Hey, Look At My New Award!

Guess what, everyone? I got my second blogging award! Traci Bender, from a new blog called The Bender Bunch (she's a special education teacher!!!) gave me the Lovely Blog Award!

The rules for this award are:

1. Follow the person who gave you the award

2. Link back to the person who gave you the award.

3. Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers. 

And here are my nominations!

1. Mrs. P from THAT'S SO SECOND GRADE! Mrs. P student taught during the same semester that I did. She just accepted a position in a second grade classroom, and is busy getting ready for this fall! (I'm totally jealous!)

2. Mrs. H from THE TEACHING BLOG. Mrs. H is just getting ready to move to a new town, where she will begin her own student teaching this fall. Having been a student teacher myself this past spring, I am excited to meet another student teacher!

3. Nancy from JOY OF LIFE. Nancy is an intervention specialist who works with kindergartners, and has a special place in her heart for the children with the most behavioral issues. After reading some of my recent posts about Billy, Nancy commented and later emailed me with sympathy and advice. Always appreciated! :D 

4. Sara from RAMBLINGS FROM A DEAF ED TEACHER'S MIND. Like the title implies, Sara works with children who are deaf. She is also deaf herself, which I think puts her in a great position to be a role model for the children in her classes! 

5. Another Sara, from MISS V'S BUSY BEES. She's a young lady who just got her degree in early childhood education. She has a lot of enthusiasm for her family and life in general! 

6. Sharon, from TEACHING WITH SIGHT, is a kindergarten teacher who really loves to use multisensory activities with her little students. Maybe part of this is because Sharon is blind herself, so she knows how important all of the other senses are to learning! 

7. Christi at MS. FULTZ'S CORNER is a third grade teacher who is also licensed as a reading specialist. Reading and writing are her favorite subjects to teach! 

8. Tara from FOURTH GRADE FROLICS is, obviously, a fourth grade teacher. I started following her blog back when I was doing field work, after I discovered her post on letter puddles. I love making those, and the letter puddles became part of a very popular reading game during my student teaching! Tara often posts very creative and fun ideas. 

9. Here's a blog I stumbled upon recently, and it kinda blew me away. I don't know if most people have heard of PANDAS, or Pediatric Autoimmune Illness Associated With Streptococci. I hadn't! I am still not sure exactly what it is, but I have learned from Aimee at THE PANDAS EFFECT that it is a type of autoimmune illness that can cause a child to have behaviors similar to children with OCD, ADHD, Tourettes, etc. Aimee writes all about every day life with her three children, two of whom have PANDAS. I think everyone who works with kids should read this, so we know what to watch for.

I wanted to add a few Teach For America blogs. I've considered joining Teach For America, but I don't really want to move far away from my family at this point. I do admire these young kids for joining up with Teach For America! They may not be able to participate in the blog award because of their weird blogging platform... but we'll see! Many of these guys are just beginning their first weeks of school, which are generally summer school programs. 

10. Ms. M from TEACH-LAUGH-LOVE teaches high school math. (I could never do that... definitely my worst subject! She's just begun, and has blogged about what it feels like to be calling parents to introduce herself as a teacher, when she doesn't quite feel like a full-fledged adult yet herself!

11. Mary Catherine, from B IS FOR 'BAMA, teaches primary school aged children in Alabama. She has blogged about the frustrations of having been trained and educated on what is best for children, and then watching those things not necessarily happening in the school she's posted at. For instance, children must spend most of the day in silence, including a silent lunch that lasts for only ten minutes. Torturous! 

Besides following teacher blogs, I like to follow some blogs of parents who have children with special needs. I think it can be great to read about life from the point of view of parents. You realize that just about all parents (but sadly, not all... although the parents who aren't probably don't have blogs) love their children with all their heart, and are truly dedicated to giving their children the best life possible. In the classroom we may see some children as being really challenging and needing a lot of help... but at home, the parents see those children as their precious, beloved  babies. (Even if you don't teach special education, you will probably encounter children with special needs at some point in your career!)

12. Here's a blog I stumbled upon recently, and it kinda blew me away. I don't know if most people have heard of PANDAS, or Pediatric Autoimmune Illness Associated With Streptococci. I hadn't! I am still not sure exactly what it is, but I have learned from Aimee at THE PANDAS EFFECT that it is a type of autoimmune illness that can cause a child to have behaviors similar to children with OCD, ADHD, Tourettes, etc. Aimee writes all about every day life with her three children, two of whom have PANDAS. I think everyone who works with kids should read this, so we know what to watch for.

13. Laura, from BELLA SPERANZA, is the mother of several children, including a teenage daughter who has ADHD and apraxia. 

14. Marsupial Mama from AUTISM ROCKS has a lively family consisting of herself and her husband, their two small children, and lots of pets! (That's my favorite kind of family!) Her older child has autism.

15. Lynsey from LYNSEY THE MOTHER DUCK is a British mother with two children, one of whom has cerebral palsy. She blogs about life in general, but has a special page for the blog entries that involve cerebral palsy.  

16. Nikki, over at DYSFUNCTIONAL DOSE, blogs about life with her three children between the ages of 10 and 16, two of whom have different special needs. She has a great sense of humor, and definitely speaks her mind! I love reading about her views on parenting, and the funny things her kids say! 

Wait, how did I get 16? I spent about 3 days working on this post, and I guess I lost count. The 16th one is a good one, so I can't delete it from my list! That gives you all one more blog to read. 

And now I'm done! Congratulations, everyone! 

My First Blog Award!

I've seen all sorts of blog awards floating around, but I never thought I'd actually get one. Apparently Miss L didn't agree with me, because she gave me the Liebster Award!

The Leibster Blog Award is awarded to blogs is awarded to a blog that the awarder enjoys reading, and that has less than 200 followers.
Well, I guess I qualified for that! I have 13 followers. And one of them is me.
Why am I following myself? I have no idea!
I want to thank Miss L for giving me my very first blog award. In case you don't know her, she began student teaching right around the same time when I did. Her passion is Whole Brain Teaching, and she writes a lot about what she learns. Even if you don't feel like totally switching to Whole Brain Teaching, there are a lot of elements of it that you may like to adopt as your own. So, go over there and say hi to her! All 13... er, 12... of you!


Here are the rules: 

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. Thank the giver and link back to them.

3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay. Now I must find five of my favorite blogs, which have less than 200 followers, to post here. I guess I shouldn't nominate Miss L, although she is one of my favorites... then she'd have to come up ith five more people!


1. First, a blog that is very dear to my heart. This particular blog is fairly new, although the blogger used to have several other blogs that I followed for years. Many years ago, Michelle adopted her first child, a kiddo from the foster care system who was about 8 or 9 at the time, The little girl had been through hell and back, and had gone through a lot of trauma, and Michelle worked as hard as she could to give her the stable, loving home she deserved. After her first daughter got a little older, Michelle started fostering more children. At one point she had six kids, including two toddlers and two teenagers... and all this while being a single mother! I read this blog religiously... I want to be a foster parent someday soon, and I will probably be a single parent when I do it, so this blog was very interesting to me.    The two toddlers, by the way, were Jon Dalton and his sister Torianna. They ended up staying with her for longer than any of the other kids. In fact, in 2010, after the children's birth mother's rights were terminated, Michelle adopted them! The following year, the family discovered that Tori had neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on the nerves, especially the brain and eyes. Little Tori had tumors in her eyes and in her brain. Earlier this year she had brain surgery to remove the brain tumor, and she is now going through chemotherapy to remove the eye tumors. Its been very hard on her. Michelle created a new blog to document Tori's fight. That's how Team Tori came to be. Its really Tori's blog, but she's only 7 and can't type particularly fast, so her mama does the blogging for her! Tori does contribute with videos and critiques of Dancing With The Stars! Go over there, say hi, and buy a T-shirt!


2. Next... another brand new teacher who did her student teaching at the same time as I did... Emily Brown! She formerly blogged at Circus Of Learning, about her student teaching experiences. But now she has a job as a 5th grade science teacher, so she's started a brand new blog called The Science Life. This is your chance to follow a new teacher from the moment she steps into her new classroom!


3. While we're on the topic of science, here's another science blog! Its called The Science Penguin.  If you're like me, maybe science was not your favorite subject in class... too much note taking and movie watching and possible chemical burns! Maybe you kinda dread trying to teach it to your own class. The Science Penguin makes it easier! Her goal is to show you how science can be fun, motivating, inspirational, hands on, and super educational... for your students and you! Check it out and get some ideas for next school year!


4. Then, there's Kara at Sped-Ventures. She teaches middleschoolers who have physical and cognitive impairments. Kara's blog is always full of interesting activities she does. Whether you teach younger children, typically developing children, or children with special needs, the hands-on activities Kara writes about will give you great ideas for your classroom or for doing with your own children! By the way, Kara has 128 followers. Maybe you can push her up to 200!


5. Finally, a blog I just started reading very recently: Fanny Harville's Unschool Academy. I know some teachers (and people in general) have very strong opinions against unschooling or homeschooling. If you envision homeschoolers and unschoolers as children sitting around the kitchen table reading Bible verses, you should read this blog.  Whatever your opinion is, in fact, you should read this blog. Its about two literature professors and their 7-year-old son. Peek into their window (or their blog) and you may find them reading a poem about trains to each other and discussing how the rhythm actually sounds like a train on the tracks, and comparing it to other poems that have the same type of rhythm; visiting museums, working together to build a raised garden and learning masonry techniques in the process, playing strategy and logic games, putting puzzles together, doing science experiments, learning a foreign language, and of course, doing a ton of reading! Many of their educational ventures are based on their son's interests in different topics. You'll love this interesting family! 


Alright, that's it for my Liebster Blog Awards! I hope you liked them! Thanks again, Miss L, for giving me my first award.