Teacher's Wish List

I am continuing to learn how to add detail to the blog. I am posting a link to Teacher's Wish List, which has several class wish lists for my classroom.

Visual Schedules

With the help of the paraprofessionals and a wonderful donation of colored ink from Donors Chose, I am creating new visual schedules for the classroom. Often we think of visual schedules as simply telling us what we are doing next, but they are and can be so much more than that. Anyone who has visited my classroom knows we are the recycling crew for Frank Long. I am in the process of implementing a visual schedule for each step of the recycling process. We have a center set up with color coded containers and signs outside of the classroom. To this we owe huge thank-you to Keith our custodian, he ordered us the new cans complete with lids and wheel bases. This enables the students to sort paper, plastic, ink cartridges and cardboard, sorting is a job skill for my classroom. Other great and wonderful news includes approval of fundraisers for the class which include; Funding Factory, My Coke Rewards, and Labels for Education. The goal of these in class fundraisers are to purchase needed supplies within the classroom such as textured paper for beginning writers, expo markers, laminate sheets, and the continuing supply of colored ink for making PECS cards and cues for visual schedules. The class finished their collaborative media festival project with Mrs. Busby's class, it is amazing. I would like to thank Mrs. Busby for going above and beyond with this project. I am just a little biased, but I hope our project wins. I think this would be the ultimate if the SWAT team won on their initial year. We are planning to order t-shirts at no cost to parents for the students to wear in class on Wednesday. GAA is finished for this year for the children. I know they are as relieved as I am about this. They have each worked so hard and not complained when given assessments to complete or asked to leave their comfort zone to work in another classroom or with another teacher. I will post pictures of the recycling center at a later time on the blog for everyone to see and hopefully give comments about on the blog.

February 2015

As the students are working so hard on their goals, I feel as if I am not setting a good example with my goal of updating the blog more often. We have had a very busy year and are learning so much from each other. Every child in the classroom has shown progress this year and it is amazing to watch. I am so thankful for the new 3-D Touch Math numerals we have now in the classroom. I am keeping my fingers crossed that more of my projects on donors chose.org will be funded. Today is Groundhog Day and we watched a wonderful online book about groundhogs and also watched Phil make his prediction for the spring. I try to incorporate as much current events into our curriculum as possible, often using News 2 You. The students are learning map skills, writing sentences, labeling pictures and key vocabulary from our weekly newspapers. We are continuing to focus on GAA which will wrap up the first of March. This morning we used a 3-D coordinate plane to identify points on a graph with the assistance of a fifth grade teacher and her students. I love how everyone helps me when I need assistance with generalizing the assessment. Thank-you so much to all of the wonderful staff and students at Frank Long Elementary who help us with our projects. If you are in the building speaking of projects please come see the recycling sorting center that Mrs. Cowley made for us in the hall. Mrs. Cowley is the newest member of our team and truly goes above and beyond to help the students. I will not make this a lengthy update and will stick with my goal of adding an entry a week to the class blog. Happy Learning!!

Happy January

Wow! Can you believe the school year is half over? We have been so busy in the classroom working on GAA and our IEP goals and learning so many new things. I am so proud of all of you. Remember we do not have school on Monday January 21, 2014, we will be celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday. When we return on Tuesday we will begin the second collection period assessments in GAA. We will also continue working toward mastering our goals. Parents if want to know what to work on with your child at home please refer to the goal pages from the IEP. I send those home with report cards so you should have gotten a copy last week with the report card. I am looking forward to an amazing second half of the school year. We have welcomed new friends into our learning environment and are looking forward to developing friendships and learning together. Have a great long weekend and I will be at the door ready to see each of you on Tuesday morning.

Welcome Back!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone had a very restful and amazing summer. As begin our trip into the 2013-2014 school year at Frank Long Elementary,we want to make sure everyone is on board the Grady train this year. My students will see new faces in the classroom as we welcome in 2 new paraprofessionals, Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Roschmann who will be joing Mr. Lent in helping the classroom run smoothly. I will postly a weekly update on this blog for parents and caregivers to know what we are working on in the classroom and also any important events happening at school. Currently we are refreshing everything we learned last year and brushing up on being ready and responsible this year. Currently at school we have the annual Coke fundraiser which began today and a flyer was sent home in the folder yesterday.So parents please check your child's folder nightly and remember communication is key in the classroom. Everyone buckle up and jump on board as we ride into the 2013-2014 school at FLE.