Monday, June 12, 2017

A Transition Program Social Story

Hey there! I couldn't wait one more minute to share with you my NEW social story book I've put together! First let me give you a little info on our program. We are a life skills/transition program for students 18-22 years old. The students come to us from one of the 18 high schools in our city and also from a couple outer lying schools. So, imagine you're a kid (fun huh), you've just spent probably 4 years in the same classroom with the same 3 or 4 staff, and all of  a sudden your 4 years are up and it's time to move on. Sad, nervous and super SCARY! Here's where I come in. I "offered", during a district training, to put together a social story to make the transition to my program just perhaps a little bit easier for our incoming kids. Luckily I had a lot of pictures already, so basically it was just putting everything together onto paper, printing, laminating, and binding. 

Here is what the book includes:
1. A cover page
2. Campus picture
3. More campus pictures (classroom, bathroom, cafeteria, snack bar, computer lab etc)
4. Office staff
5. Teachers (not all 23, but about 12)
6. CBI
7. Work training
8. Off campus PE
9. Dances
10. Learning
12. Making Friends
13. Final page "everyone love coming to _____"

I think it turned out soooooo cool and I can't wait for feedback from the high schools! I know it's late in the year, but I've sent it off in digital form so they can at least show the kids who are attending ESY and will be heading our way in August. I did have to blur the kids faces :-( but I think it's still going to be helpful. Might even be something you could do for kids coming from elementary or junior high school???  Here are some examples of the pages I included.
I think the goal this summer is to put 17 more of these bad boys together so each school will have one in their possession starting next year.

 So, let me know what you think and i'll be back soon!

Friday, June 9, 2017

Where Does the Time Go?

Well the 2016/17 school year is finished! Last Friday was the last day of school. Can't get too incredibly excited since ESY started the following Monday! No rest for the weary... YET! This year I decided it would be fun to have a country theme for each week. I let the kids choose what countries they wanted to vist. This week we went to Mexico! We learned about Mexico. We learned a few Spanish words. We made homemade nacho cheese sauce and pretty tissue paper flowers to decorate our room! And today we played Bingo and the kids helped me translate the words into Spanish. So much fun! I just know the next 3 weeks are going to fly by! There's a few things I have been working on and I can't wait to show you. Hopefully by early next week I will have my project ready and will post some pictures! I also went to a Google Classroom training last week and can't wait to start implementing new things in my room next year! I took notes and promise to share! Hope your summer is going great and if you haven't started yet, I hope it comes soon!