A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes- and a goal too. :)

It's Tuesday! That means it's time for:

Sadly, this is the last week for Tell-All Tuesday. So we're going out with a bang! This week's topic is:

A wish, a goal, and a dream for this school year...where to begin? 

Goal: To make learning fun. My goal is to forget about what the pacing guides say and focus on my students' needs. Make sure they're learning and having fun. I don't think much more needs to be said about that. :)

Wish: Ok, perhaps this one needs some explaining. I teach special needs students which means I don't have a full class size. This creates a problem for classroom materials and supplies. Why? Because the higher-ups- in their infinite wisdom- decided that they're only willing to order materials in sets of 18 (class size mandates). If you don't have 18 students they won't order you a class set. Which means no teacher materials or student materials. Nothing, nada, zero zilch, nil...you get the point. So what do I spend my planning days doing every year? Scrounging. That's right, I spend the precious little time I have to get read going from classroom to classroom begging for spare materials. And then I go searching in the back of the library for leftovers from previous years (which means I'm using OUTDATED materials)...and on the off chance that I do get a current set of anything I have to make sure I don't get attached because if there's a new teacher or student that comes in guess where they get their materials from. That's right, me. Bye-bye teacher's editions. Bye-Bye student editions. 

"Wait! It's all online, I can just go look it up and get whatever I need on their website!?" Why didn't I think of that- oh wait. I did. And guess what- their website doesn't work on this decrepit laptop. And they don't have the big books online so I guess I'll just make those up as I go along...Guess I'm back to square one.

So I'm sure you can see why this is a wish of mine. Just one year to actually get the materials my students and I deserve to have!

Dream: I currently have Donorschoose project in desperate need of funding! I have no student technology in my classroom. NONE. I have an IWB for me to use during lessons (and my kiddos get to interact with it) but that's it. In my school each grade level is assigned one laptop cart with 18-20 computers. The teachers on each grade level rotate the cart for their lessons as needed. But I don't teach on any one grade level...so where's my (or the sped classes in general) cart? Sure, I could "borrow" the cart from another grade...when they tell me it's ok- which mostly isn't at a time when I need them. And honestly, the laptops on the carts are even more ancient than the one I'm using everyday...there's not a lot that actually works  on them internet wise. I'm hoping to get ONE iPad in my classroom. ONE. That's it. If I can get just one I'm already way better off than I am now. I plan to rotate my students on a schedule to allow them to interact with this technology and use it to enhance their learning. If I can ever get it funded. None of my projects seems to get enough funding. :( Hence why this is a dream of mine for this school year. Fingers crossed!

Thanks goes out to Diana at My Day In K and Jayme at Teach, Talk Inspire for deciding on such great topics to talk about this summer! I look forward to the next link up topic you two decide on.  :)