Hello again

Wow it has been a while! I absolutely love blogging but since I became a mom, my heart was more focused on blogging about family. My priorities shifted (as they should). In 2019, we welcomed twins (a boy and a girl) which has really made it impossible to do any school work at home.  I still love teaching and coming up with creative lesson ideas but my passion has really become helping teacher...

Lesson Plans Part 1 - Choosing a template(s)

I am obsessed with creating the perfect planning template for myself.  Is anyone else this way?  I think the problem is that my job is not consistent.  I see some kids in their classroom for ELA or Math, I see some in my own room, some I see daily and others I see every other day and some students I don't ever work directly with but they are still in my schedule/caseload!  Of...

Coming Soon!

I have been MIA again...sorry!  But I have my motivation and creativity back and I'm making things like crazy!  Here are some of the topics/products I'm currently working on that you can expect to see soon:  1. A guide to making your own lesson plan template specifically for teachers who see small groups all day - resource room, consultant teachers, reading teachers.  (almost...

BTS Organization {Step 2}

Time is really getting away from me!  I can't believe school starts in 3 days! Here is the second step to getting your special ed paperwork ready. Just copy & paste the goals that are already typed on your at-a-glance sheets into these progress monitoring sheets!  Now you are all set up to track your data! I have sheets for weekly, monthly and quarterly progress monitoring....

Back to School Organization {Step 1}

I know many of you are already back to school (sorry) but I'm going to share step by step how I get my paperwork ready for school as a special educator.  Each day I'll post a new step to help you get organized!  The very first thing you should do is become familiar with your ieps! Every summer, I print the ieps and make each child an "at a glance" sheet as I read them.  I give classroom...

Bulletin Board Planning

I am quickly running out of time to set up my room so I sat down today to plan some bulletin boards.  I was trying to decide what font colors to use...I don't know about you, but I am a visual person.  I have to see it before I know what I like. I didn't want to do the bulletin board 2-3 times so I quickly made digital versions in power point.   I put a black background...

New Beginnings

My last post was a year ago....a year!  And that makes me feel bad because I love blogging and creating things for my classroom and TPT but I have an 18 month old who is my whole world now so my time is spent with her.  I honestly have no idea how you teacher blogger moms do all of this!  Speaking of not being able to do it all, I am switching positions this year!  I am...

Meaningful Book Discussions

My baby is finally sleeping through the night and is going to bed before 10pm so I can actually get something done!  I'm starting to prep for next year and I wanted to share with you one of my favorite reading activities...Literature Circles. When I did literature circles with my resource room kids, I was amazed at the discussions they would have about the book.  If you have never tried...

My New Life

It's been almost a year since I have posted!  I have a good reason though...Meet Ella! She pretty much took over my life. I am finally starting to feel like I am able to blog again so I *might* be back. But have you seen that face?  I can't make any promises! Happy end of the school year...

A Place for Everything

With the thought of being out on maternity leave, I am more determined than ever to get organized this year!  I know that paper piles up so quickly the second students show up (and even before) so I'm starting with creating a spot for every paper.  I stuck with the paper items that show up with students...not curriculum materials. I made a little checklist to help myself.  Feel free...

Organizing Student Data

Pregnancy and I are not friends.  If I'm not sick, I'm sleeping!  It makes it very hard to get ready for school, let alone blog about it!  I was motivated today to setup my Student Data Binder so I'm going to share with you exactly how I did it!  It was pretty quick and easy once everything was printed. This is my binder & cover (it has to have a cute cover right?!) When...

Star Homework & Freebie!

I am not a fan of homework.  My dislike has nothing do with whether or not it is beneficial...it basically comes down to management.  Coming up with assignments for 3 grade levels each night, copying the work, getting the assignments written in an agenda, all just to have maybe 1 student do it.  Then what?  Do I go over it when nobody did it?  Should I punish the kids who...

I'm still here!!

What a year!  I've taken a big break from blogging for a lot of personal reasons.  I usually stick to just school topics but I wanted to share a few things.  First, I got married!  Dave and I have been together 10 years this July and we've been engaged for 6 years...yup 6 years!  We are not center of attention people and we are terrible dancers...traditional weddings were...

New Teacher Binder!

I am so excited to show you guys my new teacher binder!  I made a meal plan binder cover that I fell in love with so much that I HAD to make a teacher binder set to match.   So join me on a tour of my teacher binder(s)!  My first binder is my planning binder. It's hard to tell but there is a blue background outside of the border...my printer isn't printing the blues well :( In...