Letters for buddies

Today my class wrote a letter to their buddy.  This was in response to the buddy writing them a letter last week.  My class used the template from Comic Life.  It had 6 panels to fill in.  My students drew pictures and wrote encouraging notes.  We hope our buddies like our letters.  Using technology is great, but sometimes the old fashioned form of communication works well, too.

Hurray for 'buddy' classes

My 5th graders are 'buddied' with the students from the autistic cluster units at my school.  Today, my class was walking down the hall just as one of the boys from the autistic cluster class came around the corner. This 1st grader was intently looking at each of my students until he found the one who was his buddy. A huge smile appeared on his face when he finally found him in my long line of 'big kids'.  My student stopped, talked with him, gave him a 'high five' and a 'knuckle touch'.  Both boys were smiling at the encounter.  I am amazed at the small kindnesses that give such pleasure.  It was cute to watch and made my heart happy.

CRT testing

Today I administered the CRT math test.  Four of my 28 already took their test with their resource teacher.  The teaching assistant took those four students to an empty classroom while the other students were testing in my classroom.  The assistant monitored their activities.  One student worked on a late assignment, two students used laptops to visit school appropriate sites, and another student worked on a math test.  This student needs the 22 question math test to be given over several testing sessions.  She cannot handle seeing all the questions at once.  We literally cut the test apart, or give her only one page a day.  I was grateful to have the assistant work with me today.  It would be very difficult to manage the class without her.

Inclusion into the regular education classroom

I am an elementary regular education teacher.  This year I have many different learners in my classroom.  I am starting this blog to share my experiences and receive feedback from you. What are your ideas and practices on this topic?

Yesterday we had a special speaker talk to my class about nutrition.  Two classes were together so we met on the stage rather than my classroom.  As soon as the soft spoken speaker introduced herself, I realized my three hearing impaired students would not be able to hear a word she said.  The microphone system for the stage was unfamiliar to me.  I managed to get it working appropriately so my students could benefit from the presenter.  It felt awkward and intrusive to set up the audio system after she started, but I endured the embarrassment for the sake of my students.