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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…
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My Blogging Journey
For those of you that are thinking of blogging, or for those of you who are just curious to know a little more about where I’m coming from, I thought I’d tell you my story. Let’s Take it Way Back I went to college to become an elementary school teacher. I thought I was destined to become Miss Honey from Matilda. But, as we have all learned, God had other plans. After college, I began subbing and working as a paraprofessional while I worked on my Masters. Because, that’s what I was told, you HAVE to get your Masters Degree. Due to some unforeseen circumstances (which is a long story…
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How I Accommodate Students During Tests and Quizzes
In my position, I provide inclusion support to special education students. This involves a lot of co-teaching, modifying assessments on the go, providing accommodations, and sometimes it feels like I’m constantly juggling. Many of my students struggle with showing what they know during a test, and I juggle with the balance between helping them show what they know and providing them too much help that it is not a proper assessment. Here are some of the things that I do when my students are taking tests. Separate Setting Many of my students benefit from taking their tests and quizzes in a separate setting, more specifically in my classroom with me…
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6 Tips for Starting a Successful Blog
Starting out, I tried to create this blog three times before I did it correctly on the third try. Here is what I learned from my mistakes, these are my 6 tips for starting a successful blog! Do your research When I started my blog, I went with the “dive right in” approach. This, very unsurprisingly, was not the right technique. Before you start your blog, do your research. Surf the internet and find other blogs that you like. You obviously do not want to copy someone else’s blog, but you want to get ideas of what you can do, what you can’t do. Also, you want to know what…
