April Showers Bring May Flowers

Ok, it's not April yet. But it's close. And it has been raining like crazy the past few days in Hawaii.  I haven't updated this sweet little blog since September. OMG. I'm the worst blogger ever... So much has changed since then. Am I going to actually start blogging on a consistent basis? I don't know. Do I have time to blog on a consistent basis?  Definitely not. But every so often it is fun to sit down and think about how much I love my job. :) My job changed again. I am now the K-2 FSC SPED teacher at my school (I was hired as the 2-3 FSC SPED teacher). My 3rd grader moved to a different class and I gained three sweet kindergarteners. They bring quite a few challenges to my class but they still make me smile. One of the new kinders has severe behavioral problems... I'm talking flips his desk, throws his chair, hits, kicks, bites, and barks like a dog- kind of behavior problems. Every day is a new behavior with him, but we are working on it. He is making progress, and that's all that matters!! I also decided to move... Next year I will not be teaching in Hawaii, and will instead be back in my home state of Washington. I can't wait to be back closer to family, but I am going to miss it here so much. I have secured a SPED job in a school district back home, and will probably write a post about it when I know more.  I will probably be changing the name of my blog now that I won't be in paradise anymore... any suggestions are greatly appreciated! I also might start a blog instagram since that seems to be easier to keep up with than a blog... but we will see. 

Five for Friday {Late to the Party}

Ok- I'm a little bit late. It is now Monday, but I wanted to do a linky anyway, and as far as I can tell, this was the most recent one. So here it is! My five for Friday Monday. Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching. 

 I had an emergency IEP coming up for one of my students, so now I will be throwing together my very first IEP in a little less than a week. I'm pretty much done at this point, but I was SO overwhelmed when I found out that I had to do it. I am a huge planner, and now I didn't have enough planning time. I am thinking it is going to be ok! If you have an IEP tips or tricks, let me know!

 We had a science block where we started working on apple life cycles. We had a lot of fun with it, and my kids understand it! Yay! Let's see if we can make the connection between the plant and animal life cycles...

We had a data team meeting with my grade level, and I discovered that my severe SPED students are actually not that far behind the general education students! Especially in math... we are right on their heels! The gap is closing!!!

My cheerleaders had a football game on Friday. It was hot and muggy, but we almost won! Which was really impressive considering we were playing a D1 team who kicked our butts last year. We were only a couple points away, and played really well! 

My mom comes into town this Thursday, so I spent a majority of the week/weekend cleaning, organizing, decorating, and trying to make my apartment look nice... Easier said then done. That will continue through out this week, and probably right up until she gets here. 

Well that's it! Only 4 more school days until a much needed fall break. Woo hoo! This new teacher desperately needs the break...

Over 2 Months Later...

I have NO IDEA how all of you teachers out there make time for teaching, family life, AND blogging. There aren't enough hours in the day!! Maybe it is just because I am a new teacher and I am also working another job... but I don't know how you do it. Every time someone mentions to me that I haven't blogged in a while, I feel like punching a wall. HOW ABOUT YOU WRITE IT FOR ME?! I'll just tell you what I want it to say and you can write it since I spend all my free time asleep! Just kidding... but not really.  It has been over 2 months since my last blog post, even though it feels like it was just yesterday. Oops. Let's see... where were we?! Oh yes! I had just finished teaching summer school. I hadn't even started setting up my school year classroom yet. Hahahaha... I had no idea what was coming. Summer school was a breeze compared to what I was about to walk into.  I went into my new classroom on the first day that I could get my keys. I had friends to help and plan to get started on. Boy did that plan go our the window fast. There was SO. MUCH. STUFF. in that classroom. Seriously. It was the entire center of room (about 10ft by 8ft) and it was stacked all the way to my very high ceilings. There was furniture galore, more desks then I would ever need, left over student work, left over professional resources, garbage, dust, geckos and cockroaches. Ew.  The classroom I was moving into had previously been shared by 2 teachers. One of the teachers had moved to a different island, so she had left majority of her stuff. Luckily she had a lot of things that I found incredibly helpful. But it was still a lot of stuff. The other teacher had moved into a classroom that was itty bitty, and couldn't take most of her stuff with her. So she just left it in the room. Along with a lot of garbage (old student work, broken supplies, old food-YUCK). Because there had been 2 classes, there were enough desks for all those kids. I counted over 30 desks. That's a lot when your class size is going to be 8. I'm very thankful for our wonderful and helpful custodian who immediately offered to help me move any unwanted furniture and trash out of my room. Thank you, thank you, thank you! My planned time for going through stuff already in the classroom was 1 day. It ended up taking 1 week. I was tired, frustrated, and hot every day. Oh yes, I was doing all of this in the middle of a Hawaiian summer, in a classroom with no AC... it was HOT! In addition, almost every day more "stuff" showed up into my room for anonymous other classrooms. Although I was grateful for all the resources, it was just more stuff that needed to find a home. Once we got all of the sorting, throwing away, and organizing done, we started bringing in my stuff, setting up the furniture the way I wanted, and decorating!  Decorating was absolutely the fun part. I don't have a classroom "theme" so I just went with bright fun colors. There is a little bit of chevron and polka dot, but mostly it is just solid bright colors. All this work was totally worth it because my room is absolutely huge! I see some of the itty bitty classrooms that some of my co workers have, and I am forever grateful that I have such a giant room. I also got blessed with a very wonderful classroom EA (advantage to being a SPED teacher). She came in almost every day that I was in the classroom working to help me. She did all of the tasks that I didn't want to do, and she always did it with a smile on her face. To this day she is the greatest resource that I have, and I am very lucky to have her help and support.  Here are some pictures of my bright and giant classroom (things have changed a little and gotten more filled up in the 2 months since these pictures were taken!):

^This is my student computer area.

^Front of my classroom/student desk area

^Math manipulatives/dictionaries

^Another view of the front of my classroom

^Teacher area

^Back of my classroom (Morning meeting/calendar area)

^Material storage and another view of the teacher area

^Classroom library

^More classroom library and my EA's area behind

^In classroom bathroom area! 

We had parent night the night before school started. That was terrifying. But most of my parents came. They were all very friendly and loved my classroom. First scary part of being a first year teacher... check! As I went to sleep the night before the first day of school, I was scared, but also prepared. I had extra lessons ready to go just in case. I had memorized my students names and pictures. I knew my classroom was as perfect as it could be. I actually got a really good nights sleep! The first day of school went pretty smoothly if I remember correctly. I only sort of remember it as one giant blur. One of my students never showed up, so I went from a class of 8 to a class of 7. I had six 2nd graders and one 3rd grader.  A few weeks into the school year, we had some issues with the grade level below me, and they asked if they could move the only 1st grader up into my class. I said sure! I had one kid never show up, so I had the desk and materials for one more student. Why not?! Let me tell you... trying to coordinate schedules with 3 grade levels is no easy task! Luckily all of the teachers are very helpful and understanding. They frequently remind me of things since they know I have a lot to keep track of. They are all so great. :) So now, I am officially a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade severe SPED teacher! Now we have been in school for almost 2 months. The first quarter of the school year is coming to an end soon, and I can't believe how fast it has gone. I was really hesitant about accepting this position. I had very little experience in severe special education, and I didn't know if I was up to the challenge. But I can honestly say that accepting this job was the smartest decision I have ever made. I love my students. More than I ever thought would be possible. They understand me, and I understand them. I have eliminated problem behaviors that other teachers have been trying for years to eliminate in these kids. They are calm and relaxed in my classroom, and they are learning more than I ever thought possible. They are smart, and happy, and I can't imagine having any other class for my first year. These kids make me smile every day, and I have never once dreaded going to work. I can't wait for the rest of the year, even if it means I never have time to blog. :)  Now if I can just stay on top of all the meetings and paperwork... :)

Last Day of my First Job

Today I finished my first ever "big-girl" teaching job. Yes, it was only 5 weeks. Yes, it was just summer school. Yes, it was just reading. But OMG it was a reality check.  There was no mentor teacher to watch teach or ask questions. There was no one to watch my class when I had to go to the bathroom. There was no one checking my lesson plans and giving me feedback. There was no one telling me whether my lesson was going to fail or not. There was no one checking to make sure that I was meeting standards. There was no one else disciplining my students. It was all ME.  There were SO MANY KIDS. I had over 80 kids in those short 5 weeks. That's a lot of kids when my student teaching only had 10. I learned most all of their names.  But... I survived! I always had a lesson prepared. The kids had stuff to do when they finished early. I got a student with autism to actually sit and participate in my lesson with enthusiasm. I got students that swore they hate reading to tell me "it's not so bad." I had kids tell me they loved my class. They followed my rules and respected my discipline. They talked A LOT... but that wasn't something I minded to much. They wrote me letters, drew me pictures, and told me that I was the best reading teacher ever. They improved in their reading, their ability to find answers in a text and referring to the text in their answers. They learned!  And now... it's over. By noon today they will be gone and on their way. They will have their report cards, their portfolios, and will set off to prepare for the school year. My classroom will be cleaned and packed and ready for me to move into my next room.  I will miss this room dearly. It was a HUGE room on a top of a giant hill. Nothing blocking my wonderful island breezes. We were never hot (which is important in Hawaii). I will miss my ocean view from my desk and my ocean view on my drive to school. 

Now... on to my next teaching adventure! Classroom set up begins on Monday!!!

July Currently!

It is now July, and as my mom kindly reminded me, that means it's time for another Currently with Farley!

Listening: Summer school is starting soon. The kids are running around outside. How do they have so much energy in the mornings?!

Loving: Between school all last week, cheer camp all weekend, and now school again... I'm ready for a day off. Hooray for Friday!

Thinking: Last Friday was a SPED team meeting at my new school. I got to go in and see my new classroom, take pictures, and see what I am looking at. All I want to do now is set it up!! 

Wanting: If I had the keys, ^^ would actually be possible! 

Needing: I just looked at my "To Grade" bin and there is a huge stack!! Oops. Guess I should get those graded before the kiddos come in. 

4th Plans: My roommates family got a hotel room right in front of the fireworks in Waikiki. We are going to spend the whole day there, and then watch the fire works at night! 

Substitutes!

Monday is my first day since becoming a real teacher where I will have a substitute in my classroom. She is great and I know my kids will love her, and I totally trust her with my class, but OMG. There is so much to do as a teacher when you are going to be out for a day!  I've known that this would be the case... I've watched my mentor teachers prep for sub before. But it is sort of overwhelming. I had to make sure all my copies were done today, the kids are prepared for a different person, notes and directions are written on the board, my lesson plans are done and printed, she knows where she is going, etc.  AND I am still coming in on Monday morning, before school starts, just to make sure that she is ok and understands what needs to be done.  It is literally more work to not come to school. 

Five for Friday {First Time!}

I am trying to link up with as many linky partys as I can that way people can see and maybe even follow my blog! So here is another one... 

It is time for five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

 I finally got some student work up on my boards in my classroom. So now it doesn't look so bare! Yay!

Wednesday was a holiday here in Hawaii so we had the day off from school. I went with a group of friends to get breakfast from this place in Kailua called Cinnamons. They have THE BEST guava chiffon pancakes. They are so incredibly good. Like dessert but for breakfast. Yum! That was great.

22 Jump Street comes out today. I am pretty excited. I want to go see it today, but I don't have time. So I am going tomorrow. :)

I spend one of the days earlier this week organizing all of my photo albums and backing them up to drop box. I found baby pictures of all of my 3 fur babies. I am glad they are now backed up and going to be saved for ever! Here are some of their cute baby pictures.

I made it all week without going to Starbucks. I made my own drinks at home before I left for school. But this morning, I caved. I went to Starbucks and got a bagel AND and and Oprah Chai. It was wonderful, and well worth it. Made this Friday go by much faster!