LETRS Training Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our second LETRS training. (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) This time it's modules 4-6 that covers teaching fluency and comprehension.  Our first modules were last December for phonics. 

LETRS® is a professional development series of books, workshops, and on-line courses for K-12 instruction in reading, spelling, and related language skills.  There is a lot of good information but it's really difficult to be away from our students for three days straight.  My kindergarten students have been working so hard learning sight words.  We've been using Sight Word Money from the Moffat Girls on Teachers Pay Teachers.  My students LOVE it and I'm going to miss three days with them just when we are really on a roll!  I know I'll learn lots of wonderful new tactics to use with them especially this week for increasing fluency and comprehension.

Russ and I have FINALLY completed our first freebie for our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  We have so many ideas and products we want to share.  Now we just need to figure out how to cram a few more hours into the day! 

A Year Later

             We launched our new blog Two Lambs Teaching with our first post on June 16, 2013 while we were attending the six annual National Convention for Whole Brain Teaching.  While we were in Louisiana our daughter Lynda who was a resident at the North Mississippi Regional Center in Oxford, Mississippi was taken to the hospital for treatment for a blood clot in her leg.  On July 30, 2013 Lynda was taken to the emergency room after suffering a seizure with vomiting.  She quickly developed aspiration pneumonia and was placed on a ventilator in the ICC.  Lynda passed away on August 3, 2013.  We  developed the Lynda Taylor Smith blog to share how God has used her forty-two years on this earth to change hearts and lives in the field of special education.

             Two Lambs Teaching sat untouched while I poured my heart and soul into Lynda’s blog.  A year later, it’s time now to develop our Two Lambs Teaching blog as yet another way to honor Lynda.  Lynda IS the reason I teach special education and her life has influenced every member of my immediate family in one way or the other.  As I teach a child with special needs, I think of her.  As I feel the little arms hugging my neck, I am thankful for the hugs she gave me and the love for teaching special children that she inspired.  This blog is every bit as much dedicated to Lynda as the one that bears her name.  As Russ and I embark on launching Two Lambs Teaching to share things we are doing in our classrooms (especially with children on the autism spectrum or those with dyslexia), we are thankful for the children who have been our teachers and our inspiration.