Real Teachers-Real Strategies 8: A Magical Transformation

 Special Needs Community, Teaching Tips  No Responses »
Feb 292012
 

From Struthers, Ohio, Laurie is an Intervention Specialist for students Pre-K through 4th grade. Laurie helped an autistic student, Michael, learn how organize his day and thus be more in control of himself. Michael’s success with this idea in elementary school carried over to middle school success to be fully included. Now that is a terrific teaching tool!

The Project: Michael’s Magical Transformation.    

Michael is an autistic student who as most autistic children had a difficult time initiating conversation with other people, tantruming, and adapting to change easily. We began with a binder with his daily schedule and slowly added pictures of who he was to greet daily, a feelings page, social stories and other pages as the need arose. As the binder got heavier and more organized, Michael felt more in control of his days and gained self control in all areas. His success has carried over to middle school.

Learning Objectives: 

Since initiating this binder with our Michael, we have also used the idea with other students who had difficulty with similar things. The binders are interactive (velcro) so that the students can manipulate their choices and feel more in control of their daily lives both in school as well as out. They will learn the skills that they need to function better whether they are ADD, ADHD, LD or autistic. It will help them to focus on their particular needs for the school day and life skills.  

We have used this system that we used for Michael with other students in our district that had similar needs. This system has worked with other autistic students but also just as well with students who had ADD or struggled with organizational skills. Michael is now an 8th grader fully included at our Middle School. He no longer tantrums at school or at home. Yay, Michael!

Materials:

 3 ring binders, notebooks, daily schedules, velcro, markers, laminating materials, dry erase markers & erasers.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Teacher Grant Asks: http://www.weareteachers.com/ideas/partnerask/teachingidea?app=16862&grantId=75

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 7: Visualizing the Future

 Teaching Tips, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Feb 242012
 

Continuing our Strategies Series based on this question:

“Have you ever taught a lesson that really resonated with a special needs student? Tell us about a lesson you teach that was specifically influenced by that experience.”

We bring you the next post from Colette in Granada Hills, CA. She is a high school Special Education Autism Specialist. Colette engages her students with visualization exercises of their future then creating the tools they to use to pursue their goals.

The Project: Autism Learning Lab.

The kids are asked to join in a visualization of the future. They try to see themselves in five years. What are they wearing, where do they live, and where do they work are a few questions asked. Afterward, we discuss career goals, job ideas, and future plans. Together we create a portfolio of the future including resumes, cover letters, photo albums and work samples. With the tools learned from this program the students will head out into the world with a sense of preparedness.

Learning Objectives

The students will learn about what it means to self-advocate and live independently. They will gain skills in resume writing and interview presentation for the future. Through our program our students will gain the ability go to college and self advocate their needs to professors and administrators. Our students will learn the proper way to go to an interview, how to dress, what to bring, which will give them the confidence to try for the job of their dreams.

Materials

For our project we require basic materials and resources. We use a variety of paper to print out resumes, cover letters, and photos for visual reinforcement of  what they want to accomplish. We need the ink for our printer to do the printing. We use  folders to create a nice portfolio for the students to take away with them.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Teacher Grant Ask: http://www.weareteachers.com/ideas/partnerask/teachingidea?app=16621&grantId=75

 

The Duke

 Janie Haugen-McLane Series: 20 Years  1 Response »
Feb 202012
 

by Janie Haugen-McLane, Co-Founder PCI Education

Many years ago while working with adult students with intellectual disabilities, I decided to make a game board, just for fun. The idea: to get everyone engaged in a fun, social-group activity that would foster age-appropriate on-topic conversation.

The students knew how to talk but often wanted to go over the same information, repeatedly. It was time for a creative solution.

My husband, Jeff and I went to local-area flea markets in search of old game boards. After covering the first of the boards in white contact paper, I drew squares, each with a different question. The first game was titled: “Just for Fun.”

In each of the squares I wrote questions for the students to answer, hoping I might learn more about the students as they learned about each other. The questions concerned fun sports to play, funny stories that make people laugh, a favorite hobby, fun board games that students play and various other recreational topics.

One question: “If you could be any movie star, who would you choose to be?” The first student, who just happened to be red-headed and loved to watch classic “I Love Lucy” reruns, landed on that square and answered, “I would be Lucille Ball; she is so funny.”

The group was having a ball!  Well, everyone but Herman. An older, gruff-talking man with seldom a kind word for anyone, Herman later landed on the movie star square. After listening to the question, he looked directly at me, squinted his eyes and growled out in his sandpaper voice, “I would be The Duke; do you know who that is?” I smiled and said, “Do you mean John Wayne?”  He leaned back in his wheelchair, smiled and broke the silence with loud laughter. The whole group sat there stunned in silence. You see, none of us had ever seen him smile or heard him laugh.  I believe Herman had even surprised himself.

Herman had helped me discover that some people do have smiles inside… the smiles and laughter just need an escape route.  That day a spark was ignited, a spark that led to the writing of PCI’s Life Skills Series of games about living in the real world.

Question of the Week: Tell PCI about a fun, innovative teaching solution you have used to encourage a student to participate in class. Please use the first name “only” of the student, for privacy reasons.  We look forward to hearing about your experience!

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 6: Leadership

 Teaching Tips  No Responses »
Feb 072012
 

From Jennifer of Colorado Springs, CO, comes our next intriguing teaching strategy. Jennifer is a junior high school Center Based SIED Level IV teacher. She strives to teach students with emotional and behavioral disorders that they can learn and exhibit the characteristics of being a leader.

Her project: Character Education: Leadership!

Using past and present leaders to teach students with severe emotional and behavioral disorders, how to be a leader. Students are taught through video clips, power point, and their own experiences how to be a leader and what characteristics all leaders have. It is important to be a leader in today’s society. Students learn a new character trait each week. Some traits already learned this year are respect, responsibility, being ready to learn and honesty. The students really respond well to the multi-media format and are eager to learn positive characteristics to show their families and others to learn how to do the same.

Learning Objectives:

Students will learn the importance of positive character. Through character education, students are able to focus their behaviors in a positive manner. Students engage with their peers to practice positive peer interactions and how to support others. Character traits that will be discussed and learned are: being trustworthy, caring, hardworking, compassionate, leadership skills, responsibility, being respectful, ready to learn, being independent, understanding, dependable, helpful, proactive, and many more.

Materials:

In my character education class, I use Power Point, projector software, video clips from classic movies or educational videos, student knowledge (K-W-L charts), and student input.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Grant Ask: http://www.weareteachers.com/ideas/partnerask/teachingidea?app=%2016870&grantId=75

 

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 5: Creating Books for Articulation

 Teaching Tips  1 Response »
Feb 012012
 

This teaching strategy is brought to us by Virginia of Andover, MA. She is a Speech/Language Pathologist for students in Early Learning through 2nd grade. Virgina’s teaching technique is to engage her students in a creative adventure to put together a story of the sound or letter they are targeting in their lesson.

Her project: Creating Books for Super Articulation.

Using Target Sounds for the lesson, the students name a stuffed animal or puppet as the main character, such as Ricky Raccoon for ‘r’ words. Using a picture of Ricky along with others chosen by the students they build a book of Ricky’s likes, dislikes, activities, habitat, friends, etc. Each page starts with “Ricky the Raccoon…” This sense of adventure and creating is great for motivating articulation practice of /r/, as well as practicing sentence structures, asking questions making it a multisensory experience. Ricky and the book go home for practice with the student’s parents. Huge interest & success!

Her students really enjoyed this project and have a new one entitled “Lily the Leopard.” This book will incorporate not only /l/, but the vowelized /r/ combinations needed… ar, er, ir, or, ur.

Learning Objectives:

Practice of learned skills including: phonemic awareness, placement, production; syntax: organization/formulation of verbal expression; benefit of model/imitation of therapist and parents; and independent experience. The results are increased sound production and intelligibility from single words to connected speech! Great motivating lessons for articulation practice, intelligibility, and building confidence as an effective communicator.

Materials:

Pictures, construction paper, glue,  laminate, markers/computer printed labels and sentence starters, and homework sheet, as well as a small puppet or stuffed animal that can travel home with the book for a week’s practice.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Teacher Grant Asks: http://www.weareteachers.com/ideas/partnerask/teachingidea?app=17630&grantId=75