School
Life and the lessons learned from a special education high school English teacher. Love for teens and education.
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School Lunch Ideas for Busy Families
I don’t know about you, but I run out of ideas for my kids’ lunches—especially ones they’ll actually eat without wasting food. I also don’t want them getting tired of the same old thing every day. With school starting soon, I thought I’d share my Pinterest board full of school lunch ideas. These are quick, easy, and inexpensive options that your kids will (hopefully!) love. Along with ideas from the board, I also send leftovers with my kids. Our cafeteria has microwaves, so it’s super easy for them to reheat food. If your school doesn’t have microwaves, I’ve got a tip for you… Some time ago, I found metal thermoses…
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Back-to-School Time! Give Them Back to the Teachers!
It’s back-to-school time!Some schools have already kicked off their first day, while others are just around the corner. Teachers have been hard at work—prepping classrooms, carefully planning lessons designed to stick (like a catchy TikTok sound), and praying over their rooms and every single student who will walk through those doors. It’s a bittersweet time. They’ve spent the summer getting things done at home, relaxing, taking professional development courses, and being with their own families. Now, they’re shifting back into full-blown school mode. Let’s pray for them—for wisdom, patience, love, and guidance as they welcome each child into their classroom. There are kids who are genuinely excited to return. They’re…
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Special Education-High School
High school special education is my favorite. I do miss the endless hugs from elementary students—but in high school, I get something just as sweet: “I love yous.”Almost daily, as students leave my room, I hear:“Bye, Mrs. Carnahan! I love you!”“Bye! I love you!”And they’ll hear me shout back—loud and proud—“I love you! Bye!” Just like in elementary, I’m here to help anyone who needs it. I’m not built to support only the students with IEPs. I’m built to serve—to lift burdens, lighten loads, and help both students and teachers understand what’s being asked of them. When I first started teaching high school special ed, students were embarrassed about their…
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Elementary Special Education
Special education isn’t one-size-fits-all—for students or for teachers. Every day is a pursuit of progress, and each classroom comes with its own unique joys and struggles. Take, for example, a multiple-handicap unit. Or elementary special education—which is a glorious, beautiful beast of its own. When I taught elementary, I worked alongside two general education teachers, supporting any student who needed help—regardless of whether they had an IEP. I would pull students into my classroom in small groups, track their progress, and gather data on those who were struggling. I listened when they needed someone to talk to and stepped in to calm them when behaviors began to escalate. Elementary-aged students…
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Leadership is Hard
Leadership is one of the hardest roles a person can step into. No matter what you do, you won’t please everyone—and people will talk. Oh, will they talk. They’ll talk about things they think they know… and have absolutely no clue about. I once served on a leadership team where someone outside the group accused our leader of manipulating us—saying he pushed his own agenda and swayed our decisions. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. All he did was create a simple agenda of what we needed to cover—something he was trained to do professionally. He never told us what to think. In fact, most of our discussions…
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Success
What Does Success Really Look Like? What does it look like to be successful?Did they just wake up one day being good at everything, with a big new house and a pool table in the basement?Is it brand-new cars with every bell and whistle imaginable? What we usually see is the end result of someone’s hard work. And yes, sometimes that result does look like a new house, a new car, or luxurious vacations. But not all success looks like that. What if success means financial freedom?What if it’s a dependable, new-to-you car?What if it’s simply being happy or content with your life? I’ve learned that success doesn’t always mean…
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How We Navigate Back to School
How We Afford Back-to-School with Four Kids In our family, we have four quickly growing children—and feeding, clothing, and supplying them with what they need is expensive. So, here’s how we do it: 1. We Garage Sale We find the nicest clothes while garage saling—some even still have tags on them! We also use hand-me-downs as much as possible. We do buy our kids brand-new clothes too, but we always shop smart: coupons, discount codes, and clearance racks. We love outlet stores, but again—we’re not paying full price. 2. Backpacks Growing up, my mom got us new backpacks and school supplies every year. We were blessed. Just like my mama,…
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A New Respect
A New Respect My younger sister has been a registered nurse for the last fifteen years or so. She’s an incredible nurse—and truly an incredible person. She’s always been one of my biggest cheerleaders, and we’ve always been close. So when she was in nursing school and asked me to help her study for an exam, it was a no-brainer. Now, I like to think of myself as a smart person. I’m a licensed elementary teacher. I have a reading endorsement on that license. I even took a class focused purely on phonics—relearning them myself and learning how to teach them to others. But the moment I started reading over…
