Samson's Classroom Website and Giveaway!

I'm sharing all about Samson's Classroom today; a website my students and I love using for sight word and reading practice.

With Samson's Classroom, your students can practice sight words, spelling, reading fluency, and reading comprehension in such a fun way, they won't even know they're learning. 

In the sight word section, students choose a word list to practice.

Samson takes students through 5 steps to help them practice and master each word list. In step 1, student learn the words.

In step 2, they build the words.

 In step 3, they identify the words.

In step 4, they practice spelling the words.

And in step 5, they practice using their new words in sentences.

Immediate feedback is given to the students in each activity and prompts are provided when needed. Students can also click "hear again" to have a word repeated.

Samson's Classroom tracks each student's progress, so I can go into my teacher dashboard and view my student's sight word progress.

In the reading section, students can choose from 5 different reading levels and earn carnival hammer swings for mastering passages.

All of the passages are timed and include reading comprehension questions students must answer. Samson provides immediate feedback and another feature I love is if students need a hint or a little help, he will highlight the area in the text where the answer can be found.

Again, I can go to my teacher dashboard and check my student's reading progress. I can see what date they read the passage, the time it took, and their comprehension score.

I have not used the spelling component yet, but it looks just as engaging and I plan to use it next year. There are almost 100 pre-made spelling lists to choose from or you can customize and add your own lists.

You can also track spelling progress in the teacher dashboard and the dashboard is so clear cut and user-friendly!

 You can click here to try out a free demo of Samson's Classroom! 

Here are some of my students engaged in Samson's Classroom!

I've piloted and used many websites in my classroom over my last 10 years of teaching, and Samson's Classroom is by far one of mine and my student's favorites for sight word and reading practice and I can't wait to implement the Spelling component next year. I love the simplicity of it, for both the teacher and the student, yet the immediate feedback and engagement it provides and the progress my students have made!  

A classroom subscription is $80/year, AND so worth it, but guess what?? I'm giving away 3 classroom subscriptions today!! That's right! Samson's Classroom has generously offered to give 3 of you a free one-year classroom subscription to use in your classroom!

Enter using the Rafflecopter below and Good Luck! I'm confident that you and your students are going to love Samson's Classroom!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

SpEd BTS Blophop {Free e-book & Lots of Giveaways!}

Back to School is just around the corner for many! I know I say that rather fluently, but it is what it is I guess! I am in no means ready to go back! I'm leaving tomorrow for Indiana and once I come back, I'll have a little less than two weeks to get everything on my "summer to-do list" done and prep for my year! {GASP} Yikes is right!? Writing that made it just hit home people! I might be going into panic mode right at this moment! 

Well if you're feeling like me right now, I'm glad you're here. I have teamed up again this year with my special ed blogging buddies to not only bring you some fabulous giveaways, but this year we've also compiled an e-book for you! This e-book is loaded with freebies and tips from 25 special ed teacher/bloggers and will provide you with some shortcuts for starting your new year out! Click on it to download!

 This e-book is amazing...but wait! Before you get indulged in all of the awesomeness of it, hop around to all of our blogs and enter our giveaways! All 25 of us have a giveaway for you! 

I'm giving away a $25 TpT gift certificate to spend in any store you choose! Spend this gift certificate on any of your BTS wishlist needs! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now click on the blog after mine and just keep going until you've entered all 25 giveaways! This link up will be displayed on all of our blogs to help you easily advance through the hop! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Currently & 2 Giveaways!!!

Yesterday's kickoff to our month long Valentine bloghop was a huge success! Hopefully you were able to grab my featured freebies. If you missed it, my giveaways are still going through Sunday. You can visit {here} to enter! Also, the clickable image you see at the top of my blog will remain there all month. Visit it daily to click on the featured blog for that day and to receive your goodies every day this month!!! 

Now for a little CURRENTLY!

Listening: Yes, my 17 year old son started his own woodworking business a couple years ago. He has taken over my backyard, but he is amazing! He has his own website and Etsy shop and takes custom orders. He's really good! But yes, the common sound heard at my home during the day or early evenings are saws and power tools. If you're curious or looking for a special wood creation, you can visit his website {here} and his store {here}.

Loving: Yay! The registration for the TpT conference in Vegas opened today....and I'm going!! I was so disappointed in myself for backing out last year! This year....I'll Be There!! Anyone else going??? Here's the link if you want to check it out!

Thinking: self-explanatory!! What teacher doesn't participate in work avoidance??? But hey, we need to have a little fun every now and then!

Wanting: NO MORE BOOTS! I think my "wanting" on my last two currently's were boots! No more wanting....I got boots!!! A black and a brown pair! Love them!!

Needing: Just can't seem to find the perfect progress monitoring and assessment system for my kiddos. Seems to have always been my biggest challenge since day one, with 5 grade levels of special needs students. After 7 years, you'd think I'd have figured it out!

Pageant Title: I just don't know! Give me a pageant title in the comments from what you know about me and I'll randomly choose one comment to win any item from my store! 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow and click on Day 3 of the bloghop for treats from Mrs. H's Resource Room."

Valentine Bloghop!!! 28 Days of Sweet Treats!

It's here! It's here! Today's the day! 28 of us have teamed up to bring you loads of goodies this month! Every day throughout the month of February one blogger will reveal one or more sweet treats for you on their blog. 

I'm first up....so here goes! For today ONLY, I am offering two paid items from my store for FREE! 

You can get my "February Math," regularly priced for $6.00.....

and my "Valentine Scrambled Sentences," regularly priced for $2.00.

Just click on each image to download for free today only. These will be free until midnight tonight PST time!

Everything in my store is also 20% off ALL DAY TODAY!!!

WAIT! MORE TREATS!?

I also have two giveaways for you! Win any 3 items of your choice from my store or enter for a chance to win a $25 gift card from your choice of Amazon, Target, or TpT.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway


WOW, and this is just the first day!!! You have treats waiting at 27 other blogs! Just come back tomorrow and click on the 2nd blog button on the image map at the top of my blog to get tomorrows treats from "Autism Classroom News." This clickable image map will remain at the top of my blog all month long!! :)

Thanks for stopping by, despite the fact that it's SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!
GO PATRIOTS!

Valentine Bloghop!!! 28 Days, 28 Bloggers!!!

Tomorrow's the BIG day!!! The day you've been waiting for! I have teamed up with 27 other special Ed bloggers to bring you 28 days of sweet treats! That's right.....28 days of goodness! These are the awesome bloggers participating!!

Every day during the month of February, the blogger listed for that date, will have a special treat for you posted on their blog! Each day you can visit any one of our blogs to retrieve this clickable image! Each blog button will be clickable! It will be posted at the top of our blogs for the entire month, so you can easily navigate through the hop each day!! :) 

Just a note....we will not be revealing our secret treats until our assigned day, and some bloggers will be offering freebies on THAT DAY ONLY...so be sure you follow the hop daily!
The clickable blog buttons in the image will go active on my blog tonight at midnight!

I'm first up....so I hope to see you back here tomorrow! 

Time for Currently!!!

Listening - A bunch of my sped blogging buddies recently started up a collaborative group FB page....so awesome! I'm just loving the collaboration. We even teamed up and put together a bloghop full of tips, freebies, and giveaways during Thanksgiving weekend! If you missed it....it's not too late....you can start the journey here!

Loving - I finally got to visit a Trader Joe's for the first time today! It's been on my bucket list for a couple of years!!! 

Thinking - CHRISTMAS!!! I just love it! Shopping online like crazy and finding everything I want for everyone! Shopping so crazy, my bank restricted my card yesterday due to suspicious use!! Can you believe that....it's Christmas...hello! Is that just crazy or am I the crazy one!!!?

Wanting - boots!!! I keep seeing all these adorable cute boots on everyone.....I want a pair!! I want boots now!

Needing - as always, needing to be doing sped paperwork, but hey a girl needs to do fun stuff every now and then, right?!

Giving - picked up this awesome freebie yesterday from Erica Bohrer...."Kindness Elves in the Classroom." It is going to incorporate kindness in my classroom every day this month! You can get it from Erica's store {here}. 




Head over to Farley's blog to link up your own Currently.....and don't forget to check visit this post to enter my three giveaways and get your freebie!

Thankful for Special Educators Bloghop!! Tips & Freebies!

It's here!!!! And you're here!! So put up your feet, grab a notepad for all of these awesome tips you're about to receive and enjoy your freebies and the bloghop! You deserve it!

My tip is to show you how I organize my classroom center rotations with so many levels. 

I teach 1st through 5th and students with a wide array of disabilities. I have ten students. The first two hours of our day consists of ELA and Math center rotations. I have four centers for each and each center is 15 minutes. So ELA centers are 9:27 to 10:27. Math centers are 10:27 to 11:27. 

This is my rotation chart. I really like using "real life" pictures as often as I can.
I have four groups and they each go to four rotations. My groups go by colors. I have a pink, green, blue, and yellow group.

ELA Centers are: word work, at your seat, teacher table, & read to self.

Math Centers are: number work, at your seat, teacher table, & computer/iPad.

This is my Word Work Center. As you can see, the trays correspond with each group's color.

 This is my Number Work Center!

 Each group does what is in their group colored tray. If they are pink group, they know they are to do what is in the pink tray. Sometimes each tray will still have differentiated activities. It may not always be the same activity for each child in that group. I also have an aide in this group working with the students.

At Your Seat Group

These are my student bins. Bins are not color coded, but folders are.  

Each child's bin looks like this! Two interactive notebooks and 3 color coded folders. During the"at your seat" centers, they do IN's. During the ELA rotations, they know their IN activities are in the blue folder. For math, they are in the green folder. The yellow folder does not pertain to our rotations and contains their independent morning work that they take out and do as soon as they arrive each morning. 

 This method keeps all of their work and individualized curriculum so organized....for them and for me!

Some think I do the bins because I use tables. But...we have these awesome tables with desk storage, but allowing them to store their work and assignment folders in these cute little table cubbies....let me tell you....is a DISASTER!  The bins spell out ORGANIZATION! Note, I also have an aide working in this center.

Teacher Table, Read to Self, and Computer/iPad centers are pretty self-explanatory. My Read to Self and Computer/iPad centers are fairly independent and do not require an aide or assistance for the most part...once you get them trained!

So picture four centers, me at teacher table, one aide at word/number work, one aide at the at your seat center, and one center is independent in both ELA and Math. The independent center in reading is read to self, and in math the independent center is computer/iPad.

This is the timer I use to time our rotations. I LOVE this timer! It is the simplest method I've tried. I love that we the teachers can monitor how much time we have left during our center and whether we have time to start a new activity or such. It is so easy to use. No punching buttons or inputting numbers....just drag the red slide to the minutes you want and that's it. No start button or stop button when it goes off! This is the large one, but they come in small, medium, and large. I got mine for free from my Assistive Technology Dept. so check with your AT dept. first!!! If they can't provide you with one, they can be purchased at Lakeshore {here}. 

As you know, there is little time in the day to collaborate with your aide(s) and I want to know how my students are doing on the activities I've set up in their centers. So in order to do this, each aide has a communication log at the center they work that they leave me notes on.

 They can tell me on the log if a student is struggling with a particular skill, has mastered a particular skill, if they see an "ah ha" moment or whatever! It has been a great tool this year!

I have worked by trial and error, several times over as I'm sure we all have, and this system is the perfect fit for my classroom! I love doing centers as it keeps the kids moving and engaged, plus allows for much easier differentiation! If you are using centers or are thinking of doing centers, I hope these tips and this system will assist you with your special needs students and rotation system! And for your freebie, I've included the communication log and my center rotation cards to get you started!

Communication Log

Center Rotation Cards

And before you go....If you'd like to follow "The Bender Bunch" on our special education adventures, I have a couple of giveaways for you! Enter below to win a "Mini Time Timer" from Lakeshore or a $25 gift certificate for thirty-one!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

I'm also giving away an item from my TpT store! To enter, browse my store {here} and leave a comment below telling me the name of the item you'd like and I'll pick a winner next Friday! 

Thanks for stopping by and joining our special educator bloghop! We are thankful for you! I hope these tips and freebies will help you on your special education adventure! For more freebies and tips, continue your bloghop by checking out Mrs. P's Specialities...just click the button below.