Father's Day and Goal Setting!

Happy Father's Day! For me, I felt like today would be the perfect day to incorporate goal setting with Father's Day since my dad has always played a large role in me reaching my goals in life. I am so fortunate that I grew up in a home with both parents who were very supportive and involved in my life. My dad is, and has always been, a huge part of my life. My dad is a very faitful, hard working, driven man. Many of those qualities of which I have inherited from him. I am certainly my father's daughter when it comes to work ethic and athletics. It is not unusual for my father to easily work 70 hours a week. As a teacher, it is not unusual for me to work at least 10 hours each day all week, and then still spend 5-6 hours on Sunday at school. My father has always modeled that you work hard and you always do you best. Most importantly, he taught me that you always take pride in what you do and always have faith. My father is a huge baseball fan and used to play softball for the Army. When I was in first grade he really wanted my mom to let me play ball. My mom didn't really want any part of this because I was into dance and gymnastics, but she agreed. I took the field in lace socks and bows. Little did I know that the day I stepped on that field, that my dad would use this as an opportunity to teach me about life.  Thank goodness I was really good, because it would have been very easy to make fun of that girl in lace socks and bows that could not hit or catch. In fact I was so good, I didn't want to let anyone else have the ball. I would literally run the ball from base to base because I was so competitive and I didn't think anyone else could catch. Lesson from dad: You have to be a team player. After this year, I came to love softball and it was something my dad and I could do together. My dad always coached my teams, and we were always the best. Why? Because he taught fundamentals. You couldn't be a strong ball player, if you didn't have strong fundamentals. Anyone who has ever played for my dad knows these phrases to this day: set- break- throw, squash the bug, mike-ike and yes-the elbow should actually be down. Lesson from dad: Fundamentals build a strong foundation for success. I graduated from coaches pitch and it was on to minors where there was live pitching. I gave it a shot and ended up being pretty good at it. The older I got, the more I began to pitch. My dad made me pitch pretty much every single night. Which was fun at first, but I was just starting to get at that age where I was really developing a social life. There were nights I would rather hang out with friends, but dad said I had to pitch first. I would be madder than fire and he would say "Okay, you don't have to go pitch, but then you need to find a different position to play." I would give in and go throw, but I would not be happy about it. Lesson from dad: Practice makes perfect and if you are going to do something, be dedicated and committed and always give your best. As I continued to play and get better, my dad continued to push me. I was a good hitter, but that wasn't good enough. Dad introduced bunting, and when that was mastered we switched to the left side and began slapping. About this time caged helmets came about. I was literally the first girl to have this type of helmet at our little league and I was not going to look like a huge dork and wear that helmet. My dad gave it to me the first time when he and I were out practicing and told me to wear it and that we were going to work on slapping. I said no way and chose to wear no helmet at all. What happened....took a pitch right to the face and busted my lip. I think that cage would have come in handy that day, but I learned quickly to love that helmet. Lesson from dad:Your father always knows best and it doesn't matter what you look like or what others think. A few more years passed and I continued playing softball. I was playing varsity softball at the high school level and was batting second as a sophomore.I was having a great year and was in the top 10 in the county for doubles and hits. It was sectional time and I was up to bat and given the dreaded bunt sign. I hated bunting and furthermore, bunting didn't get me in the top ten for hits and doubles. So being the stubborn girl I was, I purposely missed bunts and struck out on purpose. My dad was not happy, and even left the game. My dad always took me home from the games so we could talk about it, but that day I hitched a ride home with mom. I knew that I had really let him down and I had really disappointed him. A few days later, another sectional game was upon us. I was up to bat, and once again, given the bunt sign. First pitch, I laid down the best bunt in my whole entire life and scored in a vital run. As I stood on first, I looked up and saw my dad smiling and blowing me a kiss. I knew I had made him proud. Lesson from dad: You will make mistakes in your life, but you can either let them defeat you or you can use them as a learning experience to better yourself, but the choice is yours. I never realized how much my father and I's bond over softball helped him build my character. He taught me passion, love, perseverance, and many other life skills I would need to be successful. I am a very lucky girl. Not every girl has a father that is as dedicated and involved in their lives as my father. My father came to every single sporting event I think I ever participated in, no matter how far away it was. He showed up to every softball game with my favorite Gatorade and crackers. He drove 30 minutes both ways to Ball State to bring me my black Old Navy flip flops that I had forgotten at home. He sacrificed many hours of working fundraisers, so that I could go to Disney World for cheerleading nationals. He learned my friends names, life stories, and treated them like his own daughter so that they too could have a positive male in their life. He worked extra hard and long, so that I could always have not only what I needed, but what I wanted. I am who I am today because God has blessed me with two wonderful, supportive parents, who have never shown me anything less than love. They have helped me create goals, reach goals, and celebrate goals. They have sacrificed the world for me and I know that one day when I have a family of my own, I will know what it takes to raise children into successfuo adults. Happy Father's Day!

Teaching elementary students, I never really thought about how goal setting pertained to them or at least I didn't recognize why they needed to be active in goal setting. Of course I set individual and whole class goals for all my students in the past, but these were things I kept to myself and monitored on my own. This past year, I sat back and thought about how I set goals for myself so that I have a baseline and something to work towards. I always know the expectations I had to reach the goal and I know how to monitor my progress. What I didn't realize was that I was setting goals for my students and monitoring those goals, but I was never really discussing these goals or making them an active participant in them. At the start of last year, one of my goals was to incorporate my students into their goal setting and progress monitoring. Kinda funny I set a goal, to help make students aware of their goals. This was one of the best things I have ever done with my students. It got them motivated and excited, and it gave them ownership over their learning. This year, when I progress monitored a student, I explained to them what  I was doing and why. Once their assessment was complete, we would discuss their data and what it meant. In the past, I was so afraid I might ruin their self-esteem if I showed them when they didn't do well, but now I think it is important that they are aware  of their learning, even if their score is not where it should be. I was amazed at the conversations the students and I would had this year about their progress or lack of. I think it was motivating to them and made them feel empowered. For Guided Reading I made a wall visual of where students were at the beginning of the year and where they needed to end to make one year worth of growth. I taught third and fourth grade Guided Reading and as we moved levels through out the year, we moved our levels on our wall chart. The students got very excited when we moved up a level and it gave them a visual, concrete representation to show them where they were, and where they needed to be. Below is the wall chart we used as a group for Guided Reading.

I also taught a small group for math. I did the same wall chart with their unit assessment scores. Our goal was to always get a class average above 75%, but also to always get a better class average than the test before. Students also tracked their personal scores in their math folders, with the same goals: above 75% and/or better than your last test. The students got so excited to put up their scores and would always say before tests "Remember...we need to do better than..." I loved seeing the motivation and I love the ownership it gave them over their learning. Goal setting is something I want to continue and do more of next year. After all, this is a life skill necessary for them to be successful.

Good night all!

iPads and Professional Development

Why in the world did it take me until my third year of teaching to figure out what grant writing is and what you can do with it? Not only was I totally out of the loop with grant writing, but I also had ZERO idea that our school system had a foundation that had fall and spring grant rounds every single school year! I am sure this is something that was mentioned during my first year of teaching, but honestly, I was just focused on surviving and figuring out how to use the copy and fax machine at that point! After my first year of teaching, our school got a set of iPods that could be checked out into the classrooms. Where did they come from? Someone wrote a grant! I was amazed that you could write a grant, get picked, and they give you money for exactly what you want! So when this year began, I had a goal: Write a grant for something that will empower and serve as a resource for my students. Kinda vague huh? Gotta start somewhere! I tossed around the idea of Kindles, Nooks, and iPads. I really wanted something that could serve as a tool for my students, especially those struggling readers. After much research, I settled on the iPad. I am getting an Apple TV in my room next school year, so it only made sense to go this route. I ended up writing a grant for 3 iPads and was awarded funding for not 3, but 4 iPads. Luckily, I wrote my grant before the iPad2 came out, making the original iPad $100 cheaper and thus, giving me the funding for 4 iPads! My iPads arrived with two weeks left before the end of the year but I really wanted to wait until next school year to introduce them to the students. I wanted to have time to figure out how I wanted to use them and I wanted to educate the students on how to use them. Ha yeah right....When four iPads show up in your room, it is every bit of IMPOSSIBLE not to get them out. Especially when my little kiddos were freaking out that "WE HAVE IPADS!" They lasted every bit of two minutes in the box before I got them out and began sharing them with the kids. We used them pretty much everyday until the end of the year. I am beyond excited to implement these full force in the resource program at my school next year! I have been using a good amount of my summer setting up the iPads and learning about the possibilities they bring to the classroom!

Here are some of my students doing a word work activity using the app Bluster (McGraw Hill Companies). It has levels for second, third and fourth grade. It has a single player setting, a versus setting, and a team setting. Above my students are using the versus setting to race each other. They have to find groups of words that go together. It has skills such as prefixes/suffixes, root words, rhyming words, homophones, adjectives and synonyms. I love this app because it was FREE and because more than one student can play at a time! They loved it too :)

On Monday, I attended an iPossibilities conference at Center Grove High School. Center Grove Schools were awarded a $200,000 grant from DOE to implement iPads into their kindergarten, special education and ENL classrooms. Their kindergarten classrooms had 1:1 iPads for their students. Ahhh how awesome that would be :) All the kindergarten, special education, and ENL teachers received a personal iPad as well. The catch...at the end of the year, they had to present at the iPossibilities conference this summer! Woo hoo! The conference was completely FREE and they even served a FREE breakfast and lunch. Of course people were going to go, free food! Aside from the fact that everything was free, the conference was very informing and got me even more motivated and excited to begin implementing the iPads with my students next year. There were many different sessions you could sign up for when you registered for the conference. They had sessions pertaining to special education, ENL, administration, digital content, ASD, parents, etc. I signed up for things that pertained to special education, obviously. I downloaded an unreal amount of apps that are AMAZING! My favorite app was a FREE app called Scribble Press. If you have an iPad and are a teacher, then you need to download this app ASAP. It is great for all types of students! It is literally a digital book. Students can create and write their own stories and publish them! Once they are complete, they can be printed or emailed.

Here is what a finished page looks like. You can add stickers, TAKE A REAL PICTURE, or draw a picture! I love the fact that there is a camera right on the page you are working on and you can zap a quick pic, right there!

This is what the blank page looks like before you start creating!

This feature is one that I think will be HUGE for my special education students and reluctant writers. It gives you several pre-made, fill in the blank stories. If a student is struggling, they can pick a topic to write about and then use the template to create their story. Once they fill in the blanks, their text is created and they begin illustrating! There is so much that could be down with these templates! It would be a great way to model and introduce writing and would be a great way to teach adding details! LOVE IT!

The app also gives a whole database of stories that have been created by people all over the world. The books could be used to also help students get ideas for writing or could be used as just another book to read! Either way...the app is awesome and is at the top of my list right now. Certainly will be something I will use often!

It wouldn't be summer without country concerts! Last Friday night, some friends and I attended the Miranda Lambert concert. It was a gorgeous, perfect summer night and Miranda was fabulous. I love her and her pink microphone. Most importantly, I got to wear my cowboy boots I got for Christmas. I complained that I REALLY needed these boots for a good two months and because he knew it would never end until I had a pair,  my ever so wonderful boyfriend pulled through and bought them for me (only for my mom to ask to buy them from him to give to me). Gotta love that woman, she's equally as awesome! I am looking forward to June 24th when I can wear them again to Lady Antebellum! Nothing makes summer more complete than country concerts, with great friends :)

Enjoy the sunshine today! Hopefully it is as nice where you are, as it is here in Indiana today! Sunny and 82 degrees :)

Yikes! Where did the year go?

Well...when I first started this blog I thought for sure I would be wanting to post constantly. How wrong I was! With all the end of the year assessments progress reports, conferences, and paper work to wrap up, I simply have not had the time! To top it off, I was out sick the day before the last day of school and then on teacher work day I threw my back out. What a way to start summer break! I am still learning the ropes of the whole blogging thing, so there have been several times I have logged in to try to figure out what I need to add on here to follow people, or how I follow people, and that is all I had time for! I have come across many awesome and inspiring blogs that have taken a good amount of my time...but as for my blogging, not so much! I am hoping now that summer is here and I have some free time, ehhh kinda, that I will be able to keep up on this more and use it as a tool to help me grow professionally!

It is hard to believe that I have been out of college 3 years now and officially have 3 years under my belt of teaching. I was very fortunate to obtain a teaching position right out of college and have been in the same position since. I am a special education resource teacher at a kindergarten through fourth grade elementary school. I have a caseload of about twenty students who have a variety of needs! I have students with learning disabilities, cognitive disabilities, ASD, and so much more! Obviously my main priority as the resource teacher is to meet the needs and services of the students on my caseload. However, I also see many students who receive Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions based on the RTI model. I often mix the RTI intervention groups with my special education groups when these types of students have like needs. Groups are always changing and interventions are always being tweaked, thanks to our consistent compilation and review of data! I love this because I feel that it has helped dissolve the stigma and labels of special education. The students in the school don't even realize I am a "special education" teacher. In fact, some think I am the advanced math teacher :) Aside from the special education teacher role and assisting with RTI services, I am also the RTI Coordinator for my school. It is really just a fancy title for someone who makes sure data is being compiled, reviewed, and that changes are being made according to student progress, or lack there of. This was my first year really implementing this role, but I have come to love it! I get to work with all grade levels, discuss students, and create plans to ensure student growth! I have had awesome teachers to work with and I think our hard work and dedication has really paid off in relation to RTI. I think we have caught many student deficiencies before they have gotten too far behind and we have also kept a lot of students out of special education! This year it was my goal to be very organized with data for students individually and as a grade level. We use Aimsweb for the majority of our benchmarking and progress monitoring, but I wanted to find a way to make sure we were looking at the overall academic performance of students in all areas. I will share that document later this week :)

Now that you know a little about what I do...back to the end of the year. Sigh. What a good year it was and how sad I am to see it go! I have an awesome staff that I work with and have gained some awesome friendships in my past three years. I never dreamed that I when I started this job, that a good group of these people would  become like family to me. This upcoming year is going to be a year of change, a few of my closest friends at my school are moving forward in their education career to grow professionally. I am so happy for them and know that each one of their opportunities is part of the plan God has in store for them. Then there is that selfish side of me that just wants them to stay. They make work such a wonderful place to be and they are all outstanding teachers. I never thought I would love showing up to work as much as I do. However, I know these are life-long friendships and they are only a few blocks and a phone call away :) Change can be good and only makes us grow!

The end of the year is always so much fun and I love getting all the "Thank You's" from parents. It is so nice to know that I am able to make a difference in a child's life and the simplest little emails or notes are always the best gifts. They make everything that I do and all the time I put into my students and school, so worth it. I do have to share a picture of some of the stationery I got from one of my students at the end of the year. If this stationery doesn't scream "Miss Holcomb," then I don't know what does. You can never go wrong with pink, black/white, and animal prints in my book.

I am happy to say I have accomplished my main goals for blogging today: 1) let everyone know I am still kicking and still trying to get aquainted with the blogging world, 2) figure out how to upload a picture! With that being said here is one more picture, now that I know how to add them :)

This summer I am babysitting Mon/Wed/Fri and tutoring Tues/Thurs. Yes, I never take a break. I am slight workaholic. On Monday, I started babysitting and it was not the ideal pool weather day, so what did we do? Duck Tape! We spent a large part of our day using Google and YouTube to find vidoes of things to make. I ended up making flower pens, bows, and even a purse :) Talk about setting high expectations for myself...I hope they realize I am not always this fun and entertaining!

Now that I have completed all of blog #2, I promise to be back a lot more often and with a lot more education related topics/ideas! I am ready to begin my organizing/ researching projects for the summer as I prepare for the 2012-2013 school year! Enjoy the beginning of summer...it only lasts so long :)

What Have I Gotten Myself Into Now...

As if my Facebook, Pinterest, and online shopping addictions weren't enough, let's add one more guilty pleasure to the mix. Hellllloooooo blogging world :) This new addiction that is quickly developing, really is not my fault. I blame it solely on a great friend of mine, Mary Beth. She is a coworker of mine and an outstanding educator. She has been someone that has motivated me since day one of my career and her blog has caused me to jump on the bandwagon. I am constantly stalking Mary Beth's blog (which is very pathetic since I talk to her on a daily basis), so I hoped that maybe getting a blog of my own would justify the stalking habit. It's unfortunate how much time may be wasted on this thing, but a teacher's gotta do, what a teachers gotta do!  I feel it is one awesome way to collaborate, connect, and communicate with other educators. I am hoping this is a way for me to grow professionally and will motivate me to implement new, innovative ideas in my classroom. Most importantly, I think it will just be fun!


I feel like there is so much to learn with this thing that I don't even know where to begin! It took me long enough to create it and get back to the draft of my first post. My only disappointment so far is that there are not any animal print backgrounds that I LOVED. There was a zebra one, but it looked a little more realistic than fashionable. If you know me, I am NOT an animal lover. I just like the fashionable prints. I guess the flowers will do for now. I am excited to learn the ropes on this blogging thing! Fortunately for me, I have a great friend to help with that! Sorry ahead of time for all my future questions,  MB.


I am thrilled to end my first blog by sharing some very exciting news we learned at my school today! The state IREAD scores (reading assessment that students are expected to pass before entering a 4th grade reading curriculum) were posted this week and our school was the 9th top score for percentage of students who passed the assessment in 6 counties surrounding Indianapolis. I had known for a few weeks that all my special education students had passed and that we had done well. We just didn't realize then, how well we had done!  Pretty impressive for a Title 1 funded school,  if I say so myself! The staff and students have worked so hard thanks to our awesome reading and RTI programs! More info to follow in later posts about our setup.


Hopefully this post becomes one of many! Looking forward to what it may bring! Happy Hump Day! The weekend is almost here!