Budding Blog Linky Party

A Linky Party for Budding Bloggers? That sounds perfect for me! I can't believe I've been blogging nearly 2 months now. I have enjoyed it so much, I can't wait to connect with more amazing bloggers and make myself a better teacher!  So I'm linking up with Jess over at I {heart} Recess for her Budding Blog Linky Party!

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging because my friend and colleague, Vanessa from Kindergarten Schmindergarten, kept raving about it and about the amazing people she was connecting with through their blogs.  I started two months ago when I had some time (thank you, spring break!) and I haven't looked back since.  I love it!

2. What is your favorite subject to teach and why?

I have a general education and a special education credential, but I LOVE being a special education teacher.  I have the opportunity to collaborate with some amazing general education teachers to figure out how to help all of our students access the curriculum.  For some students, this means providing them with some accommodations, but for other students this can be a complex puzzle with no easy answer, but after trying different options and learning about my individual students, it feels so wonderful to find the way that best meets their needs.

3. Describe your teaching style.

I believe every student can learn in a room with their peers.  The world we live in is a diverse place and learning to work together and value each other's strengths builds a community full of compassionate, resourceful people.  My little people know that everyone learns in their own way and at their own pace, but that everyone deserves respect for their hard work and everyone should be proud of their own achievements.

4. Give three interesting facts about you.

-I love traveling around the US (especially road tripping!), my best friend and I plan at least one trip every summer going to a new destination.  We haven't figured out our summer trip for this year yet...any ideas?

-I grew up in New England (4 years in Boston, 5 years in Connecticut, 9 years in Rhode Island) and no matter how many years I spend in LA, I will always be a New England girl at heart!

-I didn't learn how to whistle until I was in college.  That is not for a lack of trying, but it took me that long to figure it out!

5. Do you have a TpT store?
YES!  I have a TpT and a TN store.  Check them both out!

Looking forward to meeting other Budding Bloggers!

Adie

Word problems in action!

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while!  I hurt my back very badly a few months ago and I just started taking yoga classes to help me heal.  They are so amazing for my back that I go every chance I get so I've been neglecting my blog a bit - sorry!  I'm back now!

Do you remember my differentiated word problem curriculum (available at my TpT and TN stores)? I blogged about it here.  Well I finally have pictures for you of my kids working hard to solve word problems at their level.

This picture shows the book that most of my kindergarten students were using. It had a word problem with the key information underlined to help cue them in to it.

This picture shows a table of busy bees each with their own pile of word problems and their own solving book.  Each student could pick the problem they wanted to do next, glue it in their book, and solve away!


This student was so proud to show me that she found a problem with cookies in it!  That made her really excited to solve the problem!  Mmmmmm!


This student was able to read the text of the problem independently and was so proud to sound out the words to figure out how to solve.


These two friends were working side-by-side solving word problems at their own level.  You can see one student has a simplified problem, but they are good friends and wanted to solve problems sitting together and now they can despite their different academic levels.


I've had happy solvers for several weeks as we've been working on these books.  We are just about to do our post-assessment to determine how our students' scores went up over the course of this IWT cycle.  I think the results will be really exciting.

Off to yoga class again!

Adie

Symbol stix

Have you ever heard of Symbolstix?  It is one of my favorite tools and I use it compulsively!  Here is a sampling of icons from Symbolstix:

 

I know, they are so cute, right? Well, it gets better than that!  Symbolstix are a symbol set that are used in some communication devices (most notably Proloquo2Go on Apple devices).  I use these icons on almost every activity that I make for my students because it is a universal language that benefits my students who use AAC (alternative and augmentative communication) devices, it benefits my English Language Learners, and they are just so adorable!  I put these images next to new vocabulary words, I embed them in phonics activities, and I use them to build students' individual schedules and resources.  These images are all over my classroom!  Here are a couple of examples:

Here the Symbolstix icons are used to help a student with limited language visualize his expectations throughout the day and see what his end-of-the-day reward will be if he follows his schedule.

Here the icons are used to help a student describe their emotions during a particularly challenging emotional time in their life.  This helped my little one tell me how she was feeling more easily.

This is an accommodation to a phonics assignment (the WR Robot available at my TpT store) where the visual is there to help students identify the words more easily.

I am a little bit obsessed with Symbolstix but I think you now know why!  I even have a Symbolstix lanyard for my keys!!

Just a note: the items in my TpT and Teachers Notebook stores do not have any Symbolstix images because of their usage policy.  Just envision all of the fun items in my store full of these cute little images.  If you want to use Symbolstix with your students (which I HIGHLY encourage), you can purchase a membership for just $50 for the year.

(from),




Adie

Five for Friday - April 5

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for my first (of many?) Five for Friday Linky Party!  This week I have been on Spring Break so it's certainly not a typical week, but I'll be back to work very soon.

1. Tomorrow we are celebrating my grandparent's 60th anniversary with a huge family party with people from Oregon, Florida, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Tel Aviv, and Maryland! I've been in town all week with my extended family and although we are not a large family, it sure feels wild and crazy when we're all crashing at my grandparents house.  We've been gearing up for this party for months so we're all very excited that the day has finally come!

2. I created a Teacher's Notebook store!  I've had a Teachers Pay Teachers store for months and I love sharing my products with teachers around the country so I figured another outlet for sharing would be doubly fun!  I don't have many products up yet, I'll be working on loading some of my favorites in over the next few days.  Please share comments about what you'd love to see me add to either store and I'll jump on it!

3. I FINISHED!!!!  Well, kind of.  I finished writing up my last reflection for my last entry for my National Board Certification! I still have to edit and upload and submit and study for the test, but it feels like a big accomplishment nonetheless.  It has been a very long road so this feels like something worth celebrating.

4. Gearing up! I've spent quite a bit of time on this vacation just relaxing, but I got my head back in the game over the last few days and prepared assignments, worked on an IEP, e-mailed some parents, and just started mentally preparing for being back.  I'm sure Monday morning will still be a shock to the system, but a good one, of course!

5. SKUNKED! My sweet little boy, Harper, decided to make friends with a skunk visiting the backyard and he got sprayed.  This little rescue dog of mine gets startled very easily and this all happened while he was staying with friends of mine who proceeded to wash him repeatedly so I'm expecting to come home from my trip to a very sad little man.  I'm hoping he will be recovered by the time I get back to LA!

That's it for me...what a busy week! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to this week.

Adie