Teacher Meltdowns

It's busy busy busy at my work this week! I had two aides out today for starters, and this Friday is the end of the first quarter. Benchmarks and grades are both due. Come to find out today, they have changed the way to post them so I was on that all morning trying to figure out what we needed to do. I am also organizing an assembly for the kids on Friday to hand out their "Perfect attendance" dog tags (I'll talk about this more later) and trying to gather the "Steps To Success" awards (later too) that I handed out to all the teachers to fill in and need back by tomorrow afternoon. And to top it off.... I will be absent Friday for the whole thing!! That's ok, our spirit club team is amazing and I have delegated appropriately. After all of that, and while my kids were in the cafeteria eating, I went in to talk to my boss about an issue with getting my new projector mounted in my room. Now, I can't exactly explain what happened while I was in his office, because frankly I do not know. We talked, he wasn't mean or condescending, there is just a glitch (and maybe too many people telling me different things) in the path to getting my new projector mounted. No big deal right? Well, I left his office and just burst into tears! I tried walking it off and took the long way back to my class doing deep breathing exercises the whole time to no avail. I seriously considered getting into my car and just taking a drive, but I didn't have my keys on me! I finally got back to my room (luckily without being seen) and had myself a little meltdown. You know, the big tears, runny nose, hard to catch your breath... yep, that's what I had.  I was finally getting over it when one of my co-worker friends walked in and it took all I had to not restart the whole thing again. Seriously this went on for about a half hour! And every time I saw one of my friends I could feel the tears welling back up again. Well, I calmed down, the kids came back, and we finished out our day. THANK GOD! Does anyone else ever have days like this? I am hoping today was "my" day and that I will not be needing anymore of them for quite some time. Thanks for letting me talk about it, I think I feel better now.

Yours Truly,

3 Lessons In One - Art~Table Setting~Nutrition

We have been working on this activity since last week and I have been so anxious to see how they would turn out. Last Thursday I gave the kids each a piece of white paper and had them create a place-mat for themselves. Art is taken different for every one of my kids. Some of my kiddos will finish art in 2 minutes and need a little prompting to add a little something extra here or there. Some of the others can create for hours. As you can see from the photos, some of them are very talented in this department. So, place-mats done, we did a lesson on casual table setting on Friday. We all sat around our work table and went over each part of the setting and where it goes one by one on the place-mat. We glued them on as we talked about each piece. We raised our left hands and raised our rights just to make sure we were getting the right sides.

This morning (day 3) we did a lesson on creating a well balanced meal. We have done this in depth already this year along with some My Plate resources so this was just a refresher. After lunch we got working on putting the meals together. We passed out magazines to them and had them locate, cut, and paste the meal of their choice along with a drink to their plates. The end results were FABULOUS!! Here is one that one of my more artistic boys put together. He spent a lot of time on his place-mat, but wouldn't you love to eat on it? 

This was a really fun lesson for all of the kids. No one fell asleep, and it was after lunch.... Success!

Circuit Maker

It's surprises me every year how my whole classroom shifts on what they like and what they don't like to do. The last two years, not one student has touched the puzzles on my shelves. This year, it is like the hot ticket activity. I even had to buy a couple extra so there was enough to go around. I remember about three years ago my box of pattern blocks was what everyone wanted to play with. The last couple years no one seems to care for them at all. 
Last week a co-worker of mine bought a Circuit Maker set for his students and called me over to check it out. I was pretty sure my boys would love it as they are really into putting things together this year. I picked it up over the weekend and introduced it to the kids yesterday. I don't know who is enjoying it more, the kids or the staff (me included). It starts out pretty easy and will build as they start making more.
It says ages 8 and up on the box and so far a couple of my boys were able to do it on their own. some of them needed help with the layering (which is clear on the instructions) but they were able to snap them together fine and follow the grid. I have only allowed them to each do two as I wanted everyone to get turns making them. So far we made a circuit board that turned on a light and one that made a buzzer sound! I can't wait to see what the next pages will bring!

Holiday Activity Worksheets

Lately every time I click on Pinterest, I keep seeing my Columbus Day Activity Worksheet I put together last year. Every time I see it, it reminds me that I have 9 other holiday worksheets patiently waiting in my "need to work on" folder. It's one of those things I have been trying to get to for the past few months and then just forget about. So much so that I have even missed the holidays they were meant to be used for. So, I have spent the last week finishing them up and this morning I finally posted them in my store! Each worksheet has 4 -5 activities for the kids to do. I hope your kids enjoy them!

You can find your copy here in my store!

Just Dance!

Can you believe there are only 2 weeks left in the first quarter!!! OMG where does the time go?? We are still school bound except for 1 day a week when we are getting to leave campus to attend PE. I am still hopeful that CBI will begin the week of the 6th and am keeping my fingers crossed. 

To try to fill up some time with the kids we decided a few weeks ago to turn the music on in the quad, get a DJ (one of my aides, who btw is fabulous at this) and let the kids dance. What started out as a one time thing has now been repeated the last two Fridays and the kids are just having the best time. We play the music for an hour, and let me tell you, they dance the WHOLE hour! They slide to the left, they slide to the right, there's hopping, stomping, cha cha-ing.  I even learned me a little gangnam dancing today! What a bunch of happy faces! I was trying to get a pic to show you,  but with over a hundred kids out there boppin I would have had to apply way to many happy faces to cover up their own beautiful ones that I can't show on here.  Every time a new song came on they screamed like they were at a concert, I couldn't help but just stand there and watch the joy they were having. Even our students who are deaf were up front center dancing to the music they could feel coming from the speakers. Don't you just stand there sometimes, looking at your kids and say to yourself..... "Yes, this is why I come here everyday." Well today I had one of those days.

Hope you have a safe and fantastic weekend,

Personal Information Activity

Twice in the last couple of days I have ran across activities where the kids need to match their name or their phone number from paper tiles onto a sheet of paper. I decided to come up with something similar for my two boys who are still working on this skill and add all their personal information into one activity. 

I have them printed and have cut out each of the letter and number tiles so far, but haven't had time yet to laminate them and add the Velcro dots. I am hoping to get that done sometime this weekend. Here is a how they should work when I am finished with them. These boys are pretty sharp so I am pretty sure they will be able to master this in a short amount of time. Since I only have 2 kids I am doing this for it's pretty "doable". Not sure I would want to do this for 12 of them though. 

Will update on our progress! Tomorrow's FRIDAY!!!! Have a great weekend if I don't talk to you before then!

Getting Organized - Curriculum By Subject

Every year I tell myself "self, you need to be more organized this year". As my curriculum grows I find it harder and harder to keep track of what I have done and what I need to do. 5 years ago I would just create a worksheet when I needed one, then save it in my computer in the hopes of remembering I had it for the next year. I was so overwhelmed with having to create everything I used that organization was out the window. 2 years ago I started printing out everything and placing it inside binders by subject. Last year I tried teaching in the order of the binders, but then I would get pulled, or the school would plan something during my class time, or some kid would keep picking his nose and the lesson on food storage was put on the back burner as we worked on Nose Picking 101. By the middle of the year, I couldn't remember where I was or what I had done. 

This year I have created a worksheet with all the lessons I have and taped it to the wall next to my desk. So far, 4 weeks in, I have done an amazing job at marking off each lesson after I teach it. I am going to try REALLY hard this year to STAY ORGANIZED! Does anyone else do something similar to this? How do you keep yourself organized? I would love to know.

Here is what I have been using. I am sure I will add to it when some new issues arise, but for now, this will have to do. Wish me luck :-)

The Pledge of Allegiance

Happy Tuesday! I am going to admit right now that I have been doing a terrible job at having the kids recite The Pledge Of Allegiance each morning. It was one of my plans this year and so far I have been slacking. My new boss has decided that we are going to start doing it every morning as a whole and have different kids lead it from the office onto the speakers in our classrooms. I was super excited as now it can get done even if I'm busy with something else at the moment. So, yesterday I got the kids all up one at a time and had them recite it in front of the class. Even though 2 declined to even try the others knew it by heart. Even one of my autistic boys who really only repeats what I ask him with a "yes" or "no" added at the end recited the whole thing????? Crazy. After listening to them I got to thinking if they really even understand what it was they are saying? There are some pretty big words in the Pledge of Allegiance. I went home last night and put together this little slide show and today I handed out this worksheet and we got to work dissecting The Pledge. I think the kids have a much better understand of what they have been saying all these years. I used very basic definitions and did elaborate and give examples as we went over each word. A very successful lesson if I do say so myself  :-) 

ASL - Finger Spelling Our Names

We have one classroom in our program that accommodates the deaf students who attend. One of my good friends is the teacher in that class so we get the kids together often for fun activities.

I think it's important to try to teach my kids some sign language so they can try to communicate with the others kids when they are together. My friend does "Sign Time" with a few of the classes during the year and last year it was even an elective the kids could sign up for. Today we learned how to finger spell our names doing this fun activity. 

My friend turned me on to the Enchanted Learning website where I was able to find the fingered letters. I saved each one to my computer and pasted four to a page so I would have the whole alphabet for later uses. After counting how many I would need of each, we made copies and cut them apart. I laid the letters out on the table and had the kids walk around finding each letter in their name. They colored and cut them out, then pasted them onto a piece of large white paper. My friend had a sheet of the regular alphabet available for them to color their letters and they cut those out and pasted them below their finger letters. 

Everyone had to go up to the front of the room and practice signing their names before we hung them up for all to see. This was actually a pretty long activity. From start to finish it took them about and hour and a little longer for a few of them. All in all, a great time was had by all!

Changing Curriculum & Coin Stamping

 Every year my classroom has a little shift in the students I spend my day with. Last year I had a lower academic group of kids join us, even to the point that I had to go out and purchase a few Melissa and Doug items for them since we weren't much above counting and colors. The information we get from the high schools that the kids are coming from is not always accurate so where they get placed is sometimes a little off. Occasionally we can make small shifts at the beginning of the school year but other times I just like to think there is a reason I was chosen to spend the year with them. This year brings me a couple new kids who are a bit higher then those I have had in the past. So, I am needing to change up my curriculum to adjust to them. 

 I am changing out some of my activity boxes to add ones that are a bit more challenging for these guys. Here is one I added this week. Since I will put a huge emphasis on money I thought these coin stamps, (which by the way have gone down in price since I bought them a week ago!) would be a great addition. I made up a couple worksheets for them to use the stamps with and so far the kids have really enjoyed working with them. If you can see in the picture, it says the coins and the amount needed (ex. 2 dimes, 2 nickels, 3 pennies) and the kids stamp the correct coins then add the total to the page. 

I am on the lookout for more, so if you know of any other good money activities please share.

Have a great weekend!

Putting Away Groceries

Here is a fun life skills lesson on putting away groceries. I have this lesson in a cut & paste worksheet already but since Velcro is my new best friend and any cut & paste worksheet can easily be adapted into a Velcro book, here you go! There are 33 food pieces and three options of were you can put them, 12 pantry, 9 freezer, and 12 refrigerator. I used clear Velcro, cause it's my favorite! I am giving this away for free in my store to anyone who promises to comment on my blog at least once in the next year. No pressure, lol. Here is the link to pick up a copy for our kidoes. I would love to hear how they liked it.

The Specials - Update

Has anyone had the opportunity to watch this show? I am in LOVE! I only caught one episode that was on the OWN channel over the weekend so I went ahead and bought Season 1, for only $27 bucks (10 episodes)! I really think my kids are going to enjoy this. A reality show with people just like them?? Fabulous!

Here is an excerpt from their website:
In-depth documentary telling the story of how Carol and Dafydd Williams set up "The Specials" home & helped their daughter Hilly realize her dream of living with her friends.

And here is what the OWN site has to say about it:

There is also a season 2 available~ I'll give you a good review after we are able to watch them. It will take a bit to watch 10 episodes but I promise to keep you up to date!

Here is the link to their site.

*UPDATE* I just received an email letting me know they have refunded my money for the video. Apparently Oprah owns all the rights to the shows for the next 5 years and they are no longer allowed to sell them to buyers in the USA. I will keep you up to date if Oprah starts selling them. So bummed :-(

Community Based Instruction

A very essential part of my programs is community based instruction (CBI). This year we are fortunate to have the opportunity to learn in the community 3 times a week. One day we will work at our job sites which at this time include Subway, McDonalds, a nursery, a pizza place, a Mexican restaurant, Burlington Coat Factory, both of our local colleges and major car dealership. Another day we will do physical education. We go bowling, or to one of two recreation centers or to a local park.

The final day we will spend at a variety of destinations in our community. This year because of all the new rules that were implemented, I have had to come up with some additional worksheets to use during these outings. Now, we won't do a worksheet each time but they are good for my kids to keep them busy for the hour+ we are at our destination. While we will still take our yearly trips to the zoo, the planetarium, a couple museums, the library, newspaper etc. I love doing instruction in stores. ANY stores for that matter! It's like a HUGE classroom right at our fingertips!

I am slowly trying to put all of the worksheets together (I know i have more somewhere) so I can post them for you, hopefully soon. Most of them I have done in the past and a few of them are new ones that I plan to work into our schedule this year. These worksheets have a variety of activities and most all of them fit into the goal of "finding an item in a store". Hopefully I will have it posted by the end of the week and I can just add to it as I make more. 

I would love to hear your ideas of what you do for CBI with your class. Do you do worksheets? Must you have a lesson planned? Let's share. You can pick up a copy of my worksheets HERE.

Have a great weekend!

Social Skills Packet COMPLETE!

Well I finally did it! After months of work (and periods of no work) I finally finished the last of the social skills worksheets this weekend,Yeah to me!!!! I had to add an additional one on "Public vs Private" at the last minute but got that done too! So, here it is, the complete volume of 27 social skills worksheets! I am sure I will continue to add as problems arise, but for now this is it. Here is a sneak peak at the new entries!

HERE is the link to the entire packet

Bully Free Card Game

I picked up this cool looking game while at my local autism conference a few months ago. It is recommended for 2-4 players and as I had 11 kids I didn't really play it as a game. I pushed two kidney tables together and we all sat around them (this is one of my favorite ways of teaching). I passed each colored stack around the table having the kids "take one" and "pass the others", which by the way, is a VERY difficult task that I am determined to conquer by the end of the year!! I then went around the table clockwise having the first student give me a card of his choosing from the 4 he had and we discussed each card as a group.

There are 4 categories. 
1. Confidence Builders - These cards say things like "what are you good at?" "what makes you a good person?" I was surprised that the kids could not think of one thing they were good at so I had to help out and ask questions like "who is good at dancing?" "who is kind to others?" It took that for them to see their good qualities.
2."What would you do if...." - These stated things like, "someone tried to beat you up", or "someone tripped you on purpose". We talked about how we would handle each situation and practiced saying. "please stop it" "leave me alone" and when it was time to tell someone.
3. Bully Busters - These tell how you can help someone who is being bullied.
4. Ways to stay bully free - These gave examples of things you can do if you or someone you know is being bullied. Again we discussed and practice using our words.

All in all I thought these cards were great for conversation starters. In 45 minutes each student only got to pass in 2 cards but everyone was engaged and participating the whole time. I can't wait to use them again!

You can find them online. Or HERE at Amazon.

Making A Recipe You CAN'T Eat!

Today we practiced hands on cooking skills! And as to not break the "no edible food" rule, we made Gooey Gunk! One of my co-workers loaned me this great book that's full of ideas and recipes! We got to use measuring cups and spoons. We warmed water, practice our stirring skills and even got to knead the gunk before it was finished. I had everything all set out when the kids came back from their break. I wrote the whole recipe on the board and we went over it step by step as a class. I then sat back and let the kids make the recipe as I relayed the steps again one at a time. It was pretty cool how it all came together and it made quite a bit so each kid got to do a little of the kneading. Tons of fun! I can't wait to tackle more of them! If you go to Amazon and look up this book you will be able to find this recipe in their preview.

Reading Time

I made it through my first week back with the kids and I just want to say, that was the LONGEST week I think I have ever had! I have 11 kids this year and 4 of them are new to our program. They are ALL absolutely amazing and unique. I look forward to getting to know them better and spending the year with each and every one of them! 

I started something new this year. I wanted to incorporate some reading comprehension into my schedule and so far it's going pretty good. I found these "Who Was.....?" books that I thought would totally keep the kids attention while teaching them a history lesson as well. I have about 20 books just begging to come to my room but for now they are sitting in a cart on my donorschoose page waiting for their turn to be purchased. In the mean time, I bought 4 books to get us going. This week we started "Who Was Ernest Shackleton?". I divided the book into 3 sections each being about 10 minutes worth of reading. Then I made a worksheet listing 8 multiple choice questions for each section we read. They kids were amazing! They really paid attention and knew the answers when we worked on the worksheet.

The books are also pretty inexpensive at about $4.99 each at Barnes and Noble and I bought 2 used on Ebay for $3.50 (free shipping). I plan on making worksheets for each book and will post them in my store as a bundle when I get at least a few of them done. For now, if you interested in getting this book I can send you the worksheet to try out with your kids. The books coming are "Who Was Clara Barton?", "Who Was Mark Twain?", and "Who Was Sacagawea?", so those worksheets will be ready soon as well. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

Update: thanks to Bill Gates, his wife, and their foundation this project got funded about an hour after I posted this! Life is good :-)

Weekly Schedule (for the time being)

Ugh, I feel like I'm losing my mind trying to come up with a schedule! I feel for you teachers that have to do this all year long, I've been so spoiled! Like I said in my last post, we will be on campus the first 30 days of school and I need to have a schedule put together before Monday on what I plan on doing. I have three events planned tomorrow and would really love a day of rest on Sunday so I'm trying to finish this tonight (if possible). So far this is what I have. Each period is an hour and since I can't imagine my kids be interesting in ANY subject for that long I have split each period into two. I tried to throw in some fun things I know they like throughout the day so I don't lose them. I don't want to leave anything out or have to make to many changes, tho I know it's inevitable. The first part of period 1 will only be 15 min and our morning chat consists of calendar skills, counting money by 5's, 10's, and quarters, current events, our day... etc. Our functional academic notebooks are in the morning too and cover a wide variety. Oh, and we will be doing some sort of PE during that outdoor time. 

Does anyone have a schedule prepared that I can peak at or can you let me know if you think I am missing something. I probably should have stayed longer today at work and did this cause now that I'm home I'm drawing blanks. 

Feel free to email me too @ empoweredbythem@aol.com

Thank you!!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

I've been back at school now for a couple days and am really getting excited to see the kids on Monday. Our school,which was actually the temporary school for a new continuation high school in our town a few years ago, went through a beautification process over the summer. It went from "state penitentiary" style to something that actually resembles a school. We now have grass, trees, new ramps, A PARKING LOT, and 3 huge awnings covering the quad area! I've been at this site for 3 full years so this is really a huge blessing especially for the kids as you can tell from my sad pre-beautification picture here. 

Now lets talk about these changes. Special ed is under huge scrutiny right now at least in my district. There have been huge changes in those who are above us and we found out yesterday that there is also going to be huge changes for our classrooms. I've talked about the cooking changes that were implemented last year and that's still going to be an issue this year. The kids can only consume food that is provided by cafeteria staff or something they brought from home for their own consumption and all microwaves have been removed, so they can not heat any food they have brought. We will also have an additional day on campus (as opposed to going off campus) so I'm going to have to figure out how I am going to fill that time with the kids. Oh, and we may not be able to leave campus for up to 30 days! So technically that's an additional 8 hours a week I am going to have to figure out how to fill (in 3 days). They have also added more paperwork. We can't just "go" to Target now for CBI. We have to put in a request stating what we will be doing and how it obtains to their goals (2), Permission slips from parent and RTBA's for all staff for each outing will also be required. This will have to be done weekly. I was never one to take my kids to some store to walk around each week. We always had a purpose and usually a worksheet of some sort when doing CBI, but I think it will be helpful for others. We have also been given a "prep period" which we never had before! That will really help in getting all those things done that I used to stay after work to do. 

I don't really mind changes, especially when they are needed, and the others I will adapt to. I am a kind of a "go with the flow kinda person" and hope these new changes will be in the best interest of all the kids and our program. Has there been many changes going on in your district? New rules you have to follow this year? I'm wondering if it's only us or if this is something happening all over. I would love to know.

Social Skills Packet

I have had numerous requests for more social skills worksheets in the past and guess what? I finally have some more to add! I don't know why but these are the worksheets that I struggle with the most. I swear by the time I'm done doing one, I have read and re-read it hundreds of times! 


These are what I have added:
Listening
Telling the Truth
Apologizing
Asking Appropriate Questions
Dealing With Losing
Common Courtesy
Waiting Your Turn
Friendship Boundaries

I went ahead and bound them together with the existing social skills worksheets I already have online: Interrupting, Peer Pressure, Interrupting Others, Personal Space, Self Control, Apologizing, and my 3 friend worksheets. 

I am only charging for the new worksheets but added the others you probably already have as my plan is to dissolve the individual worksheets and only offer the bundle withing a couple months.

If you have any more ideas of a social skills I have not covered please let me know. I would love to have one per week of the school year if possible. You can check out the full preview HERE.

 I hope things are running smoothly for those of you who have already gone back. I am savoring my last two days off! 

  

And The Countdown Begins

Summer is coming to a close and boy has it been an interesting one. Since last summer I never did get the bug to create curriculum, this summer I decided to put myself into an atmosphere that would be ideal for working. Something about being home makes it really easy for me to find other things to do that seem much more important than getting the things done that I really need for the new year.

So, I rented a cabin, on a lake, in the San Bernardino mountains of California for a week. I packed up my laptop, my sweats, food, and a couple bottles of good wine and headed on my 3 1/2 hour drive to peaceful bliss. I actually was really excited to sit on the patio overlooking the lake and let my mind flow. 

After taking a walk around the lake I was ready! I was going to create! I put on comfy clothes, poured myself a drink and headed to my sanctuary on the porch with my laptop.

Now, you're not going to believe this but........

MY LAPTOP WOULD NOT BOOT UP!!!! Nothing, Nado, No Can Do! It had worked fine in the morning before I left so I have no idea what happened. Now, I guess I could have driven down the hill and found a computer repair store that could look at it but frankly I had given up. When I got home (7 days and 5 books later), I took it to my tech guy who tells me my hard drive is shot... Ugh. I went ahead and bought a new computer and luckily they were able to transfer over 90% of my stuff onto my new one. So, it's been 13 days all together and I finally am up and running again!

On another note, I am meeting my friends that I teach with for lunch tomorrow so we can catch up before we start back next week. I made each one of them a cute emergency kids with all the things us teachers seem to need at one point during the year (eye glass fixing kit, floss, deodorant, nail clippers, hair ties, nail files, mints, tweezers, bandages, Tums, toothbrush, cough drops, Shout wipes, safety pins, and a needle and thread). Oh, and chocolate! 

Hope everyone is ready to get back to school. I know I am ready for it!

Going To Work

 I can't believe I never posted this packet! I have been spending the morning adding labels to each of my posts and realized there are quite a few of my worksheets and activities I have never posted on here. I'm going to try going through my workbooks in the next few weeks, and match all my worksheets to my post on here to make sure i'm not missing any important ones. This is a packet I did a few months ago on going to work. I love this packet and it's probably one of my favorites so far. Since I teach work skills only once a week, this packet was perfect. 

I did at least one page per week (whatever filled our half hour time slot) and the whole packet took us about 2 months to finish. I highly recommend you let it last that long (I seriously have had subs that could do it in an hour). Each page has so many things that can be discussed and even acted out. Get those kids up in the front of the room! They need to see something, hear something, and DO something!! I try to make it a rule that each kid gets up at least once per lesson. Sometimes I do two or three per group. They LOVE to get up and be the center of attention even if it's just for a few seconds. It could be to just ask the others students if Johnny's clothing is appropriate for an interview, or I might ask them a basic interview question. I love asking multiple choice questions to my lower autistic boys who I know will answer whatever the last word is I said. Of course I always make that the correct answer and everyone whoops and hollers when they get it right! 

Awwwww, it's posts like these that make me miss them more. I hope everyone has a great weekend! Sleep in, relax, and enjoy the rest of your summer!! 25 more days left for me!