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 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

 

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

 

Aspergers vs. Autism or Aspergers = Autism

 Special Education Classroom  No Responses »
Nov 112009
 

austim vs aspbergers

In Tuesday’s New York Times,  Simon Baron-Cohen reviews the implications of merging Aspergers into Autism Spectrum Disorder in the American Psychiatric Association‘s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.  He gives a solid overview of reasoning on both sides of the issue but recommends that we wait because we don’t yet know if there is a true difference at the biological level.

What stuck out for me was the clear distinction he makes between psychiatric diagnosis and medical diagnosis.  Psychiatric definitions remain in flux and fixate on the symptoms only.  Medical diagnosis goes deeper, and attempts to understand the biological mechanism behind the symptoms.  He states:

“…psychiatric diagnoses are not set in stone. They are “manmade,” and different generations of doctors sit around the committee table and change how we think about “mental disorders.”

With this in mind some good Doctors are trying to merge Aspergers into ASD because the symptoms are the same.  It seems tidier to them.  I worry that losing the distinctions that do exist will not be useful in the classroom.

Without a deeper understanding, all of us who serve these communities will struggle to treat the symptoms without understanding the underlying causes.  This isn’t about finding a “cure” – it is about providing effective tools that enrich the lives we touch.  The needs of teachers (and publishers) run counter to the desire at the APA for concision.  As we create resources to teach reading and other skills we need more finely defined distinctions, not fewer.  That, after all, is what an INDIVIDUAL Education Plan is all about.

by Lee Wilson, President and CEO

Routines Equal Success and Comfort for Students With Special Needs

 Special Education Classroom  No Responses »
Oct 092009
 

by Jill Haney

HoldingHandsIn the past month, two events have reminded me of the importance routines play in the lives of children with special needs. At my daughter’s “Meet the Teacher” night, she discovered that the only classmate from kindergarten in her first grade class is a boy with Down’s Syndrome who she befriended last year. He has limited speech and primarily uses gestures to communicate. When he came into the classroom to meet his new teacher, he was completely confused. He had expected that going back to school meant going back to the teacher he had the year before. His mother and the first grade teacher did everything they could to make him feel comfortable, but to him, the new classroom felt “wrong.”

My own four-year-old son has autism and is nonverbal. This summer, we had him going to private behavioral and occupational therapy five mornings a week. Two weeks after school started, we cut back to three mornings a week knowing he had school every afternoon. In talking to his teacher this week, she noted that he was simply not himself the past two weeks. And we have noticed at home that on mornings he doesn’t have therapy, he frequently grabs his backpack and paces in front of the door assuming that doing so will make the school bus come. I am reminded of a fellow mom in our local autism support group who noted that her son needs three weeks to truly adjust and settle into a new classroom or situation.

All humans rely on routines. Routines provide us with a comfort zone. When we know what to expect, we can relax a bit and focus on getting the task done. Not knowing what to expect tends to be a major source of anxiety and stress. This stress is especially extreme for children with special needs when routines change.

As a parent, I have learned to work on transition skills to help my son cope with changes in routine. But as an educator and author, I have also learned to craft curriculum and activities that facilitate success through predictable routines. Establishing lesson cycles with predictable stages allows students to focus on the content they need to learn rather than stress about what is expected. This concept is a central part of every major program I have co-written, including PCI Reading Program and Environmental Print Series.

Harnessing the power of routines can help all students successfully navigate both academic and daily life challenges. For students with special needs, established routines are even more critical for student success and should be an integral part of any classroom schedule or core curriculum.