Resource Room Reorganization (Or, How I Got My Evaluator to Use an Emoticon in an Email to Me)

There are three special education/resource teachers at my high school. Our offices are attached to the Resource Room, and we take turns teaching a section of a study skills/study hall type class. We also co-teach a couple classes each.

The Resource Room doesn't have a ton of resources--no pens or pencils, a couple random copies of textbooks, 8 sloooooooow computers (for 25 students), no printer, no binder paper, etc.  The teachers at this school don't maintain websites, and though the Educational Assistants push-in to gen ed classes, there's no way to share information and homework assignments.

Even though there are a lot of things we don't have, we do have a very collaborative little group. One guy requested a big whiteboard for our room--done. We're now putting assignments on it (when we find out about them).

We also designated a drawer for each section of study hall. When teachers drop off tests or assignments, we have a place to organize them now. Also, students have their own study hall folders with graphic organizers, rubrics, and other things we thought they might find useful. It's helped establish a routine. They're responding to the structure, even though they still groan about mini lessons.

Lastly, we added some milk crates to the back of the room with sections for each academic teacher. When Educational Assistants take notes or get copies of assignments, they can drop them here. It's a work in progress, but it's better than nothing!

I sent out an all staff email with these pictures, and the response has been very positive. We already have more teachers sharing materials and Educational Assistants copying their notes. Best part was, my evaluator replied to my email with a "great job" and a smiley face... this from a very articulate, serious man. Woo hoo!

What kinds of things changes have you put in your resource/ special education classroom? How do you keep all the curriculum organized?

Ms. B.

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?