This year’s April showers not only brought the budding of May flowers, but also many other awesome joys! First let’s admire the natural beauty of Spring… Pause and “smell” the… flowers: And now onto the highlights of an Awesome April: From successfully proctoring the PSSA to a group of 22 nervous 3rd graders, as well…
read more »The Pennsylvania Department of Education Mastery Charter Mann Special Education Audit Week, in a Nut Shell: -Stressful-like your life, your work, and your students are under a microscope-interviews, observations, clarifying questions… -Negative-let me just give you this scene: The woman in charge of the audit (the State DOE employee) leaves the administrative/Special Education Team’s Mid-Audit “Feedback Meeting”…
read more »February has been a trying month, at best. In the past few weeks, I have found myself wondering if I will be able to get out of bed in the morning due to exhaustion, and along with that I have been trying anything and everything just hoping for a snow day.. But February just keeps…
read more »Today, is the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. A man I have come to admire for his strong faith, just beliefs, and brilliant boldness. His ideas on education, and education equality, are ones I find I can easily agree with. Not only because they are right and just, but because I know where Dr.…
read more »Happy New Year! Welcome 2013! As the rest of the world celebrates the start of a new year, with fresh starts, new goals, and bigger plans, we teachers are nearing a yearly milestone as well… The Middle! While I may have participated in ringing in 2013 with the rest of the working world, the quick…
read more »A Loving Parent “Dear Teacher, I am sending you my most precious possession today, Trusting in your care what to do and say, Be gentle and loving and encourage him too, I’m trusting in you to know what to do, Show him things and let him draw, So he’ll remember the things he saw, Let…
read more »“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou I know they forget, or simply do not hear, over 80% of what I say in a day… And I hope they forget at least 50% of the…
read more »November has only just begun, and it is already proving to be an eventful time of the year in our classroom. From regrouping and refocusing after Hurricane Sandy caused us to close for two days, to the Halloween Candy “Hangovers,” the Election craze, and now… a Nor’Easter and… new students. As of today, we have…
read more »Let’s just start with a few things a visitor may have seen and heard in our classroom today: 1. Me, smiling and hugging a student (or really, squeezing him to get him to stay in one place for 5 seconds), and half-telling, half-singing to him, “I love you. But sometimes… You. make. me. Bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.”…
read more »Everyday, I experience a variety of emotions, a roller coaster of feelings, and about 20,000 thoughts per minute. Within this wild ride of daily classroom leading, more often than not, at any given moment, I am experiencing 2 or more conflicting emotions at once. For example, when a student is “singing” (humming odd noises and…
read more »At Mastery, we have many mottos and mantras, but one of the all encompassing, everyday values we abide by as a “Master-ific” way of life: “Sweat the Small Stuff.” Now, in terms of Mastery’s vision of what it means to “Sweat the Small Stuff,” it may appear that we are being “strict,” “rigid,” and “controlling”…
read more »Today marks the start of our 6th week of school here at Mann, and I could not help but think, “Holy cow! We’ve been at this for 6 weeks already?! Do we have anything to show for it…?” Today seemed especially “ordinary,” “normal,” and even “average.” So, naturally, I started to think back over the…
read more »On this beautiful Fall Monday (that I am enjoying off thanks to Rosh Hashanah!), I have been thinking back to that first Fall I spent on the East Coast. At this point, five years later, I can say I have fallen in love with my current surroundings and circumstances. However, I have a confession to make: During…
read more »You may think you’ve seen ADHD in action, but you have no idea. When a child, physically, mentally, and emotionally, has no control due to the neurological functioning of his brain… When he cannot sit, or stand, or walk even, without throwing his arms up, or grabbing anything within reach, because he felt the urge…
read more »Before I say anything about this week, let me just show you how we finished last week: The “Academic Athletes” of Room #306 “I Am” Poems Let me just say: “We were first!” Last Friday, my boys “performed” their “I Am” Poems, that they worked on all week. It was the FIRST week of instruction…
read more »First: A HUGE, GIGANTIC, THANK YOU!!! To my incredible family: AMANDA, NATHAN, HT & HADLEY I cried when I found this in my mailbox: Thanks to you guys, I can get my students more supplies that will help them be creative and, more importantly, stay organized! With that, I hereby declare Mann Elementary; Room #306 now “officially” open to…
read more »“‘Twas the night before The First Day of School, and all through the house, Miss S was sure stirring… Too nervous to rhyme. Her lunch was all packed, her bags all prepared, in hopes that the children… would not be there. She knew it was not the right thing to think, but really,…
read more »I know as teachers, we become very attached to the children we see each and every day. Therefore, we also become attached to the “stuff” that reminds us of them; the pictures they drew, cards they wrote us, and even work they did that we were so proud they accomplished. We also have this subconscious…
read more »pur·pose noun 1.the reason for which something exists or is done. I suppose I should begin this project like we begin each lesson for our students; Explain “Why.” Why have I decided to keep a written account of my experiences as a first year special education teacher? Why, when I will be stressed and exhausted from the…
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