SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!

Welcome to SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!! Every Sunday I host this freebie link up here on my blog! Visit every week to download free resources for your classroom! If this is your first time visiting, you can access all of the freebies from previous link ups by clicking on "SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies" under "My Files" on my right sidebar. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If you're a TPT seller, blogger, or resource creator, I invite you to link up and share your own freebie using the link up tool below! 

Link Up Rules

1. All resources must be FREE! It can be free for the day, but please delete your link once you mark it back to paid.
2. Your freebie may link to your blog or store.
3. Freebie does not have to be related specifically to SPED, but should be practical for SPED.
4. If you are linking up from your blog, using this image in your post and linking back to my blog is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to share this image on your social media so your other SPED friends don't miss out! :)

*I recommend using an image of your freebie & not your button when linking up. 

Link up your free resources below and/or download the free resources you can use in your classroom! Share all over your social media to let other teachers know about these freebies! 

The link up tool will close on Saturday each week, but most freebies will remain accessible! Come back every Sunday to link up or download new freebies!

Happy Fall!

An InLinkz Link-up

A Peek at Our Day

I frequently get asked about my daily classroom schedule, so today I'm here to share my daily schedule with you. The schedule you see above is a general overview of what our day looks like. Let me walk you through it!

9:00 - 9:15
Our district requires 30 minutes of physical activity every day, so I go ahead and knock 15 minutes of this out first thing in the morning. It gets their morning wiggles out and is also a chance to get restroom breaks out of the way. It also gives me that much needed extra time in the mornings to get activities prepped and ready to go, especially if I had meetings all morning.

9:15 - 9:30 
My students arrive in my class at 9:15. They come in and place their homework and daily behavior reports in the appropriate trays. Once everyone is seated and beginning on their morning work, our flag leader leads us in the pledge and we sing our school song, our pet keeper feeds the fish, and we view our Daily Fun Fact. Then, we complete our morning work which may look different for everyone.  

9:30 - 10:50
At 9:30 we break off into literacy rotations/centers. We have 4 groups/4 centers and each rotation/center is 20 minutes long and differentiated to meet the needs of each student. You can read more about my centers here.

10:50 - 11:20
This is when we do our "morning meeting," whole group. Our whole group consists of stating rules and goals, calendar, weather, number sense, money, and time. 

11:25 -12:15
My students go to their specials. My students have humanities/music, art, PE, and Library. This is my prep time and my aides take my students to specials. I have grades 3-5 and all of my students go to specials with 3rd graders. 

12:15 - 12:45
My students go to lunch and then get their other 15 minutes of recess. I meet them for lunch after my prep at 12:15 and have lunch with them from 12:15 - 12:30 and then take my lunch from 12:30 - 1:00. This allows me to see how my students are functioning at lunch time, work on any eating goals a student may have, and see whether or not they need more support! 

12:45 - 1:00
My students return from lunch. One of my aides reads a picture book to them and then they do one song from gonoodle.com.  

1:00 - 2:00
At 1:00, we break off into math rotations/centers. For math, I only have 3 groups/3 centers this year and each center is 20 minutes long.  

2:00 - 2:30
This is my life skills block where I also incorporate social studies, science, health, and craft time. 

2:30 - 3:10
This is classroom jobs and social time. My students complete their classroom jobs and then if they don't have any missing work (work they refused to do earlier in the day) they get to have social time. During social time, they get to play games, play with the classroom toys, do puzzles, or whatever they'd like to play.

And that's a peek at a day in The Bender Bunch classroom!

See you back on Sunday for SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!!

SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!!!

Welcome to SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!! Every Sunday I host this freebie link up here on my blog! Visit every week to download free resources for your classroom! If this is your first time visiting, you can access all of the freebies from previous link ups by clicking on "SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies" under "My Files" on my right sidebar. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If you're a TPT seller, blogger, or resource creator, I invite you to link up and share your own freebie using the link up tool below! 

Link Up Rules

1. All resources must be FREE! It can be free for the day, but please delete your link once you mark it back to paid.
2. Your freebie may link to your blog or store.
3. Freebie does not have to be related specifically to SPED, but should be practical for SPED.
4. If you are linking up from your blog, using this image in your post and linking back to my blog is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to share this image on your social media so your other SPED friends don't miss out! :)

*I recommend using an image of your freebie & not your button when linking up. 

Link up your free resources below and/or download the free resources you can use in your classroom! Share all over your social media to let other teachers know about these freebies! 

The link up tool will close on Saturday each week, but most freebies will remain accessible! Come back every Sunday to link up or download new freebies!

Happy Fall!

An InLinkz Link-up

Behavior Buzz with The Bender Bunch!

It's time for Behavior Buzz with The Bender Bunch! Today's featured submission is from Katie. 

Katie has a student that disrupts, interrupts, and distracts during lessons and academic work. "During desired tasks, this student is an angel!" Behaviors occur during instructional time and whole group. He is also mouthy and sometimes seeks a power struggle.

Antecedent: Transitioning back to a structured activity from an unstructured activity. 

Function: Escape/Avoidance

Katie has tried redirecting, giving warnings, taking away minutes from free choice, and reminded the student of what they are working for. None of these have worked.

She has had some success with ignoring, removal, allowing student to make up work during free choice, and providing positive praise.

The student loves to be reinforced with food, and also likes computer, sports, and Michael Jackson's "Just Dance" video game.

My input. We have to teach this student to learn to tolerate unpreferred tasks. I would make all positive reinforcement he likes contingent upon the targeted behavior. So he does not earn a snack, computer, or Michael Jackson game unless he is FIRST, compliant during whole group. For some students, a simple "First-Then" board may work. 

Students simply "do this" (whole group in this case), and "then" they get this (snack, game). 

For other students it may not be that easy. We may have to start with baby steps. Expecting a disruptive, non-compliant student to all of a sudden sit during a 30 minute whole group lesson when he hasn't even been able to do it for 2 minutes is unrealistic. Start with baby steps that will ensure the student has some success! For example:

1) ______ will leave unstructured activity upon first request. Give reinforcer just for leaving unstructured activity. Right now you're just teaching him to leave unstructured activity. 
2) After mastery of #1, ______ will leave unstructured activity upon first request and calmly go to his seat. Give reinforcer. 
3) After mastery of #2, ______ will leave unstructured activity upon first request, calmly go to his seat, and tolerate 3 minutes of whole group instruction/academic work with no disruptions. Or if it's a worksheet, maybe tolerate/complete 3 out of 10 math problems, then reinforcer. 
4) After mastery of #3, increase expectations and minutes or written activities to maybe 4 or 5, and continue to increase upon mastery. Or maybe for this student, we don't even sweat the academics, we just want him to sit and refrain from being disruptive. That's a start! Academics may need to come later!

Set a timer if using computer or game, and keep it short. The longer, the harder to get them back. Plus, you want to keep providing multiple opportunities for them to come back and tolerate whole group/academics so you can reinforce, reinforce, reinforce. I give most of my students 5-7 minutes with their tangible reinforcers. When their time is up, start all over again with 1, 2, 3, or 4 above, whichever step the student is at. So, when they come back they'll have to tolerate 3 more minutes, or complete 3 more math problems. 

In the beginning, you will want the reinforcer to be VERY frequent, and then gradually increase time needed for reinforcer. Remember, baby steps. When I'm first teaching a behavior, my students may get their reinforcer every minute or two, or for every math problem they complete. It just depends on what the student can handle in order to reap their rewards and feel success. You MUST ensure success, especially in the beginning. There must be something in it for them in order for them to "buy in." If students feel no success and see no light at the end of the tunnel, they won't even try. 

We must also teach the student what our expectations look like. "Tolerating" may look different for every teacher, every classroom, and every student. Define the behavior to the student and your aides that will involved in teaching this skill. What does tolerating look like?? For instance, tolerating whole group/academic work is not sitting there playing around and disrupting even though they're sitting there. Tolerating is quiet mouth, calm body, eyes on speaker, and no talking. This is just an example. 

Each time the student disrupts or engages in the undesired behavior, provide feedback, reset the timer, and start all over. If the student is not achieving any success, reduce required minutes or go back to step #1 above. Maybe you moved on too quickly. Remember the student must feel some success! For students that love attention, make a big deal out of it when they earn their reinforcement. Have the class shout hooray, cheer him on, and clap for him. Remind him each time why he has earned the reinforcer..."Awesome, you stayed calm and quiet during instruction, and did not disrupt. That's fabulous! Go to computer buddy." When they come back, provide feedback by saying something like, "You did so awesome last time staying calm and quiet during instruction. I'm so proud of you. I bet you can do it again."

Thank you for your submission Katie! I hope these strategies will help you and benefit anyone else that may have a student with similar behaviors in your classroom. Remember, there is no cookie cutter method to shaping each and every behavior. I live by trial and error. Many times I may try a behavior intervention with a student and it does not work and I have to try something else. It happens, but eventually you will get there!

Lastly, I must leave you with some of my most crucial advice, behavior first, then academics!!! This is very hard for many teachers, to let go of the academics, but you can't teach a child anything if they don't know how to learn! Don't sweat it! Once you've taught them how to learn, the opportunities of teaching academics will be so worth the wait! 

If you're frustrated with a behavior in your classroom and are seeking behavior support, go to my right sidebar, scroll up and click on the image like the one above, and "Behavior Buzz with The Bender Bunch." Each month I'll feature a submission with advice here on my blog!

SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!!!

Welcome to SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!! Every Sunday I host this freebie link up here on my blog! Visit every week to download free resources for your classroom! If this is your first time visiting, you can access all of the freebies from previous link ups by clicking on "SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies" under "My Files" on my right sidebar. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If you're a TPT seller, blogger, or resource creator, I hope you'll link up and share your own freebie with us! 

Link Up Rules

1. All resources must be FREE! It can be free for the day, but please delete your link once you mark it back to paid.
2. Your freebie may link to your blog or store.
3. Freebie does not have to be related specifically to SPED, but should be practical for SPED.
4. If you are linking up from your blog, using this image in your post and linking back to my blog is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to share this image on your social media so your other SPED friends don't miss out! :)

*I recommend using an image of your freebie & not your button when linking up. 

Link up your free resources below and/or download the free resources you can use in your classroom! Share all over your social media to let other teachers know about these freebies! 

The link up tool will close on Saturday each week, but most freebies will remain accessible! Come back every Sunday to link up or download new freebies!

Happy October!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up