Back into a new school year!

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year! I can't wait to get started with a new group of kindergarteners! If you look back to my post around this time last year, I discussed our classroom set up with my co-teacher in Room 6. We are keeping some things the same but also adjusting a bit too. Here is my door. I am not too into making cute things that have to affect on student learning, but I did make this cute door hanger that has no affect but being welcoming. It was all on clearance at Michaels and I did some hot gluing, stickering, laminating and tied it all up to be a cute little door hanger. Still have my cookie sheet for "Where am I" which works well when we have kids all over and pulled by many adults.

When you walk into my room, I now have a GIANT non-distracting carpet! I love those cute carpets with colors, letters, numbers and "spots", but it is too distracting for some students that have visual needs, etc. Plus, it is bigger so wheelchairs don't have to struggle to get over many edges.

My goal was to open up my space, I removed a built-in shelf unit and opened up the smartboard and circle area to accommodate more students. I will get into my circle time procedure and boards a bit later, but as you can see I have two boards for circle time and a covered bookshelf in between. I covered all my bookshelves so there is less distraction.

On the edge of the circle I have some storage (all matching, of course). I have circle time supplies and trays (cookie trays come in handy all the time) and above that, storage for big books and flip charts. I have a drying rack (see post) and story prop filing cabinet filled with manipulatives.

We are still having our center rotation! Red, orange, yellow, green and blue areas are all around our two rooms. We spend time there twice a day, once in the AM and once in the PM. We spend time working on IEP goals (reading in the AM and math in the PM). All the staff works at the stations, so Instructional assistants lead small groups. It works well because we get to work with all our students on a smaller scale and take data on IEP goals and objectives. Also, students get to generalize skills by working with many adults and adults get to stay on the same page and work together to accomplish goals. This is the red table. Notice it is actually red, how awesome. This was a new table for this year. This is our more "academic" center, located by all the circle time materials.

Last year, we had the students rotating daily (they would go to all centers by the end of the week) and IA's rotating weekly and teachers staying at the same center. We decided this year we are going to assign kids to centers and for the most part, keep them there all year. We can keep their equipment and notebooks there and it will be a little bit easier to remember. We can really individualize this way. We will have adults rotating weekly, so we can spend more time really working on skills with one group of kids. In the beginning of the year, we will rotate daily so we can get some baseline on the kiddos and get to know them better. IA's and teachers will both rotate this year. At each station we have IEP bins with personalized materials, AM and PM center drawers which include materials we have prepared for the stations and IEP notebooks with data sheets. We also have each colored table notebook for people to write notes on what they observe and questions to ask, as well as a colored binder that houses basic information and a checklist of activities that need to be completed for each student. Want to know more? Contact me directly and I would love to give you samples!

Here is the green area, which is vision and sensory. This used to house my large table, which I got rid of for the sake of space this year. These two tables can go up and down, adjusting for the child's wheelchair or chair they are sitting in. On the table is my homemade lightbox (see post) and a couple of awesome lights I got from IKEA! One of them is meant to mount behind a TV and changes colors! In the green bins are many sensory materials and vision materials. Underneath is my bookshelf with all my books to pull from. 

Here is the orange area. Similar to last year and also has a trapezoid table. These tables are small and easy to move so I stuck with two of these this year. The touch screen computer is at this center along with that white shelf which will house individual student materials. 

The yellow and blue are in my co-teacher's room. The yellow area is similar to the green area, but my co-teacher has a lot more materials than me. Her vision areas are awesome!! And blue is similar to orange, access to computers, etc.

Here is a quick shot of my desk. I tried to continue to make room and push it back more this year, you can see two printers on one small, two drawer filing cabinet! I organized my filing cabinets again, the black one is a craft cabinet with all craft materials and the pink one houses all my teacher resources and additional materials. The two drawer black filing cabinet is for my instructional assistants. On the desk (individual desks come in handy-easy to move and great to use with kiddos one-on-one!-small space tip!) there is a bin for breakfast supplies and (not pictured) a bin for attendance and notebooks sent home.

So here is a close up of part of my circle! Notice my nice little IKEA container for pens, etc. I have a chart with the letters that is felt. I will be using Orton Gillingham (that I was trained on this summer!) with a combination of visual phonics (that I was trained on this summer!) during reading circle (my co-teacher does the math circles). I have cards that will go up as we learn each letter. I also have the classroom rules, a little EET (expanding expression tools) area, a who is here today?, a question of the day chart (from Lakeshore learning) and a weather area here. Also, remember that the easel (felt and dry erase) is there for story and sentence times. 

I work with students that have many cognitive needs and communication needs. As a teacher, I find a balance between all of the things the student needs (and continue to work on this balance each year!)-academic, social, communication, functional, sensory, etc. But, in particular, communication is very important to me. I tried to choose activities that would be very communication based, letting students express themselves, more on "more" and "all done", choice making, "yes" and "no" and activating communication devices. We use many voice output devices and also the PODD and talking brix communication devices. I have many ideas for my circle you may see in a future post, or as always, contact me!

Here is the other board from my circle time where I will go more in depth with the letter we are working on. I will put up cards with pictures and words of things that begin with the letter we are focusing on as our "word wall". The other, smaller, pocket chart is going to house our weekly themes and essential questions. I went through each activity we will be doing in circle daily and for each individual day, matched it with the appropriate IEP goals/objectives, matched it with the appropriate Common Core Extended Standard, and then wrote an essential question that is appropriate for our students. I have attached a sample of this, that is what is in the blue pocket chart.

Here are my cubbies :-)

Here is my shelving and storage area. We have a sensory table! And, the two bookshelves that are covered have toys and puzzles.

Here are my new letter tubs that I made at the end of last year. So, when we are studying a letter, I don't have to go and gather all the things I need for all the activities we do, they are all included in my letter tubs. 

Here is a sample. They have big letter flashcards, a tactile foam letter, manipulatives, our letter tubs (small objects), books that contain simple pictures of items, activities written down so I don't forget, cheaptalk displays and more.

On my desk I wanted to make my own version of those filing cabinets I see on pinterest. I have a copy/laminate section (on top so IA's have access easily to it also), file/give (I am always having piles on my desk of things to give other teachers, therapists, etc and now I can find where I was storing it!) and a "now" section. I have many things I am using "now" but don't necessarily need to carry around with me in my teacher binder (oh! my teacher binder I made this year! That must be another post!)

These are just pretty so I have to share, from Target. I have one for each student that I keep all their important documents to reach at a moments notice.

Here is my desk. I got creative with space again and have a filing area under my desk too.

This is on wheels so it can move back and forth when I am going from opening filing cabinet to the opposite filing cabinet. Important abc work that I copy often, computer paper, etc.

Here is my birthday wall right by my desk. I fill out the birthday certificates at the beginning of the year and put them in order so I never miss a birthday and know when the next one is coming. I am going to use my birthday garden again this year (see post). I also updated my data clipboard because it used to say green table when I was always at the green table last year, but now we are moving around so it just says my name.

I got some awesome mega-suctions from IKEA that are meant for the bathroom but work so well when trying to save in space on my classroom. I don't know if you can tell but in the green area, attached to the window, is a suction cup that houses all the materials my IA's need for projects in the AM so they don't have to try and come into my small desk area and poke around for scissors, stapler, etc. And, it is all out of student reach to be safe!

Hopefully I can do a teacher binder post, but still just trying to make my goal of one post per month this school year. It really actually helps me remember what I did so I can plan for the next year!

2013-2014 in a nutshell

So, I am not telling any teachers out there any new news by saying this year was extremely hectic. In Ohio, I am talking OTES, SLOs, RESA, etc. There was no time for anything. I also had a student teacher for the first half of the school year. Luckily, although I wasn't posting, I did take pictures of some things I did during this past school year! My goal is to post one time per month next school year. I'm back in the blog game!

First, is an example of when I was doing word of the week. Our word this week was "yes". It is the way that I modify the use of sight word vocabulary in the special education classroom.

 This is how I modified it for my higher students. They got to work at the back table with an instructional assistant during the lesson (after introduction). They were able to choose three things they can do and then write a sentence about their favorite thing they can do.

One student is just putting the sentence in order and matching the word practicing one-to-one correspondence. Some students are tracing (the colors are based on vision). 

Here is my tray with both sides, since "more" and "all done" are very similar to "yes" and "no" we work on both ways of expressing ourselves and try to get them using "yes" and "no" and shaking their heads since it is such an appropriate form of communication that all people would understand. Actually, our favorite way of using "yes" and "no" is by using Talking Brix communication devices because they are light weight and can be held under their chin for yes and near their temple for no and we teach them to shake their heads.

 Here is a repetitive text that I created to use during the lesson. Many of the pictures we use in the classroom daily in our rules and other things so the students are familiar with them. I also used a voice output device for students to share read with me.

 Here are my heads that I shake from side to side and up and down to practice saying yes and no. I sing a song "We shake our heads side to side to say no, we shake our heads side to side to say no, we shake our heads side to side if we want to say no, we shake our heads side to side to say no" To the tune of "if you're happy and you know it" and the same with yes but instead of side to say I say up and down. I try not to make my no face unhappy because "no" is not always a negative and often we teach children to smile for yes and be sad for no but that's not socially appropriate. (for example, if we teach them to smile for yes, and then ask them if their dog passed away and they have to smile to say yes, it is not socially appropriate). You can be happy saying no to things you do not want.

I have a large sentence strip I use with the rest of the students to practice making sentences. We do this in different ways, they can make choices between 2-3 options and they practice putting the sentence in order by making choices (should we start with yes or I?). The pom pom is our pesky period telling us to stop!

Here is what I use for students who are low vision to pair with the pictures, so they can make choices as well.

This is the cookie sheet idea I got from pinterest to say where all of my students are. There is one for therapy, one for library, one for gym, one for the kindergarten classroom, and one for cafeteria/recess. This cost less than $3. Tape, labels, magnets and a cookie sheet from the Dollar Tree. The pink is garage sale stickers (4).

Here is a dog I made from a tissue box to work on counting and fine motor. We fed the dog as many biscuits as we counted on large die after rolling it in a tub. Or, I have a generic "board game" I made where they will roll the die or use a spinner and practice counting using 1:1 correspondence and then if they land on a star spot they can feed the hungry dog. I put the laminated generic "board game"on a cookie sheet and use magnets as the pieces that the students move.

This is random but this is the pumpkin I carved for our pumpkin carving contest. I was proud of it so I have to share. I used squash as the skeleton head.

We all dressed like minions for halloween :-) Very easy group costume, just laminated the symbol, asked everyone to wear yellow and black suspenders and made the eyes from headbands, muffin liners and pom poms. All the kids recognized us and one of us was Dr. Gru.

Here is a visual schedule I made for circle time to keep everyone on task. I made it from a clipboard with storage I got at Target I believe. I used yellow electric tape and velcro. Picture symbols from boardmaker.

The flip side is the reward they get to choose at the beginning of the session to use as a behavior tool for some students.

The inside is where I kept all the unused symbols. Very quick and easy!

Here is a set up I used at my center during winter. I had a magnetic ice skating rink and light up stars hooked into a power link and on timed mode with two switches. I was working on students making choices and working two switches instead of just one. I have my PODD in the background as we would describe what we saw and our preferences. We also continue to do "yes" and "no" during these stations. The ice rink was a crowd pleaser as all the figures would move, the lights would light up and different songs would play. Hard to keep them from taking the pieces and worried about how small they were, so usually I would position them a bit further away. I got this for free at a garage sale when they said "if you can find all the pieces, you can have it". I searched for 20 minutes and found them all around the basement!

IEP BINS!!!! This was an exciting time around winter. We did a rotating schedule this year (see beginning of the year post). My co-teacher and I were always at the green and blue tables and our instructional assistants rotated each week between the red, orange and yellow tables (one was a floater/break relief). Each day, 2-3 students would go through each station in the AM and PM. For example, group A would go to the red table in the AM and PM Monday, the orange table for AM PM Tuesday, the yellow table for AM PM Wednesday, the green table for AM PM on Thursday and the blue table for AM PM on Friday. It worked out so well, I cannot praise this method enough. Everyone worked with each student and in group sizes that were manageable. Students worked with all adults to generalize their skills and did not get bored because of the variety. It was such a great way for my co-teacher and I to get IEP data on each kid, each week and for her and I to compare data on all our students (so we were responsible for both classroom students, not just our own). It was only for 30 minutes in the AM and PM so it was perfect timing. 

Now, onto what I was originally talking about-IEP Bins. Once we had written their IEPs and everyone's were done, we were able to make up data sheets for each objective and then pile the bins with things to work on for each objective. We left data collection just up to us so it wasn't too much for the adults to handle. It was nice because at the end of each day, we just rotated the bins to where the students would be the following day. There was no longer a need to come up with activities to do at your center because each student had an individualized bin with IEP work and individual work to give them. We had notebooks at each table so instructional assistants could note what they did and how it worked, or ask questions. We had a main sheet in each bin with what they are to do with each material, but we also left little notes on each item (for example-student it working on choice making, show them both items and see which one they reach for, or student is working on making marks on paper, use adapted writing equipment to see if student will mark on paper). Before IEP Bins we had a set activity they did at all the tables and they would repeat it 5 times throughout the week, but it was hard to meet every student's levels this way.

Here was a fine motor activity I put in a student bin. I got the cute clips at the Container Store.

This was an activity to use during our weather unit. Basic, I am sure everyone has seen it, but this is a way that I purchased a package of bulletin board items and used them in a hands-on way. I used a thick foam board and one side I left them choose the condition, then they could decide the temperature. We really focus on just because it is sunny does not mean it feels hot and just because it is rainy it does not mean it is cold, etc. We paired it with my thermometer that I have up on the board where they can find the degree (practice counting) and then the temperature is color coded (for example, 100 degrees is in the red part of the thermometer and it says "hot", cool temperatures are purple, cold are blue, etc.) My thermometer may be on another post!

On the other side is froggy, ready to get dressed. We do a whole dressing unit in the winter.

Here is just how I stored the items. In a little pocket notebook.

100th Day of School! Should be a holiday! ;-)

Here is how I taught my students about it. We counted 100, we felt 100 and we made 100. We also watched a video of kids doing things 100 times. Then, we practiced counting (I think I had it on a step-by-step switch and we took turns), then we felt 100 cubes. 

Then, we made 100, each student made 10 dots on the paper and we did it 10 times.

Then we all got to put 100 objects into a container. We did this during PM centers (sometimes we would all do the same thing if we had a good activity that needed small groups). In general, AM was reading and PM was math.

Valentine's Day Book Bag. I started doing these book bags to make my books tactile for my students. I put everything that is mentioned in the story in a bag and students attempt to find them, sequence the items, choose between two items, use "yes" "no", etc.

Here are the objects.

I apologize but all of these are upside down and I do not want to reload them. This is an example of my activities during reading circle (I co-teach and I teach reading. My co-teacher should start a blog about math because she has awesome ideas). My husband got me a foam alphabet mat as a surprise and I used the foam letters from them as a big, tactile letter to feel and trace when introducing the letter. I always have a letter choice during the week where students get to choose one object to interact with. We do a lot of choice making and hands-on activities because those are the levels of my students. This was a really good thing during circle because you get to observe a lot of behaviors of your students and find out their preferences and what they really like. For example, we found out throughout the year a student really loved birds and always chose anything with wings. How interesting!

Here are my letter tubs. The only thing is, the objects are sooooo small. I have decided for next year to make my own big tubs to include all of these things in for circle so I don't have to collect them on Monday of each week. I use the cheaptalk overlay for students to chose what they want to see from the tub. For my higher students we do where they pick what they want the other person to find. How interesting when you can't pick what you want but instead what the direction that was given to you!

Here is my amazing tactile alphabet book my wonderful student teacher made me as her goodbye gift to me. We had talked about it all year since our students were very mobile and wanting tactile learning opportunities and we found it hard to plan circle time. She did such a great job. It's a big book too.

Here is our "word wall" we make each week. They get to choose what they want to put up (I differentiate it, higher students have to think of something without any prompts and other students may choose between two pictures or objects). Then, we make a sentence about one of the cards on our word wall. We also research it if we are not sure what it is. This is where my wireless keyboard and mouse came in for use with the smartboard. I could turn on "google" and research it from circle time on the big smartboard. It was really interesting. Kids would love to watch videos of things in action.

Here is an example of how I help my students see their IEP goal progress when appropriate. I color code a graph and each time we take data they see where they are. Blue is in the sky, flying high (above goal), green is GOAL, yellow is seeing the sun, keep going, and red is hot lava, you want to get out of red! I decide what is red and yellow based on previous data points so it is reasonable for each student. They really did well with this. 

Here is a fun review game that we do, they pull a block out and tell me a letter and sound that they get. I threw a couple numbers in there :-) They enjoy this when I tell them to close their eyes and don't peek! Then, sometimes we will make CVC words with what they chose.

Here is how I modified the daily 5 for some of my students when appropriate. At my table, I would have them choose their Daily 5 task, then work with one student on IEP data collection while the other did an independent Daily 5 task  (at their level and individualized) and then we would switch.

Here they are matching, then finding the picture to go with it. The picture thing was very hard.

I would pull a themed book sleeve out for read to self. They really only looked at pictures but I would do a comprehension at the end "what was your book about?"

Just a reminder of our center rotation system. This is in a previous post. The clips are students names and the velcro is where instructional assistants names rotate. I was always at green and my co-teacher was always at blue. We are going to make some adjustments for next year but overall keep the center rotation.

And finally, just to brag about my amazing co-workers. Anyone in Ohio that was in Year 3 of the resident educator license does not need an explanation about this, but I found this on my desk after I submitted my RESA. I sincerely hope they change this for future teachers.

That's all for my year in a nutshell! I know it doesn't make up for being MIA for the past year, but I was really focused! Remember my goal for next year? Keep me on track!!

See you probably again this summer, or at least in August :-)