SPED NECESSITIES

So you're a brand new SPED teacher....what do you need for your classroom? What are the priorities? I asked some of my friends from "We Teach Sped" and this is what they had to say.

~Alyssa from "Simply Special Ed" can't live without SAND TIMERS & SPORTS TIMERS on Amazon. Find Sports timers on Amazon here.

~Kate from "Fun in ECSE" can't live without VELCRO. Definitely a must. Feiner Supply is the best place to purchase your Velcro. Go here to purchase.

~Nicole from "Learning Lab" can't live without a DESK CALENDAR. She uses it to write in important tasks since it's always right on her desk and too big to lose! She also writes notes to herself on it so she can see them first thing every morning. These can be found at Walmart, Target, or any office supply store.

~Jennipher from "Teach.Love.Autism." says the best investment you can make is a personal LAMINATOR. I must agree, I LOVE my laminator! You can find the one that I have here for only $20 and it's worked great for over two years now! I purchase my laminating sheets from SAMS; 200 for only $20, which is one of the best deals I have found. You can see the ones I use here. 

~Pam from "Mrs. P's Specialities" encourages a ROLLING DRY ERASE BOARD that is magnetic. She says you can use it for directions, in the writing center, in the magnetic center, for small group instruction, and more. I love this idea! I found a few on Amazon, but a little pricey. I'm going to shop around a little more for this item.

~Erin from "You-Aut-A-Know" recommends DRY ERASE MARKERS galore! She uses them to write on the tables in her classroom. Yes, you can definitely never have enough dry erase markers. Students also just love being allowed to use these to write on their tables/desks. They're a little pricey, so when you catch a sale, STOCK UP!!

~Brie from "Breezy Special Ed" suggests MINI DRY ERASE BOARDS. She says their perfect for on the go first/then boards, token boards, and a place to write reminders of social stories!

~Now my turn....here are some of my most used purchases in my classroom that I truly could not live without! 

This timer is the greatest! I have timers going all over the place in my classroom and kids on reinforcement timers continuously throughout the day. With this timer you can set it for up to four students at a time. It is available on Amazon here.

Another timer I could not live without! This is the "Time Timer" from Lakeshore and it comes in 3 different sizes. I use this timer for center rotations and I love it because it allows me to monitor when the rotation is coming to an end and whether or not I have time to start a new activity or not. It's also great for those students that need predictable time and/or warnings of an activity ending. Now while I mentioned these are available at Lakeshore, check with your Assistive Technology Department first! I was able to get mine for free from my AT Dept. 

If you are going to be using a PECS program with any of your students, I highly recommend this purchase for new teachers or teachers just starting PECS. You will have just about every symbol you could imagine right at your fingertips without the stress of having to create symbols you find you need as you go or without worrying about what program you will need to create them. This set has been a major time and lifesaver for me and is available here. It is worth every penny!

One other thing I highly recommend is a pair of Titanium non-stick scissors. These will be your best friend for cutting Velcro. 

And lastly, be sure to have plenty of token boards on hand and plenty of reinforcers. 

I hope this post has been helpful! I wish you the best of luck!

Do You Bullet Journal/Plan???

Finding the perfect planner can be tough! The market is filled with all sorts of designs, sizes and styles of planners...how can I not find that perfect one??! But to be honest I have tried seven and have yet to purchase the perfect teacher planner that works for me. Let's face it, we all have different lifestyles, different priorities, and different tastes and needs.   

I have found that for me, my planner needs to be majorly customized. I need to have LOTS and LOTS of note-taking space. I need categories for professional development, for our new professional growth system...I want categories for my classroom ideas and for my classroom wishlist, as well as a place to keep track of my business and my daily schedule. I need a to-do list, a place to jot down those AHA sparks of inspiration, a place to take meeting notes, and a place to organize and schedule my blog posts. Sure I could have a business planner and a school planner; maybe even a planner for the home, but that wasn't realistic. Yes, I could use a journal or composition book for all of my note-taking, but not only did hauling a planner and a journal, and maybe even a composition book around with me everywhere I went become a nuisance, it looked like this! 

Talk about an unorganized mess...and unlabeled sticky notes literally sticking out everywhere!

Don't get me wrong, I am obsessed with sticky notes, just not hanging out of the sides of my notebooks.

I also like to keep it simple. I don't need all of the cute stickers and fluff. And who needs lesson plan templates. Do people still actually hand write those?!

Out of trying 7 different planners now, the only one I have found that even came close to what I needed is Erin Cobb's Teacher-Seller Planner! 

 It has a nice calendar!

 A small note-taking section each month!

 A place to schedule and keep track of blog posts!

 And other planning components for managing my store and social media....

But I still found myself carrying around that journal and composition book with those hideous stickys sticking out everywhere! It just didn't have enough note-taking space for me! 

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be carrying around 2-3 planners with me. I need everything in one. I mean isn't that what a planner should be? Everything organized in one spot??! 

So after brainstorming and trying to vision what my perfect planner could look like, I got to thinking. I'm a list kind of girl! I like lists and I like dashes and bullets. And even more I like crossing things off my list. I'm also a note-taker. I need lots of paper for notes. And my new, most perfect ever, teacher planner was born!! 

    Meet my new teacher planner...and it's perfect! It has lived up to all of my expectations of the.most.perfect planner this year!

It's nothing more than a 1-inch binder,

organized custom tabs, 

a bunch of notebook paper behind each tab, :)

 And of course a calendar!!!

Calendar is from "One Stop Teacher Shop's" planner/binder on TPT.

Another thing I love is this! I'll never be without a sticky note, pen, highlighter, or pencil at another meeting again!:)

I used this planner system for the last 5 months of this past school year and let me just say, I love it and my teacher planner nightmare search is over! AND, it didn't cost me a thing!!

And get this!! It just so happens that this is actually a common type of planning, so much that its been coined with a name! WHAT??!! It is called bullet journaling/planning and many people are doing it this way!! Wow, to think that I could have coined this myself!!! haha! Who would've thought!

So I guess I am an official "Bullet Journaler!"

If you're having the same struggles as me, and I know I'm not the only one, check out this fabulous Bullet Journaling post from "The Lazy Genius." She lays out the basics! 

And the thing about this method is that you can get as fancy as you want with this! You can do whatever you want and create the perfect customizable planner to meet YOUR needs!! As you can see mine is simple, but if you're super artsy and like to doodle, the possibilities of jazzing up your journal/planner are endless! See for yourself in this video!

Anxious to learn more!? Ready to jump in and take it one step farther than I did?? Just google "Bullet Journaling!!!" You'll find dozens and dozens of videos, tutorials, and blog posts all over the web on this amazingly new way to create and organize your life!!!

Are you a Bullet Journaler/Planner???

Autism Awareness Day Blog Hop

Although the entire month of April is Autism Awareness Month, April 2nd is known as World Autism Awareness Day! So a few of my blogger pals and I decided to get together and throw a blog hop your way to celebrate Autism and increase awareness!  

I'm super excited to share some tips with you today about how I design programming for my students with Autism and my students with other Intellectual Disabilities. 

If you are not familiar with this book, it is a must have in any Autism classroom, or any other self-contained classroom for that matter! Although written for Autism, don't let that confuse you! I have found it to be very beneficial for all of my students with intellectual disabilities. It is researched-based, a systematic approach, very well-written, well thought out, detailed, and so EASY to follow and implement. It is my classroom bible! 

I'd love to show you how "A Work in Progress," can be a valuable tool in your classroom."A Work in Progress," edited by Dr. Ron Leaf and Dr. John McEachin of Autism Partnership, is a tool for teaching behavioral strategies and improving behavior of children with Autism. In addition, it provides a curriculum for programming and individualizing discrete trial teaching lessons with your students. This is extremely helpful for me as I live in a rural area and have very little local or on campus support. I do not teach an "Autism Program," but rather teach a self-contained class with a wide range of disabilities that can include students with Emotional Disturbance, health impairments, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and Autism. It varies from year to year, and this year I only have one student with Autism in my class. Let me just tell you, I have made tremendous progress with all of my students with Intellectual Disabilities using this book!

Here is a peek at the Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) programs offered in this book.  

Currently, I am using 4 of these programs with my one student; Functions, Asking Questions, Conversation-intermediate, and Joint Attention.

Here is a look at the Joint Attention program. Each program lists the objectives, prompts, entry criteria (what they should know prior to beginning this program), mastery criteria that includes generalization, the procedure, and easy to follow phases that guide you through an explicit and systematic teaching approach. 

 My student had already mastered phase 1, so as you can see I started my student on phase 2. She is currently on phase 4 after mastering phase 2 and 3. It depends upon your student(s) as to which phase you will begin each of them on. 

Here is a look at one of the other programs my student is currently working on.

This program has 10 phases as you can see below. My student is currently on phase 3. Each phase uses a systematic approach for teaching the skill. 

Most of the time we typically know where our students are and need to be. But, if you're unsure of what phase to start your student on; maybe your student is new; there is a curriculum assessment included in the book that allows you to assess and record their skills for each phase within each program.

And planning for your assistants has never been easier with the tools provided in this book! This sheet is all I need to ensure my assistants know the programs, the expectations, and are implementing my student's programs with fidelity. This keeps us all on the same page and consistent.

Here is how I use this page and set this up for my assistants so that they can be self-directed and run all of the programs themselves.   

 I create a binder for each student I use "A Work in Progress" with. I use just a one-inch binder. There's not much to it. Each program has just two pages in the binder. Page one is the page you see above. It is the program description and details. My assistants can refer to this page and see the procedure expected for teaching the skill, what they should say and expect the student to say, prompts, and any additional comments I may want to share with them. 

The second page for each program in the binder is the data recording sheet. So my assistants can quickly and easily read the program description, procedures, Sd, and detailed information on my individualized programming; implement and record the trials on the sheet included in the binder.

 I place the program description page in a sheet protector and the DTT recording sheet behind that (not in a sheet protector). I love these color coded edge sheet protectors!! It allows you to easily divide and separate each program without the need to add colored paper dividers or label tabs. 

 You can see here my student has 4 programs going that I can easily flip through!

"A Work in Progress" is a road map that gives you the tools needed to plan an individualized program for your students with Intellectual Disabilities, as well as guides you in shaping common behaviors amongst these children. It is a research-based systematic approach that has been very effective in my classroom. It is also a great resource for parents to implement in the home. The phases and detailed program descriptions make programming, teaching, and IEP goal writing so simple and easy, you will soon be calling it your classroom bible as well!!! 

In honor of World Autism Awareness Day, I'm giving a hard copy of this book away! Enter below to win a copy! Open to U.S. residents only and will be shipped directly to the winner via Amazon! I hope this book and my tips will ease programming and DTT in your classroom and help your students with Autism be more successful! 

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Next up is "All Things Special Ed." Thanks for joining in on our blog hop! Keep spreading awareness of Autism and light it up blue this evening. 

Light it up Blue,

SPED Tricks & Treats Blog Hop!!!

Are you ready for some great tricks and treats? It's a SPED Tricks and Treats Blog Hop hosted by my blogging buddy at Mrs. D's Corner! Just hop from one blog to another to grab some great tips and freebies from all of us this Halloween!

Easy Peasy Caramel Apples!!!

These caramel apples are great for Halloween and are so easy for the kids to make! Only 3 ingredients are required.

Caramel or Caramel Apple icing, small green apples, and sprinkles (not pictured). You will also need to pick up some wooden skewers and wax paper. I used dowel rods from the craft section so they were not pointy and sharp at the ends.

Now here's how easy they are! 

1. Prepare your apples by washing them and placing a skewer/dowel in the center of each one. Place them on your wax paper.

 2. Take the lid and seal off of the frosting and stick it in the microwave. Microwaves always vary, but I microwaved mine for about 45 seconds. You want it to be somewhat runny like liquid. 

3. The reason I suggest small apples is because students will dip and roll their apple around in the icing container itself. There will be some spillage with the first apple, but not the apples following.

4. Place on the wax paper and let your student sprinkle away. TIP: Allow icing to set for a few seconds before adding the sprinkles, otherwise they will run right off. It doesn't take long for the icing to set, so the dipping process needs to be fast.

That's it! 

Your candy apples are done in minutes and your students will LOVE them!!! :) 

A great and inexpensive treat your kids can make for their Halloween Party! And kids especially love eating things they make themselves!

And now for a little non-related Halloween trick I recently came up with that has helped me in my classroom!

I just love these little book sets from Lakeshore and my students do too....especially the non-fiction ones with real photos. But keeping track of who read what has been a challenge for me. You see, my students will grab books from the boxes that they have already mastered! Like all students they like to make us proud and like to have success! Who doesn't, right? 

So they were getting books they had mastered and showing off to me how good they are reading! When I would say slyly, "Didn't you already master this book?" Of course they would reply, "No." 

So while very simple, It's WORKING! My problem has been solved. 

I had one of my assistants tape this little insert into each book and my students will now write their names here once the book is mastered. I'm also making them use pen now, so my little slicksters can't erase it. 

Since it's gently taped, it can easily be removed and replaced as needed or each year without ruining my books.

If you could use this organizing system for your little readers, download it for free!

You got your TRICKS, now it's time for your TREATS! Click on each freebie pic below to grab all three of your Halloween freebies!!

And if that's not a pretty great Trick or Treat, I'm also having a giveaway!!!

Win this flashdrive bracelet loaded with 5 products of your choice from my store!

Enter here!!!

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MORE!!!??!

Click on Miss, Hey Miss' Button for more!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

from

THE BENDER BUNCH!!!