Passed the 100 day mark!

It's hard to believe that we just passed the 100 day mark! I have already fallen drastically behind on blogging all my great ideas so I thought I'd take a few moments and show you some pictures and ideas from around my classroom.

This year I have been working hand in hand with pinterest to become more organized.  I always considered myself to be a very organized person....that was until I discovered some of the people on pinterest who put me to shame.  On that note I've reworked some organizational things, created a better classroom library, and am going to share some other features of my classroom.

These are "poor man's" leveled readers.  My classroom did not have a set of leveled readers and because I teach students with profound disabilities I did not want to go and buy an expensive set because there may be some years where I don't have any kiddos that can read. 

That being said I got a year subscription to Reading A to Z (great great great website).  Anything you print during the year you can keep so naturally I printed leveled readers from preprimer on to 3rd grade (About 20 books per grade level, comes with worksheets and activities). 

After printing them in black and white I realized how bland they looked, and that is where my assistants came in.  I set the huge stack of books on a table and told them whenever they are out of things to do (for example movie days, or during specials if I don't have copies for them to run) they could color.  And color they did! 

After that they laminated the books and stapled them together.  Next I added a piece of duct tape to A) tell them apart and B) cover the staples.  Each basket holds 2 levels of books so I wrapped half the basket in one color and half in another.  Now I know where all the books are and during silent reading I can direct students to the correct leveled book and know that they can read it!  There you have it folks, poor man's leveled readers!

This is not the best picture but I think you'll get the idea.  I have students with severe autism and I have moved my cabinets to create a small box room that fits just the student and a teacher so the child can work and do structured play tasks in a distraction free area.  I have placed a "script" of what to say when working with the student so we are all on the same page.

It tells the other staff member in the room specific phrases so the child will not become confused, things like "Look at your schedule, this is next" and "Now you are all done".

Next to it, the yellow papers, are actually picture and word instruction on how to play.  And if you can believe it they are for the ADULTS in the room!  During structured play time I noticed that some of the staff member in my room were awkward, either never having had kids or having kids who were all grown up.  My wonderful SLP provided us with these little play scripts.  One is for cars and it says things like "wreck them", "race them", "honk the horn".  Another is for blocks, and another for puppets.  It is a good reminder for us when we are playing with the student.

These are my math manipulative bags.  Typically we'd been keeping bins of manipulatives here and there around the room, some on the "math shelf" and others near the kid's cubbies for easy access.  It occurred to me while scurrying around pinterest that this was ineffective and unorganized so we made manipulative bags. 

I attached name tags to the bag with a paperclip so that they can be removed for next year.  Each bag has a clock, a calculator, counters, and other necessary items in it for math.  The kids get the bags themselves when it is time to break down into small groups for math.  It has saved us a lot of time and headaches!

Behavior management strategies and pictures

So here are some more of my promised behavior management techniques that I have been using.  All of them have proven to be very effective, although keep in mind that each child is different and that all of these ideas can and should be modified to fit specific classroom and individual needs.

I will start with a two class wide behavior management techniques. 

This is my pizza for prizes wall, each child's name is on the wall and there is a circle piece of cardboard with Velcro on which 8 slices of pizza will fit.  This is a positive behavior support technique.  Each child gets a slice of pizza when they have demonstrated desirable behavior.  Once the pizza is filled they get to choose a prize from the prize box OR they can choose to use the iPad for 15 minutes. 

When you start this system be sure to give out a lot of pizza slices so children begin to understand, then slowly reduce the amount of slices given out.  This is a great visual behavior management technique for students with severe disabilities.

Behavior techniques

So it is the start of a new school year and I thought I'd share some behavior management techniques to help all you teachers out there.  I will share two techniques and have more that I will upload later this week so check back!

If you work with students with severe (or even mild) disabilities you are likely to run into some children with behavior issues.  Many times this is caused by communication issues.  However, sometimes children just need more structure in their life to help them understand what is expected of them. 

One technique I have used is an individual schedule.  I post a class wide picture schedule for all students but some students require more than that.  I created pictures on BoardMaker (if this software is not in your classroom you need to order it!!)  I created pictures for each part of the day including specials and therapies.  I laminated everything and used Velcro to stick it to a small piece of card stock.  I present the schedule with three pictures at a time (for some too many pictures would be overwhelming).  As a subject area is completed I pull off the picture, shift them all over and add another so that the child ALWAYS knows what is coming next.  Here is an example of that system

Within this system I have also added a second system which was suggested to me by my wonderful occupational therapist.  You start with color copied or printed pictures of a character the child likes.  Create about 8-10 of these, be sure to laminate!!!  Then you create a small board with 8-10 task spaces.  Before you begin reading you decide how many tasks the child will complete within that subject, for example: sight words, phonics, read a book, worksheet.  You then attach your character pictures to the task board, in our example you would put 4 pictures on the board.  You then give the child a choice of 2 or 3 play items/activities that they'd like to do after they are done with reading.  You then stick that choice at the end of the task board.  This is a good, visual way to show the child that reading will not go on forever, that it will end as soon as all the pictures are taken off the board, this is especially great for children who do not fully understand traditional concepts of time.  Here is what this looks like.

I hope these ideas are helpful, I will be adding more of these ideas throughout the week....if I remember to take pictures of everything!!

About that time...

Well it's that time of year and I've not been working nearly enough to have much ready by the start of the school year, which comes up early in my district, August 8th!  I thought I'd share a little bit about what I've done, and tell you all how excited I am to post some pictures of my classroom!  I've found some really great colorful posters at the dollar store, as well as some neat window clings.  I found the alphabet, dinosaurs, and numbers.  I cannot wait to put up the new posters.  I also found one especially helpful poster for myself, a birthday reminder poster.  I am happy to have found it as I seem to always forget birthdays! I also have some items left over from summer activities/events to decorate my room, specifically artificial daisy chains.  I am very excited and hope to hang them on the ceiling somewhere to brighten things up.  They were pretty inexpensive too.  I am also happy to report that this summer I accomplished my mission of coloring, cutting and gluing together over 80 file folder games!  I still need to laminate and cut out all the pieces, and although it took a long time it was a fun summer project.  I am very excited for the school year to start, if only I could motivate myself to go to my classroom and get things rolling.....

Some Sensory Ideas

Having students with sensory deficit disorder is a very big challenge, and it was not until I became a teacher that I truly began to realize the importance of sensory diets/activities for children with these needs. It is a lot simpler than it sounds, kids like to touch, taste, feel and smell all sorts of things.

The problem with some of our kiddos is that some sensory experiences that we may fine pleasurable they may not like, and vice versa.  I suggest to anyone who has a child like this in their classroom that they speak with their occupational therapist; these people are full of wonderful ideas!

Sensory experiences and equipment can become alarmingly expensive if ordered from catalogues, but here's the secret: you can make your own sensory items/routines for very cheap!!

Here are some idea's I've used and as the school year comes around I will provide some pictures

1. Mirrors (the non-glass kind)--this provides an interesting experience for children, to be able to look at themsevles and others through the mirror

2. Hanging items on the mirror/placing stickers/foam letters/pictures on the mirror--My students love this, it gives them a neat perspective of being able to hold items in their hands while viewing them in the mirror

3. Christmas lights (non-blinking)--Strining lights on the ceiling in a particular area is a neat sensory experience and it makes your classroom look colorful.

4. Haning Cd's and other shiney objects on the celing around the christmas lights: Place two CD's together so the shiney side faces out and glue them together, then suspend them, and other shiney objects (pie tins work good) around the lights--they catch the light and glint and make patterns

Teachers! Stay organized!

So it's almost the start of the school year and as it inches closer and closer there are some pre-organizational tasks that I like to get done, that way when the craziness of the first few weeks flies by you'll at least have some small grip on keeping it all together.

1. My district requires, by law, that IEP notices are sent out 7 days prior to an IEP/ARC meeting.  You are required to send 3 notices, therefore you really need to plan in advance: I mark on the calendar when the student's IEP is up--then backtrack one week and write "send notice #3, then backtrack a week and write "send notice #2, and so on--this way I always remember when to send the notices home....I also pre-enter the information online and usually print all the notices at once and place post-its on them saying what date I should send them

2. Review IEP's--I create a two types of cheat sheets--one for me at home that is "official" and one for school.  The one I keep at home, or more usually in my lesson plan book is literally copy and pasted off of their IEP--I keep this with my lesson plan book so when I write my plans I can be sure all the student's goals are included.  The unofficial one is more of a cheat sheet that I keep at school, usually a copy in my desk and a copy in each student's work folder/binder.  This is a simple cheat sheet that says something like "cvc words, grade 1 sight words, safety words."  This list is more useful than you think because you can always see the child's IEP goals in front of you while you are teaching, if you are having a brain dead moment you can simply open their folder to remind yourself what you should be working on.

3. Creating work binders/folders: most of my students do hands on work, but some can do simple worksheets, and while I'm not a huge fan of using worksheets sometimes they are helpful to give students independent work practice, I usually pull books/papers/worksheets at the beginning of the year and make copies of them, then sort them into student binders, throughout the week you can be teaching and if you need a break or need to work with another child you simple pull out a worksheet for them to work on.

4. IEP folders/cheat sheets--during my first year of teaching I created an IEP meeting cheat sheet--I still use it and it has been a life saver, I have listed each step of the IEP meeting process and keep it in a specific folder, behind it I have a list of what to bring to IEP meetings just in case I have a brain dead moment.  I also keep specific paperwork in that folder that you need for all meetings (parent safeguards, Medicaid forms, dismissal of a committee member etc.)--I make sure I always have copies of these forms in the folder.  When a student's IEP meeting comes up I put all their paperwork into the folder, then you have everything you need in one spot.

5. Keep everything!! I struggled with this but there are plenty of ways to keep track of student work, you can create work sample folders (which is what I do)--or use file folders or whatever your system, just remember to keep all their work, you'd be surprised when and why you'll need it.

6. Homework folders: I found out that my students LOOOOVE homework, and although they do not get traditional grades like other students I feel that the homework gives them good independent skills and teaches them responsibility.  I only assign homework that they are able to complete (for the most part) on their own, I may literally assign a copy of a worksheet they completed earlier that day at school...the best part of this system is that it is easy to prepare.  I simple get two folders for each student, one for reading work and one for math work, then I fill it with various worksheets/activities that I know they can complete--at the end of the day or when I get a free moment I simply pull out one reading and one math worksheet for each student. 

7.  Alternate assessment planning: alternate assessment can be very overwhelming, and each state seems to have their own thing going so it's hard to give specific advice but I do have a few easy ways to stay organized:  I like to create a large display in my classroom during each testing cycle that lists all the objectives for that testing cycle (for each grade level being tested), this display helps me to stay organized and remember what skills I need to teach

     Another way to stay organized is to create a spread sheet of all student's names and what areas they are being tested in, as I collect work samples of these various objectives I put x's on the spread sheet that way I know which students still need to submit work samples and which do not.

     I keep a specific box of helpful alternate assessment materials I've used in the past, I have also started a hanging file folder box with each test cycle objective labeled on it and slipped in helpful worksheets/work samples I've used previously

    The real key to surviving alternate assessment is to stay very organized, stay ahead of the game, and take it one task at a time

8. Create unit boxes: I have not done this but I plan on working on it next year, each time I teach a unit I usually create a lot of my own worksheets and documents/projects/reports as nothing in the "mainstream" really fits my students--I have been keeping these in folders simply marked "science" or "social studies" but an even better way to go about organizing your units is to put each individual unit material into a box and label it--you can place all your worksheets, projects, hands on materials into one neatly labeled box. 

9.  Lesson planning: I was never a big believer in doing lesson plans, especially the way they teach you to do it in college (you know, 5 pages long!!!) but my lesson plan book is my guide, I love it, and I would not have made it through the year without it, be sure to use it, even if it is just a rambling place to keep your thoughts, it's a good way to stay organized and to remember all the objectives you are working with

10. Keep your desk organized, there is no reason to have 358359 pens rolling out, nor is there a reason to have paperclips flung far and wide, it is much easier to keep things to a minimum, although I may have 498759485 pens in my desk, I keep them all in a Ziploc bag and a few out in a jar on my desk, when those come up lost I replace them, I keep all my stamps and stickers in one neat place, all the remotes and computer software together, all the paperwork in accordion folders neatly labeled, and of course keep a pair of sunglasses somewhere in there!  Keeping your desk neat is actually easier than it sounds, if you are a good teacher you're not at your desk a lot anyway so there is no reason it should get cluttered


Well, I guess that is all for now, these are just some helpful ways to stay organized, which I truly think is 1/4 the battle for special education teachers, with each child having their own individualized goals and all the paperwork you have to go through it is important to stay on top of things!

I thought I would pass along this list of great i Pad apps, some of which are free.  I recently got an i Pad to use in my classroom and this has guided me through the process of getting apps and what not.  The list was generously passed on to me by some teachers within my district. 

I personally recommend for any teachers or SLP's with non-verbal students to download the Go Talk Now app, it is $80 but it is worth every penny!!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gotalk-now/id454176457?mt=8