What's in my inclusion bag...

Working in a small district has it's positive and negatives.  One thing is that I never know what to expect every year.  Some years I am teaching a self-contained class for K-2, some years I have preschool and 2nd graders, and this year I have Kindergarten and second grade.  I have students who I do pull-out services in my room so all of those supplies are handy.  However, I spend a lot of time in other classrooms, so I carry a bag of stuff with me wherever I go. I thought it might be helpful for me to share all of this stuff.

Here is all is.  You can see my chrome book sticking out there.  Carrying my Chrome book has become a major plus for me as I use it for data collect. There are times that I am sitting behind a student helping him to complete work with one hand, while filling out an A-B-C form on another.  Not ideal, but it gets the job done 

Coffee and my water bottle are a daily essential.  I keep an extra k-cup just in case I need a pickme up when I am not near my classroom.  I usually only carry one of the cups at a time and sometimes I leave them somewhere.  Such as today I finally found my water cup in a classroom cubby. 

I carry two types of timers because I never know which one is going to be needed.  I also carry my cell phone to use as a timer when needed

I have pencils and pens along with a hole punch to add visuals to keychains on a whim .

Stickers for rewards and the tape is used to make places on the floor where a chair should be, a line should start, giving borders on a table, and lots of other little things.

I often use the round stickers for students who need to answer questions or spell words, but do not have the ability to write.  I will put their answer choices or letter, numbers on the stickers and then they can put the sticker where it is needed.  You can find out more about that at this post.

The index cards are to write notes one, make quick flash cards, etc.  I usually have sticky notes thrown in there somewhere also.

I carry various visuals.  The one on the left is a copy of one of my student's core boards, the middle is a behavior strip for carpet expectations and the right is a bathroom sign that has jumped off of a set of lanyard visuals.

The last thing I include in my bag are some of the intervention materials or assessment materials I may need for the day.   Today I wanted a student to try a quick comprehension sheet.  In the zipper pouch, I have a dry erase marker, and eraser and a laminated name card so a student can practice writing his name.

So now you have a pretty good idea of what I carry in my inclusion bag (the ones my paras carry have all kinds of different stuff), so I would love to know what you carry around with you.

Teacher Planner: SPED edition

So a few years ago the teaching planner/binder craze really took off.  I started using a teacher binder (check it out here and here.) and I loved it, but it was huge.  I also really like the Erin Condren planners everyone was using, but could not see spending the money for something I could not use all of the pages on.  After some research, I found Plum Paper Planners.

I have been using a Plum Paper Planner for 2 years now and just ordered a new one for this upcoming school year. I love it because all of my lessons and notes are in one spot.  I have places to add professional development, parent contact information, etc.  I use the notes section in each month to record PLC notes. The larger note section in the back I use to record notes from when I am having staffing meetings with the paraprofessionals I work with.  However, I also had a bunch of checklist pages that I never use.  I was also missing some components of the binder that I used to use such as having my standards and IEP information.  Then came the light bulb!







To make this planner work for me, I needed to make some minor adjustments.  I always type up all of my students' goals on one sheet so that I can easily refer to them (and so can the and gen ed teachers). I usually keep them in my data binder, but now I just put them on the checklist pages.  I also added my standards for ECSE (in VA we call them SOLs for grades K-12 and Foundation Blocks for early childhood).  In addition, I added my check sheet for progress reports and annual IEP meetings.  I also just taped in important info that I refer to often such as photo releases and parent contact information.
paras

When it comes to using the lesson planner portion this gets a little tricky.  Plum Paper gives you the option to have your classes pre-printed, but as a SPED teacher I know that my schedule is never set in stone.  This are always changing.  Also as SPED teachers we not only write plans for ourselves, but also for our paras.  Each year I have done things a bit differently.  This year, I put all of my plans (stuff that is for me to teach) in my planner.  I had separate sheets for my paras.  I did have one block on mu plans to jot notes in for what I wanted in my para plans.  This past year I taught 2nd grade in the morning and preschool (ECSE) in the afternoon.  To differentiate between the two in my planner I just drew a squiggly line.

This year I will be making some minor changes in what I am adding to my planner.  I am going to make binder clips so I can laminate and hook in papers that I need to keep all year.  (I will share once I have it done)

If you are interested, there is a Plum Paper teacher planner group on Facebook where teachers share different ideas (more than just PP planners).

I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can still use the "cute" planners as a special education teacher. I would love to know how you use your planner. Please leave your blog posts or ideas in the comments below.

**This post is not sponsored by  Plum Paper.  I did not receive an compensation of any type. All opinions and ideas expressed are my own**

Picture Prompt Organization (Freebie!)

A few years ago when the teacher toolbox craze hit I really wanted to hop on board, but it did not happen until last summer.  I decided to make a toolbox not only for my supplies, but also for my picture communication system.  I decided to wait to blog about it until I could see how it worked out.

 I must say, I  LOVE this system.  Anyone can come into my room and look for a picture they might need.  The drawers are labeled and all you do is pull out the pictures to locate the one you need.    The pictures are also easy to put away, although I do keep a small basket right in front of the toolbox to throw pictures in.  Then a classroom volunteer can quickly go through and put them away.  I found throughout the year that I needed drawers that were just for a certain student (The bottom drawers are specific to students which is why they are blacked out).  So I just wrote their name on one of the blanks.These worked great to keep student specific pictures organized.



































I also love my toolbox with all of my supplies it, This made is super easy for all the paraprofessionals I work with to find things in my room instead of having to look on my messy organized in my way desk.

To make this I bought the blue toolboxes from Lowes.  They are Stack-On 18 drawer Storage Cabinets. Right now they are $19.96 each, however you can go through Ebates and purchase it online to get 2% back.  If you do in-store pickup then there is no shipping costs  (You can find out more about Ebates by checking out this blog post.).  I then made labels, printed them, laminated them and attached the labels to the insides of the drawers with double sided tape.



To save you some time I am going to share my labels.  I used graphics from MyCuteGraphics and fonts from Kimberly Geswein Fonts.

Ready to go get your copy?  Click here or on the picture to the right!!

My first (non introduction) post on A Special Sparkle

Well, my first post on A Special Sparkle is up. It is all about Using Apps for Organization. I can always use help in that area so I thought you all might enjoy knowing what I use. You can read the article by clicking here.  I would love to know if there are any apps or computer programs that you use for organization.  Any little bit helps!!





Don't forget that in a few days Google reader will be going away. Make sure you do not a miss a thing by following your favorite blogs (including Learning Ahoy!!!) through Bloglovin'. Follow my blog with Bloglovin  

I adore Dropbox!

Raise your hand if you use Dropbox! I love it! I can easily transport files from school to home without having to worry about remembering where my flash drive is (ok, where my 10 flash drives are....). It also allows me to share my files or an entire folder with other teachers or my husband.  I can download an app that allows me to easily add files from my desktop computer, ipad or phone.  You can also use the web based version for when you can download the app (like at school).  This greatly helps me to keep thing a bit more organized also as I dont have to worry about or remember which of my flash drives I put my file on.  If you haven't already I highly recommend you go check it out. Click here to get started. The first screen you will come to will look like this.

 After you register you will come to your home screen which will have some preset folders for you. You can see in the pictures below that I have made my own.

So what are waiting for? Go get started!

Organized Teacher

As you probably know I am on a a quest to make my classroom a more organized space. I feel this will really help my students. Last summer I read Debbie Dillers book Spaces and here. I do plan on revisiting that book when I get home (I am currently in NJ visiting my family), however while my husband was driving I decided to read a book on my kindle app. I downloaded this for free last summer and I regret to say that it is no longer free, but still it was a great read. The book is Organized Teacher, Happy Classroom by Melaniet S. Unger. She goes through all kinds of stuff in her book from The benefits of an Organized Classroom, purging, storage, a teacher binder, and my favorite chapter(Chapter 8) which talked about organizing curriculm. This chapter also discussed using binders (I love binders!) to organizes your theame papers by month. So you would have a binder for September that would hold all of your back to school papers, and a binder for October that would hold your Columbus Day, Halloween, etc. I love this idea!!! I can eliminate an entire drawer in my file cabinet. I can not wait to get started on these once I can get into my classroom. If you would like to check out her book the link to it on Amazon is below.  I am also adding the link for Debbie Dillers book if you are interested.
I wanted add that I am planning out my next post for Teach Hub and it will be on my Teacher Binder and how I used it as a special education teacher. I also plan on having some freebies with it that will be available here before the Teach Hub post goes live. So keep you eye out. It should be out next week!

Organizationally Challenged

If you have followed my posts on TeachHub, then you know that I am organizational challenged but I am trying to fix that. My first step in that direction will be creating a sticker binder to organize all of my stickers. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures as I go through the process so that you can all see. If you have not seen my posts about binders yet on Teach Hub please go check them out! I love feedback and there are some links to some really awesome bloggers within the articles.

Teacher's End of the Year Organization
  Become an Organized Teacher with 3 Simple binders


 

Organization

Wow!! The past few weeks have been busy. I recently wrote my blog for Teach Hub about teacher organization and admitted that organization is not my thing. My desk "area" is a stack of piles. I wrote about some of the different binders that I use (sub binder, assessment binder, teacher binder....). Apparently my post was quite the hit! I got an email from the editor to say that it had over 4000 hits in one week. To me, that is HUGE! If you haven't read it yet and would like to, click here. I also added a new board to my pintrest page called Teacher Organization. I have been adding information on the different binders and also different organization ideas that I find. If you would like to check that board out click here. I would love feed back on what you use to organize your space. I am always looking for new ideas. Along these lines, I read an article about adult women with ADD on Friday and I found it really interesting. I have never been diagnosed with ADD, but find that I have some of the "characteristics". The article discussed how women with ADD don't put stuff away because then we will forget we have it.... light bulb!!! That completely made sense to me. So now I need to figure out how to put my stuff away, but not forget about it. I see a lot of inventorying and list making in my future. If you would like to read the article, here is the link. I am hoping to stop neglecting my blog, but I have a feeling with the new baby's arrival creeping up on us (end of March) it may not happen, keep your fingers crossed. I have so much to share!!

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?

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.
 

Organization

With all the talk about Debbie Dilear's book regarding math stations, I decided to check out some of her other books. I came across one about organization,

Spaces & Places

. Organization and Caitlin are not words often found in the same sentence. I think the para professionals that spend time in my room are excited about my new organizing bug. My question to everyone is... what do you do to help you stay organized in your classroom? Have you found anything that works really well for you?