Still Putting It All Together

Hey everyone, as you may have heard the recent sequester will impact many government programs and their funding.  My program is getting a cut, but it looks like no positions will be cut from instructional staff at this point. However, other parts of our staff may be.

Each year Pre-K teachers get a modest classroom supply fund.  This is not much different than the grade level funds that are often used to purchase take home folders, construction paper, notebooks, etc. except that we each individually decide what to spend it on.  This year, I spent mine on art supplies, stuff needed for science and math activities (not reusable), and some books.  I am guessing that our classroom funds will be very small next year, as they have gotten smaller every year.

As you know, Pre-K kids play hard and at the beginning of the year are still learning a lot of social skills and rules.  So books get ripped and toys break.  And, I am sometimes able to replace them through classroom funds or my own, and sometimes I am not.

This year’s class has loved every minute, but there’s things from free choice centers that need to be replaced.  Also, this year, I put a lot more focus into using rotating centers for all academic centers.   While I do have a number of books that need to be replaced or that are still on my dream classroom wish list. I want to focus on stacking up on materials for literacy, science, math, and social studies.  

If you have the funds this month or are a billionaire  I’d appreciate it if you could take a look at my wish list (linked above).  I partner with another teacher to plan a lot of things and we share materials so you would be helping out two classes.

I totally understand that money is tight for many, but all the reblogs in the world are appreciated.

Dear Ann Coulter, Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow. So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult? I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you. In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.

Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more.

After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me.  You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.

I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.

Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.

No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.

Come join us someday at Special Olympics.  See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.

A friend you haven’t made yet,John Franklin StephensGlobal MessengerSpecial Olympics Virginia

(Source: think-progress)

coolcatteacher:

The New York Times has some options to allow students to participate and learn from the US Presidential debates. If you’re teaching and you are wanting to use this as a topic, this is a great lesson plan.

Plenty of these accomplishments are more than skin-deep. For example, both the Common Core State Standards effort and the move toward rigorous teacher evaluations could lead to dramatic increases in student achievement, if implemented faithfully by states and school districts. Neither of these reforms would have been adopted so quickly, in so many places, were it not for the president’s leadership.

Yeah, I’m going to wait for the data on this one.  Because an observation framework that isn’t supposed to be subjective shouldn’t have 2 people observing me at the same time scoring me on opposite ends of the scale.  There’s a lot of room for individual observer’s preferences even though there’s not supposed to be.

Someone let me talk to these naive college kids.  Let me at ‘em.