This BT Wiki will serve as a means of communication between Vanessa Morga (BT 1) and Kelly Swartzel (Mentor)

9/28/09
Hi, Vanessa. I am so excited about being your mentor this year. I think that this wiki will server as a great means of communication. Let's try to post an entry each week.

10/12/09
Kelly,
First of thank you so much for taking time to help me with all of the questions I have. I just wanted ti let you know that I have given myself a goal to get my sub plans done by Friday of this week and I hope I can stick to it. I feel like I am so busy!! Aren't we all! I will be e-mailing the teacher from Olive Chapel but I also wanted to ask should we make sure she is a veteran AU teacher before I go to observe her? I can't remember if I heard that she was new or not? I will check into it amd maybe ask Debbie Gray if she can think of anyone that she would recommend I spend the day with. I am looking forward to our next meeting :)
*Also:
I have spoken with my TA Harvey and his wife is an AU teacher in Garner and asked her if it would ok for me to observe her class. Do you think that would be ok? She has been teaching for 17 years and works in Garner at a year round school. She is going to see if it is ok for me to observe her room when they go back to school on Wednesday. Please let me know what you think.
Vanessa

Kelly I heard back from Debbie Gray and she is planning on coming in for a visit on October 20th to help with questions I ahve about Austin and maybe with some ideas on a schedule shift with my students. Thought I'd let you know because we had talked about getting her in.



10/15/09
Hi, Vanessa. I totally agree with your sentiment of always being busy! I truly believe that it's the life of a teacher...never having enough hours in each day!

I am glad that you were able to schedule a time to meet with Debbie. Please let me know how I can help in supporting you when working on revising your IEPs. Additionally, I think that it would be appropriate to spend the day in Garner with Harvey's wife. You already have the relationship with Harvey and this partnership with his wife's school would only help to strengthen this relationship!

Again, I hope you realize how glad I am that you have chosen Baucom! I think that our students are lucky to have such a caring and dedicated teacher!
K


10/25/09
Hi Kelly,
I hope you are feeling better. I met with Mrs. Morgan to talk about some pre-observation questions I had. It went really well. I have an observation on Tuesday. Mrs. Jahad is coming in to observe me. I have my plans ready. I'm a little nervous but I feel like it should go well.

Debbie's visit went great. She loved coming to my class. She loves to get out and into the classroom. She had a lot of good suggestions for me and will be sending me some info on some concerns I had. It was so great to have her there. It felt good to have her experience my class and students. I can learn so much from her!

Also what I need from you are profile cards for my students and the name of the second grade teacher I need to get the math assessment from. I can't remember who you suggested I go see. I will so and talk to Mrs.Bridges this week about the Kindergarten assessments.

I have finished my sub plans! I am happy to have them done and out of the way! :)

I am very happy to be here at Baucom and happy to have you as a mentor!

Thanks,
Vanessa

11/12/09 Hi Kelly,
I know that we will be meeting this afternoon but I wanted to get this down in case I dorget to mention it later. I am going to need to document data for a new little boy that will be starting in my class in a week. I need help coming up with data collection sheets for his particular needs. I have a week or so to get everything in order but I thought we could come up with a few easy sheets to have to keep some of this data so i don't go crazt trying to re-invent the wheel! :) I will see you in a few hours!
Vanessa

11/15/09
Kelly,
I searched today for some data collection sheets and found a great website, www.polyxo.com/documents. The person who put up the website designed it for teachers/parents of children with Autism. I will show you the sheets I found next week. I thought I'd tell you I found some. I plan on making some of my own as well. Thanks for everything.
Vanessa