I am a Special Education teacher here at J. D. Lever, and I have been teaching now for 49 years! I have taught in both the General Education classroom and Special Education settings in every grade from Kindergarten through senior year in high school. I taught for three years on Long Island, New York before moving to South Carolina.

I have one daughter who graduated from Aiken High School, got her Bachelors in Music Education degree from Furman University in Greenville, and recently received her Masters in Music degree from Boston University.

• My students are taught through a 3-step rotation for Reading and Math; technology through Lexia and Freckle (formerly Front Row), small group direct instruction, and independent work/ independent reading.

The students receive progress toward their IEP goals every 4.5 weeks, Interim and Quarterly with their IEP Progress Reports.

• The Reading curriculum used by the Special Education students I teach is Language for Learning, SRA Reading Mastery, and Corrective Reading. Each student is given a placement test to determine which level book is appropriate for him or her. Language for Learning provides students with the words and sentence formation needed to answer questions. SRA Reading Mastery is a direct instruction method to teach students decoding and comprehension skills. Corrective Reading, for older students, uses multiple strategies to provide students with multiple opportunities for remediation of skills necessary for Reading.

• All my students who are instructed in Reading use the Lexia Core5 Reading Computer program.

  • The Lexia computer program can be used at home by saving the Login to your home computer. I have attached the file that instructs you how to get to Lexia. The more time your student works on Lexia, the better his skills level will be.

 Lexia Core5 Login

 Go to Google and type Lexia Learning

• Click on the one that says Lexia Reading CORE5, not the one that says Products

• Go to Sign In, at the top

• Enter the teacher’s email mdriscoll@acpsd.net and Save

• Click on Login

• Login in with the student user and password

Each student has his/her own user and password, which they use consistently. If they have forgotten them, or need it written down so they can refer to it, simply email me and I'll send it to you.

 The Math curriculum that is used is Number Worlds. Each student is given a placement test to determine the correct level for him or her. Number Worlds is an intervention program which assists struggling students with Math literacy (use of terms and what story problems mean) and fluency in Math operations.

 Class Expectations for Behavior:

           All of my students are expected to follow classroom rules for appropriate behavior and school Code of Conduct rules. When students walk from their regular classroom to my classroom for instruction and back to their classes, they are expected to walk quietly so that they do not disturb other classes.

 Computer websites for students

www.starfall.com - phonics activities, stories, and songs/videos for Reading

www.seussville.com - Dr. Suess activities 

www.storylineonline.net - children's literature read and displayed by members of the Screen Actors Guild

www.funology.com - activities for students

www.pbskids.org

www.abcya.com

 Tips for Parents to help their child:

Read to your child and have them read to you. If they struggle with words, ask them to use picture clues, words around the word they don’t know to get an idea what the sentence is talking about (context clues), and try to “sound out” the word.

           Having a lot of books is nice, but you don’t always need books. You can read the cereal box, a grocery list to find items in the store, signs, etc. Struggling older students can even read very easy books at home. REMEMBER… Reading is the same, no matter what you read; it’s a skill for learning words and understanding what they are telling you!

 Practice Math facts with your child. Show them finger amounts and ask them to tell you the number (going faster with the skill as they get better, helps them to increase their Math fluency). Make Math a fun time! When they’re in the car, they can add and subtract simple numbers, identify the shape of signs, skip count by 2, 5, and 10, count backward from 100, do multiplication facts, decide which number is more and which is less (greater than and less than), and answer money and time questions. When older students are in a store, they can determine which item is a better value.