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 And then I go searching in the back of the library for leftovers from previous years (which means I'm using OUTDATED materials)...and on the off chance that I do get a current set of anything I have to make sure I don't get attached because if there's a new teacher or student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.  :)

My Dream Classroom

It's Tuesday! Another Tell-All Tuesday! Yay!

This week's topic is

My dream classroom?! 

For starters, it would be about twice the size of my current classroom. Since I teach special education I have a much smaller class size than a general education class. So I have a much smaller classroom. And it sucks. There's nowhere to put anything and we all sit on top of each other. I have no real space to create separate learning areas which really drives me crazy. My students all work on independent centers and I have no way to separate them without them getting distracted by others. The nice thing about my classroom is that it's completely carpeted (floor and walls) and has special lighting all of which reduces the glare and echo so my Deaf and Hard of Hearing students are able to better learn. And I have a SmartBoard (which when I started teaching wasn't that common). Those are things I wouldn't trade!

So yes, a bigger classroom with more storage and work space is a must. Then I want it completely done in a monkey theme. Anyone who knows me knows I have a thing for monkeys.

Picture from The Creative Chalkboard

I have a lot of monkey stuff all over my room to begin with, but there's a lot I can't do because we have a really strict fire marshall who yells at us over everything (including the door stop I use to prop open the door while we're at recess!)

I'd also want to be able to arrange desks in an ideal format for deaf students such as this:

Picture from chancetohear.blogspot.com

Again, having no space in my room doesn't allow for this. :(

I also have an intense need to be organized and clean. I need everything in its place (or at least hidden away lol). Every May I spend a week or so cleaning and reorganizing my cabinets. And every May I bemoan the fact that I have NO storage space!! My closet is filled with crap that I'm not allowed to get rid of but have never used in the 8 years I've been teaching (I mean there's a book on Signing Exact English  {which no one uses anymore} from the 70s- and I can't throw it away!) Ugh. Makes me nuts!

This is one of only 2 cabinets in my room

So in short, my dream classroom would have more space. And the ability to allow me to fully decorate and arrange for my students' needs. :)

Thanks again to My Day in K and Teach Talk Inspire for another great topic! I can't wait to hop around and see what everyone else's dream classroom looks like. I love comments so feel free to leave me some! :)

My Own Reality Show?!

It's Tuesday! You know what that means- another Tell-All Tuesday. This week's topic is what we'd call our own reality TV show. So here goes-

I admit, I never watch reality TV. I find it pointless and it really irritates me that many of these people get paid tons of money to act like jerks and idiots. To be honest, I don't watch TV. I watch a TON of movies and the only 2 shows I watch are The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones- which we don't even watch on TV- we stream them online because we don't have cable. And the only reason I watch those shows is because my boyfriend loves them and got me hooked on them. :)

It took me about 5 minutes to think of a title for my would-be reality show. So without further ado:

I am constantly saying stupid things and screwing up phrases. Then when I try to clarify, I tend to make it sound even worse. I don't do it intentionally- it's word vomit (Mean Girls reference, anyone?). It just comes out. I have a real problem with not thinking before talking. My boyfriend is constantly making fun of all the things I say like, "I'm full of hands" (which, for the record, I've said since I was about 2- and I'm fully aware that it's wrong, I've just been saying it that way for so long it's stuck) or "what's squared cubed?" in reference to numbering something...

As a matter of fact, I just looked over at Alan and asked him what was one of the stupider things I've said to him lately, and he just looked at me for a second and then said, "Just one? I have to think about that."

And that folks, is the reality of my life.  :)

Thanks again to My Day In K and Teach Talk Inspire for another great topic! I look forward to perusing everyone's blogs and reading any comments you may wish to leave for me. 

Top Ten

It's Tuesday! You know what that means- another Tell-All Tuesday Link up.

I love, love, love this topic! Thanks My Day in K and Teach, Talk, Inspire for another great topic!

Here is my Top Ten list of things teaching has taught me!

All of my items kinda go together. I teach a very specific branch of special education- deaf/hard of hearing. These are students that are often working below grade level and often have missed out on a lot of incidental learning because of lack of communication with parents and family members. Because of this, I've learned to be very patient. What takes a general education student one day to learn takes my kids one week to learn. It's a very slow process and because of that you learn to appreciate those small moments so much more. It also means that it takes a special person to be able to do this. My kiddies' parents will tell you that I most definitely am good enough for this job, but I think it's par for the course that I question myself almost daily. 

My administration doesn't help- they don't really understand these kids and so I'm constantly having to defend my classroom practices. There are so many times where I begin to teach a lesson and then realize that my students don't have the necessary background knowledge to even begin to understand what I'm talking about. So I put that lesson on hold and then backtrack to where they are...and the constant response from admin. that I get is "I need them 3rd grade ready for the FSA." My response is always "You can't put the cart before the horse. These kids are self-contained for a reason. If they were 3rd grade ready, I'd be looking for another job." Maybe that's harsh, but it's the reality. 

Please don't misunderstand, I love my job and my kids. But I also teach the same kids for usually 4 years in a row. It makes things a lot easier when the school year starts because I'm able to just pick up where we left off the previous year. But, I  NEED my summer breaks. They need their summer breaks. By the time January rolls around, we're over each other. 

One of the nice things about teaching these kids for so many years is that you develop a great relationship with the parents. They trust me and in turn that makes them more open and honest with me. It means I can be more honest and upfront with them too.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading my top ten. I can't wait to hop around and read up on others' top ten lists! Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Snapshot

It's Tuesday- that means another Tell-All Tuesday blog post! :)

This week's theme is Summer Snapshot. A favorite memory, spot, activity, etc. during summer. So here goes:

My boyfriend and I have 2 dogs- an almost 3 year old pitbull and an almost 1 year old mastiff mix (his genetics say there's no mastiff in him, but his face says otherwise lol). These are our babies:

Sapphire on the left and Cobalt (see those flaps!!) on the right.

The point of that picture is to say that my summer snapshot consists of spending tons of time with those two (and my boyfriend, of course). We try to take them to as many places as possible. Usually this means state parks where pitbulls are allowed and there's lots of shade. I live in South Florida, after all. It's freaking hot here, people! One of our favorite places to take the dogs is Hugh Birch State Park which is right across the street from the beach and backs up to the intercoastal. Best of both worlds. We take the dogs there and have them pull us on rollerblades and a skateboard (great exercise for them, wears them out for us) and then go across the street to some place on the beach and grab some lunch.

Gorgeous, right?

Doesn't get much better.

So that's what I spend most of my summer doing. Of course, it's really, really hot out so it doesn't happen every day. Some days we just spend inside, on the bed, hanging out. :)

Thanks for stopping by to see my summer snapshot! :)