Successful Saturday...forcing me to look at something happy!

Hey guys. It's Successful Saturday again, but I'll be honest...my heart isn't really in it today. Yesterday I had to make a phone call to Child Protective Services and that's kind of taken over my brain today. There was no immediate danger, just a sad/upsetting reason that required a call. My students all safe and sound right now. I spent a large chunk of yesterday trying to decide if I should scream or cry.

My success yesterday was my students! They were AMAZING despite having a very distracted teacher! Before making "the call," I had to get some facts straight, document some statements from students and a staff member, have notes of times for calls I made, and several quick meetings with the Head of School.

All of these things had me giving the kids educational things to do, but most of it was without me as I was too upset and busy to be a quality teacher yesterday. The kids gave me 110% yesterday! They all worked their butts off! They worked completely independently and just asked for help/clarification every once in a while. Every time I turned around another kid was finishing their task, helping a friend, or dealing with a problem and  solving it on their own! It was one of those days where I can really see just how much I've taught them, and how much independence my kids have learned.

I teach special education, so it's very common for these kids to become completely dependent on having help every time they need it. I've been trying to teach them how to use their resources and solve their problems themselves. I swear, half of the time the problem is simply they don't think they can do  it, when really THEY CAN! Self confidence has been a big goal in our room and yesterday they showed it!

One little guy who never talks much talked all day long! I loved it! He was on topic, telling me step-by-step what he was going to do, making eye contact, and generally being a chatterbox. This could be my demise eventually I realize, but in the mean time I am thrilled to see him learn to talk like a more "normal" person this year. It was also really helpful as I was distracted because he was constantly telling me when he was moving on the to the next thing and what would he'd do next as he was working on the current project.

Feel free to link up and share something that was a success for you this week!

Video Classroom Tour + Ocean Videos

Want to see inside my classroom? So I was feeling brave today...I made my very first YouTube video! I decided to give you a little tour of The Lower Elementary Cottage before I go on to my new teaching adventures in another school this summer. I realized when I was done that there are a few parts of my classroom that I left out, so those may be in another post later.

Also, I decided that since my sensory needs post is CRAZY POPULAR I should update it with a little video too. So this was my second video of the day :)


Also, we've been learning about oceans here in the cottage. We have an AMAZING aquarium down in Monterey and you can actually visit their website to have videos of the live feed for some of their exhibits so you can see fish and otters swimming around. They also have little bios on different kids of fish, which could be helpful for research projects.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/cam_menu.aspx

Would you like to see more videos? What topics are you interested in? Have you ever made YouTube videos for your classroom or blog? I'd love to see them!

Ocean Animal Reports

My kids are doing soooo well on their ocean reports! Honestly I'm a little shocked at how amazing they are doing. I know the spelling is terrible on some of them, but they have been doing THE WHOLE THING on their own. I help them find the right page for the information sometimes, but that's it. They are doing the rest on their own.

It's their first research project and I must say, I'm impressed! They are loving it! I'm trying to decide if they should do the same thing with a new animal, or if I should squeeze in one more science unit before the year is over so they can do a different kind of non-fiction project.

This is the sea turtle book my kiddo used:


A Kindergartner: Sea Turtle Report

Both sharks and racoons eat sea turtles. Crabs eat baby turtles.

It eats seaweed, crab, and jellyfish.

They lay eggs on land.

First Grader: Octopus Report

This is one of the books he used. This series is amazing! They have them for all sorts of animals and it's written like a story book instead of a text book, so it's easy for kids to understand basic concepts about the animals.

Do you want to do this project with your class? Click here to pick up the project in my TPT store.

Do you do research projects with your class?

Packing Up the Classroom...

It's starting to feel very real all of a sudden! I am packing up my classroom one box at a time! I know I'm a little early...we still have 19 school days left (not that I'm counting) but I know the last 2 weeks of school are NUTS! My plan is to pack 1-2 boxes a day and then by the last week of school I can focus on clearing off the walls and wiping things down.

I find myself staring blankly at shelves! Where to I begin?! I've been teaching 3 grade levels for 4 years in the same classroom. Do you know how much STUFF that is?! Let's not forget all the stuff that got moved here from my classroom in Arizona... Oy!

First there is the sorting... Which stuff is school property? Which stuff is mine, bought with my own money that I don't want to part with? Which stuff is mine but I really don't care if it gets left behind? Which stuff will have no use to me in my new school and should get donated to new teachers in need?

Thankfully I've been working on my classroom organization and a bunch of stuff is stored in very handy little storage bins with labels that can just get dumped in the trunk of my car and taken home, then to my new school.

Okay... I'm off to pack and organize.

Are you changing grades or schools for next year? What grade are you changing to? I am going from a K-2 classroom to a 2nd-3rd class of mainly 2nd graders. Thankfully not too much of a change!

Successful Saturday- Testing Style!

Happy Successful Saturday!

 My throat and ears are killing me this morning thanks to allergies, so this post may be pretty short. Please forgive any typos that my watery eyes may prevent me from seeing! I just popped and Allegra, so hopefully I'll be back to normal in a hour!

This week's success stories:

My BIG success was our standardized testing! THREE out of my four kids tested ABOVE grade level in both reading and math! The fourth kid still made progress, but he is a special case where testing will never be something he's good at. He needs too much prompting that isn't allowed during a test. His scores are not a true reflection of his ability so I'm not too worried about it. I'm so excited that despite the fact that I teach special ed, that my kids are still able to meet the academic expectations of a regular student! I work my butt off to make sure my kids never fall behind, and I love when the testing shows my hard work is paying off. One boy went from a preschool level to a first grade level in the last 8 months. That's AMAZING!  I'm so proud of them and how hard they've worked this year!

We also made Mother's Day Cards! Here is my sample one and two from the kids. They are simple, but still really cute. It's just markers and a couple small squares of tissue paper on construction paper. One of the moms looked very impressed when her son handed it to her after school :)

 

And just for fun... Check out what genius boy is up to now: Math in different fonts! During testing he stopped working and I asked what he was doing. His answer: Making music in my head! The other day a teacher caught him humming and recognized it as a famous classical piece and the kid could name the composer and title off the top of his head. He amazes me every day!


Lastly, it's the end of teacher appreciation week. I wanted  to show that people never forget their great teachers! This is a book from my kindergarten teacher when I was 5. This book now sits in my own kindergarten classroom! I have it on a special shelf and had to buy a new copy for the kids since I'd cry if anything ever happened to this book! I got this book during a very difficult time for me and my family. I felt so special when my teacher picked a book that the main character's first name was Lisa. I felt so special and loved when she put thought into which book she gave me. Thanks Mrs. Miguelgorry!

 Your turn! Share the linky image at the top and share your success story!

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!

Big News! My Secret is Out! Ocean Stuff Too

Okay people, I've been about to BURST since I found out, but I wasn't able to say anything until now! Do some of you member my "Top Secret" thing I mentioned in a 5 for Friday post ages ago? Well I don't have to keep it a secret any more!

I was interviewing for a job! A former student's mom recommended me for an amazing teaching job, and I GOT IT!!

I'm moving out of the Lower Elementary Cottage! I'll still be teaching lower elementary special education, just not at this school.

No more teaching 3 grade levels at once all by myself! I'm be in a 2nd-3rd class with a co-teacher. That means only TWO grade levels, AND a cool teacher to teach it with! I met her on Friday and I'm SOO excited to work with her!

Best part... I found out we have the best class in the school! I mean the kids that is, our room happens to be the tiniest classroom! I have far too much teaching junk, so there will be some tests of my organizational skills!

Teacher appreciation week has begun! I got flowers from my kids today. The picked from the garden variety of course... Very cute! The secretary kicked me out of class and let the kids write cards for me. These are 2 of them. One amazes me, the other makes me want to cry...

First, my Genius Boy wrote me an acrostic poem using my name (without help of course). Then he did one next to it with his own name.

 Next... Please tell me you see the joke in this picture! I don't think I can write what I think it looks like on an elementary blog! I discovered it is actually supposed to be my dog!

Then comes the inside that almost made me cry! For some reason this picture won't load...It says, "For Lisa, From ___ I know your dog is dead but smile. Love, ____" (He knows my dog died last week and this is his version of a sympathy card. I told him last week I was sad but I was going to pretend I wasn't by smiling anyway).

Our ocean unit started last week. Today's story was Manatee Winter and I taught the kids how to write a mini research report based on information we learned from the story. Tomorrow the kids will start writing their own research reports using the mini-books I made last week. There is a whole series of these books and I LOVE them! They make learning non-fiction information feel like a story book. It's PERFECT for the little guys!



PS~ Don't forget the TPT Sale!!

Graphics by Zip-a-dee-do-dah Designs!

I just finished my latest clip art set! This is my BIGGEST one yet! It has 74 images!! This one is posted now, but if you buy it during the sale, you can redownload it for more images later. I wanted you to get the best price possible during the sale! I have at least 3-4 more images I'll be adding to the set (6-8 if you count line art for each). You can get it right here ON SALE!!