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Tips to Protect Yourself this Cold & Flu Season
As a teacher, I am constantly worried about getting sick. You would think that with eighth-grade students who range from thirteen to fifteen, that they would be conscious of their germs. But, they’re not! The flu is going around HARD this year and so far, I’ve been lucky not to catch. I’m just hoping that I won’t catch it at all. If you are in the same boat as me, here are some tips I’ve found for keeping yourself healthy this cold and flu season. Clean, a lot! Over the summer there is always a time when Lysol wipes go on sale on Amazon. I buy a few boxes and…
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Accommodations to Support Students Who Struggle With Executive Function
What are executive function skills? Executive Functioning skills are the skills that allow us to make a goal, plan on how to meet that goal, and follow through with that plan. They are the skills that help us with impulse control, keeping ourselves organized, and regulating our emotions. Students who have difficulty with their executive function skills tend to be disorganized, impulsive, and do not follow through on plans. These difficulties are typical of students who have been diagnosed with ADHD, as well as some other learning disabilities. A student who struggles with executive function is not hopeless, these skills can be taught, practiced and developed. Break down a project into…
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5 Keys to Great Co-Teaching
Communicate Like any relationship in life, communication is key to a successful co-teaching relationship. Before the year begins, sit down, and DTR as the kids say. Define the relationship! If you start the year with a discussion about who is going to be responsible for each responsibility, you avoid a lot of problems. Neither of you will feel as though the other is stepping on your toes because they’re doing something you thought was your job. And, neither of you will feel like the other isn’t picking up the slack when they’re not doing something you thought was their job. It will also make the classroom routine go more smoothly.…
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My January 2018 Book Reviews
This month was a slow reading month for me. I sometimes go through bouts of migraines and when I am struggling with migraines, picking up a book is the last thing I want to do. I’ve also been super busy! But, this month I was able to read 3.5 books. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett The first book I read was Commonwealth by Ann Patchett. I have not read books from Ann Patchett in the past, but I had heard good things about her work. I found this book to be very dull. It jumped back and forth through time without much notice or explanation. One second you would be reading about…
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Reference Sheets for Your Inclusion Students
The Problem Currently, I teach eighth-grade inclusion. This means that I co-teach three math classes and two ELA classes. I have learned why the students benefit from reference sheets. Remembering the steps necessary to do a problem is a struggle for most of my students. Or when we are assessing more than one type of problem, it is tough for the students to keep the different steps straight. Another problem I see is that my students spend so much time trying to remember the steps to solve the problem that they make mistakes with their computation. Reference Sheets Giving students with disabilities a reference sheet to help them take some…
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Using Stations to Teach Exponent Laws
Often, teaching inclusion math in middle school, it is difficult to keep all students moving at the same pace. We faced this challenge recently when teaching our unit on exponent laws. We begin teaching exponent laws by teaching the different laws, product of powers, quotient of powers, power of a power, negative exponent rules, and the power of zero. On the first day, I provide my students who struggle in math with these cheat sheets of the rules, Power of Exponents. Throughout the unit, if anyone else gets our attention, we’ll give them one also. We then spend a few days giving students plenty of practice and reviewing all of…
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Celebrating Mistakes
Picture This You’re thirteen years old, sitting in your eighth-grade math class. You woke up that morning and put on your newest outfit that you just got, and you are so pumped to look cool. Maybe this will be the first time that boy you like says hi to you in the hallway. You get to math class, and you are so busy daydreaming about the future wedding that you have no idea what is going on. Next thing you know your daydream is interrupted by the teacher calling your name. The problem is, you haven’t been paying attention… now your palms are sweating, your heart is racing, and you…
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Pinterest Traffic Avalanche Review
A few months ago I decided to start a blog. But, I felt lost about how to make my blog successful! I didn’t know what to post about, how to get attention to my blog or how to monetize my blog. So like most of us, I went to Pinterest and started researching how to build and monetize my blog. I found that one of the keys is Pinterest Traffic. After taking several free email courses, I stumbled upon Create and Go. The authors of Create and Go, Alex and Lauren, have run two successful blogs and have created courses to help you do the same. The first class I took from…
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6 Effective Co-Teaching Models, and When to Use Them
Co-Teaching seems to be the trend for public schools. My school, like many others, is leaning towards a model that includes as many students as possible into the general education classroom. To make this work, many special education teachers are expected to co-teach. General education inclusion classes with the content area teachers to provide the necessary modifications and accommodations to the students on my caseload. In the meantime, there are great peer models coming from the general education population. Also, there is less of a stigma placed on students with disabilities because they are not being removed from the classroom. This concept makes it more difficult to determine which students…
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Should we allow students to retake tests and quizzes?
There is a lot of debate in my school on whether or not to allow students to retake tests and quizzes. Or to allow students to complete test corrections to raise their grade. I would assume that this is probably a debated upon topic in many schools! Does allowing a student to retake a quiz or test really helping them learn? I think it depends on the subject and the nature of the test. The Big Question Is the student going to learn from doing a retake or corrections? If the student is simply going to memorize some answers because they chose not to study for the original exam, then…
