Too Long...

I haven't posted for so long!! It has been a crazy 2 weeks...
I'll catch you up on the things going on. First of all, I went to Tuscaloosa last weekend. Oh, how I miss that place, and my wonderful friends. It was so hard to leave it! There's no place like Tuscaloosa...
So, on Monday, I was a little sad about being back at school and Birmingham. Monday was an insanely busy day. I had a low tire, 2 meetings, a SLOW computer, and a headache. After school I raced to the tire place, only to hear that the pressure in all my tires were low. How does that happen?! Then, I worked on lesson plans and got caught up from not doing school work last weekend. Tuesday was a much better day. I saw all my students and able to get a lot done. Wednesday I had a data meeting from 8-11!! It was SOOO long. When I returned to my room, I discovered that a 4th grader had stolen my fake $20 bills. Haha. I guess he didn't realize they were fake. The money was recovered. :) Friday I was able to catch up on a lot of paper work. We also had a pep rally Friday afternoon. The high school band, cheerlearders, football team, danceline, and color guard came to our courtyard and put on a show. It was great to see the kids so excited...not to mention that I LOVED it! School spirit is great.
Friday, I left school and raced to Tuscaloosa. What a great night I had. I met up with Kate and we went to the cave to watch UA vs UGA volleyball. On our way, we saw Nick Saban himself!!! He, and the entire football team, crossed the street right in front of us. You can only imagine how excited we were. Nick was being escorted by 2 state troopers. It was a sight to see. Then, we finally got in the volleyball game and got to watch Simone in action! What a great player she is. Mary and Jessica met us at the game to watch the former Wildcat star play. :) After the game, we were able to visit with Simone for a few minutes before going to eat at Mellow Mushroom. YUMMY! After dinner, I came back to Trussville and crashed.
Yesterday was Kaitlyn's birthday party. I can't believe that little girl is 2!! Where has the time gone?! Prissy had a ton of food, a huge cake, and lots of people there. It was fun to watch Kaitlyn interact with all the kids there. She has quite a personality!
Today started off crazy. Millie, the prettiest cat in all the world, has tapeworms!! I took her to the vet this morning, and she got a shot! I was worried, but the vet said she should be back to normal in 48 hours. The rest of my day will be spent relaxing...

And I LOVE it!

This week has been a very crazy week, but the good news is, I LOVE IT! I couldn't imagine a better place for me to be right now. I love my kids, the teachers I work with, and the administrators. I started my schedule on Monday morning at 8:00. My favorite groups of the day are my 11:00-11:30 reading group and my last math group of the day. My 11:00 group contains two non-readers and one struggling reader. The non-readers have shown improvements already!! They have read 2 decodable texts. The words consist of -am and -at words...for example, The bat sat on the mat. The cat sat on the mat...etc. I couldn't be more excited about their progress. My math group is 5 boys! They are so funny and sweet. Everyday is a new adventure. Michael Jordan, from my earlier blog, is in this group. This week we have been working on place value. I will cover this for about another week with my groups before I move on.

When I first did my assessments on my kids, I was freaking out because I had 6 non-readers. But as I have started working with them, I have become more confident. Yesterday we had a 3 hour meeting with our special ed coordinator from the Board of Education. She wanted us to report our data and talk about the grouping of our children. When she heard my numbers, she became worried. Thankfully she is going to be sending me help 5 days a week to work with my 6 non-readers!! :) I am sad that I won't be working as closely with them, but I am excited they will be getting more specific and strategic intervention.

I love my job and look forward to a fantastic year full of learning...my kids learning and me learning the ends and outs of special education!