20 days to go...

Only 20 days -not counting weekends and 1 holiday- left of school. We have 3 more days of state testing and several days of AP testings. I am hoping that I don't have to give any of the state testing - I am a bit over-tested from last week's testing. It is hard to spend an entire day testing.
We finished Romeo and Juliet yesterday. Now we are going over the characters and talking about how they contributed to the story. Some understand the story more than others.
I am looking forward to summer break. Kelsey is going to take microbiology during the summer session and we will watch Robby on Mondays and Wednesdays. She should be applying to nursing school soon. She was going to go to the UTHSC but she wouldn't be able to start until August of 2013. She would lose a semester of school at the very least. She is considering the nursing school at University of Incarnate Word. It is a private Catholic university. It is the school that Holly goes to. Also, the nursing school has just gotten a new building and brand new classrooms and labs. She would be able to apply for this fall admission still. UTHSC's deadline is July 1 & her microbiology wouldn't be completed in time for consideration.
I am going through the scope and squence for English 2 to help prepare for next year. I am also scheduling & refining the scope and squence for English 1 that I just finished with my kiddos. I am trying to refine what I taught this year to make it a bit easier for next year. It will help me in teaching the additional preps. I also may be teaching an even lower level of English to the ALE students. Their lessons will go even lower. I will need to simplify the stories even more than I have previously. It is hard to move to a more functional but I am going to give it my best shot. I am going to take an inservice class on using boardmaker. It is a program that uses pictures to represent the words. The students can use the pictures to read the story easier. Hopefully, I won't have more than 3 preps. I just keep praying for that!!
I can't wait for Shimelle's Cover to Cover to start. I am looking forward to having some fun creative time.

Why I teach

Today was an exhausting day, but it was eventful. I am teaching summer school this year. It is a bit different from my regular teaching assignment. It is preschool program for children with disablities. I have three students in my class. All are completely nonverbal. Only one student babbles when he is enjoying something.
Yesterday, the little girl mimicked the chorus of a song and said "roll over." I was so excited just for that little bit of language. Today she was doing even more. She was babbling all morning and repeating words from different songs that we had playing. She had speech therapy this morning and the therapist reported more interaction than she had ever seen before.
These little victories are why I teach. I did a little something to help someone communicate a little bit with the world they live in.

Back to school

There are 99 days left of the school year. Yes, we are all counting.
It seems that I will not be getting a new portable. The old portable will stay on campus until it is bought by someone. Unfortunately, I don't have a classroom. I currently float into 3 different classrooms. In 1st period I am in Portable 16, 2nd period I am in portable 9 and 3rd period in portable 30. I am getting 13,000+ steps a day on my pedometer. It was very miserable today with drizzle and a high of 42. I am so thrilled with my schedule.