Celebrating new friends, new challenges and many holidays in the ALC!

Hello families!

I hope that the holiday season is going well for your family. Things in the ALC are forever changing and exciting! Below is some information about the new and exciting things your student has been exploring this month:

New friends - We've had some change within our classroom in the last few weeks. We've added three new students to our class, and one student moved away. This has meant learning names of new students, and processing saying goodbye to someone we'd come to know. This has also meant that our schedule has changed a few times this fall, and I am so proud of how well all of our students handled these changes! J

New challenges - These first few months of school are PACKED with exciting learning! In the beginning of the year, we spend a lot of time helping students learn (and often re-learn) their new school routines. Now that we've been in school a few months though, we are increasing our expectations for independence. It has been so amazing to see the challenges our students are rising to!

Many holidays and celebrations - This season brings many diverse reasons to celebrate for the many families that make up our Mountain View and ALC communities. In class, we talk generally about lots of holidays that students may participate in or be exposed to. While the holiday season is filled with joy and merriment for many people, it can also be a stressful time--particularly for kids, and most especially for kids impacted by disabilities. Sometimes it is easy to forget that while decoration or celebration is fun and exciting, it may also be overwhelming or just too different for some kids. In no way do I suggest NOT celebrating or NOT exposing kids to the holidays. I just like to make sure kids are prepared! This season is fun, and even if your family celebrates in non-traditional ways, these mainstream traditions are something they are potentially going to be exposed to in their community for many years to come!

Fun times before Winter Break – This is a very fun time at Mountain View and in the ALC. We have a few activities coming up this week and next that your student will have the opportunity to join. Here are some of the fun activities you can expect to hear about:

·      Friday, Dec. 9^th- Personal Responsibility Celebration (Schoolwide good behavior and attendance party)

·      Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 13-14^th – Ornament decorating for local charities

·      Friday, Dec. 16^th- Holiday Party in the ALC! We will enjoy hot cocoa, popcorn, cookies and a holiday movie as we ring in the end of the school year for 2016! J

Important Dates

Hello families!

 

Here are some important dates coming up in November and December:

Wednesday, Nov. 23rd - NO SCHOOL
Thursday, Nov. 24th - Thanksgiving, NO SCHOOL
Friday, Nov. 25th - NO SCHOOL
Monday, Nov. 28th- Grading Day, NO SCHOOL
Monday, Dec. 19th-Monday, Jan. 2nd - Winter Break, NO SCHOOL

Spirit Week!

Next week is Spirit Week and the class with the highest percentage of students who participate gets a pizza party :-)

Here are the daily themes:

Monday - Halloween Costume Day
Tuesday- Pajama Day
Wednesday- Pink Day
Thursday- Twin Day (Mrs. Z will be wearing blue that day if students want to match with her)
Friday- Disney/Cartoon Character Day

We're Off to A Great Start!

Hello Families!

We have a few different areas of focus this month…

• In literacy skills, we are working on creative writing pieces as well as elaborating on our writing. In addition to composing paragraphs about various real-life subjects in our writing journals every day, we also write to thematic writing prompts. 
• In math skills, we’ve been working on identifying fractions using visual representations, including manipulatives and pictures.
• In science, we’ve been focusing on space science, including creating Powerpoint projects on our favorite planet in the solar system. We will be researching our planet, collecting information and pictures, learning how to cite our sources of information, and practicing our typing skills. Then in a few weeks we will present our projects to the rest of the class! J
• In life skills, we’ve started our school-wide recycling program, which we use the profits from in order to supplement our weekly cooking budget for our Friday cooking lesson. We have plans to make cheese quesadillas, bagel pizzas, and homemade applesauce with leftover apples from our school breakfasts in the next few weeks. Yum!

Here is our weekly schedule of activities:
Monday- Recycling
Tuesday- Speech Group
Wednesday- Recycling
Thursday- Shopping
Friday- Library and Cooking

Welcome to a New Year!

Welcome new and returning families!

I hope that you have had a refreshing and restful summer.  I would like to welcome you to the Academic Learning Center (ALC) at Mountain View! The ALC aims to encourage academic, social and life skills growth for students impacted by a variety of disabilities by creating an environment that emphasizes modified academics and life skills. We also provide a respectful and open learning environment so that we may foster age-appropriate social skills.

Students will receive specialized services in academics, life skills, social skills, organization, communication and fine and gross motor skills through a variety of research based curriculums. This class will be a secondary blended grade classroom, so we will have 6th, 7th and 8th graders working together.

For some background on me for new families, this is my tenth year in special education, fourth year teaching and second year teaching the ALC. I am so excited for another fantastic year! We have an amazing group of instructional assistants this year, as well as our talented group of teachers, including Mrs. Twain (speech), Mrs. Ford (OT) and Mrs. Johnson (APE). If you have any questions about our staff, or myself, please feel free to ask at any time.

I'm looking forward to another great year!

Mrs. Zaworski

Happy Summer!

With only a few days left of the 2015-2016 school year, I find myself reflecting on the amazing growth our students have made this year. What a wonderful year it has been! Over the course of the last nine months we have:

-Learned to read more fluently and answer comprehension questions
-Learned to use tools to answer a variety of math problems
-Learned how to tell time
-Learned about money
-Learned how to write our name, address and phone number

-Learned how to elaborate on our ideas in writing
-Learned all the days and months and their order
-Learned what out feelings are, and what we can do about them

-Learned how to problem-solve when we are having a hard time
-Learned about our solar system
-Learned about the layers of the ocean and the Earth

-Learned about the elements
-Learned about our city and state
-Learned how to cook some yummy foods

-Learned how to recognize a good deal at the store
-Learned how to take the bus and Max around town
-Learned how to take turns in conversation
-Learned how to ask appropriate questions
-Learned how to stand up for ourselves and ask for what we need
-Made new friends
-Made new memories

And SO much more! We have so many accomplishments to be proud of this year! In these last few weeks it has been so heartwarming to watch all of the bonds and relationships that have formed in our classroom this year. In addition to all of the progress they’ve made in academics, our students have done the really hard and really important work of making friends and learning to be compassionate. I am so proud of all their hard work!

I hope that you have a wonderful summer! I am looking forward to seeing many of you in the fall!

End of the year activities!

It’s amazing to think we are in the final stretch of the 2015-2016 school year! This year has been so jam-packed with fun and learning and it has just flown by! I know this time of year gets a little crazy, so I wanted to give you a bit of a heads up about some big events coming up, and what we will need from you!

8^th Grade Aloha High School Visit- Friday, May 13^th- The 8^th grade students and I are going to be visiting the ALC classroom at Aloha High School. They will get to meet the teacher, Mr. Massey, as well as some of their classmates. They will also get a tour of the classroom and the school. We will be walking over to Aloha at 12:45 and coming back around 3pm.

Special Education Track and Field- Thursday, May 26^th- This is the day where all the students in the district who are in a self-contained special education classroom get to showcase their athletic skills! Students will have the chance to run, jump, throw and win medals! There is also a school spirit competition, and this year’s theme is outer space! We’re making individualized t-shirts based on a space-themed image each student picks out, but if you’d like, feel free to send your student in some space themed gear of your own. You are welcome to come cheer your student on at Beaverton High School from 10am to 12pm. Permission slip coming home on Monday. Students will need to bring a sack lunch, running shoes and possibly a jacket.

Bowling Field Trip- Friday, June 10th- Our class will be going on a field trip to Sunset Lanes. The purpose of this field trip is to enjoy a group outing with our friends in the SRC classroom as well as celebrate the end of the year together as a class! It should be a ton of fun! Permission slip coming home soon. Students will need to bring $7 for shoe rental, 2 games of bowling and a pizza lunch.

Looking ahead…

Wow! I can’t believe we’ve made it past Spring Break and into April already! It has certainly been a fantastic year so far! Each and every one of our students has worked so hard, and accomplished so much! I am so proud of their growth, and so thankful for the wonderful support of my staff, specialists and, of course, families. “Our” students are doing most of the hard work, but it is evident by their success that they have a full home and school team helping them each step of the way!

Planning ahead….

As fast as this year has already gone, it’s about to pick up speed! I want to take a few minutes to give you a heads up of what to expect:

*Lots of hard work! Most of us have either just had or are about to have our annual IEP, which includes lots of challenging new goals in the areas of academics, social skills, behavior, life skills, study skills and communication. We wrote ambitious goals for your student because we KNOW they will rise to the challenge! J

*Field trips! Coming up, there will be an opportunity for 8^th graders to walk over to Aloha High School (Friday, May 13th) and meet their new teacher, Mr. Massey. They will get to visit the classroom, meet some of their new classmates and get a tour of the school. Parents are invited too, of course J  Also, later on in May (the 26^th, to be exact), we will be participating in the Beaverton School District track and field meet! This is an awesome chance for our students to meet new friends and show off their skills! And last but not least, as the weather continues to get nicer, we will be taking advantage of this and going outside for academic lessons. We have a lot of things we can study around Mountain View (bugs, weather, plants, etc.), as well as simply enjoying the weather as we work on our reading, math and writing work. This is something I’ve done for many years and it’s something everyone always looks forward to!

I am looking forward to a fantastic spring full of fun and learning! 

Mrs. Z

Quick update...

Wow! This year is just flying by! It’s amazing to think that we are in the final stretch of the 2015-2016 school year :-)

Here are a few important dates coming up:

Mar. 19^th-27^th  - Spring Break!

Mar. 28^th  - Staff Development Day, No School

Apr. 29^th  - Grading Day, No School

May 6^th – 8^th Grade Panoramic Picture

May 26^th 10:00am-12:30pm – Special Education Track and Field Invitational! The theme this year is outer space! Permission Slip will come home soon!

May 27^th – Staff Development Day, No School

May 30^th – Memorial Day, Schools Closed

Parent Teacher Conferences

I'm sure you have all seen in your mail from our principal, Mr. Pedersen, that Wednesday and Thursday, February 10^th and 11^th are parent-teacher conferences for Mountain View Middle School. This means that there is no school on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, and families now have the opportunity to sign up for conferences. Here is the link to sign up for your preferred conference time: 

https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/schools/mountain-view/

Conferences will be scheduled on a first come, first serve basis and are in 20-minute segments. You will be able to meet with me, as well as your student’s elective teachers (Mr. Grant, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Holland, Mr. Mitcham, Mrs. Miller or Mrs. Bauer) and core teachers if they’re in a science class (Mr. Wadnizak, Mr. Fisher, Mrs. Adkins/Sloan or Mrs. Redding).

The daily conference schedule is as follows:

 Wednesday, Feb. 10th - 8:20-10:20am, 12:20-4:00pm, 5:40-8:00pm

      Thursday, Feb. 11th ^- 8:00-10:00am, 12:20-4:00pm, 5:40-8:00pm

      I look forward to seeing many of you there!

      Mrs. Zaworski

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2016 everyone!

With the snow day, the 2-hour delay, and the crazy bus snow routes last week, we had an interesting start to the new year, to say the least! With everything going on and everybody getting back into 'school mode', there was the potential for a lot of craziness last week, but it turned out to be a really amazing week! Everyone was very excited to be back and quickly slipped back into their schedule without complaint. We also enjoyed drawing, writing and sharing about our fun winter holiday break!

Many of us have started new classes since returning from winter break, and while a new class is always a transition, so far everybody is enjoying their new science and math classes with their peers. I am so proud of how well everyone has handled the changes!


On another note... Unfortunately, I have talked to many of you lately about illness. The cold and flu season has hit our room (as well as the rest of Mt. View) hard this year! Many of the students, as well as some of our staff have been affected, and some have already started experiencing a second round of sickness. We are doing all that we can in the classroom--cleaning with disinfectant several times a day, washing hands, avoiding any physical contact we can and reteaching germ awareness. But we need your help too... What we're seeing is kids coming back to school too soon. In the last few weeks, we have seen kids and staff come back to school, thinking they're feeling okay, and then end up crashing within a few hours :( While this is sad for them, it also runs the risk of infecting and reinfecting others.  

Thanks for your support in this! I really hope that in the next few days we can all get well so that we have the energy for the exciting learning and fun events to come!

Mrs. Zaworski