Mrs. Randall's Special Blog

This blog is run by Nowlin School’s Resource Teacher!

Being a resource teacher is new to me this year.  I am finding it exciting to have the chance to work with so many students and their teachers.  Resource Teachers in Dearborn Schools push into general education classrooms most of the time to service students with IEPs.  Right now I am in 5 classrooms daily.  I work on traditional things like reading and math.  I also work with students with social skills as well as attention and peer interaction.

On this blog I will post things you may find interesting as a parent of a child who learns in a non traditional way.  I too am a parent of a child with Special Needs.  My son receives assistance from the resource teacher in his school.  I am in a unique situation to be on both sides of the table when thinking about special education today.

My number one priority is to make sure my students are learning to their highest potential and the instruction is presented in a way that will allow them to do that!

Dear Parents,

If you are an AOL email user, please be aware that you may not receive email notifications due to AOL policies. We are working to resolve this issue with AOL.

Thank you for your patience while we work with AOL to make sure you get classroom notifications from your teacher.

Sincerely,

Technology Department

Howe school has monthly parent meetings for parents of special needs children.  Many of the topics of these meetings are to help parents understand the resources available to you as your child gets older.

As a parent it seems very far away to be thinking about adulthood, but it is important to begin thinking about future needs now.  Please think about attending the meeting on May 24.  I have been told that they are all very good and provide for a better understanding of legal, medical and other needs for our students.

Attached is the flier that went home with students:

parent flyer, the ARC

We were greeted by 2 officers at the bus… We met Chief Haddad… We hung out with the SWAT Truck… We had a truly memorable day!  Ask your child to tell you about it!  They will have so much to say

pre_primer_sound

This is a link to a power point that reviews the sight words we are working on in school.  This would be a great, quick practice for all students at home.  If you click on the microphone it will say the word so they could do it by themselves!

This week we are reviewing our last 3 sight words.  The students are doing a nice job of reading them on cards.  This week we will work more with identifying them withing text!

My class is very motivated by the technology we are using in class!  Seesaw is a new program to me.  I send home invitations to accessing the account on Thursday.  Already 2 parents have joined!  I hope this will be a way to increase my students’ speaking skills and help them with their thought processes.  My goal is to have 2 items posted for each child each week.

Dojo is what we use to reinforce good behavior.  Each week students pick prizes based on how many points they have.  This is also an account you can access.  I sent another sheet home Thursday to those who are not signed up.  The students are very excited to know their parents can see how many points they have!

This is a screen shot of my class!  Jo is a pretend student.  I use him for an example of what not to do!   You may notice some students have less points than others.  If a student is absent or not in class because they are in another room they sometimes don’t get as many points.  I am very happy with all my students’ behavior!

Our class has been discussing wants and needs in class this month.  This afternoon we talked about the different ways students sorted different picture cards representing wants and needs.  It was a nice discussion. Students worked hard to justify why an apple is a want and a need!

Take a look at some of the different ways students sorted the picture cards.  

All this work was done independently or with a partner!  All my students are getting really good at working by themselves.  Nice job everyone!

I have been telling the students that we would be getting a class pet and today was the day it arrived.  We have a small dwarf hamster.  She is really cute.  Today the students enjoyed watching her and some were brave enough to touch her!  (we all washed our hands.)

I am excited for the students to use this opportunity to learn about living things and what they need to survive.

Video of Princess moving in her ball.

We voted on a name….. and her name is Princess!

Everyday students have 5 choices of literacy activities they will be working.  One group is always working with the teacher.  The others consist of different learning activities like working on sight word, decoding words and listening to reading.  Amara and Fatima looked so natural reading this morning I had to take their picture.  ALL my students rotate through the centers so nicely.