New Year's Resolutions Linky

It's never to early to start thinking about New Year's Resolutions, so I'm linking up with Stephanie at Mrs. D's Corner to share mine!

Personal: I recently have had an unexplained rapid weight gain. I mean nothing had changed in my diet and in fact, if anything I was eating less because of the weight gain. Well two weeks ago I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. One of the common symptoms is "rapid weight gain." So while I'm happy to find out what was wrong and be able to hopefully moderate it now with medicine.....now I have to get this weight I gained back off and what bad timing with the holidays. :( So this will be a major resolution for me for the new year!!

Professional: I was so excited to recently hear that the TpT conference is going to be held in Vegas again this year!! I was so disappointed in myself for not attending last year, considering I only live 100 miles from Vegas. There really was no excuse other than I chickened out and I hated myself later for it! Next year I am going to do it!

Planning: I spend entirely too much time planning. Planning can be quite extensive in my classroom since I teach students in grades 1-5, all with varying special needs. But regardless, I live, eat, and breathe planning!!!! And it has really got to stop! I know that part of it is me, because I tend to overthink everything! And in turn, I neglect me, my family, my house, and other things that I love doing. 

Organization: I am truly an extremely organized person. To the extent that people crack jokes about my extreme organization. When I was looking for my BF's Christmas card in my stack the other day, she even said, "What? You mean you don't have them alphabetized?" Get the hint! Now that's some serious organization!! But I can't seem to get a method down for managing student assessments. My students are all assessed so differently and on different concepts. I'm planning to work on this system during the break. I also want to make up individualized tubs for each student. Not sure exactly how I want it to look just yet, but basically I want each student to have a bin or tub that contains individualized skilled activities just for them that they can work on independently or when they have completed their other assignments. 

Students: Let's face it....we all get a little laxed the last couple of weeks before break....even me! I've always been very strict about raising your hand to speak without blurting out, and waiting to be called on. Well this rule seemed to not exist in my classroom this last week! Kids were blurting out like crazy, getting out of their seat and walking up to me, or raising their hand yet still blurting before called on.....you get the picture! Well, I plan to nip this in the butt immediately upon our return. 

And my new Motto is going to be:

Click on Mrs. D's button to head over and join the linky party!!

Let's Talk About Christmas!

I'm linking up today with Abby from The Inspired Apple for some Christmas conversation!!

If you'd like to link up your Christmas Favorites and traditions or read about others from some of your favorite bloggers, head over to Abby's blog! 

Also, check out these two "12 Days of Christmas" Giveaways that just started today!

Click on the pictures to go to each blog!

Challenging Student? Check out these Cool Points Charts!

I was planning to do a blogpost on my cool points charts in the next few weeks, but a teacher blogger friend of mine needing assistance has speeded up this post!

Many students cannot handle consequences! They cannot handle punitive classroom management systems such as moving a clip down or getting a sad face. You will especially see this in many students with Autism, but many of these students that have a difficult time with consequences are students that live in a negative world. Their world evolves around negativity. And most the time, these are the students that really need nothing more than just "a little bitta love!" Most of these students are used to failing, getting reprimanded, and that's all they know....that's how they get attention! 

I always say "Praise the best, ignore the rest!" Yes I know there are times when we cannot ignore the rest, but when you can, do so.....pick your own battles! Let's face it, some behaviors just aren't worth our time. The only time I make it worth my time, is if it involves harm to themselves or others, or if they are damaging property. All else, ignored! Heck, I let a student write all over his desk with a marker today! Was he hurting anyone? No. The marker will wash off and had I have chosen that battle he would have escalated and the room would have been in total chaos. Instead, the room remained calm, my other students are trained to ignore as well, and the student stopped once he found out we didn't care. Shortly after he stopped, he was praised immensely for good behavior! 

OK, so back to the "Cool Points" charts....getting a little off topic here with discussing behavior....can you feel my passion??! So as an alternative for those students that can't deal with consequences, these cool points charts are amazing!

 What makes them so amazing for these specific kids is that they are always receiving points and reinforcement every time their chart is checked, but much less if they misbehave. 

So for example, if you look at this student above....and btw, the reinforcements must be powerful....they must be things the child likes and wants......this child loves more than anything at school pretending to be the teacher, so if she earns top points, she gets to teach the class! She also likes to color and play with dolls, but not NEAR as much as she likes to teach! So the lower her points the less her reinforcement is, BUT she's getting reinforcement for at least trying or putting forth some effort even if she doesn't completely succeed.   

In this chart, the student was obsessed with drawing, so he tallied his minutes and then got that many minutes of drawing time. 

Notice how this child's chart has no "0" for points, 1, 2, and 3. This child had extreme difficulties with consequences, so he still earned a one when he didn't do it, but again less points, less of a reinforcer. He was still able to feel some success though!

It really depends on your student. There's definitely no cookie cutter for behavior plans. What works for one student may not work for another. But you can see how I have customized these per student. For most students we do a "cool points check" every hour as you can see, but you could do less or more frequently depending on the child's needs! More severe behaviors may need to be checked and reinforced more frequently!! But every hour has been suitable on the average. My students that use these fold them in half and keep them on their desks as a reminder of their behavior and what they are working towards.

You can also see how the first chart has clocks on it for the child that was always asking if it was time to check her cool points chart. :) You may also need to customize the times around your class schedule, lunches, and such.

You can even make them more personalized or even girly. I did have some pretty girly ones with hearts and glitter I made last year, but lost them in my computer crash! :( Appearance can be very enticing for many students!

If you'd love to try this approach and aren't very computer savvy or don't know how to make a cool points chart, I've put together a little editable of the ones shown above that you can open in powerpoint and edit. If you need assistance or need something a little different to meet a student's needs, or have questions, let me know and I'll try to help!

These have been very successful in my classroom with those challenging kids and I hope they will help you and your challenging student too!

Decrease Behaviors with Self-Monitoring

Last year I shared the importance of having students chart the frequency of their own behaviors. It holds them accountable and makes them more conscientious and aware of the frequency of their behavior. I have also found that it becomes an intervention tool as well, because students get tired of getting out of their seats all the time to mark their charts, and especially when they're doing something they really like.

The chart below shows an example of a child that is charting her hand flapping. Every time she hand flaps, I simply say, "Cool hands ______, go mark your chart." She then simply crosses through the next number. I also want to make sure the chart is a distance from her seat so it requires her to get up out of her seat to mark it. Placing it on the child's desk would be too convenient for them! 



But what about those students that aren't capable of crossing out a number on a chart like this and need a more simple method?? How do we help these students be accountable for self-monitoring?

This is what I use for those students. 

For this particular student we are working on her staying in her seat and in her personal space. Each time she is out of her seat without permission or invades another student's space, she must take a sad face from the pink container and place it on the velcro. Even as a first grader with Down's she totally understands what a sad face is and does not like it when she has to put one on her chart. For a student that does not completely get the meaning of the sad faces, that student is placed in a short time out after each sad face is placed on the chart to help them connect the meaning. 

At the end of each day, one of my aides or myself counts the number of sad faces and marks it on the frequency collection chart that I showed you above.

You can grab a copy of the Behavior Frequency Chart here.

I hope these tips will help you with your self-monitoring strategies in your classroom. 

Time for Currently!!!

Listening - A bunch of my sped blogging buddies recently started up a collaborative group FB page....so awesome! I'm just loving the collaboration. We even teamed up and put together a bloghop full of tips, freebies, and giveaways during Thanksgiving weekend! If you missed it....it's not too late....you can start the journey here!

Loving - I finally got to visit a Trader Joe's for the first time today! It's been on my bucket list for a couple of years!!! 

Thinking - CHRISTMAS!!! I just love it! Shopping online like crazy and finding everything I want for everyone! Shopping so crazy, my bank restricted my card yesterday due to suspicious use!! Can you believe that....it's Christmas...hello! Is that just crazy or am I the crazy one!!!?

Wanting - boots!!! I keep seeing all these adorable cute boots on everyone.....I want a pair!! I want boots now!

Needing - as always, needing to be doing sped paperwork, but hey a girl needs to do fun stuff every now and then, right?!

Giving - picked up this awesome freebie yesterday from Erica Bohrer...."Kindness Elves in the Classroom." It is going to incorporate kindness in my classroom every day this month! You can get it from Erica's store {here}. 




Head over to Farley's blog to link up your own Currently.....and don't forget to check visit this post to enter my three giveaways and get your freebie!