EXPERTISE

I may not be an expert in education, but after fifteen years as a classroom teacher, nine of those with Special Education Certification, I do believe that I have some expertise in the area of how children learn, especially the children in my own classroom.  So if I work with a child for five months and see no growth, I know there is a problem. I have plenty of documentation to back it up. We must investigate and find out how that child learns best.  I hate that some parts of my beloved career have turned into a fight. I must and I will fight for my students. I just shouldn't have to. We should all be on the same page, working together to provide the best possible education for every child.  

Someone asked me why I bother?  It takes up my personal time and eats up my energy to fight for what a student needs. The answer is simple: what if he/she were my own child? I would want the best for my own child, so I must give the best to the children in my care.  It's as simple as that.

SIGHT WORDS

Sight words are vital to becoming a better reader!  I test my students using a Dolch sight word checklist several times a year, usually about every other month or so. There are 11 word lists, with 20 words on a list.  I use the checklist to keep track of what my students know, make word cards for the ones they missed, and put their current word list in their Take Home Folder for daily practice.  Sounds easy enough, but can be time-consuming to get it all done!

I have used this blue plastic school box for YEARS to hold my blank cards and sharpies!  I keep it on my Reading Table in case I need to make a new word card at any moment, and I take it home when it's time to make new ones for everyone.  I love this school box!  You can't buy them like this anymore!  It's very sturdy and hasn't cracked yet!

I have 27 students for Reading this year.  So this pile has 27 baggies with sight word cards!  While I know this is a very worthwhile use of my personal time, I am very glad I only have to do this a few times a year!  

100 DAY

100 Day was a busy and very fun day at school! I always plan too much for 100 Day because there are so many fun and exciting things to do!  I wore my 100 Day sweatshirt!  I've had it for awhile, but it's in great shape since it only gets worn one day a year!  It was a fun day for everyone to dress up!

Some of my students decorated shirts with 100 things as an optional family project.  We had a school-wide parade to show off their creativity.

On top of the traditional 100 Day counting activities, we also decorated crowns and made special glasses!  Students brought in 100 items to display on their desks for our 100 Day Museum.  I had intended to have the students fill in the "100" on their paper with the items they brought, but in the interest of time, we left the items in their baggies.

We ended the day with an edible project that the students just loved!  They counted out 100 pieces of Froot Loop cereal and then made a necklace!  You can read more about it on Math Teacher Tales:

100th Day of School on Math Teacher Tales

CHINESE NEW YEAR

2016 has been a very rough year for the staff at my school.  In the first five weeks of this new year, we had many, many staff members lose a loved one.  As we are a family, we mourn with those who mourn, and we mourn the ones we lost.

While eating lunch with my Kinder and Pre-K teacher friends, we got to talking about wishing this year could start over, or be done with really quickly, since it hasn't been going too well.  Then someone brought up that Chinese New Year was coming!  That's it!  We decided to start a new year!  So the staff at my school made big plans for Chinese New Year!

As with any celebration, there must be food!  Everyone brought something to share!  I brought mandarin oranges, which symbolize an abundance of happiness and prosperity.  I did buy them in self-serve cups so no one had to peel anything.  :)  Our PTA provided drinks.  The Hospitality Committee decorated the Staff Lounge.  The staff wore wear red to symbolize good luck.  As an added bonus, we got permission to wear jeans with our lucky red shirts!  Lucky indeed!

We found these cute take out boxes and put an individually wrapped fortune cookie inside.  Someone had donated flower seed packets to my school, so we had parents make red envelopes to put the seed packets inside to give to staff.  Usually red envelopes contain money, but since we're teachers, that just wasn't going to happen with 60 people on staff.  Instead, the seeds will symbolize spring and new growth.  The teachers can plant them in our school garden with their classes if they want!

I did plan a few activities with my students.  We read a book on Chinese New Year, learned the numbers 1-10 in Chinese, and made dragon masks.  It was a fun day for all!

Happy New Year!  May the Year of the Monkey be a good year for everyone!

EQUITY

When I moved up to third grade for two years, I had an epiphany when I had to complete an end-of-year report for my principal.  We had to put a check by every student who had ever been retained in a previous grade.  As I looked over the list of those students who had been retained in first or second grade, I noted that almost all of them were now either considered as having Special Needs, Dyslexia, or in the RTI process for Special Needs or Dyslexia testing.  Now that I am back in first grade, that really makes me think.

I have been Special Ed. Certified for many years, and last year received Dyslexia Identification training.  I currently have several students who are failing.  Before I think about retention, I have been working very hard to find their strengths and weaknesses.  I strongly feel that if you give a child the help they need when they are in the primary grades, they may not need help when they are older.  I believe that was the original intention of RTI/ Response to Intervention.  So I work very hard to find out what my students need to be successful, and try to get them the necessary support.

 Most of us have seen this meme on Equality vs Equity.  In Education, it's obvious that some children need more support than others.  It requires a great deal of extra work on the teacher to provide that equity.  Teachers have to stand up and be vocal about getting support for students who are struggling.

This week while I was working on this very thing, someone thanked me for working hard for a student.  I was a bit surprised by that.  After all, it's my job!  I made a joke about not wanting the next year's teacher to be upset with me for sending ahead students who weren't ready for Second Grade.  But once I thought about it, I realized that not all teachers work so hard for their students.  It should be such an easy process, but it's a long and hard road.  While I can't fix the process, I will continue to work through it, stay on course, and keep an eye out for the best interest of my students.  Every single one of them deserves the best education possible.