LETRS Training Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our second LETRS training. (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) This time it's modules 4-6 that covers teaching fluency and comprehension.  Our first modules were last December for phonics. 

LETRS® is a professional development series of books, workshops, and on-line courses for K-12 instruction in reading, spelling, and related language skills.  There is a lot of good information but it's really difficult to be away from our students for three days straight.  My kindergarten students have been working so hard learning sight words.  We've been using Sight Word Money from the Moffat Girls on Teachers Pay Teachers.  My students LOVE it and I'm going to miss three days with them just when we are really on a roll!  I know I'll learn lots of wonderful new tactics to use with them especially this week for increasing fluency and comprehension.

Russ and I have FINALLY completed our first freebie for our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  We have so many ideas and products we want to share.  Now we just need to figure out how to cram a few more hours into the day! 

A Year Later

             We launched our new blog Two Lambs Teaching with our first post on June 16, 2013 while we were attending the six annual National Convention for Whole Brain Teaching.  While we were in Louisiana our daughter Lynda who was a resident at the North Mississippi Regional Center in Oxford, Mississippi was taken to the hospital for treatment for a blood clot in her leg.  On July 30, 2013 Lynda was taken to the emergency room after suffering a seizure with vomiting.  She quickly developed aspiration pneumonia and was placed on a ventilator in the ICC.  Lynda passed away on August 3, 2013.  We  developed the Lynda Taylor Smith blog to share how God has used her forty-two years on this earth to change hearts and lives in the field of special education.

             Two Lambs Teaching sat untouched while I poured my heart and soul into Lynda’s blog.  A year later, it’s time now to develop our Two Lambs Teaching blog as yet another way to honor Lynda.  Lynda IS the reason I teach special education and her life has influenced every member of my immediate family in one way or the other.  As I teach a child with special needs, I think of her.  As I feel the little arms hugging my neck, I am thankful for the hugs she gave me and the love for teaching special children that she inspired.  This blog is every bit as much dedicated to Lynda as the one that bears her name.  As Russ and I embark on launching Two Lambs Teaching to share things we are doing in our classrooms (especially with children on the autism spectrum or those with dyslexia), we are thankful for the children who have been our teachers and our inspiration. 

Our First Ever Post

We are opening the doors to new adventures with our blog. 
This past year I taught a resource class for children with special needs in kindergarten through 2nd grades while Russ taught a high school class working on their Mississippi Occupational Diplomas.  All through the year we continued to have students move into our district and our numbers in kindergarten through 2nd grade grew and grew.   By the end of the 2012-13 school year it was obvious that another teacher unit was going to be necessary.  Russ, having just completed a second masters degree in dyslexia therapy, was really interested in getting back into the elementary school.  So, for the first time ever, not only will there be two Lambs teaching on the same K-12 campus but next year we will both be teaching at the elementary school!  I will teach kinders and first graders while Russ will teach second graders.  We plan to do a good bit of team teaching with Russ taking the lead on the dyslexia training and me utilizing my  BCBA to develop social skills and organizational skills in the students as well as remediating math and language arts. 

We are branding our blog, facebook and other social media opportunities with our design created from the fabric we found for my classroom last year at Hobby Lobby.  The walls are a light aqua and it's a really cheery room.  Oh, did I mention that not only will be joining me at the elementary school...he will be joining me in my classroom!

Our school is all out of space even after building a new upper elementary school a couple of years ago.  The last day of school,  I left with one room and went back to school a couple of weeks later to find a wall down the middle.  Here's Russ trying to help me figure out how to organize our furniture and materials to optimize both teaching areas.  In order to get to Russ's classroom, students will have to pass through my classroom to get to his.  Wonder if he'll notice if I send a few extra students in?  Tonight we are in Alexandria, Louisiana for the Whole Brain Teaching National Convention and training.  We are both so pumped about adding WBT to our classrooms. Tomorrow we'll have lots more to tell you about WBT!