Well...I've managed to whittle my class down from 12 to 8 to start the year. I say that jokingly because I didn't have much to do with it with the exception of one case. I lost one to Gen Ed. and another to a move. One child is in foster care and they don't know when or if she will be back. The other case though was something completely different. The child in question was actually too low and too young to be in my room. I fought the placement and won. I may see this child a year from now but as it stands, this is how it is going to be. I know I won't be staying at 8 but at least I have some breathing room finally.The room is all done and looks lovely. I just need to write lesson plans now for the week. I was waiting to see what I had so I could plan. Even though this is year six of teaching, I'm still just as nervous as the kids are for the first day of school. I think that when the day comes and I no longer feel that way, it's time for me to leave the profession and do something else. That's when you know you are burned out.  So....stay tuned.....the aventures of Room 1 are about to get underway for another year.

 

 

 

 

              I found out what the problem was with the AC in my classroom. It's 90 degrees in here as I type. It seems that when they did the great remodel of last year, nobody bothered to insultate the new ceiling. Yep, if you push up the acoustic ceiling tiles, there is no insultation. Instead there are huge metal beams just radiating that 114F degree heat back into my classroom. (Explains why we were freezing our butts off in winter too) All I said to the guy who does our AC for district is that they better get on getting the insultation in my ceiling or I'm not going to be happy. When I'm not happy, nobody is going to be happy :) He more or less got the meaning of that message. So, I may have to start off the school year teaching for the first half of my day in my room and the second half in a storage room where there is AC. May I please officially slap the hell out of someone now?

 

 

 

                         Back at work today officially to kick off my sixth year teaching. Unfortunately, today will be filled with nothing but useless inservices on things that I cannot use with my students due to their cognitive functioning. My district actually refuses to bring in anyone to do an inservice in Special Eduation even though there are about 10 of us teachers district wide. And I'm sure some Gen Ed teachers might like to attend a class since so many kids now are not qualifying for special day class placement and are in their rooms. Idiots. Anyway, day 14 of the heatwave continues here with not much hope for an end. We are expecting temps out where I teach at around 114-116F. The national meterologists have said this type of heatwave happens every 50-100 years. I really hope it breaks before school starts or we are going to have heat exhaustion or worse!

 

 

 

                      This is what I get for too much time off. I start reading all kinds of news articles and today's leaves me scratching my head. In Oregon, they are talking about closing down schools that serve specific disabilties like a school for the visually impaired and throwing them on the campus for a school of the deaf. It's almost like someone was thinking "Well, they all have disabilities, lets just combine them all and save some money". Do they not get there are diiferent cultures within the disabled community? I understand that they are trying to save money especially when school enrollment numbers are so small due to IDEA back in 1975 which gave all students with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment. However, I have a real problem with just throwing different disabilities and different disabled cultures together for the sake of a buck. I will post the link to the article on my list of things to check out. Am I the only one that can see the problem here?

 

 

 

                    I was in my classrooom again today working on getting it together. Again, when I left around noon, the AC was up to 90. It's just been awful as far as the weather goes. 111F the other day and 110F today. The meterologists here say it is the hottest summer on record in the past five years. As I was sitting there sweating in my room, I put together a binder of all the postcards and letters we received from everyone on our Old Tom Project. This binder mainly is for Ricky when he returns. If he has a meltdown then he can look at the binder and find the places on the maps I kept up for him. I wanted to personally thank everyone that sent a postcard. A lot of you went above and beyond. For that, I am truly grateful for you taking the time to help out my class. 7 days and counting until Season 2 of the all the drama and craziness in Room 1 begins again!

 

 

 

 

                 You know there are days when I wished I stayed in bed than read the news. I wake up today to see that the Senate Appropriations Committee has taken to freezing funding for Head Start, grants for schools with poor children and those with specials needs. They also decided to fund only half of the $25 billion for No Child Left Behind. Pardon my language but someone needs to bitch slap every senator on that panel. What do their actions tell us? Again, children lose out under this administration and our schools will keep having to cut programs just to be able to uphold the laws. I get the feeling sometimes that our government would like to go back to pre-IDEA when special needs kids weren't guarenteed a free and appropriate education.

 

                I'm off to go back to my classroom to work. I had to leave about 1: 30 pm yesterday because the AC couldn't keep up with the heat. It was around 109 F. Today it is supposed to be around 111F. Right now there is no end in sight for this heat until maybe next Friday. I can only hope it cools down before August 1st or school is going to be miserable for all.

 

 

 

                           I visited my classroom today since I was missing it and also I had been laminating stuff like a mad woman for the upcoming school year. On August 1st, The Adventures of Room 1 will be back in full swing with six new cast members in the form of Kindergartners in my room. I am looking forward to the new year. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them since I haven't seen an IEP on the new six and have no idea what I'm looking at as far as goals or disabilities go. However, that is always the challenge of Special Ed anyway. Even on paper, your students are usually nothing like what they describe. I have already spent $200 on nothing just to get stuff ready. That's what so maddening. So many people who don't teach don't realize how much out of pocket teachers pay just to have the basic stuff in your classroom. I mean I bought two boxes of flashcards, two bingo games, a couple of wall posters, a new calendar, some farm animals cutouts, some letters for bulletin board and a notepad-$150 at GW School supplies (and was with the teacher discount!) That was the bare minimum. Then it cost me $43 dollars just to laminate the stuff and make a door banner in the worklab we have. I realized I forgot to buy a new lesson plan book (which is always amusing to me since I can't remember when I ever had a day when we followed any lesson plans I had thought of ahead-always something to screw that up). I'm crusing through the catalogues now making my wish list of things to order that I probably won't get. The only thing I truly want is a pencil sharpener.  I went an entire year last year without one. How are you supposed to teach writing? Wait for the pencil fairy to come through your class and miraculously sharpen everyone's pencil? Ugh! Could be worse I suppose. I raided the supply closet on my campus and got all the crayons, markers and other essentials before anyone else did :)

 

 

                       I have added the latest to my photos. This is the Kern River Walkway where I usually walk every night. Any of the shots can be made into cards. If anyone is interested in these or other photos like the wildflower shots sans the Carrizo plain one which isn't mine, just email me at theshortbusqueen@yahoo.com

I still do things the old school way with actual film first. Someday (if I ever win the lottery) I will buy the digital camera with all the different lenses I would like. Until then....Happy Viewing!

 

 

                  I decided to add a new list to my blog of my favorite video clips I come across on sites like YouTube and other places. When possible, I have tried to put a disclaimer in on some of the ones that are racy, rude and not suitable for kids to view. Most of the clips reflect my very warped sense of humor.

 

 

                     I have decided to go back to doing a little photography while waiting for school to start. I'd like to be able to capture the beauty of the area where I walk if possible before this third heat wave fries everything to pieces.  (Today's temp 105-109 and this is not the hottest day yet of the heatwave!) Lately I have encountered all kinds of wildlife from quail to last night's coyote. The day before I was met on the bike path by a baby rattlesnake. (Mojave rattlesnake) I walked WAAAAAYYYYY around him and as I was looking back from about 15 yard away, a roadrunner came running up to the snake and grabbed it with its beak. The snake and roadrunner then had a bit of a fight and the roadrunner pecked the snaked until it turned around and slithered back under the bushes on the hill where it came from. Nothing like a little "National Geographic" special happening on an evening walk.

 

                 Anyway, these shots, should they turn out good will be turned into greeting cards along with some of my other shots. I have produced these in the past and have sold out of them. The cards consist of a real 4x6 picture mounted onto creme vellum with deckled edges. The inside are blank so you can write whatever you like. The pictures can be taken off and framed later. I sold each card at $2.50 or a series of 5 for $10. Once I get everything under production again, I will post the pictures and cards here.  My goal someday is to do a series of shots of chidlren with special needs for cards. However, my bigger goal which I am going to push this year is to have my own students take pictures of the things that are important to them and then have a art gallery showing. So many times we patronize our students and I am just as guilty of that as anyone. We don't really know what is important to them or in their world. Sometimes it is hard to know because of lack of speech to find out. However, the camera is a visual medium and a picture, as they say, can say a thousand words. I have been dreaming about this project now for three years. I am hoping that I can combine my class with the 4th-8th grade class we have to come up with some really interesting photos. My very first job I ever had I worked for a professional photographer in town (who I still think is the best ever) and learned so much on the job.

 

       Note: Some of my wildflower photos on here will be cards