5 things teachers do during summer

Sure, there are lots of posts going around about teachers and their summers, but let's be honest, here are the 5 things teachers totally do during summer "vacation".

1. Sleep in

You know, they don't drag themselves about of bed before the sun rises in summer time. No! The sleep in until the late morning hours, like until 7:30! Can you imagine?!

2. They get to be lazy

No more teaching lessons, no sir, not for us! Instead we sit on the couch with laptops or iPads in hand... And search Pinterest for lesson plans, classroom decorating ideas, and classroom management strategies! Don't forget about signing up for all those super fun professional development courses - of course you won't have anything scheduled until after you go back to school, right? I mean, really.... Who actually works in the summer? 

3. Spend time with friends and family

Wait... Teachers have a life outside of school?!? Ludicrous!

4. Do things at a leisurely pace

Take 30 minutes to eat breakfast? Sure! Slowly chew your food at lunch with no pressing time constraint? Yes please! Head to the restroom at the first hint of needing to go? What, you can do that?!

5. Continually think about next school year

Yup, as much as we count down to summer we still can't stop thinking about next school year! We are teachers, after all, and our students and our classrooms are important to us. I've thought at least 15 times about different ways I will try to set up my room when I come back, how about you?

Bragging Rights

Time to toot my own horn today. I haven't done a great job keeping up with my blog but that is mostly due to the fact that I just can't seem to find the time. Between being a teacher and being a mommy and a wife I am dragging every day. Fortunately summer is here and this gives me some time to recuperate so that I am ready to give 110% to every aspect of my life again come fall.

Well, OK, that wasn't tooting my own horn, but don't worry, that's coming.

I never, not in a million years, thought that I would be teaching what I am teaching today. Now, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, but being a special education teacher had really never crossed my mind. When I decided to go back to school to get my masters degree I had every intention of just becoming an elementary school teacher, it's what I always wanted. But it seems like things were meant to go in a different direction for me. The program I was accepted into wasn't going to work for me and my family and I had to look elsewhere for schooling. That's when it all started. I had to think long and hard about the decision to pursue my degree in special education instead. The more I learned the more I realized it was actually exactly what I wanted.

Individualizing for students

Paying attention to their different learning styles

Yup - This was going to be exactly what I wanted.

Then life threw me another curve ball.

After I finished my degree and student teaching I was hired as a co-teacher. Perfect! But then I was moved to this position called "Redirection"... Working with students who display frequent mis-behavior.  - I cried. - And then I sucked it up and knew whatever life handed me I would always do my best. And wouldn't you know it, it was the perfect place for me.

Do I get hit, kicked, scratched, and spit on regularly? Yes, but I wouldn't change my job for anything. All I ever wanted from being a teacher was to make a difference and with this job I get to really see the difference that I can make. And the best part? (Here comes the horn tooting)

I've been told that I'm actually really good at my job. I have had my superiors tell me so, ask me for help in situations they are dealing with, and have been requested numerous times to have other redirection teachers come to observe my program.

All my hard work has paid off. The pain, the struggle, the crying at the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I guess, the real reason I am writing this blog post today is to say that no matter what situation life hands you, even if it seems like the last thing on Earth you would ever want for yourself, you have to always do your best because it may be exactly the right place for you.

Transition Timer

Working with students who have special needs you often find students who have difficulty with transition. This year I encountered a student who was really struggling with the transition from a preferred activity (typically recess) to a non-preferred activity (lining up). I decided to try to create a transition timer to help this student, who is a very visual person since verbal warnings didn't seem to be helping. I created one and another teachers asked if I could make it more like a flip chart (the first one I used velcro) and so I took those ideas and ran with them. What I came up with has been a great help to this student and we have been able to implement the same transition countdown timer throughout classrooms where this student will be and displays a difficult transition time.

Flip chart transition timer

Directions for end of transition (Sit on the carpet, Line up, Sit at desk)

Velcro transition timer with specific direction (Line up to go to lunch)

Now, is this a solve all? No, the student still struggles at times but the difference has been drastic. We have seen an overall improvement which is all we can ask for.

I am angry!

As a redirection teacher I work with students that struggle with dealing with and expressing their anger and frustration. They often resort to physical acts of aggression or just completely shut down when they get upset. I created this visual to help when my students are angry but don't have or can't find the word to express WHY.

I know that there are typically three reasons that one student I work with get angry, it's either at another student, a teacher, or that he is frustrated with the work so those are the three cards I made. I put the words and visuals since he is a non reader (and I made one in Spanish as well because he is bilingual). When I see he is upset I present the cards and asking him "why are you angry" and I will read the reasons too if he doesn't choose right away. Then I show him the back where he can see he can go take a break or he can talk to me or another adult about it. We are always working on calming and not getting physically aggressive and if I can get the student to identify why they are upset it makes it easier for me to communicate choices with them, even if they are not communicating with me. In conjunction with this I will use an emotion rating scale so we can see how upset they are and track as they are decreasing their anger to know when they are ready to return to the class or back to work. 

Pumpkin face feelings game

I said I'd be better about posting... But I'm not. I'm guess I will attribute it to the fact that I am just too busy teaching and then being a mommy to find time to blog.  Soon I will back track and add some other things but this idea was just too cute to keep to myself. 

This was Pinspired... Well, I pretty much just stole the whole thing! Thanks to kidlutions you can go here > http://kidlutions.blogspot.com/2012/10/pumpkin-feelings-game.html < for the original the posting! I played the pumpkin face feelings game with some of my students this morning and they really enjoyed it. 

What you need:

3 orange paper cups (or clear cups and some orange paper or paint)

Black sharpie

Green construction paper

Scissors

Assembly:

Draw face feelings (I used happy, sad, and mad)

Cut out several strips of green construction paper

Cut the bottom of the cups so you can put the strips in the pumpkins 

Write situations on the green strips, here are some suggestions to get you started:

"You earn extra time on the iPad."

"Your family is going on vacation."

"Someone broke your favorite toy."

"Nobody wants to play with you at recess."

"You get a good grade on your spelling test."

How to play:

Have students take turns choosing a green stem. Have them read the scenario (for non-readers you can read for them) out loud and they choose a feeling. They match that feeling to the pumpkin face and put the stem in the pumpkin! 

I am definitely saving this game for next year! 

Social Media in our Unsocial World

Look at me, blogging on a social media outlet about social media. It's become such a huge staple of life today. I began my journey with AOL instant messenger and chat and progressed to MySpace, mommy forums, blogging, and of course Facebook and Twitter. But WHY? To communicate with others, obviously, but I think it has turned into much more than that, and not just for me. Attention. Yup, I said it! We are all seeking attention. Even right now as I am writing I am hoping someone will read this blog, find it interesting and post/reblog/share/pin it so more eyes can see. But I doubt it will happen... But hey you, yup, YOU are reading, right?

So I was prompted to evaluate my social media use a few days ago when a challenge to stay off Facebook for 5 days was posted and I was tagged.

"No way!"

"Impossible!"

"Uh... Nope"

 

Were just some of the responses that the challenge received. I postponed starting for a weekend thinking it would be easier to start when I was home spending time with my family and keeping busy. I realized that's actually the times I am on the most! 

In the car while my husband is driving? I'll just hop on Facebook and see what other people are doing. Why would I talk to the man I've been married to for 8 years?! LUDICROUS!

Outside watching my boys play? Oh, man are they cute! I better snap pictures and post them on Facebook! Oh look! Someone posted a funny cat video! Wait look at that obnoxious politically driven post!! I just HAVE to read all these idiotic comments from people I don't know that clearly have no life to sit and post on freaking Facebook all day. Why should I actually engage in playtime with my kids? Who has the time for that?!

I know I'm not alone in this. You see posts about it all the time, you know, while you are just going to check in on Facebook and you stumble across that heart wrenching video of the demise of our physical social networking skills. But that is just an exaggeration, right? Surely YOU aren't that bad... WE as a whole aren't REALLY like that! 

But aren't we? Don't we miss out on things all the time because we are caught behind a screen? And if it's not Facebook or Twitter maybe it's that important text or that completely unimportant game alert (candy crush it totally life or death, right?!).

It consumes us. If we are being honest, completely and truly honest, we all have to admit we are guilty more times than we like. 

So here I go, yet again, to put the screens aside and leave them aside. Leaving it in another room is usually the easiest way, sad but true. I am going to focus full on my kids. Will you join me in this attempt to rebuild relationships with those that really matter? Those all important people who are physically there, right over there in the very same room as you! Put the screen aside and look into their eyes when you talk to them. Touch their arm as you playfully push them when they make do or say something that LITERALLY makes you Laugh Out Loud and they are there to hear it! Make and build those connections in real life. It matters. It really does.

If you need me I'll be playing Uno with my kid. No pictures included . 

One Done

Wow! That's it ladies and gentlemen. I did it! I finished my first year of teaching.

Was it easy?
Heck no!

Am I going back for more?
Of course!

This first year was not with out bumps and bruises, emotionally and physically, but I definitely learned a lot. Sometimes I wonder how I made it through, and mostly I think it's because I'm stubborn (glad THAT finally came in handy!). But mostly it was because of support and encouragement. Of course my husband pulled me through, and the support of the staff and teachers I worked with made it easy to go to work most days. But truly the biggest reason I made it through was seeing the impact I made on the kids and the improvement in their behavior as the year progressed.

This year provided a lot of learning opportunities. I was so busy learning so much I didn't get to keep up with this blog the way I had hoped to. I did take some pictures and my goal this summer is to add some of those on here. There was a lot of things I created that worked, and others that didn't, but that is part of the process isn't it? Trial and error. That was the mantra this year.

But I made it and I'm going back for more. I've already started pinning more ideas and thinking about what I want to do differently next year. And school has only been out a week! Don't get me wrong, I am ready to embrace and love this vacation time, trust me, I definitely earned it, but I like to he prepared so it's never to early to start thinking!

My advice for redirection teachers? Don't give up! It's a tough job, NO DOUBT, but you really get to see the changes and growth in your students. You get to see your students grow and develop, not only in an educational way, in an emotional and social way that you don't always get to see too. It's amazing, it truly is. Maybe I was destine for this position. It seemed like so many things were pointing me to this even though I was so sure it wasn't what I wanted. I have a lot of room to grow, but I think I stood my ground and held my own and I am ready to rest up this summer and then hit the ground running again!