Feedly Screenshot

Time, Time Management, Organization (Unit Two)

My cooperating teacher is the only special education teacher for grades 8-12. Because of her large caseload, she is required to have a detailed schedule and float around between classrooms each hour. The main thing that she said took more than she would like is documentation of things like FAPE, IEPs, MDRs and the various meetings that accompany all of these. She feels as if these are never ending and hard to manage. My CT also doesn’t take home with her on most nights, as a sign of how efficient and productive she is during school hours. She told me that their school used to require teachers to submit lesson plans and documentations of certain interventions, but that this rarely occurs now. The teachers all seem to be on the same page and communicate very effectively with her, as they co-teach all the subjects she has students in. Because she seems like she always has to be two places at once, she wishes she could simply spend more time with her students, helping them learn and perform better in their classes. She also desires to spend more time with students and their parents developing plans to be more successful. She wishes to focus more on teaching goals and objectives and evaluating progress rather than constantly multitasking. When she is working with students individually during test read alouds, she will often be on her computer working during the time they are solving the answer. She said that without the ability to multitask, she would have a 12 hour work day regularly. She seems to be always on the move and demonstrates a great amount of flexability. The ability to work with whatever comes her way and still create positive relationships with her students is what makes her a great teacher, even when she is insanely busy and as organized as possible.

Blogging in the Classroom

Creating a blog for my future classroom is something I hadn’t really considered before. Why you ask? It seemed like an extra thing that might only be viewed by me and would take up some of my valuable teaching time. I see things differently now. Although I do feel it will be time consuming, it seems like such a valuable tool for myself to connect with other teachers, share things with my students and their parents and provide an outlet for my students to interact with material and each other as frequently or infrequently as we see fit. I feel that there is great value in allowing my students a channel to share their personal stories, feelings on a topic, or even just a place to document their learning. Initially, the blog may feel like a trivial assignment that they and I dread doing. But I truly feel it will become natural to want to blog and will be a common connection my students and I will be able to share. There are so many more ways to communicate through blogs than just the typical Word or Google documents that we usually require our students to submit. Blogs are public, and that requires a higher level of writing and editing. Our students will be pushed to excel! The uses for blogs in the classroom really are what you make it: a place to journal, a post to link assignments to, a way to connect with other educators, etc. 

Social Media

Here is a list of social medias outlets I've found of educators! Most of them provide links to articles, successful tips or things they have found inspirational that many teachers can relate to. 

Twitter

@morgankolis: A special education teacher and reading specialist who posts a lot about her daily school experiences and retweets other educators and quotes she finds inspirational as a teacher.

@sethgutt: A special education teacher of math computers and technology who tweets a lot about quality, free technological resources for teachers and articles focusing on education, especially from BuzzFeed.

@jackiemader: A writer for EdWeek who shares EdWeek and Hechinger Report articles that are relevant in current education policies and issues.

@MrsDelz: Second grade teacher and TEDx Speaker who retweets a lot of successful tips from other teachers and things that have worked in her own classroom.

@MissDeCarbo: An elementary teacher who tweets different activities she has successfully used, her blog posts, links to articles that are current and to her Teachers Pay Teachers store.

@teacherashley1: Special education technology and literacy teacher who shares articles and images that inspire and humor her and the teacher in us all.

@MegBoxofCrayons: A second grade teacher who shares her educational videos on using different technology tools for teachers on Periscope.  

@Appletastic5th: She shares resources for teachers from everything in math, science, social studies, reading, holiday activities and articles about Common Core, Chromebook tips and uses and so many more resources.

@MrsBsBeehive: A kindergarten teacher, classroom organizer and freebie provider for all things teaching like interview tips, apps, ways to teach the standards, etc.

@MsBleeker: An innovative specialist and current second grade teacher who tweets her blog posts that cover a variety of topics and technology tools.

@MrsShep505: A reading specialist who posts a lot of teacher inspiration and retweets a variety of educator tweets including articles and fun activities.

Youtube

Richard Bryne (https://www.youtube.com/user/rbyrnetech): A YouTube vlogger who creates easy to follow sessions for teachers to work on all things Google classroom, setting up polls, review games and much more.

Alice Keeler (https://www.youtube.com/user/mrsalicekeeler/featured): A google certified teacher who makes videos in a professional development type of delivery.

Pinterest

Erin Klein: A second grade teacher with a board on all the different subjects, technology in the classroom, crafts and snacks.

Amanda Plum: First grade teacher who has boards on printables, organization, classroom behavior ideas, strategies, book recommendations and holiday ideas.

Vicki Debrowka: An eco-friendly and education teacher with resources for using Smart Boards, books to read, Common Core and blogs to follow.

Kelli Holmes: A kindergarten teacher who is very organized with boards for activities for individual books, seasons, holidays and academic concepts.

Nicole Rios: A second grade teacher with boards on centers and small group activities, teaching resources for different grades and subjects and collaboration and technology in the classroom.

Suzy Brooks: A teacher who provides a lot of resources for response to intervention, having a creative classroom, using technology in a variety of education settings and things like anchor charts and foldables.

Charity Preston: An organized teacher who has boards on Common Core, classroom management, assessments, lesson plans and harder topics like bullying resources and parent communication. 

Ten Teacher Blogs worth Reading

These blogs were super interesting and informative on all things special education!

http://toad-allyexceptionallearners.blogspot.com/ Toad-ally Exceptional Learners

Ms. Whiteley is a K-6 resource room teacher in Colorado. She provides printable resources, Common Core and MAPS resources for NWEA testing as well as information about autism and general facets of her teaching journey.

https://photomatt7.wordpress.com/ From the Desk of Mr. Foteah: Inspiration from Inside the Classroom Matt Ray is an elementary special educator who goes by Mr. Foteah (a hybrid between Fo for photography and Teah for teach).  His blog has been nominated for awards three times by EduBlog and provides teacher tips from classroom management to short stories and poems worth reading.

https://specialed.wordpress.com/ The Life that Chose Me A blog anonymously written by “Dick Dalton” who teaches special education in high school and previously taught students with severe disabilities in Georgia. His blog discusses the IEP process and other special education topics from both a parent and teacher perspective as he has two sons with special needs.

http://extraspecialteaching.blogspot.com/ Extra Special Teaching Angelia is a second grade resource room teacher in Hawaii, but moves often as her husband is a marine. She works with all types of disabilities and shares resources, freebies, and lesson plan ideas.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/ On Special Education – Education Week’s Blog The blog posts On Special Education are written by Christina Samuels. It provides the most recent news in special education and trending new tips for teaching for both parents and teachers.

http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/ Assistive Technology Brian Friedlander blogs about assistive technology in special education and how it can be best used. He provides examples of assistive technology, a review on the products he discusses and why he thinks they are useful and appropriate for students.

http://michellespecialeducation.blogspot.com/ Special Education Strategies and More.. Michelle teaches special education in Florida, mainly at the elementary and preschool level. She shares strategies and thoughts on early intervention for parents and teachers.

https://specialedandme.wordpress.com/ Special 2 Me Leila is a resource specialist teacher who writes in a very humorous way and has been sharing her teaching journey since her first year of teaching seven years ago. She shares a variety of teaching resources, book reviews, freebies and reflections on all things in her life.  

http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/ Successful Teaching Patricia Hensley is a veteran special education teacher turned Exceptional Needs Specialist. She enjoys sharing strategies and tips about discipline, field trips, habits of an effective special education teacher and so many more.

http://www.teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/ Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs Kate Ahern, an assistive technology specialist and teacher to students with multiple or significant special needs, blogs about resources and ideas for teachers. She shares ideas on what assistive technology works best with what population in a straight-forward and positive way. 

Educational Organizations

The Council for Exceptional Children is a national educational organization geared towards special educators. Their website is full of useful information as well as opportunities to attend, www.cec.sped.org. They update their twitter @CECMembership and their Facebook page, Council for Exceptional Children (International Headquarters) frequently. The cost of membership varies by the level available to choose from. There is a basic membership that is $65, full membership is $115 and the premier membership option is $205, but college students can obtain any level of membership for 20% off. What you receive with your membership is determined upon the level you pay for. The basic level includes useful articles, the most recent information regarding all things involving special education, opportunities to connect with other educators, member discounts on things like continuing education and access to CEC Career Center. All of the higher packages include the basic membership resources. With the basic level, access to Special Education Today and Policy Insider e-newsletters is included. The conference for the CEC is April 13-16 this year in St. Louis. For a member to attend the conference costs $450, a nonmember costs $565 and a student member costs $320. It’s great that Grand Valley has a student organization chapter of CEC. This organization allows for members to grow as educators through them and all that they provide.

The Michigan Reading Association is a state-wide educational organization that has a mission to promote literacy. Their website is www.michiganreading.org. They update their twitter @michiganreading and their Facebook page, Michigan Reading Association. A regular membership to join is only $35, retired membership is $20 and a full-time undergraduate membership is $15. Membership includes digital networking, leadership opportunities, state/national legislative updates, three issues of the Michigan Reading Journal and News and Views newsletter and connections to local reading councils. The Michigan Reading Association 60^th Annual Conference is March 18-21 in Detroit, MI. For a member to attend the conference costs $185, $170 for a retired member and $125 student member. A non-member conference fee is $265. This organization has a section entirely dedicated to student involvement which is applicable and student focused. 

About Me

Hello,

My name is Megan Peters and I'm in my senior year at Grand Valley. I'm studying Elementary Special Education with endorsement areas in Cognitive Impairments and Emotional Impairments. I'm from a small town in Northern Michigan so I like to be outdoors and near the water whenever I am able. I have a large family and am very close with many of my cousins. We get together often and play games or watch movies. I really enjoy baking and cooking when recipes don't call for too many ingredients. This past May I went to Tanzania on a study abroad trip and we did so many amazing things. I was able to teach daily, go on two safaris, climb Mount Kilimanjaro and visit an orphanage in addition to so many other culturally enriching experiences.

I don't have much experience creating my own ways of planning and using technology in the classroom. When I was at Lakeshore Middle School in Grand Haven this past fall working with students with autism, I saw many great examples and was able to use technology in the classroom nearly every day. All of my students had their own chrome books and used them daily to do typing lessons, practice their spelling words or create writing pieces. My students also used their chrome book's calculator and calendar when working through math worksheets. My teacher and I would use the document camera to project images on the screen larger for the students or to do problems together. This was used for them to copy math problems that we solved as a whole class or read a story together. We also used Google Classroom each day to work through our different subjects by watching videos, collaborating on a Google doc or doing small amounts of research for a science experiment. My students followed a daily schedule that was placed on the board each morning as well as went through the daily and weekly weather and looking at the radar. There was an iPad and Kindle in the classroom that often served as individual timers for students to signal when their break time was over and they needed to begin working again. These were also used as rewards for the students when they followed their behavior plans and earned reward time. My cooperating teacher was a great model for planning and using technology in the classroom so when I was observed teaching my own lessons, I tried to incorporate technology as much as possible.