Summer Vacation and a new year approaching!

This last year has flown past me! I haven not posted since I started my Ed.S. degree last August. Also, so did this summer! Probably because I did summer school for the Flexible Learning Program and then I am pursuing my Ed.S. degree, so I have was taking a Law and Special Education class with at Leadership and Special Education class. Never thought I would make it, but I did! 

That is exactly how I feel about my classes! I am just waiting on my grades! After finishing these classes though, I have a lot to contemplate about this new year school year. Some of these items are:
-Ensuring I am providing a Free Appropriate Public Education to my students
-Aligning their IEP goals with Common Core State Standards (or in Georgia- Georgia Standards of Excellence)
-Being a leader with the 2 new people in my classroom (We have a total of 2 Interrelated Resource Rooms- 2 in one and 3 in the other)
-Improving on my leadership skills by caring and remembering to be encouraging
Even though these classes were hard, I do believe they will benefit me in my field!

On the other side....I have exactly one week before I go back to school! You don't know how many days I want to be at the pool in that week....oh how about ALL OF THEM!!! Monday and possibly Tuesday, I will be going to my school and working with one of my room mates to set up the room. We are painting the bulletin boards and then setting up the room. Ready to have that done since we have a reading training the Thursday and Friday of pre-planning (8/6 and 8/7). I have to probably attend both since I am teaching K and 4th resource reading. Then who knows how many other meetings we will be attending! I will be making my own notebook for lesson plans since the ones you buy, the lines and boxes never seem big enough for me. I am going to use card stock and print each grade level and subject on a different colored paper. This I think will work so much better. Maybe I will put the format on my Teachers Pay Teachers Account!
I will post pictures of the classroom and look forward to sharing with you all!
Until Next Time...stay snazzy!
-Amber

Pre-Planning Week=done! Next up on agenda...FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

As I start my 2nd first day of school, I still feel like a kid. But as a teacher, it is a different  feeling completely! I think about how we will need to keep everyone safe and that as a Special Education teacher, I need to make sure I am following IEPs and students supports and service hours. I have so many ideas running through my head. I know one for sure is that I will be using an IEP snapshot that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers. They way I handled was I printed them off and asked the teachers of my students which one they liked the most. Then from there I will fill it in. In addition to that, I will also attach the legal documents and have the teachers sign off on the information. I still have to follow up and look at some IEPs myself to understand the information.
In addition, we have a new principal and a new assistant principal. I think that this will be good for my school. To have fresh eyes and everything and have everything clearly stated. Might have some hurdles and some challenging moments to get through this school year, but I believe that we will have a tight ship and believe that it will be for the best!
We will see how the first day of school goes on Monday!
I will be starting my Ed.S. program in Special Education August 25th. I hope that it won't be more work than I am expecting. I know it might be hard, but I am not sure how hard it will be. I guess I will find out in a couple of weeks.

Until next time!

Summer DIY Project

So, besides working on the classroom library project this summer, there are a couple  of other DIY projects that I want to work on. The first project I worked on today, I don't have pictures of yet because it is for my classroom library. I will take pictures and post during pre-planning and when I have it set up!  The first one that  I am working on is bottle cap magnets. When we went on family vacation, they had bottled Pepsi products and bottled coke products. They were pretty darn yummy! :)  I saved the caps and looked up how to make them.

This is the website where I received my instructions and what materials I needed to buy. http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-and-simple-bottle-cap-magnets/
When I was in Hobby Lobby, I bought bottle cap stickers for the plain bottle caps that I have.

I am pretty excited about completing this project! Looking forward to having some fun bottle caps on my file cabinet this year!

The second project I am going to work on is make sharpened and unsharpened containers for my pencils. This is the picture that I am going for.

 

 

I bought all my materials from Hobby Lobby. I got red/ crimson and gray paper to make them. I thought about doing my school colors, but then decided to do Alabama colors! They had the plastic paint cans and theirs have a small opening, but it will be good enough. For my kids, putting too many pencils out there, and they get STOLEN! This way, I can monitor them. Also, since I will be co-teaching, I can put them in my bag and tote them along with me! I found the information on how to make them here: First Grade Glitter and Giggles!

 

Until next time! 

Follow me on Bloglovin and Pencil Sharpener!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Just joined Bloglovin to have more options for education blogs! Follow me!

Also, there is a giveaway going on from Miss Elementary. I found this give away in looking for a pencil sharpener. It is from Classroom Friendly Supplies and it is supposed to be the quietest pencil sharpeners. I am wanting to possibly buy it and see how it works. It is the same price as the Xacto pencil sharpener that is advertised at Staples that all teachers get to use. Even if I don't win the giveaway, Miss Elementary has a discount code that we can use! How awesome! Here are the pictures of the pencil sharpener.

Until next time!

Blog Hoppin 2014 and Summer Project

As I have been doing an Blog Hoppin scavenger hunt, I have wanted to start a blog.  Here are some of the images from the  Blog Hoppin scavenger hunt that I am doing.

I have a blog that is for fun and I discuss some of my school projects in them, but I wanted to have one just for teaching. I am an Interrelated Resource Teacher (Special Education) in DeKalb County, GA. I work for a Title One Focus School. This August, I will be starting my 2nd full year. I started teaching in January 2013.  I started out in 1st grade for the first 6 months. The 2013-2014 school year, I was in 2nd grade. I teach resource and I also co-teach. For the 2014-2015 school year, I am working in 2nd grade and then I will also be working with 3rd and 5th grade. I look forward to this year and starting a new school year.

In other news, my summer project since I have been out from teaching summer school, I have been wanting to organize my classroom library. The hardest thing about this is that I have the books and then figuring out the leveling. I have been using a website called Booksource. The website is classroom.booksource.com. The website lets you type in books by ISBN or title. You can also scan them in. Then you list the AR Level, AR Points, Lexile Level, and Guided Reading Level. At my school we use AR Points. I found a sheet that has the Fountas and Pinnell levels and compares the AR points all the way across. I am making labels to put inside my books without me writing it. In addition to the book labels with just my name, I have made label with the Guided Reading Level, AR Level, AR Points, and Lexile Level. The labels have an animal on them so they know what bin to  put the book back into. Since I am a resource teacher, I don't have the jobs like all the general education teachers have. 
Below is what my labels for my book look like. 

 

Here are what the labels look like for each book:

That is what I am working on for the month of July! If you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know! Also, please follow because I LOVE looking at other teacher blogs!

 

Until Next Time!