Collaboration with Gen Ed Teachers

Collaboration with general education teachers can be one of the hardest jobs of a special education teacher.  You need to find time to talk that fits in with both teacher's schedule.  Then if you have students in more than one general education class, you need to work out times with multiple teachers.

I have been teaching in the co-teaching and inclusion setting for the past 13 years.  Here are a few tips I have learned.

Document, Document, Document

One of the most important things I stress to all special education teachers (and General ed!) is documentation. Document the accomodations you are using with students and ask general ed teachers to do the same.  Document goals, document behavior and document communication.  I have a communication sheet that I use to document conversations between myself and general education teachers.  Some of my teammates use a notebook that goes between them and the general education teacher.  

Set up a time to meet

I have always had a set meeting with my general education teachers at least once per month.  I talked with them and we figured out what day of the week and time worked best, then added it to the calendar.  For example, last year, I met with a teacher the third Friday of every month at 8:15 AM.  This gave us a set time to discuss how students were doing or if we were co-teaching anything together, time to plan the next month.  Ideally, if you are co-teaching you have common planning, but lets be real, that does not always happen. 

Be open to change

When you are working with another teacher you need to be open to change and open to trying things a different way.  Learning new strategies and ideas can strengthen your teaching and help your student succeed. 

Check these out!

Here are some other place to find more ideas about collaborating with general education teachers. 

• Lynda's Top Ten Ideas for Collaboration between General Education and Specia Education teachers
• Collaboration between Special Education and General Education teachers
• Special Education is not a Classroom, It's a Team.
• 9 tips to help Special Education teachers and Classroom teachers collaborate

8 Freebies to Jump Start 2017

Start 2017 off right with some great freebies from myself and other special educators that can help make your transition back to school after winter break a bit smoother.

1.  Color Snow Flake Matching

I love using this activity with my students who are learning color words! Students match the color word with the correct snowflake.  Check it out here!

2. January Work Tasks

Mrs. P's Specialties has  3 work tasks that are perfect for January!  Matching, labeling and how many. Check them out here!

3. Editable Activity Matrix

 Erin from You AUT-a Know has a great activity matrix that will be perfect to use with embedding instruction.  It enables you to make activity matrices to plan out how to work on student IEP goals throughout the day.  Check it out here!

4.  Counting Snowball 0 - 20

Traci from The Bender Bunch has an awesome count & clip task card freebie that practices numbers 1-20. The clothes pins allow for extra fine motor practice, but you could also use dry erase markers.  Check it out here!

5. Social Story

 All Things Special Ed has a Being Good Friends Social story that will be great to remind some of our friends what it looks like to be a good friend.  After about 2 weeks of possible unstructured activities at home, our kids may need those gentle reminders.  Check it out here!

6. Winter Hat Glyph

Delightfully Dedicated Special Education has this adorable hat glyph that uses Smarty Symbols. The students design their hats based on the answer to the questions.  This is a great way to work on IEP goals that focus on answering questions wth 2 choices.  You can find it here!

7. New Year Goal Writing

Teaching students to develop goals is an important skill.  Autism Educators has developed this goal setting for visual learners. You can find it here!

8. Short A practice

Need some easy phonic practice for your students?  One Room School House has a no-prep freebie for short A practice.  Directions to use the file on the ipad are also included.  Find it here!

If you have another freebie that you would like to share please leave it in the comments!!

Embedded Learning

Working with students with special needs we need to make sure we give every opportunity to learn that we can.   This means we need to embed learning and instruction into daily routines and activities.  We need to make conscious decisions that we are going to address a certain skill during a certain time period.  In order to do this we need to go through a few simple steps.

1. Determine what IEP goals or skills you are addressing for an individual student. 
 For example ,right now one of my student's (A) goals is to identify numbers 1 -3. Another student, (B) is working greeting adults and peers appropriately.

2.  Determine what routines/activities these goals can be embedded into.
This is where the planning part comes in.  Depending on the type of classroom you have, this can be done in various ways.  If you have a self-contained room where all your kids are on the same schedule, you can develop a matrix of your schedule.  There would be a column for each student and their goal.  You then go through the schedule and see where you can work on the goals.  You can do something similar if you have students in various classes or  go between buildings.  Your matrix, just might look a bit different.  Using the matrix also enables you an easy way to collect data on the goal.

To work on B greeting adults, I prompt him in the hallway on the way to class when an adult greets him.  I have planned with one of the paraprofessionals that she will greet him daily.  I am working on fading my prompts so that he can become independent in this task.

If I was in preschool and focusing on building vocabulary with my students, I may make sure that my snack includes various farm animals such as having animal crackers.  This way we can talk about the animals as we eat them!

In this post you can see how I used our science lesson to work on sight words.

3. Use your matrix!
Now that you have determined where your teaching and instruction is happening, get to it!  This part should be easy.  If you can, take data on your matrix show that you can demonstrate progress and note what you need to change.

4. Change your matrix as needed.
 You will need to update your matrix when a student masters a skill, a unit changes, your schedule changes, or for a variety of other reasons.  I keep a template on my computer so that I can easily change it.

If you are interested in learning more about embedded instruction, I originally learned about it from Sharon Raver.  I took a few classes that she taught while working towards my Master's degree.  She has written many professional articles and books that include using a matrix and embedded learning.

Teacher Planner: SPED edition

So a few years ago the teaching planner/binder craze really took off.  I started using a teacher binder (check it out here and here.) and I loved it, but it was huge.  I also really like the Erin Condren planners everyone was using, but could not see spending the money for something I could not use all of the pages on.  After some research, I found Plum Paper Planners.

I have been using a Plum Paper Planner for 2 years now and just ordered a new one for this upcoming school year. I love it because all of my lessons and notes are in one spot.  I have places to add professional development, parent contact information, etc.  I use the notes section in each month to record PLC notes. The larger note section in the back I use to record notes from when I am having staffing meetings with the paraprofessionals I work with.  However, I also had a bunch of checklist pages that I never use.  I was also missing some components of the binder that I used to use such as having my standards and IEP information.  Then came the light bulb!







To make this planner work for me, I needed to make some minor adjustments.  I always type up all of my students' goals on one sheet so that I can easily refer to them (and so can the and gen ed teachers). I usually keep them in my data binder, but now I just put them on the checklist pages.  I also added my standards for ECSE (in VA we call them SOLs for grades K-12 and Foundation Blocks for early childhood).  In addition, I added my check sheet for progress reports and annual IEP meetings.  I also just taped in important info that I refer to often such as photo releases and parent contact information.
paras

When it comes to using the lesson planner portion this gets a little tricky.  Plum Paper gives you the option to have your classes pre-printed, but as a SPED teacher I know that my schedule is never set in stone.  This are always changing.  Also as SPED teachers we not only write plans for ourselves, but also for our paras.  Each year I have done things a bit differently.  This year, I put all of my plans (stuff that is for me to teach) in my planner.  I had separate sheets for my paras.  I did have one block on mu plans to jot notes in for what I wanted in my para plans.  This past year I taught 2nd grade in the morning and preschool (ECSE) in the afternoon.  To differentiate between the two in my planner I just drew a squiggly line.

This year I will be making some minor changes in what I am adding to my planner.  I am going to make binder clips so I can laminate and hook in papers that I need to keep all year.  (I will share once I have it done)

If you are interested, there is a Plum Paper teacher planner group on Facebook where teachers share different ideas (more than just PP planners).

I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can still use the "cute" planners as a special education teacher. I would love to know how you use your planner. Please leave your blog posts or ideas in the comments below.

**This post is not sponsored by  Plum Paper.  I did not receive an compensation of any type. All opinions and ideas expressed are my own**

Sight word Fun!

I have a 2nd-grade group this year that is focusing just on sight word knowledge and fluency.  We work specifically on 5 different words each week but incorporate others into our games and activities to make sure we are reviewing other words.

 This first game the kids call the smartie game.  They ask to play on an almost daily basis.   I found the original idea here and adapted it to fit out needs. I use 5 cups and write one of our weekly words on each cup.  I then hide a smartie under one of the cups and move the cups around trying to confuse the kids.  To make it a bit more difficult, I have the cups facing me while I mix them up.  Once I stop and turn the cups back around, the kids write on a white board what word they think the smartie is under. They are all very secretive about their answer.  We then lift up each cup after reading the word to find out who was right. If they get it right they get a smartie.

This is an activity that I made with one of my non-verbal students in mind.  Trains are of high interest so I used train clipart and put the words on each car.  I then call out a word and the student moves the Thomas the Train piece to the word.  The Thomas the train piece was something my son had lying around on the floor in the playroom and I just put it to good use. 

Another favorite activity of my students is magnifying to sight words.  They tell me that this is like detective work.  I pick out a picture of something seasonal, for example, this week I used a ground.  I then open the picture in power point and just add words to the pictures using a text box  I like to make the font a size 3 so it is super tiny.  I then give a place for the kids to write the words once they find them.  You can find lots of these already made if you do not want to make your own. 

This next activity involves using sight word videos from Heidi's songs.  If you haven't checked out Heidi's videos I highly suggest it.  I not only use the videos for sight words, but my early childhood special education kiddos love learning their letters and numbers of the week using the videos. I play the videos and the kids sing along and write the words on their white boards.  The goal of this activity is to work on spelling the words more than recognizing them (This group of kids have a particular difficulty with writing their words). 

We also play a lot of card games.  I have a bunch in my store that the kids love to play.  Their favorites are Oh Peep! and Alien's steal underpants.  In these games, the students pull out a card and read the word.  Some cards have different sayings on them (Such as Oh Peep! Or Aliens stole your underpants!) which have the students do different things like put all of their cards back or pass their cards to the right.   You can go from having the most cards to the least very quickly.  You can check out all of these games by going to this link.. 

Shaving Cream Snowman

This is one of my favorite activities that we do during the school year.  So simple, but the final product is awesome.

Last week we talked about snow.  One of the activities we did was making a snowman using shaving cream and white school glue (Elmer's is the brand we used).

I prepped the project by drawing 3 circles on large blue paper so that the students had an outline for their snowman.  I also precut hats, buttons, eyes, nose and the mouth out of scrapbook paper.  I have a silhouette ( type of die cut machine) that cut out everything for me.  This was a huge timesaver! (If you have the same machine and would like the  file, leave a comment below).

I started by having the kids mix the shaving cream and glue in their own containers.  We used equal parts shaving cream and glue and stirred with a popsicle stick.

Next the kids start spreading the mixture onto their snowmen.  The thicker the better (makes for an awesome texture).  Each student ended up needing two bowls of the "paint".

After they had their snowman painted, we added the details.  I forgot to take pictures as we were decorating, but I think the final product gives the idea.  The kids were each able to pick which ever hat, scarf and buttons they wanted.  They had to add 5 "pieces of coal" for the mouth and 2 for the eyes.  They were able to just stick each part onto the snowman.  Once it dried everything was stuck.

I love the way these came out and they have been a big hit hanging in the hallway.  I let the students touch the one I made the next day so that they could see how neat it felt.

SPED Tricks & Treats blog hop

Hello!!  I hope you are enjoying the SPED tricks and treats blog hop!  I can't wait to see the goodies everyone can collect.  Special educators always have to have their bag of tricks handy and you can never have too many. 

My trick is all about metallic sharpies (and this will lead right into my treat)!  I love metallic sharpies.  They show up great on dark paper (especially black) and look so much better than a white crayon or colored pencil.  I have been able to get them  almost anywhere sharpies are sold and they come in gold, silver, and bronze. I used these twice this past week to make the activity I am about to show you and also to make dots on a black circle (that activity went with my letter F week, I will share it it soon). 

Last weekend, The Printable Princess  posted about some activities she made for her kindergarten classroom.  I just loved the spider webs!  However all I could find at the dollar store was black plates, which I ended up loving even more.

 I used the silver sharpie to draw the webs.

1.  I started by adding the targeted skill in the middle, for example the letter Y. 

2.  I then drew a circle around the Y 

3. Next, I added lines going out from the A to the sides of the plate (I usually did 4 or 5 lines on each one). 

4/5/6.  Last I connected the lines to make  spider webs.  I found it easier to start on the outside of the plate and work my way in.   

I made these adorable spiders to go with the webs.  I used graphics from My Cute Graphics and added letters, shapes, and numbers to the back to make a matching game.  I also picked up some spiders at the grocery store that my kiddos who are practicing 1:1 correspondence can count out the number of spiders to match the web.  This week with one of my kiddos we matched the letter spiders to their webs.  She loved it!  I told her the spiders were sad and needed to go back to their homes.  This worked like a charm (sometimes she is tough to get started )!  She was practicing identifying upper and lowercase letters, I was able to sneak some letter sounds in and we even practiced counting by counting how many spiders we had matched to their webs.  I can't wait to do this with her again this week.  

So this leads me to my freebie!!!  I am sharing the cute spiders I made to go with these webs.  I have included all of the lowercase letters (you would write uppercase on the web), shapes, and numbers.

 You can get them by clicking on the graphic below!

I would love to hear how you use these spiders or any of the tricks I shared with you.  Please leave a comment below!

If you are not already, make sure you follow me on Facebook, on my blog, and on TpT so you never miss another freebie!

Now hop on over to Breezy Special Ed to see what tricks and treats Brie has in store for you!!

Making Visuals Stick

I have been planning this post in my head for almost a year now, but never wrote.  When the #WeTeachSPED calendar was being put together and I needed a topic I knew this was perfect.

I am sure by now you know I have a love for interactive books and interactive pieces. This also includes the various visuals I use in my classroom through out the day. I end up having pieces all over the place and trying to juggle them is ridiculous!

In came a clipboard and Veltex fabric. This has been almost magical to me.  Veltex is like the soft side of Velcro.  The hard side of Velcro sticks to it, so all of those interactive pieces and communication cards etc stick to it. I have a board with veltex on it to keep choices on through out the day, but I was trying to figure out how to coordinate this all in a smaller in manner. A few days later someone had left some old clipboards in the teacher lounge for giveaways.










I pulled out the glue gun(although next time I think I may use spray adhesive) and got to work   I wrapped the Veltex around the clipboard like a present so that both sides were covered.

I did a lot of folding and gluing.   Having both sides allows me to only put the pieces I want visible to the students out and not have to juggle the rest.

If you need to buy veltex, I found a few different websites by searching on google and all seemed to be the same price.




We now use the clipboards during opening circle to display song pieces or to hold the pieces for an interactive book.  The students then can pull off the piece they want with out having to get up (Although when they need the movement, then I can have them get up just by moving the board back).  The paraprofessionals I work with will also take the little boards with them to easily present choices to our non verbal kiddos.

Valentine Blog Hop: My turn!!!

Whoop!! Whoop!! It is my turn to have a Valentine treat for you. Before I share my goodies though, how has the hop been going? Lots of fantastic stuff!!! Last year I made a book called Valentine, Valentine (You can check it out here) and it was a huge hit in my classroom. I read it again this year and my students just love it. One of my boys gets so excited when I bring it out he almost falls out of his chair. To keep the excitement going into March I made a new book call Shamrock, Shamrock. It is the same pattern, just using a St. Patricks Day theme. I thought this would be the perfect thing to share since we are nearing the end of February. Please leave me a comment if you download this file and let me know what you think. I would love to know if your students like it also.  (Make sure you scroll to the bottom of this post, there is a giveaway!!!)


Without further discussion, here we go! You can download the file by clicking on the picture or at this link. I had hoped to to have actual pictures so you could see this book in action, but the weather had other plans.  I ventured out to school today just to get out of the house.  I brought home my copy of Shamrock, Shamrock, but unfortunately the pictures are not the best.  To make the book, print the pages, laminate, bind, and then use the included shamrocks (or foam ones made out of a die cut) and put velcro on the page and one the shamrock.  I try to put the Velcro to the side so it does not interfere with the picture (someone else put the Velcro on this one for me, so I need to move a few pieces).  Then as you read the book, students can take turns pulling off the Shamrocks. My students often start chiming in and saying the repetitive line with me.

 I am not only giving away Shamrock, Shamrock to everyone, but I am having a giveaway for winner's choice of 1 item from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!! There will be two winners!!!

Entry-Form

Special Education Valentine Facebook Hop

Are you as excited as me about the month long blog hop from 28 special education bloggers?  I will be posting on February 20, but you can start today by heading over to The Bender Bunch.  Just click envelope number 1 on the graphic below.  Make sure to come back everyday to follow the map to a new surprise!

Work box Wednesday.... A few days late

            

It is time for the monthly linkup at Autism Classroom news for workboxes..... I am just running a few days late.  I made a work box for one of my students this week.  He has not started it yet, so I am hoping it goes ok!  

I will fill you in later this week.  My students have been working on sorting by size, but only two sizes: big & little.  I want to add to their vocabulary and challenge them a bit.  I came up with this work box to sort these bears by size.  I have no idea where these bears came from as they were in the room when I moved in.   The sorting container came with a train set my son got for his birthday.  I saved it just knowing I would use it someday.   I made the labels in board maker, laminated them, and just taped them down.  I did not make them showing pictures of the Bears so that I could easily change out then manipulative.  I wrote the word, small, medium, and large instead of using boardmaker because I wanted it in color and I didn't have a color printer to access. To do the task the student simply sorts by size in the appropriate section of the tray.  I honestly do not expect them to stand the Bears up all neatly like I did, but you never know!   I can't wait to see how this goes tomorrow!  

To find more great ideas head over to the Linky to see what else has been shared.  You can also find more work boxes I have made by clicking here!

 

Color Snowflake freebie!!

Hi everyone!! Guess what!?!  I am posting and it is not a linky party or a blog hop.  Just a good old post from me.  It has been busy with the 3 boys for Christmas.  My living room floor is covered in toys and packaging.   Grandpa bought the boys play bow and arrows so I have been dodging arrows being shot through the living room while a transformer runs over my toes.

I have been working on a lot on some of my TPT products and stuff for my classroom.  I found that the color tree file folder game I made recently was a big hit with my students, so I just made another one!  This one has snowflakes and instead of the color word purple it has the color word white.   You can get it by going here.  Please leave a comment on this post if you download it.  I love to know if you find things useful.

My boys and I have also been working on our Random Acts of Kindness.  Anyone else? I was so proud of my middle son on Christmas day.  He opened a present from his aunt that was in a Kohls box, except he never made it past the box.  He thought it was his gift.  He told his Aunt thank you for the box and moved on to the next gift.  We had to tell him to look in the box.  My husband and I were so proud that he was happy with a box and showed appreciation to his aunt for it.