The Shortest Summer Ever...

This was officially the shortest summer EVER! I had a whopping one week off. Today I started helping my co-teacher move things from her old room into our new classroom. She's out next week during our teacher work week, so we're doing a few things now. Then I'll take care of things next week while she's gone. I'm a little nervous prepping for our new class on my own! I know how I usually start the year, but it's totally different when someone else has their own way of doing things. I don't want to step on any toes!

I'm more of the organizer in this little team, so it just means I can do some of the organizing while she's gone and she won't have to worry about it. I still need to move in my stuff... ugh! I'm thinking it may happen in baby steps! My old school didn't have a set plan I had to follow, I could kind of make things up based on the group I had for the year. This new place seems to have a pretty set plan for how things are done. I'm totally fine with that, but it means some of my materials may not be totally necessary. I may want to wait and see what exactly is needed, before I move everything.

Today I also started tutoring one of my boys from my old school. Super sweet family! He had a rocky start thanks to a new routine, but we got things done and he did really well on his math skills. I think I need to make a plan so tutoring is a bit more fun than our normal school routine we have together. It's summer after all! It's a time for fun! I'm thinking we may need a math game or 2! Today we had smelly stickers and jelly beans as rewards. Yum!

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Creating a Home Behavior System

Today I went to visit a student and his mom at their home and we had a lovely lunch together.  Such a lovely family! At lunch he introduced me to a random dad at the cafe as his "former teacher." Haha. I discovered I can't quite give up a couple of these families...so I didn't. I met with one today, and tomorrow I start tutoring one of the kiddos.

This happens to be Genius Boy and his family who I saw today, for those of you loyal readers who've read as a babbled on about how much his brain mesmerizes me! One of my requests was for him to be officially tested for his IQ this summer so I know just how hard to push him when I work with him. It turns out...he's one smart cookie!! Realistically he's probably even higher because he lost points when he outsmarted the test by giving complex answers when it just wanted the easy-peasy version. Honestly, his mom and I chatted about switching him to home school since regular school can't keep up with him.

Out of all of out chit chatting for 3 hours we planned some projects to keep his mind busy through the summer. Then she had a great idea of working on a home behavior system together. After years of teaching special education, I have a great system that works at school. I'm going to tweak it and develop it into a full home behavior system. So now comes the part where I decide which concepts are universal, and which things need to be added in for the home.

I'd like to make this a great, all-inclusive, home behavior pack. I'd like to include behavior charts, posters for expected behaviors, and a general explanation of the behavior system and how it works. The best element of a behavior system is consistency! I want to make this an easy-to-implement system that any parent can use.

Do you have kids at home? Which concepts or routines do you think should be included in a home behavior system?

It's almost time for my new class!

I'm officially going to start moving into my new classroom on Tuesday!! I know most teachers get the whole summer off, but my new school does a "July School" and teachers start the last week of June. Then kids start in the first week of July.

Sorry for disappearing for the last few days, but I figured if I only get a week and a half between jobs, I'm going to relax a bit! I disappeared to a spa in Calistoga (yes, like the water). It's a cute little town in wine country so went wine tasting in Napa. It's the first time I've ever taken a vacation alone and I loved it! I met so many great people! I thought for sure I'd be alone in my room or by the pool reading a book for 3 days. Turns out I met so many great people that I only had time to read a chapter or two! Such fun! A mani/pedi with a friend, a relaxing massage, and 3 days away from stress...AMAZING!

Since teacher weeks are mostly meetings and planning, my co-teacher and I are going to start moving our classroom this week. We found out we get the bigger classroom, but it means we have to swap rooms with the teaching team who gets our smaller room. I think there is already furniture and stuff to be moved, so I may have to wait until we move that before I bring in all my teaching junk that currently resides the my hallway of my house!!

I'll take pics of the new room when I have them. My co-teacher knows about my TPT stuff, but she has no idea I'm a blogger. Looks like I'm going to have to tell her! Haha. I figure she needs to know sooner or later before she thinks I'm a crazy person for taking pictures of a bunch of our lessons all the time.

So as of right now my class has 9 kiddos in it. I have no idea what there disabilities are at this point, but they are all high functioning and in the 1st/2nd grade. I'm so excited! I've been told a couple could be tough ones, but honestly, I think my old school takes kids who are WAY rougher than this school. So I'm curious what they consider a "behavior problem," because it may not be as rough as I'm used to. Or at least that's what I'm hoping for ;)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear meee. Happy birthday to me!!

That was just me singing myself the birthday song! Today I got the best birthday present ever! It's the first day of summer break! I got to sleep in, meet a good friend at the gym (I know, I'm weird for enjoying the gym on my bday), I just finished packing my bags for a trip, and soon I'm leaving for birthday dinner with my family!

As a celebration of my birthday and my new job, I booked a trip to wine country! So I'm headed up north near Napa to enjoy a lovely spa. I may be blogging while I'm there... we'll see.

Tootle loo!

Saying Goodbye to the Cottage and Hello to a New Adventure!

Today I  had to say goodbye to my cottage. It was the inspiration for naming my blog, so it's weird to leave it behind. I've made some wonderful friends at this school, and I've learned so much about special education in the time I've been here. Today I handed over the key, the cottage is no longer my home away from home.

I have had mesmerizing students and amazing families to work with. I love them so much that I'm continuing to work with 1 or 2 of my students just because I want to this summer. My new school has less of a focus on autism and I just can't quite give up my autistic boys yet! I believe the plan is to tutor one kid and be a consultant for the other. My little genius boy needs ways to stay busy this summer so he doesn't drive mom crazy. I swear sometimes the smart kids are the most troublesome! It takes more to entertain their mind!

This cottage has been the home of both my laughter and my tears in the last four years. Some tears were those of joy and pride when my kids did something amazing. Others were tears of frustration when I couldn't take just one more tantrum...then another kid screamed. But emotions are part of what makes a person a good teacher. It's those moments you cry, that make you realize how much you care about your students' success. I figure if I didn't care that my kids screamed and never learned anything, then I'd be a bad teacher. Caring is what makes me a good teacher. It's what makes me stay up an extra hour at night writing emails to parents to making one more learning activity for them while sitting on my couch in my PJ's.

I will never forget the amazing teachers I've worked with at this school. While there are about a million things I wish were different here, my teaching team isn't one of them. They are the most helpful, caring, fun bunch of people to work with. They are the people who can make you laugh when you want to cry. They are the people who happily cover your class when suddenly get sick and you can't find a sub.

It's time to say goodbye to the red tower, the stained glass front door, and the once cheerful sign that's now missing quite a few letters. Soon it will be missing the teacher that once called this classroom hers.

So now it is time to say hello to a new adventure!
There is no need to be sad today. There are new and better things to come. There is a 1st/2nd grade classroom waiting for me to move in. There is a bright and cheerful co-teacher named Lauren waiting for me to bring her all sorts of teaching ideas and materials. There is a whole new batch of kiddos waiting to meet their new teacher. 

I will be moving into my new classroom a week from tomorrow. Then my job officially starts the last week of June, followed by my new class the first week of July.

So long little cottage, good luck with your new teacher who moves in. Treat my kids well when I leave. It's time for my new adventures to begin!

School's out for summer!

Did you think I disappeared?! This has been a whirlwind week for me! School ended on Friday, but I still need to go in for our teacher work day tomorrow. Freedom is thisclose!! We technically are supposed to work Monday and Tuesday, but we have an unofficial rule that as long as everything is taken care of on Monday, then we don't have to go back Tuesday. Added bonus, Tuesday is my birthday, so I don't want to work on my birthday if I don't have to! It's extra motivation!

This week included field day, a field trip, awards day, and graduation. Then yesterday I went to a winery with friends for a mini birthday celebration. It was a blast! Although I got a little too much sun. Thank goodness for aloe vera!

Sorry there was no Successful Saturday post yesterday. There was bit of a debacle in the form of my cell phone going swimming thanks to a bouquet of flowers! While swimming is fun for Nemo, it is not so fun for an iPhone. I tried the bag of rice trick, but my phone keeps turning itself on and my screensaver looks like an ocean scene thanks to the water still inside. A very nice parent insisted I take home a bouquet of flowers from the graduation decorations before they just got thrown away. I took them and then at some point driving home in the dark, they fell over and filled my cup holder with water...that just so happened to be where my cell phone was sitting. My phone and I discovered it does not have gills and wasn't meant for swimming!

Sorry no pictures today, they are on the swimming cell phone that somehow works in many ways, but I'm afraid it will zap my computer if I plug it in with water in it!

My classroom is 99% cleared out of my personal belongings. I was tempted to finish on Friday, but I was already the last teacher on campus and we had a very important get together at the bowling alley to get to! All of the teachers went bowling and brought significant others and babies to celebrate the end of a school year. It was baby mania at our school this year! We have 3 babies that are almost exactly the same age, plus a bun in the oven for another teacher.

There are 7 or 8 of us leaving on new adventures next year, so the Head of School is buying the staff lunch tomorrow. Yum! My goal is to be done in my classroom by the time we leave for lunch at noon!

I had to say goodbye to my students and their families on Friday. They are so sweet! The kids got giant hugs from me, and so did the amazing parents I had this year. I'm working with at least one, probably 2 of my kids this summer just because I want to, not because I really need the money. My parents spoiled me rotten!! I got the biggest gift I've ever received as a teacher! It's a gift certificate to one of the nicest spas in San Francisco! There is one near me, and one in the big city, so I can take my pick of locations. I about had a heart attack when I opened the envelope and read the amount! Those parents and their kids are amazing! I honestly don't know if I've ever had a group of parents as amazing as this bunch!!

Is your year over? What's the best end of the year gift you've ever gotten? And I don't mean dollars necessarily, one year I had a parent make me a big coffee mug with all of my students' pictures on it and I used it every morning!

Only 4 more days of school!

Ok, so I wish I could say I was a super amazing teacher today...but it's the last week of school...and I'm changing schools. Amazing isn't quite going to happen. I have a firm rule that I will ALWAYS teach reading, writing and math no matter what happens. My little guys are too "special" to skip the core subjects or break routine too much. I've learned if I do all "H-E-double hockey sticks" breaks loose!

Today we had a "shadow" student checking out our class to possibly join the school next year, which was motivation for me to be a super teacher up through lunch time when he went home. Then my kiddos worked their bottoms off through math.

Then...Mary Poppins happened! My kids are LOVING the movie. At first they were skeptical because it wasn't a cartoon, but within 5 min. they were hooked! I mean come on, they have people talking to CARTOONS!! This hasn't happened in recent movies (the newest one I can think of is Space Jam) so my guys think it's the coolest thing since sliced bread! They normally have the attention span of gnats, but they will happily sit through 45 min or an hour of it at a time. It's a long movie, so it's perfect to stretch out over the last couple of days of school. Today they got to the part where the characters giggled so hard they floated to the ceiling and desperately asked me if they could really happen. Too cute!

Movie = Lisa has time to pack!

Packing is exhausting! I packed/cleaned out the class while the kids watched Mary Poppins. I think I'm actually closer to being done than I thought. It looks like a ton of stuff, but honestly a bunch of it was junk from the other teacher I never got around to getting rid of. She was very much into crafts and playing, so I have a full closet still, but honestly it's not mine. All those toys are staying put! So I'm leaving it as a "present" to the next teacher. Who knows, maybe she'll be crazy into crafts too. Don't get me wrong, I do plenty of cutesy junk with my munchkins, but honestly the amount of supplies is just plain excessive! I haven't bought supplies in 4 years and there is plenty still sitting there!

My kids helped me carry old posters and junk out to the dumpster and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I seriously need to take advantage of their helper skills on Thursday when it's time to give our class the final clean up!

Tomorrow is field day! I am on the brown team...really that's the best color you could give me??

My kids are split into different teams because our school is wacky. We only have 100 kids in K-12, so they make mixed age teams with the idea that the big kids can help the little kids. Having my class go against the 3rd-4th grade class just wouldn't be fair. I get it...but my kids don't. One kid was in tears about not getting to be with his class for the whole day. And my kids don't do well with losing...and they lose a lot. So I expect tears. I like to prepare for the worst and be happy with anything better than that!

Okay, I'm off to move boxes out of my car. Then take some Emergen-C because my throat is killing me! I'm crossing my fingers it's just allergies. I can't lose my voice on field day!