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July 2020 Book Reviews
The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile I have been very interested in books about the Enneagram. A simple Enneagram test will tell you which of the nine personality types you are most like. Personally I am a type 2, “The Helper”. I thought that this book was a very detailed and clear explanation of the nine different personality types. If you don’t want to take the test, you can read a book such as this one and see which personality type speaks to you most. I really liked this book. It helped me understand myself better than I did before. I have this book…
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Tips for Co-Teaching Online
I am currently prepping for next year, and like the rest of you, I have no idea if I’m prepping for face to face teaching, or online teaching… or both. Because of this I am really starting to stress about how I am going to do my job. It has been made clear to us that we are still expected to meet every accommodation and service delivery minute of our students’ IEPs. I get why they’re setting that expectation, but how do I deliver the amount of inclusion minutes when I am not together with the other teachers and a lot of the other teachers aren’t doing live classes? I…
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Tips for Difficult Behaviors
Working in an inclusion setting leads to many different challenges. You are trying to manage many different learning styles, abilities, and often you are trying to juggle some behaviors as well. I think juggling really is the best description for what I do on a daily basis! I put together some of my best tips for dealing with behaviors in the inclusion setting. Be on the Same Page I work in a teamed middle school. My team consists of a math teacher, ELA, Science, Social Studies, a supplementary math class teacher, a specialist, a paraprofessional and myself, the special education teacher. I find that dealing with students who present behavior…
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Tips for Distance Learning
There are so many unknowns leading into the fall. Personally I live in Massachusetts, our COVID cases are going down and things are reopening without a huge jump in numbers. Also, we go back to school later than a lot of the country, allowing our officials more time to figure this out. But we still don’t know for sure if we are going to go back to school, in person, online, or a combination of the two. The thought of going back to school with distance learning is scary, but so isn’t the thought of going back in person. Because of this, I also have to mentally prepare for both…
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June 2020 Book Reviews
This June I read more than my goal. Which is good because I definitely had some catching up to do! Here are my reviews on the books I read in June. Catch and Kill By Ronan Farrow I really wanted to like this book. I wanted it to be the expose that I was expecting to read. I found this book to be very self-indulgent and boring. I did not like Farrow’s writing style, I felt like he went on and on for pages about things that were not important to the plot. Like I said earlier, I really wanted to like this book, it is such an important topic…
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7 Things to Do This Summer
Take a Course This summer you can take a course. I try to take courses often. Learning about teaching helps me stay with the research and up to date on all the new information. Personally, I use Learners Edge to take courses, their courses are reasonably priced and well designed. Reflect on Your Year What went well this year? What didn’t go so well? Reflect on the year that you had. Your successes, your failures, and everything in between. What can you do differently this year based on what you learned last year. Do you always feel rushed before homeroom so you may benefit from getting to school a little…
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May 2020 Book Reviews
Hello friends! This was the third month of my social-distancing. I live alone so I have had plenty of time to read! Unfortunately I usually end up watching some trash TV (looking at you RHOBH). I have found it so hard during this time to focus on reading. But, I have read some good books this month! Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell This was my book club book for May. It is a bit of a thriller about a girl who goes missing and her mother dealing with the aftermath. Laurel is the mother of two girls, her youngest, and favorite daughter goes missing. 10 Years later, she…
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My April 2020 Book Reviews!
I am currently over 50 days into quarantine and social distancing and I have to be honest and say that I am not reading all the books like I thought I would be. Personally I am having a hard time maintaining focus long enough to read a book. I am trying to show myself grace within this time, while doing things to set myself up for success. I am maintaining my workout routines, trying to get up and do my hair a few days a week, put on real clothes, etc. Anyways, I digress, this month I read three pretty good books. Dead Wake by Erik Larson I have been…
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Teaching with Google Docs
I have been so overwhelmed with learning how to teach online. This fast paced jump from face to face teaching to “distance learning” has been very challenging. My school has been using Google Classroom and the Google Suite as our primary tool for teaching online. I have had to take a self-taught crash course on Google. Google Docs is a powerful tool for teaching online. A Little About Google Docs Google Docs can be most closely compared to Microsoft Word. It is a word processing software that is easily used for writing assignments, typing notes, writing letters, really anything you would use Microsoft Word for. I like Google Docs because…
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Tips for Google Classroom
So most of us have had to move our teaching online. Unfortunately, there is also no sign as to how long this is going to last. I am using Google Classroom for the first time and trying to figure it out as I go. To try and help you out, I compiled a list of tips for using Google Classroom! For context, I teach eighth-grade inclusion. I co-teach with a math teacher and an ELA teacher and together we are running classes. Create a classroom for each section Maintaining multiple Google Classrooms can seem overwhelming. Especially when this is something that is new to you. When I first started creating…
