What's Happening in Special Classes

Specialists met on Monday, November 24, 2014 to review school-wide data and discuss ways that we, as specific-content teachers, can support the core learning of our students.  As part of that meeting we discussed some ways that we already incorporate fundamental reading and math skills in our classes.  Since we weren't even aware of what is happening in each others classes, we thought you might like to know, and might even have some suggestions of some small changes we can make in our classroom activities to be more effective.

As a group we acknowledge that we are not isolated classes.  In the words of Mrs. Usner, "There is no art for art sake anymore."  We see our subjects as the hook, sometimes the highlight of a student's school day.  We understand the power of addressing difficult tasks in new ways to reach different learning needs and we want to be part of that process.  Often we feel as if we don't really know what is happening in the classrooms, so we employ what we know and what we have learned in professional development and try to touch base with classroom teachers to get spelling word lists and math focus concepts to reinforce in our lessons.

It might be helpful to know that ....

• All specials teachers have a list of math vocabulary for K-5 from the GoMath series.
• We incorporate math facts and present math problems to students as it is appropriate to our classrooms.  We might:
• Review flash cards when waiting in line;
• Ask math questions related to behavior chart stickers and goals;
• Sort and group kids in different ways for activities.
• Use geometry and geometric shapes and solids to create modern art.
• We review letter names and sounds in different ways:
• Build letters with our bodies;
• "Draw" letters with jump ropes then follow movement directions;
• Earn letters instead of points. A team wins when they can make a spelling word;
• Get back into a game of tag by identifying a letter or its sound;
• Match letters on a keyboard to their capital, lower case or sounds.
• We have requested letter-size copies of the Journeys word walls so that we can reinforce and incorporate vocabulary, sight word, grammar patterns, literary strategies, writing focus, etc.
• Health teachers are reviewing the ScienceFusion by grade level to identify areas of overlap and collaboration.
• We want to know how you are teaching kids to cite text evidence so we can use the same language when we are reading and using informational text in our classrooms.
• We already talk about measurements, fractions, data analysis, geometry and other math topics.
• We want to work with you to make sure we are reinforcing the right concepts and using the right terms.

As a team of professional teachers we understand our content areas and we know how to teach the skills and strategies that are related.  Often we can incorporate core skills and reinforce core subject matter in very creative ways, but we don't always know what is happening outside of our areas.  Please keep us in mind when you are planning your next project or grade-level activity. We want to support you and we want to support our students.