Celebrating fun times and new challenges 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 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 in the next few weeks that your student will have the opportunity to join. Here are some of the fun activities you can expect to hear about:

Thursday, December 20th - 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 2018!

Friday, December 21st - Bowling Field Trip!!

Important Dates and Spirit Week!

Spirit Week is coming up next week! J

Monday - Future Career Day

Tuesday - Twin Day (dress up like your friend)

Wednesday - Costumes for Halloween (No masks, full on face paint or weapons, please)

Thursday - PJ/Comfy Day

Friday - Crazy Hair Day

Important Dates

October 26^th – PRIDE Assembly

November 8^th – Choir Concert

November 9^th – No School, Grading Day

November 12^th – No School

November 16^th – Picture Retakes

November 21^st, 22^nd, 23^rd – No School, Thanksgiving Break

December 21^st – ALC Bowling Field Trip! J (Permission slips coming home soon)

December 22^nd through January 6^th – No School, Winter Break

Off to a great start!

Hello Families!

I can't believe we're already in October! 

We have a few different areas of focus this month that we'll continue working on over the next few weeks…

Literacy Skills

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 folders every day, we also write to thematic or picture writing prompts.

Math Skills

In math skills, we’ve been working on a variety of things, including addition with regrouping, identifying fractions using visual representations, and learning counting strategies that we can use either with basic addition or when trying different upper-level math equations.

Life Skills

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!

Science/Social Studies

In science, we're starting off learning about the weather and how it affects our world. We're learning about a variety of different types of weather, and how it changes the shape of our world. Once we get rolling, we will start using our Chromebooks to make Powerpoint presentations on our favorite topic related to our theme and then do presentations in front of the class!

In social studies, we are focusing on current events. We regularly watch student news broadcasts and discuss the topics as a class. We are learning how to agree and disagree appropriately so that later in the year we can do some class debates J

Weekly Special Activities

Monday- APE
Tuesday- 
Wednesday- Early Release and APE
Thursday- Shopping and Makerspace
Friday- APE, Library and Cooking

Important Dates

October 10^th and 11^th – Parent Teacher Conferences

October 11^th and 12^th – No School

October 18^th and 19^th – Dental Sealants at school

October 26^th – PRIDE Assembly

November 8^th – Choir Concert

November 9^th – No School, Grading Day

November 12^th – No School

November 16^th – Picture Retakes

November 21^st, 22^nd, 23^rd – No School, Thanksgiving Break

Welcome!!

Welcome 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 12th year in special education, 6th year teaching and 4th year teaching the ALC. I am so excited for another fantastic year! We have an amazing group of instructional assistants this year (Mrs. Williams, Ms. Tami and Ms. Lorie), as well as our talented group of teachers, including Mrs. Twain (speech), Mr. Mason (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!

P.S. Don't forget that we will be having an open house for students and families to come visit the classroom on Friday 10:00-11:30am! I hope to see you then!

Mrs. Zaworski

Happy Summer!!

With only a few days left of the 2017-2018 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 our 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 academically, 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! 

*Mark your calendars! Our classroom Open House will be Friday, August 24th! :-)