I love my job!

I love being a special education teacher. I have been teaching special education students for 6 years and would not trade it for any other area of teaching. Every day is different, challenging, and never boring. I have the privilege of celebrating all types of student achievements such as finally mastering all of the two times tables or learning how to eat with a fork. I also get to work with some of the best teachers around.
This summer, as I reflect on this past year, I realized that while I was teaching my students, they were also teaching me. They have taught me how to empathize, think on the spot, go with the flow, accept challenges, take a punch, and to treat every day as a gift. My students are always smiling and showing the world how proud they are to be part of it. This realization makes me want to work harder and more efficiently to be a more effective teacher. How am I going to accomplish this? I have not a clue. All I know is that I will spend every spare moment I have learning from my students, my children, and other teachers to keep the learning process going.

You did what with Duct Tape?

So I had this boring shelf in my classroom (please excuse the disaster area around my shelf) that I needed to keep because I needed it for all of my teacher binders and book, but it was just so drab.

Light bulb!!! A few weeks ago I saw a great linky party (I can't remember where, if it was you please let me know!) about taking old furniture or classroom items and making them new again. One of the links was to a page where the teacher had used duct tape to renew a bookshelf. I loved it.



Earlier this week I went to target and found the perfect duct tape. I also picked up a roll of green duct tape as an accent color. I used regular ugly duct tape on the back since no one will see that part. Then I used my new duct tape to make it look pretty. After working I found that it was easier to start on the trim first, but overall it was not too difficult. I really love how it turned out. Have you ever used duct tape for decoration purposes?

Red White and Blue Book plus a giveaway!!

I was given the privilege of reviewing an amazing new book by Debbie Clement. Debbie is not only an author, but also a musician, teacher, and two time survivor of breast cancer. Her new book, Red, White and Blue is a tribute to the events of 9-11-2001. This book has been released just in time for the 10th anniversary of this date. This book has already won the National Indie Award of Excellence in the category of Children's Book with Audio (you can check out more here). It is simple and great for younger children. The illustrations are colorful and interesting (they are actually made from fabric ), providing the opportunity for discussion. I actually had my soon to be kindergartener read it to himself. He really enjoyed the pictures and said his favorite part was the fireworks.

The words of this fabulous book also are a song. Debbie has included a CD with the book to help out those of us who may not be the best singers (Me! Me! Me!). I have decided that I am going to use this song as one of my September songs for my students. We will sing it during circle time and also use the book to follow along. As we approach September 11th we will commemorate the day by painting our own flags to hang in the hallway. We may also discuss our favorite things about our country and turn it into a mini writing project.

If you would like to get your own copy of Debbie’s book Red, White and Blue you can go to her website and order it by clicking here or you can try to WIN your own copy by entering my giveaway. To enter you need to complete the mandatory entry by leaving a comment sharing how you are planning on doing commemorating 10th anniversary of 9/11 in your classroom. Make sure you also mark that you completed the entry through rafflecoptor to get credit for your comment. (Giveaway will being at 12:01 AM on 8/11)

You can also get additional entries by:

1. Following my blog via Google Friend Connect

2. Following Debbie’s blog

3. Following Learning Ahoy on Facebook

Music in the classroom Linky Party

Music is a daily occurrence in my classroom. We use it in math, reading, circle time, lining up, washing our hands, etc. For my daily circle time, I make a cd for each month. This CD always includes The Welcome to School Chacha, a song for movement, a song to talk about specific vocabulary or concepts (for example last year we used the yellow song when learning about colors) and either a specific reading or math song. When I started teaching I was introduced to Dr. Jean.



This past school year I was introduced to Jack Hartman.


These two people became my music go to artists. I have also recently discover Teacher Tipster who has a lot of his own songs and demonstrates them on YouTube.



And last but not least I learned about I am a Pizza by Charlotte Diamond this school year as it became on of my students favorite song. She has some great songs.



Link up with me and share: How do you use music in the classroom? Who are your go to artists?

Monster nameplates

I am doing a monster theme in my classroom again this year and now that I am learning how to make some many things on the computer I am trying to do more on my own. I had my first attempt at name plates today. These are really basic and I plan to make some with more on them, but I wanted to share what I have done already. What is your classroom theme this year?

Monster Name Plates

Defending Teachers

I found this video about Matt Damon defending teachers on the Fun in First Grade Blog and had to share it. I will warn you that it does have 2 instances of off color language, so if that is something that you do not like or tolorate, please dot NOT watch this.

Classroom before and after take one!

ok, so I finally got into my classroom today.  My good friend Desiree (not2crumby) came to my school to help me move some furniture today.  So I wanted to first start with some pictures of how I ended the year.  Mind you, these pictures may not be appropriate for neat freaks....

So last year, I feel like I never really got settled into my new room.  There was stuff EVERWHERE!!! So I decided to start this summer by reading  Debbie Diller's Space and Places.  You can read more about it here.

This is what my classroom looked like when we got there today.

At the end of the year I pretty much stuffed things where ever they would fit... not organization to the madness.  As we began working today, all we did was move furniture into place.  If we had to move "stuff" we tried to put into piles such as reading, math, etc.

So here is what we ended up with after about 1 1/2 hours and lots of thinking and talking through things...

We put the long white shelf that used to be on the front wall onto the counter top.  I am hoping to relocate all of the math manipulatives there.  (I house math stuff for all of K-2 special education, so there is a lot)  I also added that tall shelf you see in the corner to put all of my "teacher" books in... my desk is stuck against a wall back there also.

I will have more pictures on Wednesday when we tackle the mess again. I plan to keep adding posts so everyone can see the progress.

Hop on over to Empowering Little Learners.  She is have a linky party with before pictures of classroom.