Thursday, March 15, 2018

Ways You Can Help

Hello Families and Friends! 

Over the last several weeks, I have had many parents and friends ask how they can help support our classroom. In these uncertain economic times, we have been fortunate to maintain such a skilled staff, supportive administrators and creative solutions for lack of funding for supplies. However, this year has presented new challenges. With the funding being reduced district-wide, we are being asked to do more with an already limited classroom budget, including purchasing sensory supports for our students with Austism. Some of these supports, like Hokki Stools and Balancing Balls, are simply outside the realm of our classroom budget. 

One easy way to help out is to check our class Wishlist, which is posted on the side of this blog. It includes some basic items that we're always in need of, such as hand sanitizer, tissues and Clorox wipes. Occasionally, I'll also list items that we need related to a specific activity, such as cooking items or art supplies. I try to update it at least once a month.  

I also have a DonorsChoose website to ask for assistance in purchasing various supplies, supplemental activities and curriculum, as well as classroom technology that we can use during both small and large group instruction. In case you aren't familiar with it already, the concept of DonorsChoose is simple. Teachers create a page, requesting specific items for their classroom. Donors from around the world read about the need, and donate money. DonorsChoose then purchases the supplies, and delivers them to the classroom. My experiences with DonorsChoose  have been very positive in the past, after I saw the positive impact it has made on many of my fellow teacher's classrooms both at Mountain View and other schools in the Beaverton School District. I am asking that you spread the word about our page to friends and colleagues who may be willing and able to donate. Here is the link: 

Mrs. Z's DonorsChoose page 
Thank you for supporting our classroom!!

Mrs. Zaworski

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Quick Update


Wow! This year is just flying by! It’s amazing to think that we are in the final stretch of the 2017-2018 school year already! :-)

Here are a few important dates coming up:

Wednesday, Mar. 7th - Choir Concert @ 7pm
Monday, Mar. 12/Tuesday, Mar. 13th - Book Fair!!
Wednesday, Mar. 14th - Parent-Teacher Conferences 5-8pm
Thursday, Mar. 15th - Parent-Teacher Conferences 8am-8pm
Friday, Mar. 16th - NO SCHOOL
Thursday, Mar. 22nd - Band Concert @ 7pm
Friday, Mar. 23rd - PRIDE Assembly Day! AND Class Field Trip to Pump It Up!! :-)
Monday, Mar. 26th - Friday, Mar. 30th - NO SCHOOL, Spring Break!!! 

Monday, Apr. 2nd – Health for Ms. Carpenter’s Classes starts
Thursday, Apr. 12th – School Social at 3pm J
Friday, Apr. 13th – Grading Day, No School
Monday, Apr. 16th – Health for Mr. Mitcham’s Classes starts
Tuesday, Apr. 24th-Friday, 27th - Outdoor School for 6th graders at Trickle Creek
Monday, Apr. 30th - No school for ALL 6th graders

Friday, May 25th 10-12:30pm - Special Education Track and Field at Beaverton HS! :-) The theme this year is Cowboy/Western :-) 
Monday, May 28th - Memorial Day, No School

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Spirit Week!

Here are the themes for the upcoming Spirit Week:

Monday, Feb. 12th - PJ day
Tuesday, Feb. 13th - Twin day
Wednesday, Feb. 14th - Wear red
Thursday, Feb. 15th - Sports day
Friday, Feb. 16th - Superhero day

Friday, January 12, 2018

Important Dates

Welcome Back and Happy 2018! We have a lot of fun things coming up! Here are a few important dates...

Monday, Jan. 15th - NO SCHOOL, MLK Jr. Day
Thursday, Jan. 18th - 6th Grade Outdoor School Parent Information Night @ 6:30pm
Friday, Jan. 19th - Popcorn Friday (Popcorn is 1 PRIDE ticket at the student store!)
Monday, Jan. 22nd - First Day of Health for Ms. Carpenter's PE classes
Friday, Jan. 26th - PRIDE Assembly Day!

Thursday, Feb. 1st - Pizza Party!! :-) (Our class earned 200 PRIDE Tickets!)
Friday, Feb. 2nd - NO SCHOOL, Grading Day
Monday, Feb. 5th - First Day of Health for Mr. Mitcham's PE classes AND First day of semester 2 (new electives!)
Thursday, Feb. 15th - Spaghetti Dinner @ 6pm (Free for students and their families)
Friday, Feb. 16th - All school Social! :-)
Monday, Feb. 19th - NO SCHOOL, President's Day
Friday, Feb. 23rd - PRIDE Assembly Day!

Wednesday, Mar. 7th - Choir Concert @ 7pm
Monday, Mar. 12/Tuesday, Mar. 13th - Book Fair!!
Wednesday, Mar. 14th - Parent-Teacher Conferences 5-8pm
Thursday, Mar. 15th - Parent-Teacher Conferences 8am-8pm
Friday, Mar. 16th - NO SCHOOL
Thursday, Mar. 22nd - Band Concert @ 7pm
Friday, Mar. 23rd - PRIDE Assembly Day! AND Class Field Trip to Pump It Up!! :-)
Monday, Mar. 26th - Friday, Mar. 30th - NO SCHOOL, Spring Break!!!

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Celebrating new friends 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 friends - We've had some change within our classroom in the last few weeks. We've added two new students to our class, and one student is moving. 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!
:-)

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. 15th - PRIDE Assembly 
    Tuesday, Dec. 19th - OMSI Field Trip!!
     Wednesday, Dec. 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 2017! :-)  
 

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Spirit Week and Important Dates

Spirit Week is coming next week!! :-)

Monday - College or Sports Fan Day
Tuesday - Costume Day (No masks or weapons, please)
Wednesday - Comfy Day (aka Pajama Day)
Thursday - Fancy Shmancy, Dress Your best Day
Friday - Grading Day, NO SCHOOL


Important Dates Coming Up

Wednesday, Nov. 1st - First Day of health for Mr. Mitcham's PE classes
Thursday, Nov. 2nd - PRIDE Celebration!
 Friday, Nov. 3rd - Grading Day, NO SCHOOL
Friday, Nov. 10th - NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, Nov. 15th - First Day of health for Ms. Carpenter's PE classes
Friday, Nov. 17th - PRIDE Assembly!
Wednesday, Nov. 22nd - NO SCHOOL
Thursday, Nov. 23rd - Thanksgiving, NO SCHOOL
Friday, Nov. 24th - NO SCHOOL






Friday, October 6, 2017

Conferences

Important Dates

Saturday, Oct. 14th - Official Opening of Mt. View Champions Park
Monday, Oct. 16th - First Day of health for Ms. Carpenter's PE Classes
Friday, Oct. 20th - PRIDE Assembly (Theme: Embracing the Community) and art project with Ms. Case :-) 
Wednesday, Oct. 25th - Conferences 5:30-8:00pm
Thursday, Oct. 26th - NO SCHOOL, Conferences
Friday, Oct. 27th - NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, Oct. 31st - Halloween!

Parent-Teacher Conferences


Wednesday and Thursday, October 25th and 26th are parent-teacher conferences for Mountain View Middle School. This means that there is no school on Thursday or Friday, and families will soon have the opportunity to sign up for conferences. You will be receiving a conference sign-up form to fill out and return, or you can sign up using a link provided on Mt. View's website which will be available Oct. 11th-23rd.

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. Mevis, Ms. Carpenter, Mr. Mitcham, Ms. Chasteen or Mrs. Bauer). The daily conference schedule is as follows:
 
 Wednesday, Oct. 25th - 5:30pm-8:00pm
 Thursday, Oct. 26th - 8:00am-10:40am, 12:30pm-2:30pm, 5:00pm-8:00pm

      I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Too Sick for School?

Can you believe it? We already have our first bug going through the classroom! I agree that it is WAY TOO SOON for this, but it's here! Half our students and teachers have experienced fever, coughing, congestion, runny nose or stuffy nose. Our students tend to be such little warriors and troop through, even when they are feeling crummy. Please keep in mind though, that sometimes our kids aren't really able to tell us how bad they feel, and when we don't feel great, we often don't feel up for learning. We are doing all that we can in the classroom--cleaning with disinfectant several times a day, washing hands multiple times, avoiding any physical contact we can and teaching and reteaching germ awareness. I've also spoken to our school custodian about getting an extra "deep cleaning" for our classroom.

We need your help too. I know that our students are serious troopers, and really want to be at school to maintain their routines. But what we often see is that kids (and adults) are coming back too soon. In the last few weeks, we have seen kids and staff come back to school, thinking they're feeling okay--so happy to be back--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. 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!

Here is a reminder of the Beaverton School District "Too sick for School" policies:
-Fever: You must be fever free without the aid of medication for 24 hours prior to returning to school
-Vomiting: There must be 24 hours since the last incident of vomiting prior to returning to school
-Diarrhea: There must be 24 hours since the last incident of diarrhea prior to returning to school
-Cough: Free of serious, sustained coughing or shortness of breath
-Rash: Any new rash accompanied by a fever--may return with clearance of the rash or release by health care provider
-Skin Lesions: Draining from sores need to be contained by a bandage
-Other: Symptoms that prevent the student from active participation in usual school activities or student is requiring more care than school staff can safely provide


Monday, September 25, 2017

Here We Go!

Hello Families!
 
I can't believe we're already in the last week of September! 
 
We have a few different areas of focus this month that we'll continue working on over the next few weeks…
  • 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. Last week was our first official reflection email, and this is where we'll be practicing our typing and editing skills as the year goes on. We are also focusing on reading topics related to our science theme, weather.
  • 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.
  • 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!
  • 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!
Here is our weekly schedule of activities:
Monday- APE and Speech for some students
Tuesday-
Wednesday- Early Release, APE, Speech, Library, Makerspace and Recycle Pick up
Thursday- Shopping Day
Friday- APE, Speech and Cooking

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Welcome!

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 eleventh year in special education, fifth year teaching and third 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), 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!
P.S. Don't forget that we will be having an open house for students and families to come visit the classroom on Friday 10am-11:30am! I hope to see you then!

Mrs. Zaworski