3 Year Portfolio

As I said in an earlier post, I have a lot of stuff going on right now, including a portfolio.  Misty from Think, Wonder, & Teach asked me to post what is in my portfolio.  I'm hoping writing this post will give me the inspiration/motivation to finish it!

(Sorry - some pics are sideways and I don't know how to turn them)

As a part of the tenure & mentor process, we were asked to do a 3 year portfolio.  There are 8 areas that we need to work on and show proficiency in:
1.  Content Knowledge
2. Planning and Preparation
3.  Instructional Delivery
4. Classroom Management
5. Student Development
6. Student Assessment
7. Collaboration
8. Reflective and Responsive Practice

The district has rubrics for each of these 8 areas.  Each year we are to pick 2 or 3 to focus on.  At the end of the year, we write a reflection on those 2 or 3 areas.
The portfolio itself has a set of 8 tabs for each year which oddly enough are not the same as the 8 areas above!  My 8 tabs are:

1. Reflections - for the areas we chose to focus on that year

2. Sample Lesson Plans 
I include a week of plans with a few samples of student work from that week.  Obviously, the plans in my portfolio are completed but I can't share them for confidentiality. 

3. Sample Student Work
Anything that looks impressive, shows a lot of growth, or things I made like this sight word book:

4. Sample Assessments 
I choose one student and put all their progress monitoring sheets, anecdotal notes, etc in

5. Additional Artifacts
This is where I put pictures of classroom, students working, field trips, welcome letters etc...

 Class Jobs

 Objectives posted in the room

Bulletin Board with a student created rubric

6. Observations & Evaluations - all official evaluations
7. Workshops - a list of professional development workshops
8. Rubrics - where we are evaluated on those initial 8 areas

I hope that this helps any of you who are trying to put together a portfolio with little to no guidelines!  

Teacher Talk Tuesday (Advice for new teachers)

I'm joining in on Teacher Week at Blog Hoppin' and today is Teacher Talk Tuesday, more specifically advice for new teachers. 

As mentioned previously, I am just starting to not feel like a new teacher anymore.  Here is what I wish someone told me two years ago:

1. Don't go to your mailbox unless you have time to take care of anything that might be in there.  On the first day of school, I usually have between 10 and 15 forms to fill out (many of them include giving money as well - PTO, PTA, Water club, Unisef, Sunshine Club, Birthday Club...).  Take a pen and maybe your checkbook the first few days.  Don't bring stuff back to your room! (I lost several things...ooops!)

2. Figure out a way to keep student records & current materials & future work.  I already felt like a failure after turning in half the forms late the first few days of school but then I realized I wasn't keeping good records.  Teachers started getting in trouble for their record keeping (I work in a district with wealthy families who call lawyers frequently so lawsuits are likely).  Paper piled up like crazy, I spent 30 minutes preparing for meetings on my kids and by preparing I mean sorting through piles for work samples ect..I would prepare materials for something I wanted to do with a group in a few weeks and it would get lost in piles and never get done.  After two years, I think I've figured out systems that work for me and I linked you to them above. 

3.  Keep quarters in your desk for the vending machine because their will be days when you need caffeine.

4.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  At the last conference day I went to, the superintendent said that teachers make on average 7000 decisions a day.  Most of those are probably not huge decisions so keep that in mind when you start stressing out.  I completely stopped caring what my house looked like my first year.  My brain couldn't handle worrying about dishes in the sink as well as all the teaching stuff. 

And most of all, Have fun!  It will be a better experience for everyone if you are having fun. 

************

School Supply Shopping

All of my glue sticks are dried out.  They last about 2 years in my un-airconditioned classrooms.  I'm not really sure if air conditioning has anything to do with it but never the less they are dry.  I saw that Target has a 6 pack of Elmer's glue sticks on sale for $1 this week.  Of course, I went and spent way more than a dollar!  Here's what I bought:

In case the picture is not clear enough, that is:

5 foam clocks that students can manipulate

5 white boards that look like primary lined paper

5 sets of Crayola markers (10 in each box) so we can make LOTS of colorful charts this year

4 packs of glue (6 in each package) because you can't have enough glue

5 pocket charts because everyone raves about them, why not grab a bunch? I'm sure there will be some GENIUS idea on a blog as soon as my Target runs out. 

& 6 colorful composition notebooks because I am running out of notebooks (something I NEVER thought would happen)

All for only $26.40.  Everything in the picture was a dollar each, except the notebooks which were .40 each.  I'm sure I could have paid a little less if I stalked all the sale papers from now until school but there is something satisfying about coming home with a lot of school supplies.   Target also has flexible rulers for .50 each.  If I didn't buy like 20 when I got my job I would have grabbed some more.  Keep your placement in mind when buying things.  I am in two buildings.  I'm not going to drag glue back and forth with me every day so I bought some for both buildings.  Foam clocks will only be used at certain times of the year and possibly only in 1 building so I only enough for 1 building (assuming I have a group of 5 students who are working on time).  5 is the maximum number of students I can see at one time so I tend to buy items in groups of 5. 

Things I still need:

Electric sharpener

Folders (waiting for that Staples .01 sale!)

Notebook paper

Spiral notebooks

Containers for Pocket games (Target doesn't seem to carry them this year and I hate Walmart!)

Plastic flexible binders (Staples .25 sale)

Index Cards

I always keep spiral notebooks handy because you never know when a student is going to need one.  I always try to buy the cheapest ones possible.  I'm not sure my plans for the composition books yet. I'm thinking about making those my staff meeting - RtI meeting - Ideas notebooks.  If you just got a job and have nothing, you may also want to buy:

Pencil holders (sharpened, unsharpened or highlighters)

Highlighters

Crayons/Colored Pencils

Scissors for kids (I bought 5 kid scissors per building and a pair for me)

Push Pins

Rubber Bands

Clips (paper clips, binder clips)

Magnets

Chart paper

Construction Paper (I buy mine at school specialty store online)

Desk Calendar or Personal Calendar

Pencils & Pens

Binders for your materials

File folders/hanging file folders

Post-its

Obviously, ask your Principal before you buy all this.  I'm sure you can get some of it through the district or even other teachers.  One last tip, sign up for the staples teacher card so you can buy 25 items instead of the usual limits. 

Happy Shopping!

Welcome Letter

After you decide on your rules and consequences, your next to-do list item is creating a welcome letter to students and parents. My letter was very simple. I introduced myself as their child’s special education teacher. I told them that I thought parent-school communication is very important and I gave them my contact information. I also stated that I attached an information sheet to the letter and asked them to fill it out and send it back by the second week of school. The contact sheet asked for:
1. Students name
2. Mothers name, phone, email
3. Fathers name, phone, email
4. Best way and time to contact them
5. Any allergies their child has
6. Blank lines for anything else they think I should know about their child
In your letter, you can also include any special activities you have planned (make sure they are principal approved before telling parents). My school didn't allow me to have my own supply list but if you can, add that as well. Some teachers offer a Hershey Kiss for every book donated to the classroom (and a label with the students name inside of course!). My blackboard site was not up before school started, but if yours is, include information on how to access the site and what information you have on it. There are many pieces of information you can include in this letter but there is also nothing wrong with keeping it very simple. You can always send home other letters.

-Becky

Hello World...

Hello World,
Allow me to introduce myself and my concept for this blog. My name is Becky and I am a first year Resource Room teacher. I teach students from K-5th grade in 2 different buildings. Needless to say, organizing myself to teach 6 different grade levels at 2 buildings was not an easy task. It's still not easy even after 8 months of practice! As I was searching professional books for help, I realized that there is nothing out there for specifically for Resource Room teachers. My goal for this blog is to reflect on my teaching and share with you my tips and tricks for getting through the first few years. I also want this to be a learning experience for me. Please share your ideas with me as I share with you. I hope you will find my experiences and advice helpful. I look forward to sharing with you!

-Becky