3 High Tech Things That Have Made My Life (a little) Easier

Here are three things that I love and use all the time in my high school resource classroom:

1. Scanning Apps:

There are a bunch on the App store. I like Turbo Scan--it costs a couple dollars and can be downloaded to a smart phone or tablet.  It's not perfect, but it's reasonably clear and it scans the document as a PDF. I then email it to myself and print it from my email. Those extra steps can be a little annoying, but then I have the PDF on my computer and can print it out whenever we need another copy.

It's great for these reasons:

• For the kid who loses everything
• For the kid who's often absent and needs a copy of a neighbor's worksheet but I can't leave the room to make a copy
• To scan the notes page and signature pages of the paper IEP to the online IEP system
• To scan a copy of any important document that might get lost on my desk (I can be a bit of a slob. My coworker recently said to me, "I'm so glad you're a little Miss Piggy in here. It means you're getting comfortable. Was this what your room was like as a kid?")
• To save work samples for progress monitoring
• To scan notes and email them to students

2. Video explanations (Khan Academy, YouTube, etc)

As a high school Resource Teacher, I need to be able to support students at a variety of levels on a variety of topics. One day last week, I helped one student on a Newton's Law worksheet, helped another write a Geometry proof, and helped a third write a college essay. I love helping kids with whatever they need on the fly, but sometimes (okay, often) they ask me something that stumps me.  Khan Academy and YouTube are great for video explanations of things. Sometimes I'll use them to teach myself something so I can support a kid. Sometimes I'll have the student look for informational videos on my tablet. Khan Academy saved me years ago when I was subbing for a Pre Calculus teacher for a month and hadn't taken Pre Calc since high school.


3. Google Drive

Such a great way to share documents with teaching partners or students. Sometimes, students will share essays with me on Google Drive. I can give them direct feedback by adding comments to their document. This saves paper and makes things run much more smoothly.  For co-teaching, we can share documents and plan without using a common prep period. When my co-teacher assigns an essay, I scan it (yay Turbo Scan!), add it to my Drive, and upload it to our class website. When kids or parents ask me what's due in English, I can say, "check the website."

Let's get crafty!

It's Thanksgiving Break around here and at New School, we have the whole week off. Craziness! Happiness! Crazappiness! There are things I could (should?) be doing this week in my bonus time, such as cleaning or organizing the house, but screw that. I'm on VACATION. I feel like I've been burning the candle at both ends, with moving to a new state, starting a new job and head coaching a fall sports team for the first time, learning this District's IEP guidelines and a new-to-me online IEP system, getting evaluated, co-teaching for the first time, and trying to support 39 students and their families. Whew! Time to refuel Ms. B's creative well.

I was inspired by this blog post from Love, Teach, as well as motivational quotes and posters I saw on Pinterest.

I bought kids' watercolors, a watercolor pad, crayons, and paintbrushes at WalMart. I got the stencils at Michael's. I impulse-purchased the Smartfood Popcorn and purple Skittles because vacation should mean yummy snacks.

For the poster above, I wrote the first part of the quote in pencil and then painted over it. For the word, "FUN," I used the floral stencil. I was having fun being creative, so according to Einstein I wasn't just playing with crafts while watching television for hours--I was being intelligent. 

I flipping love this quote and I think it's so true. Roald Dahl knew what he was talking about.

This is the only one I'm not sure about. I'd bought washable crayons, and when I used the white crayon and painted over it, the words didn't show up well enough. This attempt was with non-washable crayons, and it worked out better. But I think it looks a little juvenile. I might try again with white stick-on letters, and I might plan my painting a little more. But I love the mantra, "Work hard. Be nice." I think it covers the most important things!

Pretty colors and stencils make me happy.

What kinds of crafty things have you done for your classroom?

First post!

Hi there!

I'm Ms. B. I'm a special education teacher at a medium-sized high school in a smallish town in America. At my school, I'm called a Resource Teacher, which means part of the day I'm teaching a study skills/study hall class, and part of the day I'm co-teaching English and Algebra. I have mostly 9th graders on my caseload, with a sprinkling of 10th and 11th graders. I'm definitely the new gal in town and sometimes I love it, but sometimes I feel like I'll always be an outsider.

It's my first year at this high school. My family and I moved to this area from an expensive, overpopulated city. I was a Resource Teacher in an affluent suburb of the big city. At the Old School, we had every resource we could have needed. More pencils? No problem. An iPad for a group of freshmen? Sure. A caseload under 28? Of course--anything more than 28 would mean a chat with our union rep.

At the New School, I've got a caseload of 39, which is really good compared to the elementary Resource Teachers, who've got numbers in the low 50s.  Our Resource Room has few pencils, not much paper, no stapler, a broken pencil sharpener. We don't even have a printer in the classroom. I always knew that we were lucky at the Old School, but I had no idea to what extent.

This blog will be a mix of many different things: part new girl/fish out of water story; part musings from special education land.