I want to take a moment to remind you that I teach high school mild to moderate special education. I started out in as an elementary school special education teacher and I absolutely loved it. The goal was always to teach elementary and I planned to stay there forever. Moving back home complicated that however, and I took my current job thinking I’d stay for a year and then switch. Five years later I am still here.

There is something so endearing about high school. Maybe it’s not having the same students all day long, or maybe it’s that many of my students can voice their feelings pretty well. I don’t know exactly, but I do know that I have found a second love.

My school is on a block system which means that students take EIGHT classes per year instead of the typical six for high school. We are split into two terms; it is very similar to a college schedule. Students take 4 classes first term and get a new set of classes second term. A benefit of this system is that ALL freshmen on our campus (with the exception of honors) take a full year of English which is the equivalent to two years! My students actually have English both terms their freshmen and sophomore years.

A typical day

Arrival:

• Arrive at school between 7-7:30
• Set up any materials for the day
• Grade some assignments/copies (normally my para will run my copies)
• Set up the warm up for my first block.

English Class Time:

• Warm up
  • We start each day with a warm up, announcements, and the agenda for the day. I use a template to display warmups from Joy Sexton. After the warm up, we get into the day’s activities.

English Lessons:

• Reading Comprehension

• Novels/nonfiction texts: The average reading level of my students is 2^nd to 3^rd grade which requires reading materials to be read aloud as an accommodation.

My students read the same required texts as their general education peers, they just receive accommodations to make the texts accessible. This includes chunking to ask comprehension questions aloud, directed annotating, books read aloud or listening to an audiobook, and extended time.

• Reading Plus: We use a program called Reading Plus, it’s a higher version of Lexia and it works on a variety of reading comprehension strategies.

 I am currently pumping as I am still breastfeeding my son, so this year has been a bit different than most. I have had to assign this a lot more during class time to allow for me to take pump breaks. I plan to do a completely separate blog post on being a pumping teacher for those that are interested. Anyway, I use reading plus regularly throughout my three English classes.

• Writing
  • Essays: I assign essays at the end of novel units or in-between novels during skill units. I have found that assigning them during the novel has hindered comprehension of the text as it pulls student focus.
    • Essay accommodations: my students are all provided with an outline, some are walked through the outline and given a prefilled outline as an example of what I am looking for, others fill them out independently. Some students also have scribe as their accommodation, they can use Google Read and Write to speak and have their essay written.
  •  Skill labs: I adore task cards and holding skill labs where I can hone in on certain aspects of writing and pull certain students to practice skills. You can find tons of different task cards on Teachers Pay Teachers that will fit your needs.

Lunch

• Self-Care: Lunch should be a time for self-care and I try to treat it as such by eating and hanging chatting with friends, but I do give up two lunches a week for my students.
• Open Arms: on Tuesdays and Thursdays I host Open Arms in my room. My classroom is open and students can come in and play games or watch episodes of the office while chatting with friends. I do this to provide a place for students that may not have anywhere to go for lunch. My peers class looks for students around campus that may want to come in and join us.

RTI (Response to Intervention)

•  RTI is made up of three parts: skill interventions, will interventions, and enrichment activities
  • Skill interventions: these sessions focus on students that are not meeting the standards and need extra support in a smaller group setting to learn the standard.
  • Will interventions: focus on students that do not have the will to work and focusses on team building and self-motivation.
  • Enrichment activities: These activities range from SAT prep to sewing a button! These are fun and engaging activities that students can sign up for if they are not required to attend an RTI session. I make my intervention lessons fun too as I do not want learning to feel like a punishment.

Peer Resources Class

            I am going to dedicate an entire post to this class, look for that in the future!

I realize this post hops around a bit, and doesn’t apply to most, but I hope it gives you a glimpse into what my day is like. Feel free to ask questions or check out my instagram for more information!