Sunday Scoop

Erin over at Kindergarten Dragons gave me the heads up on this new linky going on at Teaching Trio

so I thought I'd join the fun :-)

I now have a new laptop and therefore have lost all my fonts and I'm missing them dearly - everything looks so boring so I HAVE to find and reload to my new fonts folder.  Plus I have to get this posting on Blogger sorted so when I'm not next to my laptop it will post - I am such a klutz when it comes to technology!!  And finally my new freebie maths resource for Jack & the Beanstalk needs to be finished and posted to TpT to let others share whilst the kiddos I'm making it for get to have a go with it this week - it really is hot off the presses!!

Yet again, I am determined to get in my garden and do the things I really thought I'd have done by now - drat this wretched "summer" weather :-(

Making the most of having my own children here before they leave - one for uni and one for a gap year overseas (don't know how I will cope with that one really - still thinking it won't really happen despite having gone last week with them to book the flights!!)

Now I'd better get off and get on with some of this list as well as check out some of the new blogs on the linky - why don't you join in too?

Update - having checked out some new blogs I discovered Kovescence of the Mind is doing a great giveaway you might like to join in and possibly win something!  Check her out at:

http://kovescenceofthemind.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-sunday-scoop-97.html

Wordless Wednesday Classroom Best Friends

Looking at Decimals

Today I am linking with Miss DeCarbo for her Wordless Wednesday on really useful items in the classroom.  Well to my mind Numicon is an amazing visual tool for maths that I use in all different ways and for all abilities and age groups from age 3 to 11.  For this lesson a group of children were discovering decimals and talking about a chocolate bar being a whole or one and then pieces of the chocolate bar being parts of or decimals.  As a 10 piece of numicon can look like a chocolate bar but is a lot less messier the children proceeded to label pieces of numicon with the decimal it represented.  The next stage of adding decimals was then a lot easier to do with the manipulation of pieces of numicon.  Another benefit of numicon is the total hands on experience it gives children and that they are always on task when using it - and teaching maths to a group of 8 year 6 boys with various SEN I know what I'm talking about!!  There are lots of wonderful resources and lesson plans out there other teachers have shared and on the numicon site itself - so please go and take a look - it's well worth it :-)

To find out what other teachers find really useful, click on the button below!

Currently September

Signing up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade to share - click on this button to head over and play by the rules!

I'm always on the look out of songs with a message for my assemblies and I think Tayler's latest one hits the spot!

Both of my two children are back at home at the moment and I know I have to savour every minute as these will get fewer over time as they grow up even more and head off to possibly more exciting pastures!

All I seem to be thinking of is what will these new changes bring to how we support SEN and will it be for the best?

I really wish we could at least have a warm September as I do feel August has been far below par :(

Already I feel I will need at least two more days of admin to be ready and up and running this year!

If I had sufficient funds and time I would be heading to Tonga as my dream destination to a place so unlike any I have ever been.  If I do get some money and time I would love to meet up with one of my best friends who resides in the USA and lastly I know my hubby would love it if we could go to Prague (maybe on a train?)

Now I'm off to leave some comments and play by the rules :-)

'Twas the Night Before Back to School ...

Well here we all are again in the U.K. getting ready to set forth upon another school year and face a whole herd of new challenges (I wonder what the collective noun for challenges is?)  I am determined to become more organised so that I can accomplish more on both the school front as well as the home front so have set myself some blogging goals for the month of September (to post 20 times during the month!!!) and have downloaded some helpful schedules from others to try to keep myself on track.  I am also determined to try this scheduling posts idea so that they can appear even if I am not on-line which would be really useful at times!

As the weather for August has been so awful, I am hoping September will allow me some evenings to be able to get out into my garden (or should I say jungle!!) and I also want to be able to make a few more things for my home as well as for others (I am involved in the Pay it Forward Art Challenge - remember if you want to get involved just click on the button below to find out more)

I'm desperately trying to sort computer files ready for tomorrow (it's amazing how many odd documents are not filed in any folders!) so without more ado - good luck to all you British teachers out there heading back tomorrow and get a good night's sleep!

Five for Friday Helping Others Vikings & Dragons style

Five for Friday Link Up posting over at Doodle Bugs Teaching - why don't you give it a go?

5 Random Things from this Week

The balloon numbers are from :)

Organisation of Clip Art files

My computer has had a fit and decided it can no longer show me my clipart files with a tiny graphic by the side so now I don't know what I have which is rather a nightmare so I have had to be going through each file and making a note of what is actually in there!!  If anyone can help out with this technical issue I would be so grateful!!!!!

Precious

Watched this award winning movie for the first time this week (on TV) and sat there with tears streaming down my face.  So hard hitting and powerful and special needs to boot.  If you haven't seen it - this is a must!!

Meeting Up with Friends

Do not know where this holiday has gone (I say that every year) but with us all going back to school next week have tried to meet up or at least phone contact all those special people in my life that I just don't get chance to see once the school week of 50 hours plus begins again.

Helping Others Out

As teachers of children with special needs, we often find ourselves struggling at times to discover what is preventing their learning from taking place or trying to create resources that will help a specific child in a specific way.  Sometimes our working environments are far from satisfactory (my little room is too cramped at times for the amount of children who come there to work) or we do not have the right equipment/learning aids or sometimes the right qualified or even the appropriate number of support staff.  We are often the teachers that other staff members turn to for support not only for their school children but themselves as well and so we grow accustomed to helping others and that's why when we hear of things going wrong or being difficult for someone we want to help.  So I am asking for some help for someone who is too far away from me to go and lend a physical hand to and in a teaching establishment I have no experience of but I think others might be able to help and support.  This is my "Viking" blogging friend Jannike Johnson who has just changed schools and her blog and is now struggling in setting up a no equipment classroom with her students expected next week.   Please, please, please go and visit her new blog

and see her situation for yourselves and if there is anything that you can offer to do to help her out please offer and if there is nothing physical you can offer then send her a message of support and well being so she knows we are behind her and thinking of her.

In the spirit of her Viking ancestry, I have created this resource for discoveries in simple addition based on their Viking helmets and dragon headed longships to share with you and your students.

Let me know how it goes down with them as I have not used it yet with mine although I have used similar methods to generate the discoveries I talk about in the blurb.

Throwback Thursday Pirate Party

Joining up with The Teacher's Desk 6 for Throwback Thursday

Way back in May of this year, I talked about a book I was working on with a pirate theme written especially for the special needs children who needed practice in reading and learning their colour words.  I stated that it would be soon available on TpT but of course other things have happened and so this Throwback actually made me finish my description and submit it so if you want to go and get a copy it is now available from my store.

If you want to read the original post please click below.

And finally if you want to grab the lesson plans I used when I wrote the book please click on these pirates!

I would greatly appreciate any feedback on any of these resources or if you have any questions regarding either this post or my Throwback one please don't hesitate to ask :-)

100 Years On

This rather inspirational quote seems to have been following me around this summer holiday - I keep seeing it popping up in all types of places - and it's made me think what will our education system be like 100 years from now?

Will we still have schools in traditional buildings or will we teach children wherever they are in a cyber-based education system?  Will we have achieved an education for all in all countries of the world?  Will children have more of a say in the things they actually want to learn at an earlier age?  Will our focus still be on the 3 Rs or will children have a more genuine balance with the arts?  Will medical advances mean that some of the disabilities we regularly see are things of the past and will this mean Sp Ed is no longer a category in educational establishments?  What do you think?  Let me know :-)