Calling All Octonauts: The Halloween Adventure

I teach Language Arts (English, basic reading skills, reading comprehension, composition, beginning writing); Math, Social Studies, Science, Social Skills, Life Skills, and lead social learning groups. I have taught online ELL for five years. I am a special education teacher by degree.  However, during my teaching career, I have also taught in the regular education classroom.   I have taught all grade levels from pre-school to high school. I currently teach English Language Learners online.   I am a mom to three special needs children.  One is gifted with Asperger's and social anxiety, one has autism, and the third has severe ADHD.  I love teaching students of all abilities and strengths. My specialties are behavior management, communication skills, and life skills.  I enjoy creating learning groups for students with students on the Autism spectrum, with social anxieties, and shy students.  I also teach reading and Langauge Arts.  I have taught many specialized reading and writing classes.  This knowledge transfers to all struggling learners no matter what the struggle. I have taught gifted to struggling to non-readers and writers.  
I have two master's degrees.  One is in special education-specialty Autism, the other master's degree is in administration. 

I value each learner as an individual who is capable of learning.  I have had a variety of learning abilities in my classes every year and I can adapt and have each learner grow from where they are.  Each student has special and unique abilities, my goal is to utilize those abilities to create a confident and engaged learner.  I believe in making learning fun, even if it may be difficult for the learner.  Mistakes are always welcome and encouraged in my classroom because they are a teaching tool for students to learn from them. I believe in the inclusion of all ideas and thoughts as long as they are school-appropriate. 

Finally, I am a mom, wife, daughter, and lover of all sports and animals.  I have three boys aged 19, 16, and 13.  I also have five dogs-yes, five, a turtle, and fish.  We have also had frogs, guinea pigs, birds, and hamsters.  In addition, we have saved and released birds, tadpoles, kittens, and rabbits.  If it is alive, we try to save it:)  We watch many types of sports in my home.  I am a huge Missouri Tiger fan and love watching them play live.  I also love to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and the St. Louis Cardinals.  My real life-long passion is learning.  I learn everywhere I go.  Our goal is to visit every state capitol building before the boys get married.  We have been to 37 so far.  We love to travel. My favorite place on Earth is Disney.  Disney allows me to be both a kid at heart and a kid in real life! Finally: My teaching philosophy is that being a great teacher is being a great learner!  I love to interact and get to know my students in order to create an opportunity for me to learn from them. This creates an exciting and unique learning environment students feel safe in and want to return to.