#1
Beach Vacation
Below is a picture that I took while on the beach in the morning during low tide.
I love going to Manzanita a couple of times a year. During low tide, I walk with my head down, searching for special shells or sand dollars. Most years, I only find 2-5 sand dollars. This year, I found 80 sand dollars! I love to make crafts with Art. Just a few months ago, I decorated a wooden letter of my last name with seashells I found at Point No Point, WA. Last year, I made an art project using the sand dollars I got gotten a few years ago and saved. I used a shadow box to place my sand dollars and I mounted them on burlap. It hangs in my kitchen, and every time I look at it, I think of the memories of the beach and can't wait to go back.
This is a piece of writing I would like to develop with my students using the pictures I have taken. I was thinking that maybe I could show them pictures and then we could write stories together based on brainstorming we do as a class.
Here is another picture I took. I think Manzanita has the best scenery out of all of the Oregon beaches I have been to.
Haircut Catastrophe Digital Story
Digital Story
Also, this picture below is of my haircut a couple of months after the haircut. Imagine the boy next to me, with my haircut. In the picture, my hair has grown out a bit and the hair goes over my ears. The haircut that I got was trimmed over the top of my ears, and the back was trimmed pretty short. Traumatic to say the least.
One day after school, I set off with my dad to run a few errands. "Get a haircut," Mom says. "School pictures are tomorrow, you want to look nice."My dad and I pulled in to Super Cuts, our usual haircut destination. We walked in together, me in my teal sweats and sweatshirt, my dad in his short sleeve polo and dress pants. My dad says, "Do you have an opening for a haircut for my daughter, Jessie?"
They were able to get me right in for a haircut, so the hair cut lady took me right back while my dad paged through a magazine in the lobby. He told her to give me a trim, as if she had ever laid hands on my hair before! She went my hair first with a spray bottle and combed it through. She began to trim my hair with scissors along the top of my head. Next, she got out the clippers. At first, I was a little alarmed, but thought, hmm maybe she has a special technique for cutting hair...
Then she took a comb and the clippers and started trimming the back of my head! I could feel the hairs from the back of my head falling past my neck. I sat, paralyzed...looking at myself in the mirror, unable to say anything. She moved to the side of my head...using the clippers there too. I looked ahead, eyes bugging out of my head, hands clenched into fists underneath my cape.
After she finished, I walked out to my Dad, tears forming in my eyes. His eyes widened in surprise and he said..."Jessie is a girl, not a boy." The hairdresser gasped in surprise and immediately began apologizing profusely. She gave us a haircut on the house because she felt so awful about her mistake. The car ride home was long....long and quiet. There was some underlying tension in the house coming from my mother for the next week or so...
#2 A Solo Rollerblading Adventure
I left my house with my brand new roller blades. I had never had the straight line blades before, only the roller skates with the four wheels in a square. I strapped on my helmet, my knee pads and my elbow pads. Today, I had decided, I was going to roller blade through my neighborhood and up the path that lead to my elementary school. As I took my first glide from my driveway onto the sidewalk, I slipped. BAM. On my butt. Not to be discouraged, I got back up and tried again, holding on to a neighbor's fence as I scooted along down the sidewalk. My house happened to be on a hill, so it was smooth sailing for a bit. As I neared the corner I had to turn, I tilted my heel back to slow my roll while I turned the corner.
I looked down the street and decided to go for it. It was a steep hill, I was just going to coast down the hill without holding on to anything. I let go of someone's shrub and rolled down the hill. As I went faster and faster, I thought, this is easy! When I got to the bottom of the hill, luckily there were no cars coming. I took a nice, wide turn as I veered down the next street. Two hills later, I saw the path to my school in the distance. As I approached the fence, I was met with a couple walking their dogs. A little afraid of being thrown off balance, I moved to the edge of the path. After they had passed, I climbed the small hill that led to my school's playground, passing two small fences on my way up. Near the top, it gets a bit steep, and I had to lean over and touch my hands to the ground to make sure I didn't slip backwards.
Once I reached the playground, I had never felt more triumphant. I was here! I rolled around in the undercover basketball area where the asphalt was smooth beneath my wheels. I rolled bladed past every classroom window, peering inside to look at the different classroom arrangements and secretly hoped to see a teacher I knew. I wished I had brought a friend and decided that next time I would bring my best friend Courtney.
Finally, I decided it was time to go home for a Capri Sun and a snack pack for my afternoon snack. (90s kids, you know what snack packs are, right?) I approached the hill with trepidation, wondering how I was going to make it down in one piece. I coasted on my fresh back brakes, silently praying that I could make it to the first fence without falling. When I reached the first fence without falling, I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling slightly more confident. As I left the first fence, I decided to go down the last little hill with no brakes. I started out slowly enough, coasting and running my hands lightly over the chain link fence as I rolled. I began to pick up speed and tried to brake. The only problem was, I was tilting my foot forward (like roller skates) instead of backwards to stop myself. That didn't prove to be effective.
Faster and faster, I picked up speed, I couldn't stop! I saw a curved curb coming up and new for sure I was going to go 'splat' on the pavement. As I got closer and closer to the curb, I made the decision to try to tuck myself into a ball. My roller blades clipped the edge of the curb and I went flying. Rolling into a ball only made me roll harder and travel farther. Ouch.
A man washing his car, rushed over to help me. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," I replied wearily. Looking down, I noticed that my brand new roller blades had big scuffs and scratches from hitting the sidewalk and skidding when I rolled. My shin was skinned and bleeding and my helmet sat catty-wompus on my head.
I picked myself up off the ground and skated slowly home to my house, SO ready to take my blades off.
#3 A Cooking Lesson
"What are we cooking?" my students say
"Wait and see" I answer politely
"Wash your hands, get into between those fingers"
"I'll wait til you're quiet"
"Don't sneeze into your hand, buddy"
"Go wash them again"
Step 1- Read the ingredients
"No voices while I'm reading"
Step 2- Complete the steps
"Everyone take turns now"
Step 3- Eat your creation
"What do you think"
"Thumbs up or thumbs down?"
"Let's clean up!"
"Take this to the garbage"
"Please throw your trash away"
"Time for dishes!"
"Let's review--what was in it? Was it good? Was it healthy? Would you make it again?"
Until next week....
We cook on Fridays.
This is a conversation I have every Friday with all of my students. We have a curriculum that has a weekly topic that has a recipe that goes with it. Each Friday we cook the recipe and my students are really good at going through the steps and taking turns adding ingredients, stirring and combining ingredients together. I was thinking of what groceries I needed to buy for Friday when I wrote this. In the past, I have had my students write about the steps that we took when we cooked. It's a good opportunity for writing a process.
#4 Social Stories
In special education, we work a lot on correct behaviors for certain situations and how to properly respond to scenarios that may happen inside and outside of the school day. Fire drills are something that are continually a problem with my students, especially when they go longer than necessary. They aren't outright disruptive, but they can get antsy, not follow directions or get distracted/overstimulated by all of the noise. We use documents called social stories to help students through these types of situations. Here is one I wrote for fire drills:
Fire Drills
When we go out for fire drills, we have to stay safe.
When the fire alarm goes off, I know to line up with my class
We walk in a single file line
When I stand in line, I use a whisper voice
It's important to stay quiet so I can hear any directions
When the alarm turns off, I know that it is almost time to go in
I look to my teacher to tell me when
When I walk with my class, I stay quiet until we get back to class
These social stories are typically used for students with Autism. I do have several other students, including one with Down Syndrome, that these types of stories are good for as well. Carol Grey makes an entire book of social scenarios, complete with pictures. I love her book and use it often when I have a student that is continually not following directions. These are so helpful to introduce when students will be doing something new or going somewhere they have never been before. One of my favorite social stories is for riding the bus. I have got quite a few riders that have frequent issues and write-ups. I like to make up new social stories because sometimes the ones in my books are too long or too involved for the student that I need them for. Simplifying the stories has been key to them being successful with my students.
