The best first day of school ever!!

Today was absolutely spectacular!  I honestly couldn't have asked for a better day!  It started out with a school wide meeting that my students really enjoyed.  Our principal discussed our school expectations and introduced all the teachers.  After the meeting all of my students went to their first period class, P.E.  They have all decided that is their favorite class ;) After P.E., we spent time discussing our classroom expectations, our stations and rotations, A.R. guidelines and our behavior program.  After that, I took my class and we walked through the school and they all got aquainted with or re-aquainted with where everything is.  We then went through one rotation and then lunch.  They all worked so hard for me!  After lunch we did more rotations and then did a super fun activity to finish out the day.  I found this on Pinterest and just had to do it!  We made "trash" which included cheerios, apple jacks, fruit loops, peanuts, cashews, peanut M&M's, plain M&M's and coconut flakes.  Here is the recipe:

Recipe for Success

From the classroom of Mrs. Tarver

You will need the following:

2 cups of Effort                                                       1 cup of Teamwork

2 cups of Kindness                                                  1 cup of Excitement to Learn

2 handfuls of Curiosity                                            1 handful of Fairness

3 Tablespoons of Honesty                                       Sprinke of Pride in Your Work

Combine all ingrediants with a gentle hand and a loving heart.

Success is always better when shared, so pass it around!

It turned out great and I plan on using it every year!! I am so excited about this year, I just know its going to be great!

Until next time, Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. ~ Helen Keller



Summer is officially over!

Tonight I sit here with many emotions! Today is the last day of summer.  This has been one of the most extraordinary summers of my life, filled with friends, family, girl trips with Gracen (who I often refer to as Mini Me) and even an Alaskan Adventure! I'm sad to see the sometimes lazy, sometimes crazy summer days come to an end.  But I'm also excited to begin a new school year filled with accomplishments and challenges! This will be my 6th year of teaching.  I think I am probably more excited about this year than any previous year.  I saw so much progress with my students last year and this year I can't wait to see it again! Here are a few pics of my classroom!

Until next time,
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. ~ Robert Collier

Summer is almost over!

This morning, as I casually lie in bed watching the Olympics at 9:30 am, I realized that the end is near!  Sleeping late, travelling all over the country (San Antonio, Lake Texoma, Dallas, Lubbock, Seattle, Alaska and even Canada), hanging out full time with Gracen (or Mini Me and I often refer to her), and just being lazy.  I was kind of bummed, but then I thought about what was about to start.  Exicted students (well at least the first week :)), a new year, individual progress of each student, seeing my teacher friends, doing what I absolutely love, and of course my sweet baby starting 2nd grade.  I realize that too much of either side would be extreme.  I need the summer to get over the school year and the school year to get over the summer!  It is a wonderful cycle! This weekend I shopped til I dropped for new stuff for my classroom!  Tomorrow I am going to school to start getting my classroom back in shape and ready for a new group of awesome kiddos! I have to report back in just under 2 weeks and the students start 2 weeks from tomorrow.  I am ready! This year will be another great one I am confidant of that!!
So until next time, Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

So, how do you start your very first blog? Hi?  Hey everyone?  Whats up?  Well, now that I've gotten that out of the way, here we go....My name is Wendi.  I am a child of God, a Wife, a Mother, a Special Education teacher, a Sister, a Friend, and the list goes on.  I find my self already getting long winded and I've only just started.  That's one thing that people know about me..I can be very long winded.  Oh yeah, and I'm also ADD.  Welll, I haven't been professionally diagnosed, but it all became so clear to me during Graduate school.  It was very interesting to learn about all of the exceptionalities of children and one day while taking my first certification exam, I realized that I was exactly who I was answering a question about.  Any time anyone moved in the large room of test takers I was looking around completely distracted from my current task; I would read a paragraph in a question and then just look at it and wonder what I'd read.  In hind sight I realized that I'd struggled with this my whole life.  I always did well in school, but it was because academics came very easy to me.  But starting and never finishing projects, well that was a big thing for me too.  BUT anyway, I digress.  As I began my teaching career, I realized that all of the techniques that I was using in my classroom for my new students were EXACTLY what I needed in my own life.  Structure.....Clearly set goals....Praise....did I say STRUCTURE???? This year I will begin my 8th year in the classroom!  Time really flies when you are having fun!  My first two years, I was a Special Education Teaching Assistant.  I worked one on one with the cutest little kindergarten and then first grader.  She was a beautiful inspiration to me!  After student teaching, I moved my family 350 miles away from home so that I could begin my career teaching a self contained behavior unit in an inner city school.  Wow, it was definately a learning experience. After that first year, I decided it was time to go back home.  I then taught for 2 and a half years in Jr. High and High School doing a behavior program, inclusion and Resource Math.  At that time, my husband was working 180 miles away during the week and coming home on the weekends.  Not the best situation for a husband and wife and young daughter.  Luckily, a year and a half ago I got a call from the MOST amazing school district in the world to come do another self contained behavior unit.  I had 2 of the best students!  We worked extremely hard to learn about choices and ways to be successful in the regular population.  Lo and behold, we were successful!  Both of my students had really good years last year with very little support.  Last year, I started teaching a "D" Level (Life Skills) class.  We are not your average life skills class!  Our classroom is centered around academics that are 100% individualized to each students IEP.  I ABSOLUTELY love it!!  I have 6th and 7th graders and they are awesome!!  As summer gets closer and closer to being over, I am getting more and more excited about going back.  I can't wait to see what this year has in store for us!

                                   My classroom as I was leaving at the beginning of summer :)

I thought this blog would be a great idea to share some of the challenges and great accomplishments that happen on a daily basis in my classroom.  I'm quite sure I'll also share a few of the "challenges and great accomplishments" that happen with my sweet 7 year old daughter, Gracen.

Well, there's my first blog.  I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!  I'll be heading to school next week to begin preparations for next year.  I will post some of the fun things we do in my classroom along with pictures of my progress :)

Until next time...Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks. ~ Johann Gottfried Von Herder