Back to School...Back to School...To Prove to Dad That I'm Not A Fool!

Ok, so I know I didn't blog alllllll summer (#sorrynotsorry) but let's see if we can start this school year off right. I've been in my classroom since August 1 trying to make it look just right and didn't officially start back until the 15th. But that's ok, because by the time we officially started back, my room was 80% done and I was able to focus more on the team meetings and planning aspect. Was I prepared for the first day of school today? Can I get a big NOPE! I felt totally unprepared this morning as students came strolling into my room at 7:40- BUT everyone ate, told me they didn't want to go home, and went home with the right people- so I'm calling it a successful day! Of course, I completely forgot to take any pictures of my classroom before the kids got there...so I took them this afternoon (pardon the supply bag mess- I promise, all the supplies are organized and stowed away now). Enjoy my 2016-2017 2nd grade class reveal!

This is what I started with....just a pile of stuff everywhere. And some of it belonged to the teacher that was in there before me (who was in Jamaica at the time...). It was a pain working around her stuff because I didn't know what she was going to be taking with her or leaving behind.

This was the first project I tackled (with my best friend's help- HI MICHELLE!). I love portable word walls for so many reasons, but their space-savingness (yes, I made that up) takes the top spot! And as Michelle can attest- this took a lot longer than any sane person would have spent on it...I mean about 4 hours (with a lot of taking it down and putting it back up to make the spacing line up). Trust me when I say my best friend is better than yours. :)

Writing area! This will be a Daily 5 rotation area with plenty of writing papers for students to write whatever their hearts' desire.

Cozy little reading nook. My students are already arguing over who is going to sit where (which being the first day of school, I'll ignore...but tomorrow- no arguing!) The supply buckets will hold any and all materials that my students will need for an Daily 5 rotations (or modified Daily 5 as it will most likely end up being)

Small group reading. Ignore my mess of supplies, please!

Classroom library (I promise I have color-coordinated boxes on the way!) and what will be Learning Scales (Please, don't even get me started on those things :( )

Front of the room with WBT rules, thinking maps, objectives, and a Mimio (*squee!!*). My desk area is off to the left of this picture.

Gathering area. We use this for calendar math, read-alouds, and during Daily 5 rotations for quiet reading areas. Also, my 1:1 technology cart (*double squee!*).

Book Boxes and my "Jazzy Work" wall. I love, love, love how this wall turned out and can't wait to start putting up my students' best work! :)

It was a lot of sweat and tears (thankfully no blood), but it's done. The kids love it and it's home now. On a side note- they told me they didn't want to go home today (and my incredibly-hard-to-reach-been-warned-about-this-kid-by-numerous-adults student told another teacher he likes me!) so I must have done something right with them (or it could be the fact that I let them play with play-dough this afternoon lol).

Finally- a Schedule!

It's September 16th and we've just now gotten a final schedule nailed down. This, unfortunately, is completely typical.  Schedules are a nightmare for us. In all we spend about 24-30 hours creating, revising, changing, changing again, changing a third time, adding in something else, and then hitting the save and print buttons on our schedule. It's utterly exhausting.

Let me just start with telling you how many different people are involved in this: 2 teachers, 1 mainstream teacher (this varies from year to year),1 itinerant teacher (who works with 3 different schools and doesn't come on Wednesdays), 1 speech/language pathologist (who works with our cluster, the ASD cluster, and a pre-k class), 1 family counselor (who works with 2 different schools and is here only 2 days a week), 1 occupational therapist (again, only here 2 days a week), 2 paras, 1 general education teacher (to pair up with for specials), 1 interpreter (this varies depending on needs), and 11 students (this varies from year to year). Can you understand now when I say that schedules are a freaking nightmare?!

So let's start with the beginning (those things we can't control). We come back to a finalized lunch and specials schedule. Yay. Not- it usually doesn't work and then we have to beg to get it changed. Luckily this year it wasn't too bad- just a switch from the teacher we were supposed to pair up with to a different teacher to pair up with. So no big deal.

Then we have to work around the mainstream teacher's schedule (because God forbid they work around our schedules). I miss the good old days when our former Assistant Principal used to ask us first about what times we'd like lunch and specials...This year we have 4th grade mainstream students. And the 4th grade team has a schedule that is the complete opposite of everyone else in the school- they do reading in the afternoons in order to have a complete 90 minute block...which means that things are messed up for us here in the cluster. Normally both classes do reading in the morning because we can make better groups that way (and that's when the itinerant teacher is here). But not this year. I have reading in the morning and the other class has reading in the afternoon because that's when the mainstream kids come back here for ELA help. That made things really hard for everyone else because we're not allowed to pull students from their ELA block for anything other than reading. And math is being taught first thing in the morning and we can't pull from that subject either.

So, now the itinerant teacher can't see the mainstream kids because she leaves before they come back to us, and we end up pulling the others from their academics. Definitely not ideal. The rest of her schedule was relatively easy to figure out. But her not coming on Wednesdays really blows. It means that the small groups I normally have in my room become whole class and it's a mess.

The speech/language pathologist goes to the ASD cluster in the mornings because that's when we usually teach reading. And she gets built into the rotations in their schedule so it's imperative that she's over there every morning. For me that's fine because it's my reading block and I already have the itinerant teacher helping with groups. But it ends up that the SLP has to pull from the afternoon reading block (shhhh) for one other kid and have a before school speech group with the mainstream kids. Luckily she's awesome and flexible.  :)

Now on to OT and counseling. Our family counselor is just as awesome as our SLP and she's incredibly flexible. She eats lunch with the kids and generally works with them whenever she can. Our OT is great too. She tries her best to fit our kids in at decent times (during their centers or recess if necessary). This year all of this has worked out for me! :)

Each class is assigned one para and that makes their schedules easy too as we just have to arrange a half hour lunch and a half hour break sometime during the day for them. Easy peasy. The interpreter follows the mainstream kids' schedule and then because they're in with the other teacher in the afternoon she's able to go with my students to specials and interpret for them. That's a good thing because it's really hard to ask for another interpreter for just a half hour a day. Like, impossible- seriously won't happen. So that actually worked out in my favor this year- unlike previous years where we've been forced to send a K-2 class to specials with 3rd graders because that's when the interpreter was available. Not cool.

And of course we have our own classes to schedule. I have 6 students in Kindergarten-Second grade. Talk about scheduling troubles. All of them are on standards (though some shouldn't be) which means I have to expose them to grade level materials. Tell me how to do that with a second grade student who functions at about 3-4 years. :( Luckily (this really is my lucky year) my 6 students divided up decently into 2 groups. Both working on a Kindergarten level, but one a little higher up.

All in all, I got really lucky this year. My scheduling was relatively simple. And now that everything is settled, it seems to be working for all involved. :) Below is the final schedule for me, the SLP, the itinerant teacher, and the family counselor. What's not listed is OT times, para schedules, and the other class' schedule...good grief.

I sincerely hope you all have a much easier time with your schedules at the beginning of the year. I wouldn't wish this nightmare on anyone :)

Classroom Reveal!

Whoop-whoop! I'm so excited to be linking up with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie from Lucky Little Learners once again this month! And this month is a great topic- one I know we are all dying to hop around and look through each other's blogs at- CLASSROOM REVEALS! This is quite possible my favorite time of year. All the classrooms look so cute, friendly, and inviting to begin with...and then our kiddos show up and destroy get comfortable in our space. Such is life. :)

Before we get going, I think some basic information about my teaching situation is in order- I teach a very specific type of special needs student: deaf/hard of hearing. This means that I have a small class (only 6 this year!) and a specially designed room. There's carpet on the floors and walls to absorb sound so nothing echos which messes up what they hear in their hearing aids. I also have specialized lighting in order to reduce glare. But I have NO emergency lighting and that's always fun when we're under a code red and the blinds are shut. Pitch black. And kids who depend on being able to see me. Always a good time. I try my best to arrange my room so that I have maximum open space so that I can see my students and they can see me when I try to get their attention.

I think that about covers it, so, let's get this party started!

Here is my entire classroom from a corner up front. As you can see, I have an odd shaped room. It's honestly not conducive to an environment where constant eye contact needs to be maintained. But I work with what I've got. I only have 6 students so seating arrangements are relatively easy.
Anybody want to take a guess at the one thing that drives me absolutely insane every minute of every day I spend in this room? Anyone? The clock! It makes me nuts that it's always behind my head...and as if that weren't bad enough, there's a light that goes across the top of the whiteboard/SmartBoard so it's 3-D which completely HIDES the clock from my sight even if I turn around. How insane is that? I use my phone for everything since I can't see the clock (and then usually get in trouble for having my phone out when an administrator walks into my room...*sigh*)!

And here's my room from the back corner. That bulge above the whiteboard is much clearer in this picture. And let me just tell you how many people come into my room through the door (the one with the window) and then try to go out through the other one (and end up in my tiny closet). Always good for a chuckle. Hopefully with the center/manipulative storage unit that won't be a problem any longer. :) I'm also lucky enough to have a mounted projector for my SmartBoard so I don't have a bunch of extra wires and an A/V cart in the middle of my room (that came after tons of begging and pleading for about a year!). But, I'll admit, that sometimes it would be nice to be able to move my SmartBoard since it takes up about a third of the whiteboard.

Here's my classroom from the front. Textbooks and Journals are kept in the blue bins, the pockets on the tables are for our reward system. The door leads into the 3rd-5th grade Deaf/Hard of Hearing classroom.

Here's an up close look at my word wall. Love, love, love the new headers I made (and I love monkeys too! lol). :) I use an interactive word wall. Students are allowed to take the ring of words off any hook and go back to their seats to write the words they need. Then the come back and put it away. This year, I'm planning on using the word wall more during center rotations and our writing block. :)

Next to my word wall is my student work display. Those are the two boards I'm required to have...which is a good thing because in a room this small I only have room for these two boards. Those feather boas and two masks are authentic...bought somewhere on Bourbon Street (or a side street tourist shop. I can't remember anymore) in New Orleans. I had another student added to my roster since this picture was taken so now there's 6 pieces of yellow paper. On the first day of school I have my kids color a paper with their name typed up to add to the papers. They love knowing where their Jazzy Work will be displayed all year! :) I haven't really decided what I'll be using the long table for this year, though I'm hoping to get some computers in my room (*fingers and toes crossed!*) and that's where those will go.

Over here in a little alcove is where I'm going to teach reading. In the past I've taught it at the big table up front, but I never came up with a good solution for storing the materials. They were always kept back here on the countertop. And for the past five years I've had a nurse in my classroom all day for a medically frail child. Nurse would set herself up at this round table so she'd be out of the way. Well this year, she finally moved to the other class so I have my round table back! Yay! So I'm going to try it out and see if it's better to teach from back here. Being back here also gives me eyes into my reading area that I don't have from the front of the room which will be great for the few times I'll have more than 3 students in my room during this time. **Just as an aside- scheduling in our 3 rooms (2 teachers and 1 SLP) is a complete nightmare!!! It usually works out that because I have the younger, less mature students that need more adult help I rarely have all my students in my room at any one time without an aide. I'll make sure to do a post about what our scheduling nightmare looks like at a future date**

Also you can see where my kiddos Brag Tags will be displayed. This is the first year I'm going to try this and I really, really hope they understand this concept!

Across the room is my reading area. Again, I work with what I've got. :) My students are unable to pick appropriate books for themselves nor are they really able to read so they each get a box of books with their name on it and I rotate out the books about every 2 weeks. I have a bunch of books stored in the tall cabinet. They're usually pretty good about only looking at the books in their box or that are available on the shelves. See that rocking chair? Yea, that was mine from when I was about 2. And I can still fit in it...albeit a little sideways. But still, that counts for something, right? :)

This year I actually have built in calendar time!! So it's displayed here and we gather on the carpet around here to do our daily calendar routine. I got sick and tired of the same boring green and orange squares so I created my own calendar squares. Now I don't want to puke every time I look at it. The beanbags were not my choice. I'm just sayin'. These were the brilliant solution of my AP who thought that it would solve some of the behavior issues I had/have (he's gotten much better in the past year) with a student. My AP thought that when he got frustrated or needed a sensory break he'd be able to come over here and lay down for a few minutes to recuperate...Well, I knew that was NOT what was going to happen, but who am I to argue with the AP? I just wish she would have asked me first because I could have given her much better ideas of things to get. Anyway, the first time this student got frustrated he was led over here and told to relax for a few minutes. I turned around to head back to the front to keep teaching and a beanbag chair went flying past me. Yea...Nowadays he doesn't throw them, but he doesn't relax on them either... :-/

Last but not least, over by the closet, is my alphabet and schedule. I got sick and tired of posting the alphabet to the light box thing above the whiteboard and coming in every morning to find it on the floor because NOTHING sticks in these dusty, humid, moldy rooms. And by the end of the year the strips would be destroyed from falling down every night and curling up on the bottom because they're too wide for the thingy...So this was the solution I came up with and I haven't heard any complaints, yet. :) My schedule- once the kids arrive- contains their objective for each subject and eventually a small clock showing the time (it's on my never ending to-do list).

So, that's my classroom. I didn't think anyone wanted to see my TINY closet complete with a Signing Exact English (completely outdated and no one uses exact english anymore) book from 1973 that I'm NOT ALLOWED to get rid of. I've already asked. There's a bunch more crap in their that I'm not allowed to get rid of either and it makes me crazy since I have limited storage space to begin with. But, like I said, I work with what I've got. 

Bulletin Boards!

I'm linking up with Ashley of Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie from Lucky Little Learners for their #2getherwearebetter link-up. This month's topic is BULLETIN BOARDS! Ahh! The dreaded (or in my case not-so-dreaded) bulletin board.

Most teachers hate them. And, to be honest, I don't particularly enjoy taking them down and putting them up, but- I mostly love them! I'm probably the only teacher in my school that refuses to do the same boring ("Poet-tree" or "Said is Dead" anyone?!) hallway bulletin boards year after year. Now, to be fair, I have the same students for up to 5 years in a row (that's special ed. for ya) so I basically CAN'T have the same bulletin board every year. But, even if I could, I wouldn't. Call me crazy, but it's kind of one the only times that we can really let loose and go a little crazy. Do something outside the box, off the pacing guides, dare I say it- FUN?!

Inside my classroom I only have 2 smallish bulletin boards and they're already allotted as a word wall and a work display board (as mandated). My classroom theme is monkeys so my word wall is titled, "Ape for Words" and my work board is titled, "Jazzy Work" (I have a kind of Mardi Gras theme going with this board including real masks and boas straight from New Orleans). Those boards stay the same year after year (though to be honest, I'm so sick of them. But the bank account tells me they have to keep plugging along).

For some background- I started this blog last school year around this time and I've tried to keep up with it. But I had some serious issues I was dealing within my class and couldn't really maintain it until around Dec/Jan. I'm hoping this year will be better. Also, I have to share the only bulletin board with another teacher so we alternated when it was time to change it. So, to make a long story short, I don't have many pictures of most of my bulletin boards. :( I do have some though. :) Oh yea, my bulletin board is painted blue (makes it easier than having to change the paper all the time) but it doesn't always color-coordinate. And I don't go back to school until August 17th, so I don't have my bulletin boards for this year up- yet...anyway, here ya go:

Thanks to Lori at Teaching With Love and Laughter for her fantastic FREEBIE for this bulletin board. In fact, the whole lesson came from her blog post, I just spruced up the display a little bit :)

Love that I was able to reuse the fence (Shh- it's in one of my cabinets so I have it for this year too, if necessary :D). This bulletin board was differentiated for my kiddos because they're all on vastly different levels. Some flowers have prefixes and suffixes, ways to make numbers, and some have color words. The kites have ten frames with teen numbers. Then I printed some clipart from Krista Wallden at Creative Clips to add some extras. :)

I did this one year for back to school. Still one of my favorites!

I found this one on Pinterest one year.

I also did this one year at the beginning of the year. Only I made crayons out of paper as I couldn't find 3-D ones, nor did I want the hassle of figuring out how to hang them.  :)

Again, from pinterest.

I did a take of this one for the beginning of this past year. Since I teach deaf kids, this made perfect sense. Since I teach the same group of kids for multiple years I changed the title to "We love having you back!" with the I love you hands. I was lucky enough to have an awesome interpreter help me with it (I'm looking at you, Michelle!).

Honestly not even sure where this came from. Probably Pinterest.

Since I don't go back to work until August 17th, I haven't figured out what I'm gonna do for the beginning of the year this year. I guess I should start looking around though, huh? And when it's up and pretty I'll be sure to do a follow-up post with more pictures :)

Thanks for stopping by! Can't wait to hop around and see everyone else's boards!

#SpedChatSaturday Back to School Edition

Today is the first #SpedChatSaturday and I'm so excited for this! I think it's a great way to get the world of Special Ed. out in the open for all to see and learn about. Thanks goes to Ashley at Lattes, Lesson Plans, and IEPs for hosting the first week's topic.

So let's get down to business...to defeat the Huns. {Mulan reference, anyone?}

Let's start with 5:

I don't go back to school until August 17th (thankfully) so I'm really not ready to tackle any of this. However, I usually go back a few weeks before and get started with at least arranging my room. At my school there are 2 deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) teachers, 1 speech/language teacher (SLP), 1 itinerant teacher, 1 family counselor, 1 occupational therapist (OT),  (1 only this year!) mainstream teachers, and 14 (I think) students. This makes for a lot of scheduling NIGHTMARES! Seriously, there was a year where we took a combined total of 25 hours to create a workable schedule that then changed 4x before the first week of school was over. It's an absolutely horrendous task that I dread every year. The OT, SLP, and family counselor, and itinerant teacher all work with other students and/or at other schools so we have limited flexibility with their schedules. Plus, our students work on so many different levels that it's hard to create good groups for academics. Most years the schedule is tolerable but never ideal. Here's hoping there's one schedule year coming up though...

The first week I go back is dedicated to teacher planning (yay!) but I'm in so many meetings that all-in-all I end up with about 2 1/2-3 actual days of prep. And on top of that, I have to have my room ready by 10am on Friday because of Kindergarten orientation... That's another reason I try to get back into my room early. If my room is at least partially set-up before August17, then that makes things that much easier.

Organization is my thing. I live for it. My room and everything in it is completely organized by the time school starts...and then the first few weeks go by and I get lazy. :( And then I get annoyed that I never seem to be organized anymore. So I work on it, and then the cycle repeats itself...

But, in all honesty, these four things are vital to making the school year run smoothly. I keep *tons* of post-it notes all over my room to make lists of things I need to do. And then I cross them off as they get down. Every teacher planning or early release day I take time to file. I have individual folders for each student to put IEP paperwork into. Then it gets filed into their individual IEP folder kept in a locked file cabinet. I have binders all over the place filled with different things- master copies, IEP at-a-glance pages, student data, etc...it makes it easier for me to find things when I need them. Seriously, get yourself some binders and get stuff organized- it'll be so much easier to stay organized- in fact those are the few things that actually STAY organized throughout the year. :)

What I wouldn't give for the three things mentioned above. Seriously. Hands-down, these are the 3 things that make me want to give up every year. I have some serious behavior issues in my room from students not labeled anything other than DHH. When I say behavior issues I mean being punched in the face, kicked, sexually assaulted, groped, plus other things. It means DAYS spent dealing with this student at the expense of the other students (to the point where they literally cower and hide when this student walks in the room). And all of this is ok with my administration because I work in a self-contained special needs class. It's perfectly ok for these students to act like this- so I'm expected to accept it. Seriously. I cannot begin to tell you how upset ANGRY I get when that's the response I get from not only my school administration but from district personnel as well. We've tried everything within our rights in the classroom (PBIP, removal, suspension, etc.) to get the behavior under control- but nothing seems to work.

I digress...anyway, if these three things were under control I could focus on my students' needs a lot better and maybe actually teach once in a while.

Use a planner. I can't stress it enough. It's a great way to keep track of all those meetings (and we all know there's a ton of them), due dates, field trips, etc. I LOVE planners. Love. Love. Love.

Have a plan- delegate the important to-dos to the top of your lists and make sure they get done first, have a short list of things that MUST be done by the end of that day and make sure it gets done, ignore social media (I'm so guilty of not doing this). Step 1 is admitting you have a problem, right? Seriously. Addicted to my phone and computer. I'm really going to try and be better about this.

I promise to teach with fidelity. I mean serious-don't-give-a-crap-about-pacing-guides-or-test-questions fidelity. I'm so tired of hearing "I need them 3rd grade ready" {3rd grade is our state-mandated retention grade if they don't pass the test}. I can't put the cart before the horse. Can't. Won't. I'm done. I teach kids that are behind in all areas- the biggest of which being communication and incidental learning. They need to have fun. Hands-on learning. And if that means taking 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years (no, really, I'm going on 2 years of teaching some kids to count to 10 with 1:1 correspondence) to teach about nouns or counting or volcanos or whatever, then so be it.

So that's it folks. Feel free to leave comments with your thoughts. I love comments. :)