Successful Parent Conferences

We just finished our parent teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday. It was a long couple of days, but they went fabulously! I genuinely don't think I've ever had a more successful set of conferences! Every parent left very happy, and so did us teachers! Whoo hoo! Yippee skippy!

In our class we have 2 teachers and we each bond with completely different kids. Some kids come to me for everything, other kids prefer Lauren. We have totally different personalities and therefore different connections with the kids. Both of us love this and see this as the epitome of teamwork in a co-teaching classroom. As long as every kid feels loved and has a strong connection with at least one of us, that's all that matters.

With this in mind, we took turns leading the conferences based on which teacher has the strongest connection with that child. It's a very equal balance and made the conferences go 50/50 for who was leading and who was taking all of the notes.

One thing that seemed strange to me at first, but I actually really liked was the "action required" section of our notes below our regular notes of the discussion topics. We had to make a list during our conference of things that needed to be followed up on. This ranged from emails to specialists, behavior charts to send home, to the new strategies we wanted to implement based on our discussions. This section made it SOOOO easy come Monday morning to make sure we did all of those little follow up things that can be so easy to forget after a new parent walks into your room to talk.

Our kids have made soooo much progress since they walked into our room on the first day. The kids have already made HUGE academic strides! We have also had kids who had struggles with their behavior who are like whole new kids now. We are so proud of them!

One thing we make sure to do is tell little stories about each kid to their parent about something that made us laugh, or something that made us very proud of them! The parents always love this part. This was my favorite story of the week:
Please note the kids are dead serious during this conversation.
Kid 1: (big sniffle/snort)
Kid 2: They make tissues for that!
Kid 1: Tissues are for boogers. This is snot!!
Kid 2: But still! Use a tissue!
Me: Actually Kid 1, Kid 2 is right. Tissues are for boogers AND snot (as I try my hardest to keep a straight face, but then burst into laughter as I look at the other teacher)
The parents busted up laughing and it made for a very enjoyable conference ending!

Show us whatcha got! Testing Success!

So my classroom was basically one long testing center today! Our school is private, so we don't have high stakes testing, but we have our own version that I actually like better. We test the kids at the beginning of the year using a standardized reading and math test, then we test them again in the spring to measure progress.

I secretly LOVE data! I love seeing all my hard work on paper! I love knowing I really did make a difference during the year and the kids really learned something! It's special education and there are days where I feel like I'm talking to myself or that my whole day is focused on behaviors, not academics. Days like today show me how much smarter my kids are now than they were in September!

So here is my little story, you can have the full version on successful Saturday... I got through all 4 sections of the reading assessment with all of my students today! Best part...they worked their butts off!

They tried their best, never complained that it was too long, stayed focused, and it was the first time giving standardized tests to a multi-age class where I didn't have the urge to scream! Normally trying to manage multiple levels of a standardized test happening in the same room is a nightmare, but the kids were PERFECT! They read quietly while I read directions to their classmates, worked hard, and quietly switched into testing mode when it was their turn for a test section. Yippee skippy!

Crossing my fingers that the math sections go equally awesome tomorrow!

My name is Lisa and I am a font addict! I went a little crazy during the TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale!

So I'll be honest fonts were the only thing I purchased today, but boy did I get A LOT of them!! I asked for some suggestions from my bloggy friends and I got so many that I couldn't decide...so I bought them all!
First up: Graphics from the Pond Bundle!



Then I looked at Cara Carroll's store and NEEDED two sets from her!


These Cupcake fonts were such a good deal I couldn't pass them up!










Don't forget EVERYTHING in my TPT store is on sale, including my newest clip art sets!

So what did you go TPT shopping for?? Did you add to your wishlist?? I certainly did!

Successful Saturday: Teamwork + Book Buddies

Happy Saturday! I feel like the closer we get to summer break, the more I look forward to Saturday! It's time to share this week's success stories.

Here is my success story of the week:
I teach at a K-12 special education school. We have pretty broad spectrum of kids in our school. The kids that come to us in each grade level are unique based on the general trends of successes/failures in the public school special education system and the types of resources we have available at my school.

My class is K-2, so I get a lot of kids who need early intervention. My students are the kids who don't need an aide in a small room, but they aren't very successful in a large classroom. They often have trouble with sensory stuff (noise, touch, etc.) and they struggle to learn concepts, but they can do it with some extra help. Appropriate behaviors are also a struggle.

The kids that come to my school when they are a little older are often jaded from years of failure in big public school classes. They have low self-confidence and poor academic skills. It's not uncommon for us to have kids come in the 4th or 5th grade and read at a 1st or 2nd grade level. We help them learn to read and do math, but really that's not the most important part. We have to build back all that confidence they lost over the years as they struggled in their old schools.

This past week I brought up the idea of book buddies to one of my fellow teachers. I did it with my friend Ali at my old school and it was AWESOME. My friend Jessica works with a 5th grade group who is more severe than our typical students at this school. They have really been struggling with confidence and social skills. My little guys love attention and need to learn social skills like paying attention and sharing.

We've started book buddies and it's been a big success! The big kids love being "a role model" and the little guys like trading buddies and having different big kids read books and talk about stories with them. The older kids often mumble and don't read with voice, so reading to the little guys encourages them to make the stories sound more exciting.
 

Here are the Successful Saturday Rules:

1. Share your success story on your blog! 
2. Link up your blog story with the linky banner and a link back to this post so others can share their great ideas and link up too.
3. Go read at least 2 other Successful Saturday blog posts and leave a comment. I don't know about you, but I LOVE finding other blogs to follow, get ideas, and share successes! 

Link up with something that was successful in your classroom!



Aren't the pictures adorable?! Have you ever done book buddies?

Successful Saturday Linky April 6

Happy Saturday! It's time for Successful Saturday! I hope you forgive me for skipping last Saturday during the blog swap!

NOTE: You don't have to type as much to get to my blog! I dropped the .blogspot so all you need to do is go to www.teacherlisasclass.com to get to my page.

This week I'm on spring break! So my successes are a little less school oriented than usual. My doggie is quite sick and won't make it much longer, so I'm pretty grateful for Successful Saturday to help me look at the positive. He's 13 and has lasted far longer than his breed normally does. Sorry for being a stranger, but he took priority this week. On to happy thoughts!!

Success #1
I got the lovely priveledge of being a guest blogger on not one, but TWO blogs this week!! A big thanks to Chris at Autism Classroom News and Angelia of Extra Special Teaching!! I can't thank you ladies enough for letting me stop by your blogs for a day. Angelia will be a guest here soon too. We decided to blog swap on different days :)

Success #2
Finding my camping gear! I have an overnight trip with my student on Wednesday/Thursday. After a bit of digging I found my sleeping bag and squishy pad (learned my lesson after one trip without the pad sleeping on a rock!). I still need to go pick up glow sticks. I did find these two little goodies though! The one one the left actually blinks different colored lights and looks like a little space ship in the dark. BEST...PURCHASE...EVER!! This little guy saved me when a storm hit during our trip last year. This and bedtime stories were the only things that calmed them down when they were scared of the wind shaking the tent. I'm secretly hoping we get to use the cabin instead of the tent on the ranch this time!

Success #3
I finished the CrossFit Open! I know this means nothing to you, but it was HUGE for me. It's a competition with crazy workouts that I had no chance of winning, but it was big deal for me to even compete for the last 5 weeks of workouts. Yesterday I got my first chest-to-bar pull up EVER and managed to get 3 of them during the competition timed workout. This is crummy compared to what the real competitors can do, but it was a small miracle for me! Below is a pic of some of my CrossFit friends and I at the announcement for the last competition. I'm on the bottom right.

Okay, now it's your turn to share your success stories of the week!

Here's how it works:
Every week I open it up for you to post your links to your blogs where you share something successful that really worked for you this week. Did you try something new that was a total hit?! Share it! Did you do an old favorite that always works well in your class every year? Share it! Did you make a super awesome craft you'd love to show off? Share it!!

This linky is for ALL GRADE LEVELS and BOTH General and Special Ed blogs!

Here are the Successful Saturday Rules:

1. Share your success story on your blog! 
2. Link up your blog story with the linky banner and a link back to this post so others can share their great ideas and link up too.
3. Go read at least 2 other Successful Saturday blog posts and leave a comment. I don't know about you, but I LOVE finding other blogs to follow, get ideas, and share successes!  

Sucessful Saturday! **New Weekly Linky!!!**

Hello Friends!! I have been blogging for a little under a year (my blogiversary will be May 20th!) and I feel like I've got the hang of this whole blogging thing now. I post rather regularly and I feel like it honestly has helped my teaching in so many ways! I'm excited to make new resources for my students and I love seeing and reading about great things happening in other classes. I am the ONLY K-2 teacher at my school, so there is no such thing as "planning together." Blogging has really helped me feel like I'm collaborating with other teachers and sharing ideas with one another.

All of this has inspired me to create Successful Saturday! which will be a WEEKLY linky!

Here is how it will work:
Every week I will open it up for you to post your links to your blogs where you share something successful that really worked for you this week. Did you try something new that was a total hit?! Share it! Did you do an old favorite that always works well in your class every year? Share it! Did you make a super awesome craft you'd love to show off? Share it!!

This linky is for ALL GRADE LEVELS and BOTH General and Special Ed blogs!

Here are the Successful Saturday Rules:

1. Share your success story on your blog! 
2. Link up your blog (not your store) with the linky banner and a link back to this post so others can share their great ideas and link up too.
3. Go read at least 2 other Successful Saturday blog posts and leave a comment. I don't know about you, but I LOVE finding other blogs to follow and get ideas!   

Here is my Sucessful Saturday post!
We had Dr. Seuss Week and it was a total hit in my classroom! My kids LOVED it! We read different books every day. Then today for reading time the kids read books, then summarized them to each other. I was really proud of my kindergarten boys. They can't read the books by themselves yet, but they did a great job looking through every single page of a familiar Dr. Seuss story, then telling me or a friend a summary of the story! Big skill for some of those really long books like The Lorax!

We also had a great time on the Seussville website!! This was especially handy for me today as I was clearing my ENTIRE classroom so new carpet can be put in at 9:00 am tomorrow. I'm sure someone could have done it for me, but I was terrified I'd never find the things I need Monday morning.

My biggest hit of the week was our handprint paintings. We made them for 3 different Seuss stories. Thing 1 and Thing 2 and One Fish, Two Fish were Pinterest finds. I made up Fox in Socks, but it's entirely possible I wasn't the first person to think of this. In the past I dipped the kids' hands in paint, but I've learned it usually works better to paint directly on to the kids hands, then stamp the paper. Word to the wise: the more ticklish kids flinch and giggle! It's pretty darn adorable though!

One of my little guys is moving out of state this week so we hung these up as the decorations for his Dr. Suess themed goodbye party.
 

I got the stickers from Micheal's craft store

Ready to share your success story this week? Link up now!!

Get Your Successful Saturday Linky Posts Ready! A FREEBIE too!

I am creating Successful Saturday! which will be a WEEKLY linky that starts TOMORROW!!!

Here is how it will work:
Every week I will open it up for you to post your links to your blogs where you share something successful that really worked for you that week. Did you try something new that was a total hit?! Share it! Did you do an old favorite that always works well in your class every year? Share it! Did you make a super awesome craft you'd love to show off? Share it!!

This linky is for ALL GRADE LEVELS and BOTH General and Special Ed blogs!

Here are the Successful Saturday Rules:

1. Share your success story on your blog! Pictures of your successes are highly encouraged!
2. Link up your blog post (not your store) with the linky banner and a link back to this post so others can share their great ideas and link up too.
3. Go read at least 2 other Successful Saturday blog posts and leave a comment. I don't know about you, but I LOVE finding other blogs to follow and get ideas!   

I have tons of cute pics from Dr. Seuss week to post tomorrow on Successful Saturday!  :)

And it wouldn't be Friday without a *~FREEBIE~*

This week you get March Lion and Lamb Stationary for students to write about the wacky start and finish of March weather! CLICK HERE TO GET IT!

I'm a California Blogger!

I'm a West Coast blogger from sunny Northern California! I'm spoiled by my weather and big city! I was complaining that I was "cold" today and it was 60 degrees (and very windy!). I am driving distance to San Francisco, but live far enough from the city that I can actually park in front of my own house. Shopping is also a thing to be treasured here. I moved to Arizona for a few years and discovered they actually make Nordstrom stores with less than 3 stories. Who knew?! There is something to be said for major companies putting their flagship stores here, especially Gap and Old Navy. A teacher's wardrobe one-stop-shop for wash and wear clothes!

Teaching is an adventure here too. This year there are 3 different languages in the homes of my students, and my class is less diverse than most schools.

What a fun linky! I've seen teacher bloggers posts about how they met up with other bloggers, but I've never met anyone close enough.Maybe this will be just the thing! Head over to Fifth in the Middle to link up to bloggers in your state!

Caterpillar Craft + Geoboards + Freebies!

Did you ever have one of those teaching days where you feel like you've died and gone to heaven because class NEVER goes that well?! Today was one of those days for me! Go read #4 to see why!

I'm pretending the 10 minute tantrum that started our day didn't happen...the kid turned it around and had a fairly amazing day, so I'm calling that a success. This kid has a tendency to self-destruct and he didn't this time which was awesome!

Today is a linky day! I have Freebie on the first at the bottom.
First up we have:


Here is a little peek at my week! I've been a little behind on blogging, it's been a crazy (in a good way) kind of week. So Doodle Bug appears to be busy and hasn't posted yet, but I was so excited to join that I wrote this ahead of time... I'll link it over there later.

1. Eric Carle- He is our author of the week in our class. We've read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Tiny Seed, The Grouchy Ladybug, and From Head to Toe. I know there are more... I need to stop by the library to find our Friday book. The first two are PERFECT for my life cycles mini unit we've been working on!


2. Life Cycles! We are going  a little crazy with our life cycles stuff, but my kids are OBSESSED with the caterpillars making cocoons. I'm not really looking forward to the creepy moths they will turn into... but the kids are and that's all that matters! We made Eric Carle caterpillars.
 
3. Bridesmaid Dresses! My sister is getting married in September so a large part of my free time has been spent finding wedding gowns for her, and bridesmaid dresses for me and the rest of the girls. This is NOT the final dress. Just one of many I've tried on... How do you like the fake almost smile I have?? Trying on 10 dresses will do that to a person. Hehehe. I actually don't mind playing dress up! It's just the smiling for the 10 picture that did this to me!
 

4. Geoboards!! This was what sent me to teacher heaven!!! For those who don't read my blog all the time... I teach kinder, 1st, and 2nd simultaneously by myself all day long...to kids with disabilities. So that means I teach 3 things at once since they aren't capable of doing the same lesson most of the time. This was true until GEOBOARDS! I had to teach congruence to my advanced boys, and chose to add in my little guys just for fun. I have the entire group completely engaged for 40 minutes!!! I teach kids with autism... 40 minutes of group engagement is unheard of!! By the end of the lesson I had kids talking about sides, vertices/angles, and saying phrases like "I made 2 shapes and they are congruent because they are the same size and shape!" Oh happy day!! They covered their faces for me, so I don't have to edit the pics. Haha.

They made a shape congruent to mine

He made 2 congruent shapes independently :)

5. Secrets!! I have a secret that I'm sooo excited about that I could burst! It's TOTALLY teacher/blogger related, but I can't share it and it's killing me!! There are people in my real life teacher world who don't  know yet (and it's not 100% anyway) so I can't say anything. Either way, it's making me in a super duper happy mood!!!

6. Since 5 doesn't really count and I didn't tell you anything... This is our latest book club book and I'm loving it already! I'm only on page 80 so don't ruin it if you've read it!
 

Last but surely not least... FREEBIE ON THE FIRST! Okay, I'll admit, I didn't make something new today. Oops! Like I said, it's been a good crazy kind of week. So instead you are getting all of the freebies I've posted this month all on one page in case you missed any!

St. Patrick's Day Stationary

 The stationary above goes with the St. Patrick's Day reader set. The 3 stationary pages included in the set are DIFFERENT than the one above. This is not a freebie, but it's the set that inspired the extra stationary page.

 Valentine Letter Stationary (both a boy and girl version). You can save it for next year :)

 Candy Heart Graphing

 5 Senses during winter. This is part of a larger set. If you go to my TPT store you can find the full set with all the seasons together. We made books and put them together with my binding machine.

 Presidents Day Emergent Reader SET. This has other activities with it including character maps for the presidents.

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Oh the Dangers of TPT Awesomeness!

I'm going a little crazy with clipart now! My kids love when something new I give them has my name on it, because it means I made it *just for them.* They've especially started looking on the emergent readers I give them. All the things I put in my TPT store are things I really need/want in my classroom lessons. So I went crazy buying new clipart for my new lessons!

So I'm counting both my TPT and Teachers Notebook purchases... One of my favorite artists is actually only on TN right now and she had a HUGE 50% discount! It's KPM Doodles! Look at her adorable stuff! PS- There may have been a few more of her things in my cart...


Another addiction: Graphics from the Pond! They had the BEST Valentine set ever! Look what I've already created with it! Don't even ask how late I stayed up perfecting these math puzzles last night... I have some serious cutting and laminated to do tonight!
Valentine Mega Pack

Puzzles Mega Pack


My first creations since my purchase:

FREE Letter Stationary for writing a friendly letter:

 Math Puzzles!!

PS~ This is my first year on TPT, will they be sending me some sort of tax document? How do we file this for taxes??