life skills » Special Education and Learning Differences

PCI Life Skills Series

Jun 282012

• Embedded Language Arts
• Reading Practice
• Listening Skills
• Expressive Communication

NEW! PCI Life Skills Series for Today’s World is an updated series of board games based on the best-selling PCI Life Skills Series games. The ten board games in this series focus on meaningful, contemporary life skills while promoting independence, socialization, and positive behavior skills. Proven to be effective for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, these games also help students learn how to act at school, at home, and in the community.

• Each game features a Teacher’s Guide with questions and possible answers. A notes section includes additional information reinforcing the life skill for the teacher or game facilitator to share with the students after the question has been answered.

• A Progress Chart is included with each game. The Progress Chart can be used for documenting student progress on all questions in the game as well as social and behavioral skills related to game play.

• Set 1 includes the following games: Behavior, Community, Basic Information, Money & Time, and Survival Signs.

Each Game Includes:

• Game Board
• 80 Draw Cards
• Teacher’s Guide
• Progress Chart

A Mission Can Make a Family

Special Needs Community No Responses »

May 292012

Most people know that PCI Education develops and publishes materials for students with special needs and learning differences. What many people do not know, is that we employ individuals with special needs as well. Over most of the past 20 years, Janet and Nicole have been working in product assembly and Janet even illustrated a catalog cover several years ago. They are treated as part of the team, we laugh and talk about the weekend over coffee. They also enjoy participating in as many company events as their schedules will allow.

PCI was also a vocational training site for a school for special needs located very close to our facility on the north side of San Antonio. This program allowed students to try different aspects of our business – from filing in the Finance Department, sales kit assembly in the Marketing Department and basic computer work in the eCommerce Department.

As with all relationships, we learn something new about someone else. The opportunity to work with the individuals we are committed to serve has afforded us rich learning experiences and keeps us focused. One young man in particular, has captured our hearts for his resilience despite tremendous tragedy.

Christoper S., interned with us last summer for a few hours each day. He is shy until he get’s to know you, then he shares his wonderful sense of humor. He went to Camp CAMP (7-Day overnight program) last summer—his mother was trembling but Christopher thrived and had a wonderful time.

Shortly after school began last year, Christopher’s father, a Sergeant in the Bexar County Constables Office, was killed in a tragic auto accident. A few weeks ago, Christoper was invited to a ceremony at the White House for family members of fallen officers and took this great photograph with President Obama.

Christopher and President Obama

Now that school is ending, Christopher is looking for a new internship opportunity. If you have an indoor/ air conditioned office environment in the North-Central to USAA area, give us a shout and we will put you in touch with his mom, Tanya.

In closing, I have to say that my personal mission statement has been 100% in line with this organization since I came to work here. Is YOUR personal mission statement in line with that of your company? Is it really close? If not, maybe you should consider embracing the human impact of the mission, or maybe you should make a change.

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 12: Does Size Really Matter?

Teaching Tips No Responses »

Mar 272012

Our next winning teaching idea comes from Joelle of McMinnville, OR. She is a Structure Learning Program Teacher to high school students. Her idea is using a visual comparison and thought provoking questions to help them understand that special needs are everywhere and how to advocate for themselves.

The Project: We Need a Bigger Tank?

Goldfish are able to live in all sizes of bodies of fresh water, but a small fish in a small tank will always remain small. A big fish in a small tank would not have enough resources to thrive. My thought is to have two fish tanks of different sizes and measure the growth of the fish throughout the year. The idea is to build awareness in students with disabilities about advocacy and inclusion and how important these things are to their education, self esteem and life after high school.

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to compare how being a student with special needs is similar to being a small fish in a big pond (resource room), or a big fish in a small pond (self-contained classroom). They will be able to write and imagine what their life would be like if they were given more opportunities in a bigger tank. Similarly, what would it be like if their big tank were a little smaller and they didn’t have to struggle for resources.

Materials:

The materials needed would be two fish tanks of different sizes (example 10 gal tank and 20 gal tank), goldfish, food, tank equipment such as filters, air pumps, and cleaning supplies, tank lamps, tank decorations and measurement tools for fish growth.

This project depends on the district policy to allow fish tanks in the classroom and has to be cleared by the school board in certain situations; however, I feel that the information the students take away is well worth the effort.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education for the Teacher Grant Ask: http://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-ideas/grant/teaching-idea?app=17017&grantId=75

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 10: Being Prepared for the World of Work

Teaching Tips, Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 082012

This post is from our #1 voted winner: Susie in Minerva, OH. Preparing her high school students for the work force is as important as ever in today’s economy. She truly believes in her students and their ability to be active and productive members in their community after high school. Susie helps her students to prepare for this new world with every tool she can provide them.

The Project: Being Prepared for the World of Work.

I teach a transition life skills class to students with multiple disabilities. I use the School-to-Work DVD series with worksheets I have made up and some home made video’s using a Flip Camera to show students role playing and real life situations about being prepared for work and how to interact at work. The students are engaged when watching the video’s of real job skills and sites where they can learn job skills and possibly become employed.

Learning Objectives:

Students will see past graduates in their current jobs putting into place some of the job skills/ life skills that we emphasize in our classroom daily. Students can see good and bad ways of dealing with different situations that may occur on a job site through role playing videos. Students will then get to go into those same job sites and experience some of the same situations and know how to respond or interact appropriately.

Materials:

Flip Camera, other “getting a job” curriculum, transition planning materials, job sites and real employees/employers. The Functional Skills System: Social Skills or Workplace Social Skills. The Life Skills Readers and other Read-to-Learn library sets are also great tools. I would like to use iPods/iPads to also run the videos on and take video for immediate reinforcement learning. PCI’s Getting Along with People Series would be a nice addition to what we are teaching as well.

Susie also says:

I very much love my job, and the materials and resources available have come along way since I began teaching 12 years ago. Thank you for continuing to look for interactive and engaging materials that can reach the students I work with. In the world today where it is getting more and more difficult for the average person to find employment has made it that much more important for my students who already have struggles to work through to be even more prepared for the world they will soon enter.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Teacher Grant: http://http://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-ideas/grant/teaching-idea?app= 18246&grantId=75

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 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 4: Conflict Resolution Skills

Teaching Tips 2 Responses »

Jan 242012

Our next post is from Lisa from Suffolk, VA, a middle school/high school Special Education teacher. Her strategy is to teach conflict resolution skills with differentiated instruction so each student can learn the skill according to how they learn best.

Her strategy: a Conflict Resolution Menu.

“The students have been learning a unit on how to deal appropriately with conflict. Proper problem solving skills and techniques to all types of possible conflicts they may come across. Since all students learn differently, I created a unit assessment that was Differentiated Instructional (DI) focused. This menu has 3 appetizer activites, 3 entree activities, and 3 dessert activities to choose from. Each student may choose the activities they feel most comfortable doing to demonstrate mastery.”

Learning Objectives:

“The students will demonstrate their knowledge on conflict resolution and problem solving techniques that they can carry with them into adulthood. These skills will help them handle peer conflicts, issues with teachers, and even frustration that may occur from academics. Being able to properly identify a conflict and the appropriate way to handle that conflict is a skill that will help them be successful in school as well as in life.”

Materials:

Conflict resolution lesson, art supplies, conflict resolution menu, problem solving scale, PowerPoint (student choice)

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This post is brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Grant Asks: http://www.weareteachers.com/ideas/partnerask/teachingidea?app= 17846&grantId=75

Make It Real: Explore Your Newspaper

Special Education Classroom No Responses »

Oct 292009

Relevant Life Skills Lessons for Struggling Readers and Students with Learning Differences

Keeping middle school and high school students with learning differences or that are struggling readers engaged in practicing reading and writing skills is a familiar challenge to teachers. Explore Your Newspaper was created to motivate and engage these students to reinforce reading comprehension and writing skills, as well as introducing or reviewing the newspaper concept and relating it to a basic academic skill.

This comprehensive program includes lesson plans and activity sheets to help students learn about each section of a newspaper while they practice basic skills. Because of the many types of information in newspapers, including articles, charts, graphs, photographs, comics, and schedules, readers must use a variety of academic skills from several subjects, including reading, writing, math, and geography.

Each worksheet in the lesson includes clear, simple directions along with a visual icon to help students who struggle with reading. Many of the exercises involve situations that middle and high schools students will encounter in the future, such as finding an apartment, interpreting advertisements, and determining what to wear based on weather forecasts. Activities cover specific sections of the newspaper and integrate basic skills, such as locating necessary information, identifying facts and opinions, following a sequence when writing, placing information into categories, and identifying the meanings of abbreviations in classified ads. Most activities require students to find or cut out information from a newspaper and use that text to complete an activity, adding a hands-on component to the program.

Explore Your Newspaper is a flexible program designed to use either as a complete newspaper exploration program or as a fun basic skills supplement to any unit. The sections and most of the lessons can be completed in any order. Several lessons are designed to build on each other and should be taught in the suggested order. An index of skills is provided so that teachers can easily locate lessons that reinforce specific skills.

Because this program was designed for students with learning differences and struggling readers, the materials are already modified to their level of understanding and age appropriateness. Explore Your Newspaper is relevant to everyday life making the articles and activities meaningful and the lessons applicable to building and retaining basic life skills.

Coupons as Math Manipulatives

Teaching Tips 1 Response »

Oct 082009

Teach Number Operations and Practical Life Skills Using Coupons

$PCI1857-Coupon-Math-Coupon$

by Kristine Lindsay

Finding special education resources to teach students that are on a level that isn’t too childish for older students but appealing to all students with special needs, and that do not have to be overly modified to fit your students’ learning abilities can be a challenge. Teaching basic number operations in a meaningful way to children with learning disabilities needs to be applicable to their lives to retain the information and build real-world life skills.

Students with learning differences and in special education classes learn basic number operations best through real-world applications. Coupons are a convenient and fun tool in helping struggling learners improve their mathematic skills in relevant ways.

When I taught in a special education elementary classroom, I found that my students were able to add and subtract monetary amounts better when the materials related to a life skill they could use or observe daily. I created several hands-on strategies using coupons and grocery store ads that helped struggling learners improve their addition, subtraction, and problem-solving skills.

Here are some of the strategies I used successfully with individuals and in group activities:

Needed Materials: a variety of coupon flyers and multiple grocery store ads

1. Parts and Purpose of a Coupon: Have students create grocery lists with 3 items and look through coupon flyers to find as many coupons as they can for those items. Have students identify the coupons’ attributes, including product, value, brand, restrictions, and expiration dates. Discuss the purposes of coupons and when they do or do not save shoppers money. Explain that students may find several coupons for an item, but the “best deal” is based on price, coupon value, or size/quantity of the item.

2. Subtraction: Give students pre-made grocery receipts, listing 3 items and their prices with a subtotaled amount. Have students find a coupon for one of the items on the list. Students will subtract the values of the coupons from their subtotals to find the totals to be paid. Discuss what using a coupon does to the total amount paid.

3. Addition and Subtraction: Give students pre-made grocery receipts listing 5 items and their prices with a subtotaled amount. Have students find one coupon per item on their lists, knowing that some items will not have coupons. Then, have students add the values of their coupons and subtract the total values of the coupons from the receipts’ subtotals. Discuss what using several coupons does to the total amount paid.

4. Two-Step Problems: Instruct students to create a shopping list of 5-8 items and try to find one coupon per item. Then, have students add their items’ prices to find a subtotal, and add their coupons’ values. Subtract the coupons’ values from their subtotals to find their total amounts paid. Students can swap lists with other groups for more practice.

For more activities and practice sheets on using coupons as math manipulatives, see the Coupon Math program I wrote that was inspired by my teaching needs for special education materials that are relevant and fun. This program is an appropriate elementary special education curriculum for introducing and reinforcing addition, subtraction, two-step problems, and problem-solving strategies. It is also a great secondary special ed resource for reviewing and reteaching number operations and money concepts to middle school and high school students with special needs.

Character Education, Lasting Effects

Special Education Classroom No Responses »

Oct 022009

A Curriculum That Builds Character and Reading Comprehension Skills

Character education has long been a shared responsibility of parents, teachers and members of the community throughout history. It is a learning process that should be exemplified in a school community to help students understand, care about and act on such core ethical values as respect, justice, civic virtue and citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. These core values serve as the foundation of our society.

Whether a student has learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, or special needs, developing a strong character is essential to everyone. It affects developing good behavior skills and social skills as well. Because students spend much of their day in classrooms, teachers have an opportunity to explain and reinforce core values upon which character is formed.

Character education must be approached comprehensively to include the emotional, intellectual and moral qualities of a person or group. We must offer multiple opportunities for students to learn about, discuss and enact positive social behaviors so that being a person of strong character becomes a part of a student’s beliefs and actions. We must practice character for it to have a lasting effect.

PCI Education has designed a curriculum that provides diverse activities to develop character, practice positive behavior skills, and build reading comprehension called Bugg Books. These books infuse important life skills into engaging tales and entice struggling readers. As the main characters in each book work through everyday situations, they learn the value of good citizenship and having a strong character. The Bugg Books character lessons include:

• getting along with others
• learning to share
• practice makes perfect
• dealing with bullies
• respecting others
• sticking to the truth
• facing your fears
• paying attention
• doing your best
• consequences of stealing
• the trouble with tattling
• believing in yourself
• controlling your anger

Teaching character education along with reading comprehension skills is easy with the Bugg Books. The curriculum features two distinct lessons and exercises for each of the books in the series. The first lesson focuses on reading comprehension. The second lesson focuses on the character education lesson of the book with a wide variety of activities to specifically engage students in the lesson, extend it to their own everyday situations, and make personal connections. The curriculum also includes activities that families can do at home to reinforce each lesson.

Students with special needs, learning differences, or developmental disabilities can also evolve in character education, understand social values and learn positive behavior skills. It is vitally important we instill core values in all our children so they, too, can embody and teach the next generation a strong sense of character, values, and citizenship.

Within the character of the citizen lies the welfare of the nation. — Cicero

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