Toontastic :)

Had two of my four Parent/Teacher conferences today.  The first one went well, as expected, but the second went BETTER than expected (which is great, because I already expected it to go well ;)).  My head wasn't really in the rest of my work today because of being so sick lately, so I'm glad things turned out so well.

During M's Conference I did my usual checklist, talking about his strengths, giving progress reports on his IEP goals, and talking about what we are working to improve.  I saved the best for last :)  I have an app for the iPads that I got for the classroom called Toontastic.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toontastic/id404693282?mt=8  The boys absolutely LOVE it!  They "tell" the story and the iPad records their voice, it walks them through the steps of creating a story, and they get to pick and manipulate the cute little toon characters while they record their story.  M really struggles with writing because of the language barrier (his family is from another country) but wrote a really funny, entertaining story about pirates (with a lot of coaching from me ;)) and I showed it to his dad and our speech therapist at the end of his Conference.  M even changed his voice to sound a little gruff for the Pirate Captain ;) His dad and the speech therapist were just CRACKING UP and they were super amazed at how well his story turned out!  It really made my day.

Today, I was Specially Educated because I finally saw the fruits of my labor in writing these grants, going to trainings, and introducing a new medium of teaching to my boys.  Totally worth all of the work!!

Firsts

My boys had a FANTASTIC week this week :)  I have implemented "Recess Passes" for hard work and good behavior in their Gen Ed classes and they have earned it EVERY DAY!  Today, as a reward for such a fantastic week, I took them outside for their first EVER lesson in flying kites (good thing my parapro knows what he's doing, because it was MY first lesson, as well!) and it was the perfect experience!  They were all PROS! It was freezing, the wind was fierce, there was sunshine AND snow, but we stayed out three times as long as we should have because we just couldn't reel in those kites :)  Today I was Specially Educated because I have never had such a fantastic "first" experience!  Buying those kites was one of the best purchases I have ever made. Possibly the highlight of my teaching career as of yet ;)

 Kite Bliss :)

 He was afraid it was going to touch the sun O:)

 I think this one should be on a postcard!

The whole time he was just squealing and laughing :) Precious!