...Aaaaand we're back!
Hello, neighbor! It's your friendly neighborhood Special Learning Teacher here. It's been a while; I hope you've been doing well.
Me? I'm doing great, thanks for asking! I've been busy, and have sadly neglected my own little corner of the interwebs for a while.
Soooo... I have some news. I got a new job. Well, it's not that new. In fact, I'm wrapping up my first year in my current role at my new school. Today I went to a ceremony where they celebrated retirees and employees who have been with the school for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40 and 45 years!
It got me to thinking: what do I want to do with my career? What do I want to have accomplished before retirement?
The answer was simple: I want to build something.
And so here I am, bricks and spackle in hand. I still have a burning passion to bridge the communication gap between parents and teachers. I've still got a domain name and Wifi. Let's get to building!
But a few things are going to be different this time around, and I think it's for the best. Allow me to ennumerate:
1) No more IEPs.
It's my favorite part of my new job. I don't have to write IEPs anymore. So I'm not going to be writing about IEPs anymore. Frankly, I don't know that anyone enjoyed reading about IEPs either.
2) More middle school focus (grades 6-8).
Once upon a time, my 7th grade English teacher told me: "write what you know". Well, I know how to navigate the complex academic issues afflicting adolescents with learning disabilities. I've been a middle school special education teacher for years. Middle school is a magical time in a student's life: filled with angst, frustration, possibilities and promise. I'm going to write about dealing with the former and releasing the latter.
3) Greater focus on strategies
In my new role, I get to focus a lot on strategies. Teaching strategies, learning strategies, self-regulation strategies, organization strategies, even strategy instruction strategies. So meta! I'm going to share some of these strategies with you (for free!) because I like you. You can take them, try them out, and let me know how they work for you! That last part would be super helpful to me. I'd like to know how you like my strategies so that I can tweak them and make them better. Thanks in advance.
4) More resources
I've got access to a large brain trust of people willing to share awesome resources for teachers and parents of kids with learning disabilities. I'm going to be passing along some of those resources to you, and as a bonus, I'll throw in my own two cents! There's a lot of great (free!) stuff out there in the wide, wild web. When I find something I like, I'm going to share it with you here!
So that's it. That's going to be the new and improved Special Learning Teacher. I hope you like it. If you don't, leave a comment below. If you do like it, leave a comment below! If you are still reading, leave a comment below!
And look forward to the next post. It'll be a great resource about procrastination. Spoiler alert: "instant gratification monkey" and "panic monster" will be making an appearance.
