make them feel much better and function much better at home and at school.

Thank you for your help in this matter! I hope you are all enjoying the snow as much as you can. It's always nice to get notes of what the students do at home, in the snow, etc.. We often ask them questions and that helps a lot!

February, all ready!?!

Soon and very soon all of your IEPs will be due. Three of which we already have in process.... keep your eyes on your home to school logs for reminders of due dates, and meeting date conversation. If I have met with you for an IEP I do not need to see you at conferences.

Third and fourth graders are currently involved in wrapping up alternate assessments. This is a way for them to be assessed by the state in lieu of taking the sit down pencil and paper test. Alternate assessments are made up of more hands on student specific tasks monitored and made by myself. Each year when the assessment page states alternate assessment this is what it is referring to.

Coughing, sneezing, yucks...

Each year at this time I send a reminder about illnesses at school. Please bare in mind how dependent your student is on the staff when you are deciding whether or not to send them to school. We work very hard trying to teach them to get a tissue independently when needed and use it correctly. Also, covering mouths and washing hands. Many of the students are very resistant to a lot of this which tells us that aren't expected to do it as often at home. Please help us in these matters to keep all of the students and staff healthy.
Remember school policy is to keep students home 24 hrs AFTER the break of a fever.

Because we have seen a lot of the coughs and sneezes, we're once again running low on tissues, clorox wipes, wet wipes, etc. Please donate what you can.

Communication in the classroom....that can be used at home

As many of you are aware we use a lot of pictures in our classroom. Many of which are for the use of Picture Exchange Communication, four out of our seven students have a 'PECS' book and use it every day in the classroom.They are able to use it to tell us what they want and need, as well as what pieces they would like for a project, to respond to simple questions, the opportunities are endless. The students are at various phases of the program. Some are able to create long sentences using articles and adjectives, such as 'I see 2 green frogs', or 'I need 2 blue squares please'. Where others are giving just one picture to communicate. But, all are initiating to pull off the picture and give it to a facilitator without prompts.

Recently, myself and three other colleagues wrote a grant to receive communication equipment. We were able to get two communication devices for my room and three official PECS books, a lesson plan book, a picture for pecs cd, and a instructional DVD for the PECS program.

THANK YOU MARTHA HOLDING JENNINGS FOUNDATION!

If your student is using PECS and you would be interested in transitioning this to your home, please let me know and you may borrow our dvd to watch to get you started. We are willing and excited to help create the home books with pictures and all. The start up cost is around $30, for all materials. It is a very powerful program that has helped the students make tremendous progress.

The Holidays are upon us!

Can you believe it is already December! This year has been a whirlwind trying to get adjusted to the new building and for me a lot of new paperwork (new IEP forms, progress notes every 5 weeks, etc).

Here we are in December and I'm proud of all of my students so far this year. They have each made a lot of progress already this year!

December 1st we were busy decorating our room for the holidays. We put up our Christmas tree, made elves and started our countdown to the break!

Technology is a wonderful thing!

So far so great at Toll Gate! The kids have adjusted wonderfully to the school year. Everyone has made a great amount of progress already this year.

Some of the instructional tools I use in my classroom are the Funnix Reading Program, News-2-you, and Intellitools Classroom Suite, among many others. All three of these are multi-faceted and incorporate technology.

Funnix is a research based reading program that is a Cd-rom that we have been displaying on the large screen in the classroom, the students take turns hold the pointer to come up and point to certain things I ask of them. For some it may be pointing to a picture, others are identifying letters, letter sounds, or even sounding out words and listening comprehension. Once we complete the computer portion 10-20min, there is a simple worksheet to complete that is demonstrated for them. You'll see these in the graded work folders. It has been working great and we are seeing a lot of growth from it.

News-2-you is an online 'magazine' that I print out each week for the students. It is available in four different levels, with three different levels of worksheets that go with it. We read these as a group using our 'reading fingers' as our guide, following along as our 'readers' or myself read. The students are usually asked to find certain pictures and words and circle or color them. The worksheets are used in the work stations (independent work) or at their desks. These worksheets will also been seen in the graded work folders, you'll notice that they follow the same format each week using different pictures, words, and numbers. This consistency is something most students thrive on.

Another interactive tool I've been using is Classroom Suite, again displayed on the white board, however this program has activities for all subject areas and thematic units. We've been using it a lot for math and for thematic activities.

Each student has been so motivated to be part of the group whether sitting on the floor or on a ball chair, or clasrsoom chair, they are sitting wonderfully and attending to the activity.

TECHNOLOGY IS A WONDERFUL THING!

We are so blessed to be in this new facility, this is just one reason why.

Our New Room!!

By now you should have received your letter, especially if you are checking this.  I thought it may be helpful to post a few pictures of our new room for you to show your kids.  

The view from the door to the hallway. 

You can see the door to the bathroom to the right of the bulletin board.

Computer/Listening area and our windows!! (we had none at Fairfield)

A small group table near the door.

Student cubbies.

Group table to the left you can see one of the four 'work stations'

'Teacher time', my desk, leveled readers, and file folder game storage

Play/Sensory area, the door is the 'quiet room', bean bags, trampoline, etc is inside.

See you all Monday between 2:30 and 3:30 at Toll Gate Elementary for meet the teacher.  Our room is F51, turn right coming in the front of the building at the end of that hallway turn right and we are the first room on the right.

HAPPY SUMMER!

I can't believe it is August again. I hope you have all enjoyed your summer vacations as much as I have. We've been camping in our 1976 RV a few times, spent time in Hocking Hills, many trips to the zoos, parks and libraries, the Irish Festival and the State Fair. Preston is 8 months old, crawling and starting to babble. Emarie is almost 4 and gearing up for pre-school this fall. She keeps asking 'is it fall yet?'. :)

We have been told that we might get in to the new building the week of the 17th. I'm trying not to get nervous about the whole thing....but we had a ton of boxes!

I will be sending out my back 2 school letter with school supplies. This year...just look at your grade level list.. I will only need some baby wipes, clorox/lysol wipes, tissues, baggies (both sizes), and a photo album (even you veterans to my room, your child's albums are getting full) from each of you.

This will also be linked here, calendar, school supplies, my letter, etc, so check back.

Having my materials packed up and out of my hands has made so I haven't worked this summer, which is very weird to me. However, nice because I've gotten a lot of reading done which never happens. I'm going to make a list here of recommended reading, as most of what I read had to do with special needs.

I can't wait to see all of you!