Super Bowl 50

Here it is, your 2016 FREE Super Bowl activity sheet! And thank you to those who messaged me. I don't watch football and to be honest, I didn't have a clue it was this coming weekend!

I have been soooo busy. Literally spent all weekend and after school working on a transition idea I had. I'll let you in on it when I get it a little more complete. I would LOVE your input.

Here's your worksheet ---> Super Bowl 50 Activity

Talk to you soon,

Creating Activities

Have an extra hour of free time and a little Velcro? How about make a fun laundry sorting activity for the kids! These activities really take no time at all and can be made by anyone.

 I make all my worksheets and activities in PowerPoint. I am sure there are other programs that would be easier, but I know PP and I am a creature of habit. For this activity I found a cute basket in Google pics that I liked. I right clicked on the image, and clicked "save". Then went to my PP slide, right clicked again and clicked "paste" onto each of the three pages I had started. I added the words (whites, lights, and darks) by adding a text box, then went to work finding laundry and followed the same procedure of copying and pasting onto an additional 4th page. I printed out all 4 pages, laminated the three with the baskets, cut out all the clothes on the 4th page, laminated them, then cut them out again. Added a bit of Velcro and waaaalaaaa my activity was complete!

I plan to add this to my activity box collection (as soon as a buy a new box) and I think the kids are going to love it. I hope it inspires you to make one of your own for your class.

Tootles,

New Teacher Frustrations

There seems to be a common occurrence of teachers moving into our special education classrooms throughout the US (and beyond), who are presented with little or no curriculum for their kids. I get emails almost weekly from these teachers. If you're lucky like I was with my first teaching job (a workability program), you get the opportunity to start in an already established classroom. The curriculum might not be exactly what you would choose, but at least you have something to get started with. 

When I was moved to my new program, 6 years ago, I was literally given 10 kids, 3 aides, and a bucket of crayons. I was starting with nothing and completely overwhelmed. At the time, we didn't even have computers in our classrooms. We had to use one of the two secretary’s computers to work on IEP's and check our email. I would come home from work and literally spend hours searching the internet for anything I could find that my kids could learn from. A deck of UNO cards was probably one of my first purchases, and we played that often during the first couple months. 

One of the first things I did was get myself some 3 ring binders. I think I started out with 6 – 8. Each binder held one subject, and every time I would find a good worksheet on-line, I would add it to the proper binder. Over time my binders started filling. I would replace old worksheets with new ones I found that were better, which were ultimately replaced with my own.

I’m not gonna lie, and say I didn’t spend some of my own money those first couple years, because I did. I almost had to. We were fortunate to have a yearly budget amount those first few years, but that money had to include everything we needed (pencils, outings, craft supplies, printer ink etc). So needless to say, it didn’t go too far. I slowly started accumulating things. I would buy games at garage sales, find activity box ideas and purchase Lego’s on Ebay. I was also able to borrow things like Bingo games and DVD's from other teachers.

It took me about 4 years to get to the point where I didn’t really “need” any new activities for my kids. Of course that didn’t stop me from continuing my obsession of activity boxes but that’s another post all together.

 I still have my curriculum binders, but have narrowed them down to just three. They are pretty thick and are my life. I won't even let them leave my room, lol. Since I find it impossible to follow a strict schedule, I just pull the binder I need (depending on the day of the week) and pick a worksheet that seems fun or appropriate for that day. Then I place a small sticker on the corner of the sleeve so I know that I have already done that worksheet this year. At the end of the year, I take off all the stickers and we start over again. I tried organizing it many times but then Johnny takes Billy’s jacket and just like that, the lesson I was doing on “Planning a Party” has to be replaced by a lesson on “Respecting Others”. So, no plan. If it’s Monday, I pull from the money binder, Tuesday, social skills and so on. 

I would also like to mention how much Donorschoose has helped me over the last few years. Without the kind generosity of many, I wouldn't have some of the amazing things I do. Through them I was able to receive 3 ipads, a karaoke machine, a projector, all our school balls for the last 2 years, a ton of kitchen supplies, books and much more. I highly recommend you get yourself hooked up with them asap.

So, here it is in a nut shell. YOU CAN DO IT!! It's going to take a bit, but steady and slow will give you time to find the things that work best for you and your kids.

Good luck and let me know if I can help!

Born This Way - TV Show

Happy New Year!!!! I am soooo happy to be back to work. I really do miss my kids when we are off on breaks and am always so excited to hear about what they did when we were apart! 

Has anyone else been watching this series, Born This Way, at school with their students? We have been watching it in our classroom each week. My kids (and staff) just LOVE it!! A couple of them have started watching it at home with their parents which is an extra bonus. I even love the commercials (surprisingly) since it gives us a few minutes to discuss what is happening. Well except for today, when I couldn't seem to hit the "mute" button before it said "if your having a hard time getting an erection" every flipping time! I mean seriously, who pairs a show about special ed kids with a Viagra commercial? 

We were a couple weeks behind because of the break and my plan was to keep up behind and continue watching one a week, be I was outnumbered and we ended up watching three this week to catch us up! But anyway, we are learning so much. First kisses, getting a job, finding independence, how to get a girlfriend/boyfriend (the right way), boundaries and so much more! We discuss things they do wrong, and the things they do right. 

You can watch them online the day after they air on TV. I put the link below for you if your interested. I hope you get the chance to check it out!

*** Update*** It says episode 1 is only available for 4 more days so you better start them asap!

Update 2 - You can now buy individual episodes to watch through Amazon for 1.99 (2.99 HD) each. I'll update again when it comes out on DVD.

Born This Way

fyi - A couple of the boys drink beer on a couple of occasions, socially and no one gets drunk. They are all over 21. One of the boys makes a comment on one of the episodes about needing to get "layed". Not sure if those are the exact word he used but close. My kids didn't get it. You may want to watch them first if you think you might have an issue with parents or to know what scenes to skip.

Shopping List Activity

Right after our Thanksgiving week off, my school psychologist gave me a shopping game he thought I might be able to use with my kids. It was really old, but very cool. It had cards with store items on them along with a price, money, and shopping lists. The only problem was that it was from back in the 70's and the items and prices were way off what we would find or expect to pay in today's time. 

I decided to make a few of my own. I had started two separate ones, grocery store and pharmacy. Then one day during our morning meeting we were talking about items the kids wanted for Christmas. They were the normal things most teenagers would want, but I realized my kids had no concept of the cost for these items.

So, I put the grocery store and pharmacy cards on hold and started a new set using the items they had mentioned that morning. I even went to Amazon to get accurate prices. I cut and pasted pictures from the internet along with the prices I found. There are 24 cards in all and 4 numbered Christmas lists. I included four numbered envelopes in the box as well, along with the cash they would need and a calculator.

All the kids had the opportunity to do the activity before we left for Christmas break. I tried to emphasize the cost of the items as I went over their envelopes to check their work. My kids have the same thinking that my own birthed children had, at a much younger age, that all you have to do is "go to the bank" if you need more money! We'll continue to work on that as well! 

Well, I hope you are all enjoying your time off. It's Christmas Eve and I finally finished my shopping yesterday! Every year I say I'm not going to do that, but every year I do it again!

Happy Holidays,

2015 Christmas Card Displays

Here are a few of the displays I received from classrooms participating in the Christmas Card Exchange this year. I love them all!!! I have zero wall space, so had to use my door this year. We tacked all the pictures and letters around the outside of the door. The kids loved getting them in the mail, opening them, finding where they came from on our map, and adding them to our tree!

 Thanks again for everyone who participated. I look forward to doing it again in 2016!

2015 Christmas Card Exchange!

It's that time of year for our annual (2nd, lol) Christmas Card Exchange! Please send your info to the email provided as soon as possible as the spots will fill up quickly. Please do not sign up if you are not sure you will be able to participate as we want the kids to receive as many of the cards as possible. After entries close, and over Thanksgiving break, I will send each of you a list of 30 other classes and the addresses. During the first week of December your kids will get the cards prepared and mailed off! You don't have to send anything in the cards besides your names but some last year sent small notes about their class (where they are from, the weather there, what their class is doing to celebrate, what the kids are asking for...) and some even included pictures! The kids LOVE this activity and it's a great life skill to boot!

All spots have been filled, sorry :-( 

Community Based Instruction Idea List

Happy Halloween!! We had a "Harvest Festival" today to celebrate the occasion! There was a pumpkin decorating contest (we won the prize for cutest), face painting, a costume contest and lots and lots of dancing! It's hard to believe that we have 3 more weeks of work before the Thanksgiving break, then only 3 more weeks of work until Winter break. The year is just flying by!

I get a lot of emails asking for ideas on where I take our kids for CBI. Last night after answering another email I figured it might help out more folks if I posted the list I use, and linked it to the blog. These are the places in my community that I try to hit each school year. I understand that you may not have all of them where you live, and in all actuality you may have tons more if you live in a bigger city. Last year we were able to get to all of them except 5. Remember, we go out twice a week so it's not that difficult for me to achieve.

Here's the full list -----> CBI Idea List

I hope this helps!

Have a great Halloween,

Free Resources

Hi guys! Yesterday I used the last of my fire safety goodies I had ordered from the FEMA website a couple years ago, so I headed over to order more for next year before I forgot about it! I didn't know if you guys were taking advantage of these freebies on-line so thought I would share with you some things that I have found and order for my classroom.

FEMA has some great stuff I use every year. Unfortunately they don't seem to be giving out the cute fire safety activity books I usually order, but you can still download it and print the pages yourself HERE. There is some other cool stuff you can order though. There is a limit of 25 per person per year. I usually order the full 25, that way I don't have to order every year.

Here's the link https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/publications/

Here's what I ordered this year:
Is Your Home Fire Safe? Door Knob Hanger

• Kids Firetruck Foldup Activity Sheet
• Christmas Tree Fire Safety Hang Tag
• Here's some more good links. I found some great safety tip sheets here:
•  http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/safety-tip-sheets

kids.usa.gov has a lot of resources as well. I love this calendar they have. It gives links to different resources throughout the year .Calendar | Teachers | Kids.gov

I also found this really great PowerPoint presentation on first aid the other day that I plan on using with my kids in the coming weeks. It's long, so I will probably split it into 3 classes.

http://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/school-programs
Scroll down and click where it says "Basic First Aid for Youth Presentation ages 8-10, then click "access digital presentations" it will be the second one on the list.

I used to order a ton of stuff from the Food Pyramid people, but I think almost any of their things now are digital. I printed out 5 of the sheets the other day and we went over them as a class. Here's the link: Parents & Educators | Choose MyPlate

Hope you can use some of these resources. Feel free to post any others you're willing to share :-)

ps... I ordered a bunch of cool stuff on clearance from Oriental Trading last week! I'll share when I get them!

Grocery Store - UPDATE!!!

 Our first lesson in our mini grocery store is complete! My boss was gracious enough to find me the shelving and it's perfect! We also have a grocery store going out of business locally and they sold me the three baskets for 5 bucks each! 
The cards are in three levels, each level containing 3 cards. Green has 5 grocery items, yellow 10, and red 15. They will have to master each level (all three cards) to move on. I also laminated the answer cards and set them in the little tray on the register along with a dry erase marker that has been velcroed on. 

I'm anxious for the kids to begin!

Update: I have posted the lists in my store to save myself some time emailing them. Click HERE!

Vocational Skills - Grocery Store

Look at all these great grocery store items we received in the mail last week from DonorsChoose!! I have been trying to get more activity boxes that are geared towards vocational skills and I thought one working in a grocery store would be fun for the kids. The only downside is that it doesn't fit in a small box like my other activities, and I am desperately waiting for someone to find me some sort of shelving I can keep it on. For now, we will live with it taking up our entire back table. 

Along with the food we also received toy cash registers. Last Friday I stayed after work and took pictures of each of the food items. My thought was to put together picture grocery list for the kids to use to find the items. Then I thought, since most my kids are pretty good at reading or at least sounding out, I would put the picture lists on the back burner and do written lists instead. I still plan to do the picture lists for our lower kids, but for now, this is what my class will work with. 

I found a really cheap price gun on Ebay for 10 bucks and priced each of the items with the sticker. I also made these grocery lists and an answer page as well. Today was the first day trying it out with the kids and they really seemed to love it. I told them they didn't have to do all three of the lists and could put their answer key in their box and come back another time, but each of the 4 that worked on it today wanted to do all three of the cards. 

Here's what I learned. Of the four kids who did the lesson, each of them had different answers on their answer sheets for each list. Though they enjoyed the activity, and it really kept their attention, their accuracy was not that great. So, new plan. I am going to shorten the lists and make different levels. I think these ones I did above will be at the highest, a level 3. So, by the beginning of next week, we will have levels 1 and 2 ready to go. They can start there, and as they master those lists, they can move up to a card with higher difficulty. 

So much going on to fit all this in but we'll make it happen. Friday will be the last of my 5 Freshman IEP's that have to be completed within the first 30 days of school and I should get the keys to my new house two weeks from today!!! Hope everything is going well in your class. No more days off for awhile so we shall trudge along!

I have posted the lists in my store if you are interested in owning a set. You can find them HERE

Tootles,

Safe and Strong

I wanted to let you all in on these amazing video's I was introduced to at the autism conference. Walking around the first day, I had the opportunity to speak and hear about a program for kids with special needs that was all about safety. Since I have a hard time finding good age appropriate video's for my students I was pretty excited. I put my name into the basket to try to win one of the 4 disc DVD's for my program and was looking forward to seeing their break out presentation the next day. 

Let me say, I was NOT disappointed! These DVD's would be a great asset to any classroom. During the presentation we had the opportunity to watch a variety of the clips the DVD's provide. Each clip is meant to be very interactive, so after each clip we watched, we practiced what we would have the kids do, which was stand up and act out each of the scenes, doing it the wrong way first then the right way. The kids in the video's are older which is great for our kids. 

Here's what each video contains:

Part 1: SAFETY IN THE COMMUNITY

Introduction

1. Confidence and Bearing
2. 911 Be Ready
3. Your ID/ Safe Person Card: Never Leave Home Without It
4. Your ID is for You, Your Money is for You
5. At The Bus Stop
6. On The Bus
7. ATM Awareness
8. Stranger Danger
9. If You Are Confronted

PART 2: SEXUAL ASSAULT: VICTIM/WITNESS

CAUTION: OFFER AND PROVIDE RESPECT AND SENSITIVITY TO
YOUR VIEWERS, MANY OF WHOM HAVE ALREADY BEEN SEXUALLY
ASSAULTED AND MAY EXPERIENCE FLASHBACKS AND REIGNITED
TRAUMA.
Part 2 requires trained counselors on board at time of showing
STRONGLY CAUTION your viewers.

1. Review/introduction
2. A Friendship Blossoms
3. Sexual Assault: Dorien’s Apartment
4. After the Assault: What To Expect:
Call 911
First Responder: Interview with
Law Enforcement
SART: Sexual Assault Response Team
Forensic Interview with Medical Nurse
interview With Detective
Forensic Medical Exam
5. Victim/Witness Advocate:
There Is Help for You
I Believe in You
6. Courtroom Orientation: What to Expect:
Prosecutor
Other people in the Courtroom, including the offender
Hard Questions in the Witness Box.
7. Sexual Molestation: How to Make It Stop!
Reporting sexual molestation
What to Expect

PART 3: HOME ALONE: SAFE AND STRONG

1. Introduction and Review
2. Home Security
3. Telephone Safety
4. Telemarketing: No Thank You, and Hang Up The Phone
5. Strangers At Your Door: Never Open The Door
6. If You Believe You Are In Danger: Call 911
7. Home Invasions: Get Out, Get Away, Get Help. Call 911

PART 4 ENCOUNTERS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT

1. What To Do
2. *Safe Cards and ID
3. Who To Call
4. What To Say And What Not To Say

We will not be offering Part 2 in my program for the time being.

So far we have only done the first 4 chapters of disk 1 and the kids (and me) are loving it! Oh, I forgot to mention, I won one of the DVD sets while at the conference!! It's really weird because I knew I was going to win, I don't know how I knew, but I knew. 

So, how do you get your own DVD set for your class or program? I have good news and bad news. The good news is, if you live in the state of California you can borrow a copy from your regional center for free, (apparently they were all mailed quite a few) since this was a collaboration of departments throughout our state. If you don't live in California I believe the set is around 300 dollars, but if you can get your school to pay for it, I would say it is well worth the cost. 

She did state that all regional centers in CA have them, and if for some reason yours does not, they can contact the company to get a copy. Here is the link if your interested in learning more about the program. 

 http://www.safeandstrong.org/

Identification Cards

I made these cards up a few years ago and tried to pitch them to a few teachers and got some pretty bad reviews, so I put it on the back burner and didn't give it much more thought. They thought parents would not want their child to carry such cards. So, at the conference I went to in August, during one of the break out sessions, the speaker talked about how all the kids should carry some sort of identification card with them at all times. She suggested in their wallet for more verbal kids and in the shoe for non. Though, seems it would be a long time before someone checked a kids shoe to be able to find it. My kids are in the 18 to 22 age range. I took a poll today and only 25 percent of them actually have a California identification card (probably lower for our emerging kids). So, I'm going to bring it back to the table again and see if any of the new teachers want to bring it up the parents as an option and we can easily print them and laminate.

The ones posted here were for our kids with autism, but we can change the disability to anything and even customize it depending on the child (or the parent). Do you think parents would be interested in something like this? Do your kids carry ID? Where do they carry it? 
We've been watching this great video I won during the conference (i'll tell you about that this weekend), and during the video's it talks about the kids having their ID on them, so I think my kids would think it's really cool to have it. Alright, just a thought, I'll let you know if I get shot down again, lol.

Morning Meeting Update

My first full week with the kids is complete! After having a couple tough kids the last few years, this year I have been majorly blessed with what appears to be a pretty amazing group of individuals! This is also the first year that I have had all readers! The kids are so close to the same level both academically and socially which is great. They all seem to be completing their work right about the same time too.

I'm proud to say, I have been diligent with my morning meetings and they seem to be going really well (hey it's been 8 days!). I have been brainstorming and pinning ideas so that I can keep them interesting and engaging. Up until Friday I was just ending each morning message with a question. Since all my kids are readers and can write with minimal help this has been working. One day I mentioned the weather as it was going to be over 100. So I ended the message with "do you prefer when it's hot or cold outside? Why?" They are to answer their question in their journal and when we meet after breakfast I have one student read the morning message then we go around the table and everyone answers the question verbally. 

Friday I changed it up a bit and we used these pretty sturdy paddles I ordered last year from Oriental Trading. After asking everyone how they feel today (which by the way is so much fun because they are changing their word everyday and I'm loving the variety!), read the morning message (no question this day), did our calendar skills, counted money, and talked of our day, I passed them out. I then asked them 10 questions which they had to answer using their paddle yes or no.

 I can't remember them all now but here are some: 

I have built a snowman
I have been to another country
I have swam in the ocean
I was born in Bakersfield
I have been ice skating

Some of them we discussed after each poll, asking which country they had visited or where they were born if not here.


So, new plan. I think we will be doing two individual board questions a week, one team building activity, one similar to this one I did Friday, and one challenge (hold the door open for someone, introduce yourself to someone you don't know, ask someone to dance, invite someone to sit by you for lunch or on the bus). I want it to coincide with a lesson we worked on the day before. We can quick discuss it again and even do a couple role playing. After lunch when we come to group we will discuss if anyone was successful.

I am really hoping that with my kids all being on the same level, and me not having to differentiate their lessons too much AND freeing up my aides who no longer will need to work 1 on 1 with them, we can come up with some new exciting ideas for our class. I am excited, and can't wait to see what lies ahead for us this coming year!

I have pinned a few ideas on a Pinterest board HERE for the team building activities if your interested. If you have any you would like to share, please do so below!

I hope you have a great weekend,

Autism Update

With the new school year arriving, I have had little time to get out this plethora of information I hold from the conference I attended in Southern California. So, I thought I would start with a few facts and figures which headed off the keynote speaker on day one.

Facts & Figures

• Over 1.77 million cases of autism in the US
• New cases are diagnosed every 20 minutes
• Estimated 1 in 68 children, possible as high as 1 in 50
• 1 in 42 boys on average as high as 1 in 12
• Boys are 5x more likely than girls
• Autism is the fastest growing disability in the US
• Costs of 126 billion annually
• 2.3 million dollars to care for an individual with autism over their lifetime

Staggering isn't it?

****If you know anyone planning on getting pregnant in the future, you may want to pass on this bit of information too:

Folic acid taken pre-pregnancy and for the 1st 2 months of pregnancy can reduce autism rates by 40%. Also ASD moms should have their homocysteine levels taken. Mothers of autistic children show higher levels. They should have blood workup done before getting pregnant again. Elevated levels also showed a risk factor of heart disease and blood clots.

There was also talk of a medication that seems promising in reducing autism like symptoms in mice (for up to 8 weeks) and according to our key note speaker they will begin human trials in the next few weeks. You can Google Prof. Robert Naviaux if you want to learn more on this.

Is anyone else worried about the rise in autism and what this means for the future? 1 in 68 children??? The amount of kids with autism that have entered our program alone in the last 5 years is staggering. Are there enough adult programs set up for them? What's the plan? I don't feel like this is being taken seriously and I worry that our kids will not have the adequate resources available to them as they age out of the school system. Who's going to fit the bill? 

So many questions, so very few answers. 

I have many more things I want to talk about regarding this conference and will try really hard to find time in the next couple weeks to get it down in writing for you! I feel like there are not enough hours in the day lately!

Hope you year is starting out amazing!! I know mine is!

New "school" Years Resolutions!

It's that time of the year again folks. The time of year teachers make our new school year resolutions. Whether it's new things we are going to implement or old things we are going to stay more diligent towards, the commitment is there!

I have two things this year I am going to work on. The first one, which I heard about at the autism conference I just attended comes in two parts. #1 I am no longer going to say the words NO or Don't to my kids. I don't think I say it often, and when I do, I back it up with reasoning "NO, we don't have time to play with that now, but later, after lunch you will". So, I am going to try to leave the "NO" part off. Be more positive. Instead of saying "don't slam the chair down" I will say something more like "I understand you are upset, but let's think of other ways to get out our frustration". Or maybe instead of "NO we can't go to the snack bar now" I can say "now is not a good time, let's see if we have more time later".

#2 Instead of telling the kids what to do "go wash your hands", "go get your folder", "sit in your seat" we will say "what would be the proper thing to do after we sneeze?",  "what do we need to have to start out our day?", "where should we be if we are ready for our lesson?". Does that make sense? The speaker expressed that we feel the need to rescue them. While he was talking I totally saw that this is what we were doing all day in my room "go sit there" "go get your book" "get your jacket" "line up for breakfast". Not that these are bad things, but we are not allowing them to make any of their own decisions or to even think about what it is they need to do. We need to be teaching them self-regulation.

1. Self-regulation is the ability to monitor and control our own behavior, emotions, or thoughts, altering them in accordance with the demands of the situation.

I am going to really make this a priority in my room and model it for my aides so I can get them on board as well.

Ok, my second resolution is to hold a morning meeting with my kids everyday. It's so hard to find the time mostly because my kids arrive separately over a 45 minutes period. So here's the plan. When they arrive (7:30 - 8:15), they write their brief morning message, and work on one functional academic page in their folders. Then off to breakfast (8:15). When they come back (8:45), I am going to take this time for no more than a 15 minute meeting. I am going to really try to not go over that time frame as they will still need to finish their work and be out at the buses by 9:30.

I want it to look something like this:

Good morning ..... 

Ask students how they are feeling this morning and let them share that.

Go over the calendar for the day.

Count coins together from the wall (nickels, dimes, quarters)

Include a question: ex. "if you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?"

or 

short teamwork activity ....  ex. block tower, ball toss

"I hope you have a fantastic day".

So, that's the plan and I'm sticking to it (fingers crossed)!

Do you have any new resolutions for your classroom this year? I would love to hear about them!

GPS For Our Kids

I have sooooo many things I want to tell you that I learned at the conference I just attended!! But, before I get to all my notes and try to rewrite everything to where it makes sense to you, I wanted to ask you about this device that a mom talked about today right before the conference ended. The topic was about safety and our autistic children. A mother raised her hand and told us about this arm band called a GizmoPal she uses with her son. It's from Verizon and costs about 75 dollars with a 5 dollar monthly fee. It can call two preset numbers with one touch and receive calls from those same two numbers. You can also set it to auto answer which means if the child doesn't answer it within 10 rings it will automatically answer. Now for the best part.... it has GPS on it!!! 

So I'm curious, do you know any kids who are using these? Any that could benefit from it. Pros, cons? I think the GPS is great. I assume the student would have to be above a certain level to understand that you can't be calling mommy and daddy all day long.

Let's chat....

Today Is A Good Day For A Good Day

Sorry for the quiet this summer I have a lot going on! Got the news that my classroom would be moving during ESY(packed a lot of stuff). I sold my house (packed a lot of stuff). Bought a new house (but am currently homeless because apparently shorts sales are very unpredictable) and took a small family vacation. 

I was really hoping for this time off to get the new house in order and am so bummed that though I feel I have SO much to do, I can't really do anything but sit and wait. Then 2 weeks ago my boss emails me saying they will NOT be moving my classroom this current school year, which means I will have to UNPACK EVERYTHING back into the same room (did I mention I have a lot of stuff)! 

So, here I sit, waiting for my realtor to give me some sort of information "any day now" he says over and over. Waiting for my classroom to be available for the unpacking (did I mention all my work clothes are sitting in a POD somewhere!). Next week though, I head to Pasadena for the "Autism West Conference" that I have attended the last 2 years and love. Then I have one more week off before the new school year begins. I am looking forward to a little structure that's for sure. I'm finding it harder and harder to trick myself everyday to get up, shower, put on make-up and curl my hair just to go to Walmart for a roll of paper towels.

I hope everyone has enjoyed their time off and are looking forward to the up and coming 2015-16 school year!

Yours Truly,

Movie Trailer Monday!!!

 We are down to the last 5 days of ESY!! I found out last Wednesday that I will be moving into a new classrooms next year. So, not only am I having to pack up my house, I am also having to pack up my classroom. And to make matters worse, the air conditioner went out last Thursday so by 9 a.m. it hits about 85 degrees in the room and 

we have to vacate to a cooler classroom for the rest of the day. I'm hoping it gets fixed as soon as possible so I can stay late a couple days and get it finished. Friday we will be at another school for graduation, so I really only have 4 more days to get it done. I'm trying my best to pitch a few things that I no longer use. I tend to "hoard" things at school "just in case" I might NEED it again. It's funny, at home I don't keep anything. I try to live as simple as possible and have no problem dropping things off at Goodwill if I stop using it. Unfortunately, my classroom has a whole separate list of rules.

A few months ago one of my kids was talking about a new movie that was coming out. So, we went to Youtube and checked out the trailer. While we were there we went ahead and watched a few more. The kids were totally into it! From that day on we now enjoy "Movie Trailer Monday's" every week. 
After my kids come back from lunch, they have about a half hour of free time. They can play games with staff, use the ipad or computer, read books, draw or just hang out outside with their friends. Then we come back for our final class of the day before our day ends. On Mondays, we meet back ten minutes earlier now to watch the trailers.

 We do three trailers each week, and even though I take requests, which I add to my list, I like to make it a surprise which ones I will show that particular day. After each trailer we have a little discussion and ask who thinks they would be interested in seeing that movie and who thinks they wouldn't be. I only show them movies that have a G or PG rating as I don't want parents upset that now their kid begs to see a movie they deem inappropriate.

Tomorrow will be our last showing of the year. We are going to see "The Secret Life Of Pets", "Daddy's Home", and "Born In China".
This has been such a fun thing for all of us, that I am going to continue it in the fall. The kids look forward to it and I get multiple reminders every Monday so that I don't forget! And, we have so many left on our list that we want to see!

ttyl,

Social Skills Activity

Summer school (ESY) is in full swing. 12 days down 8 to go! So much has been going on in the last two weeks. I sold my house and bought a new one (which really is a very old one). I have to be out of the house I live in now by July 8th which just so happens be day 3 of my out of town vacation so I will have to move out 4th of July weekend instead. The new house doesn't close escrow until the 22nd of July which leaves me homeless for about a week when I get back. Luckily I have great friends who are willing to house me and my dogs until the new house closes, is repainted inside, and the new floors put down! I will be off work until August 19th, so will have plenty of time to put everything back together and get unpacked before the new school year starts. I guarantee you it's going to go FAST!

I wanted to post this fun activity I did with the kids last week. Each day we worked on two circles starting with Strangers and moving to the smallest circle being "me". We talked about each one and the kids wrote a small definition and added 5 people that would fit into each category inside the circle. Then they cut each of them out and we moved on to the next circle. When they were complete we stacked them and stapled them along the top. 

I really enjoyed doing these with them and it really kept their attention. There was great conversation, writing, cutting, and a bit of role play.

Take care,

ESY 2015

Well, we have just about made it through another school year. I have 3 half days to go and I'm sure they are going to fly by. Next Thursday is our last day of the regular school year. We will get a 3 day weekend and then start ESY on the following Monday. All of my class but one will be attending this year and I will keep my same staff so it will almost be just like a regular school year day except the kids will leave to go home around the time they used to leave to go to lunch. Oh, and I don't have to stay for my prep period, soooo I will be done with my work day at 11:30 a.m. Not bad at all!

I teach all the same classes during our extended school year as I do during the regular year with the exception that I try to make them a little more fun. Adding extra cooking classes, extra art projects, outdoor time that might include a water balloon or two, and even a real movie. That still leaves plenty of time for our core subjects like life skills, social skills, money management and so on. I have put their monthly morning workbooks together but this year I added all the pages we will use for the other classes as well to make my life a little easier as every page they will need will be together in one place and I won't have to pass out any other papers all summer!

We are going to do a few new things this year. Remember this lesson that was going around a year or so ago? We did these last summer during ESY. This year we are doing something very similar but each page will represent different people and the boundaries we have for them. Strangers, community members, acquaintances, friends and family. Each page getting small than the one before (ME being smallest). I'll post a pic when we are done so you can see the finished product. The plan is to take time discussing each group of people and having the kids write a small definition and a few names that would fit under each one. I also purchased this movie called "When Zachary Beaver Came To Town" that we will watch as well. Seems from the reviews that it has quite a few lessons in it about friendship, empathy, and to not judge others. I'll let you know if it's any good either. My kids this year are not movie watchin kids but I'm going to try just one!

I hope your school years are winding down nicely and you're not to stressed out right about now. Just remember, very soon, we can put our feet up and get a well deserved vacation before it starts all over again.