Special Education Student Supports

 Life in a special education classroom is very fun! Its constantly changing with each second which makes it unpredictable and challenging. These are two things that keep me from being bored and pushing myself to be a better educator. Throughout the year I have made several projects to help students transition, communicate, be independent, and learn social skills. Creating tools to help the students function throughout the day with little staff involvement gets the student one more step closer to inclusion with general education peers, and more ready for life. Below I have listed just a few of the many projects for students in my classroom!

 These are transitioning sticks I adapted for a student. I say "check schedule" and the student will take the stick, walk to their schedule, put the stick in the pocket, and grab the next icon off the schedule. These are adapted because there are bigger (help with grasping) than the other sticks we use and colorful (high interest).

This is a student's schedule. For the most part each schedule is the same. The pocket in the foreground is where the transitioning stick is placed, and the square icons are the activities for the day.

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The schedule will show a picture of an activity, (i.e. jobs). The student will take the icon off, walk to the jobs area of the classroom where they find a bigger icon of the jobs picture, and they will put the small icon in the pocket provided.  The next step would be to select a job from the clipboards in the picture below.

These are the jobs student's can choose from. Some jobs are taking out recycling, shredding paper, and washing dishes. Each job has picture and written directions depending on the student's academic level. The job list also has check boxes to mark when a step is complete.

These picture cards, replace the icon cards. This student benefits from seeing the actual physical space and area he is attending or transition too. This student also benefits from songs, so I have made a transitioning routine to the tune of "Where is Thumb-kin" which we sing each morning, and hum as he transitions. This is a newer routine and lots of physical supports are still needed.

This is a PECS book. PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. The basic idea is the student finds a picture of the item they want, and they give it to the adult present, and the student receives that item or activity. Buying these online are easily 50.00+ a piece. I made them for 5.99, or the cost of a small binder. (I also had access to folders, labels, and printing though the school).

I made this Number Monster to create a "buy-in" for a student to practice and enjoy stating numbers presented to him. When the student got the number right, the number monster ate the number. The student enjoyed putting the monster on his head and asking me to save him!

This is something I created for a student to use at home. He often got up in the middle of the night and stayed awake ordering his video games, or playing the games. As he came to school the next day he would be tired which resulted in aggressive behaviors. So I made a night time routine that included his favorite night time activity, but also ended the activity quickly so the student would go back to bed.

Students with Autism need to be taught social skills and social expectations. We had a student who had a hard time keeping his hands to himself. I made this social story, and recoded the narration on my phone, which I uploaded to an iPad for him to watch several times a day and practice the things he can do with his hands.

These are typing folders for students who are at basic or moderate levels for typing. Some students have selected passages from general education curriculum they read and type. Other students have pictures sentences which they type.

This student is at the beginning level of typing. The page with the cut out squares are all the letters in his name. This is done because it eliminates the chance of him pressing a wrong key. The template page is taped on top of the keyboard and he is guided with verbal prompting and the visual name to type the correct sequence of his name.

This is an activity schedule. Students would find this already at a work station. It would prompt the student what to do first, color, cut, then glue. 

I have many more exciting tools that are in the classroom. I will be posting those as I get pictures!! I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into how I prepare for school days in a SPED classroom!

EVAN WILLIAMS is at it again!!

Below is an email I received from the father of two of my former students and also in home clients. Evan and Dylan (twin brothers with Autism) are definitely a handful but they capture everyone's heart when they meet them. E and D also have an older brother Logan who is great with the boys and is also a hoot! He comes up with the best jokes and always makes us laugh with his quick whit and off the wall humor!! Please enjoy the story from Rob...


Just wanted to share with you that Logan had 3 Cross Country meets this week and did well in all of them! He has turned into a pretty good runner and is improving every week.

But beyond that we had a first.....Evan competed in a cross country meet last Thursday night with Logan! It was very impromptu. Thursday's meet in Portland was open to all-comers. When we got there I asked Evan if he wanted to run and he said he did. So I signed him up for the 5th & 6th graders 2,000 meter race that started and finished prior to Logan's race. I ran with him (also a family first as I have never run in a cross country meet). Evan was priceless! He cut a few corners on the first lap....squealing and laughing the whole way. He even stopped in front of a group of girls 1/2 way into his first lap and motioned the girls to clap for him...which they did. He bowed to them and took off running again....laughing and squealing hysterically! He completed most of the second lap and crossed the finish line to the roar and cheers from the crowd and collected his competitors ribbon. He enjoyed the attention so much that he ran a big circle back to the finishing chute so he could cross the finish line again and receive more applause. He waived to the crowd and began dancing in front of the sound system playing rock music at the finish line. Everybody loved him!

As Logan lined up for his race, Dylan walked up to him and gave him a big hug! That is my sweet "D"! Evan had other ideas. He lined up behind Logan and when the gun went off, he took off with the 7th and 8th graders! While his effort was short-lived, it was nice to see he was enjoying himself so much. Ingrid captured much of the day on film.

Some of the many wonderful characteristics about Evan is that he is so adventurous, has no shame, no inhibitions and loves attention! I am truly savoring that day because of him.

Rob

In Full Swing

As September is moving right on in and fall will be here before we know it life for me has been in full swing. Back in January I had been working full time and going to school at night to prep for my GRAD school classes beginning in June. Well, June came and my summer was BUSY. I took two, four-week sessions with two classes each session. I was a crazy person for 8 weeks!!! Jamming 12 weeks of material into 4 weeks is major overload. Though I successfully completed those two sessions with two A's and two A-. After a week break I was back at it again. This time I am doing my first practicum experience. This includes 40 hours in a classroom setting. As this session got underway, I also was back at work! This school year we jumped to 10 students!! We have four new kiddos and lets just say that I am ways on my toes getting these kiddos what they need. BUSY BUSY. Though through the "summer break" and starting back in the classroom, I realized how much I love being in a school. It feels like it is just another part of me, its so natural. I just hope I have enough energy to keep up night classes while working full time!!! Two more years on this path and I'll be finished with my MASTERS!!!

Its official!!

How many months have passed since October and I haven't posted? I will be honest and share I just wasn't in the mood to post anything! ha ha... Well... I started classes back in January, and the quarter is coming to a close... all my hard work has paid off because starting June 20 I will starting in the Master's of Special Education (with a special ed teaching license) at Portland State University!! I received my acceptance letter in the mail yesterday! Congratulations to me!

Making my Ursula halloween costume!

So two years ago I dresses up as a black cat for Halloween... and while out and about that crazy night I already had the best idea for next Halloween... URSULA! What a fantastic costume that would be!! So two years later, my dream finally came true... and all for 16 dollars!!

Matchin up the sides of fabric

My hand-crafted pattern made out of taped Winco bags

All legs designed

Each leg took a minimum of an hour to sew by hand. Then

I sewed up the sides of the skirt

Each leg was stuffed with pillow stuffing and a wire hanger

I pinned the skirt on me to measure, then I sewed around

and up the back to complete the bottom half

View looking down on my legs! ha ha

THE FINAL PRODUCT!

After using a glue stick to paint through my eyebrows, comb through and let dry (repeat) I painted on the blue eyeshadow with a wet mix. Continued the same with the purple, and finished with a black liquid eyeliner for the eyebrows! I even sewed the shell onto the black ribbon and used my black thread to create the earrings!! It was a very successful costume!! I already have my costume idea for next year!!!

Yeah thats right....

Last Fall My brother in law Evan became super stoked about Guns and shooting.... I was super excited too because I LOVE to go shooting out in the woods and finally I had someone to go with again!!

Ethan took Evan, Jim, Uncle Gary and me out shooting on his grandma's property in Washougal! I was a very happy girl! I grabbed the video camera on their way out and captured this footage...looks like a good time! And all the guys were surprised by my great shot!

Kelsey's wedding dress transformation

We couldn't wait to help Kelsey pick out her wedding dress. I was really excited as I felt she had missed the dress hunt for Lindsay as I was still as WSU. We made appointments with Tower Bridal and Bridal Exclusives. We chose a lot of fun and crazy styles for Kelsey to try on and they all looked good on her, but I couldn't believe how expensive they all were!

Kelsey heard about this show called Making Memories that was out in Beaverton, only for the weekend. It is a traveling bridal show where the proceeds go to terminally ill breast cancer patients providing "a wish", sort of like the Make a wish Foundation. Unfortunately, mom was out of town, so Lindsay and I went with Kels, on the way she said, "I was thinking, that I would rather spend a lot less for a dress and have it be almost 'the one', than spend a lot on a dress that is 'the one'." I agreed and was happy Kelsey came to that decision.

There are racks and racks of dresses and you go through the ones that are your size, but if they have been altered, a 10 can fit like a 10, 8, or 6. Some of the smaller sizes too have been hemmed up a lot, so they were way too short for her. We found one that she really like, and quickly sent text message pictures to mom. Then just as we thought the hunt was over, the gal who was helping us brought one more out. You could tell Kelsey really liked it.

We played around with it, helping her show what it would be like if it got altered a bit. It was 100% silk and made by Waters. We paid for it to be put on hold so Kelsey could talk with mom about it over the phone and think about it. The next day, Kelsey drove out by herself and purchased the dress!

When mom got into town we headed over to her house so she could see Kelsey in it. In the living room, we used our make shift clips and jewels to dress it up a bit and decide what could be done. Mom did some serious seamstress analyzing.

Kelsey with a pretend ribbon in her hair and chip clips to hold the dress in certain spots.

Kelsey got Rosie's name at the bridal show and looked up her information on the internet. Rosie works out of her home full-time and only alters bridal dresses. She knew she was up for a challenge after the first meeting. The first step was getting the train gathered to the side of the dress and take in the dress down the sides past the hips.

The train is now gathered on the side, pinning the lace to the bottom, placing the flowers on the side where it gathers.

We all spent a lot of time over at Rosie's, Kelsey probably had about four of five fittings, making small changes each time Kelsey was there. Rosie also did all the work on the suits for Chris and dad, our bridesmaid dresses, and Mom's outfit.

Then, finally Kelsey's dress was done!

A video of Kelsey walking down the hallway to see how it will be walking down the aisle. Narrated by Courtney.

I think Kelsey really is pleased with it and it shows her traditional yet unique style. She is really looking forward to her wedding and thinks it will go with the theme...vintage glamour!