Good Effort

Yesterday we had a "Student of the Marking Period" assembly. All of the students in sixth grade are invited to this event. Each of the team teachers (Language Arts, Math, etc.) get together and nominate a "Student of the Marking Period" to receive each award. The awards were: "Most Improved," "Good Effort," "Good Citizenship," "Academic Honors" and "Overall Student of the Marking Period."

You bet I nominated my kids for the awards. They were at a little bit of an advantage over the 150 other 6th graders, because in my classroom there was one teacher making nominations for each of the five awards. I have five students. They really did deserve them, though! The other teachers were very nice and let me stand in front of the auditorium with them as they called off their short list of names. I even asked that they intersperse my kids within theirs, so we didn't stand out so much (i.e. The ASD teacher reading off each of the ASD kids in a row).

You'd have thought it was the Academy Awards or something. These little sixth graders were cheering and whistling as each of their friends got called. The principal would call the student's name, the crowd would roar, and the student would slowly make it to the stage to claim their certificate, bumper sticker, and two Rutgers basketball tickets. Then came my first student to be announced. The room was uncomfortably silent. I put my hands together and looked into the crowd, hoping they'd follow... we got some "mini claps" from the nice kids in the back. It didn't really matter to my kids though, they were just stoked to be in the front of a crowd getting an award! The next time a student was called, the crowd got a little louder. There were a few more claps with each name being called. Finally, my one and only non-verbal student was called. She has a 1:1 aide who walked with her to the front of the auditorium to get her award. She did a little donkey kick out of excitement. She looked into the audience (which sounds silly, but this is huge for her to notice that there are other people around her...) - got her award, smiled, and walked back to sit down. She was so very proud. She didn't know why people were clapping for her, but she knew it felt good.

I wrote in all of the kids Communication Notebooks that they had been nominated for "Student of the Marking Period" for various awards. I said that they were recognized in a ceremony in front of the entire sixth grade, they each won two Rutgers basketball tickets, as well as an "Honor Student" Bumper Sticker. They are technically on the Honor Roll because they only receive grades in PE and Art. Haha. But, that's OK!

All of the parents wrote back to me today. They said they were happy their children are doing so well, Thank you for working so hard with them, etc. There was one note that was extra special, however. It read:

"Hi Mrs. Smith,

We were so proud ___ has been named "Honor Student," I will proudly place the sticker on my car. ____ has never been honored before, and my family thanks you for making this possible.

Thank you,

Mrs. _____."

It just so happens that this is my student who came to me at eleven years of age, completely non-verbal, non-communicative, zero pre-academic skills, and in pull-ups. She so deserves this "Student of the Marking Period" award for Good Effort, because that's exactly what she's had. Good effort. It doesn't matter if you can talk, recognize your numbers, read, or even say hello to others by waving or smiling, you can still put in old fashioned good effort.

I am happy to report that with her effort, she truly deserves the title of "ASD Honor Student." She is now completely toilet trained and wears a "bathroom tag" (with a picture of a toilet velcroed to a badge tag). She hands the toilet picture to whoever she is with when she needs to go to the bathroom. She is also climbed the ladder to Phase IV of the Picture Exchange Communication System. She's able to discriminate pictures of various items to request them. She uses the pictures to communicate with us. We've got a long road ahead, but she's able to complete 4-6 piece puzzles, sequence the rings on a ring stacker, imitate actions with and without objects, and is learning more and more receptive instructions each day ("Throw this away," "Stand up," "Sit down," "Touch your mouth," etc.) She is acquiring new skills at an incredible rate. Sometimes, she will come tap our shoulders to get our attention, a skill that we explicitly taught over a period of two months. She even looks at us when we say "hi" to her. Now THAT is achieving success daily.

Bus Update

I've had a few inquiries as to how the regular ed bus is going for my little guy. Let's just say that he blew everyone away. I knew he could do it. This is why I worked hard to get him on the regular bus! The first few days, they sent someone to "shadow" him from the bus to the classroom. They informed me that, for safety reasons, they'd be doing this for at least a month. It only lasted a few days, because he navigated his way so independently. He no longer requires a "shadow" and is able to walk from the bus to the classroom each morning. Alright!

He is now riding the bus in the afternoon as well. He walks out with the group, the aides take the other kids to their special ed buses, and he will find his bus in the bus line. If you've been following this blog from day 1, you know about my color coding in the classroom. I put a yellow circle in the window of the bus and he's able to look down the line of buses and know exactly which one is his!

I couldn't be more proud. I've had several teachers comment, "He rides the regular bus?" and "Does he know where he's going?" Yes, he knows exactly where he's going. And he is so proud of that!

The ASD program is so new to this school. They have a "cookie cutter" thought of how things should look (i.e. ALL ASD KIDS ride the Special Ed bus). We're achieving success daily... by riding the big bus.

Suspended.

Gotcha! Not one of my kids. Another student. Read on to find out why.

An important day in history is happening on Monday. One of my students, yes - an "ASD student," is going to travel to school on..... a BIG BUS!

His parents pushed the school district for their son to be allowed to join his peers on the regular school bus. He lives less than 2 miles from the school, yet spends 30 minutes on a special ed bus every morning. His brother doesn't leave the house until 30 minutes after him!

So, after many conferences, notes, letters, confrontations, and requests, they are getting what they want. (I am so happy). The school district was not exactly supportive of this change. They continued to say, "Part of the ASD program includes ASD transportation on the special ed bus." They have a hard time thinking outside the box. Sometimes I think they might be ASD students themselves (ASD student = ASD bus = ASD program, NOTHING DIFFERENT). This is a kid who is probably my highest functioning and is very socially aware. He is capable of walking from the bus into my classroom each morning. His parents asked me in the parent conference if I thought he was capable. I said yes. Apparently, that got me into trouble, because they used that in their plea bargaining to get the regular transportation (i.e. "Mrs. Smith told us he was capable.") I got caught in the middle of it all, because I speak the truth and advocate for my kids. I brushed it off because I knew it was for a good cause. I continued to tell them that I would meet him at the regular bus in the beginning, that he could come to my classroom early (before the bell), etc. They just don't think he can do it.

They have this vision in their heads that he's going to get off the bus and not know where to go. They might be forgetting that this is a kid with autism who, more than most kids at the school, is very capable of following the same routine each day. I've told them he'll be fine. I've told them that even if he does wander in the wrong direction, he'd eventually find my room. This is life that we're living here. There won't always be a special ed bus. This is a total breakthrough for my program: to know that the kids are capable of riding on the regular ed bus. The sad thing is, it will only happen if the parents push for it.

Well, apparently one of the "typical" (what is typical anyway?) kids on the regular ed bus heard that my little boy was starting on Monday. He told my student's brother that he was, "Going to beat up his dorky brother on the bus on Monday." Brother promptly told the assistant principal and said student is suspended for three days for making threats and bullying. Booyah.

Here's to successful trips on the big bus. Not only do we achieve success daily in the classroom, but now we've moved out to the real world: the big bus. I'll keep you posted.

Random Acts of Kindness, Patience, and Understanding

10-30-09

To Whom it May Concern:

I wanted to express my gratitude for an act of kindness, patience, and understanding that was displayed by one of your employees on Friday, October 30, 2009 at Burger King in [Name of Town]. I teach students with disabilities at [Name of School] in [Name of Town]. We have a very important part of our curriculum in which we participate in “Community Based Instruction.” This instruction includes trips to surrounding community locations to practice functional skills. My students participate in these trips because it gives them an opportunity to practice communication skills, social skills, appropriate community behavior, making purchases, waiting for change, cleaning up their table, and other skills that will last a lifetime.

Due to our special circumstances, we often take “a little longer” than the average customer at Burger King. A [Name of Company] employee was standing behind us in line and watching us as we facilitated the educational experience for our students. When my colleague and I tried to pay for our meal, as we were gathering the kids to sit down, this gentleman offered to pay for our meals. We declined, but he insisted. He said that we were, “Doing a wonderful thing.” He covered our meals and smiled.

It is not often that our class experiences such acceptance and patience from a complete stranger. We were touched by this generous gesture and we felt the need to recognize this small, but meaningful act of kindness.

Respectfully Yours,

Sarah Smith

[Name of School] Autism Program

Do you live here?

If you think about seeing the world through the kids' eyes... it makes sense. They walk into the classroom in the morning, and I am sitting at my desk. They leave in the afternoon, and I am wiping the tables, writing on the board, etc. For all they know, I could live there!

Today one of my boys said, "Mrs. Smith? Do you have a home? This is your home, right? Where do you sleep?" I thought that was pretty cute. It probably seems like I live there.

Haha. Contrary to popular belief, I do not live at middle school.

The Joys of Special Olympics

Tonight was the "Awards Ceremony" for Special Olympics Soccer. I've been actively volunteering with a local Special Olympics group for over a year now. I also did Special Olympics coaching in Texas (Bowling and Track and Field).

Special Olympics is, by far, the most spectacular organization out there. I'm telling you, these kids fall in love with sports. They deserve to participate in sports activities, but have never had the opportunity to! I coached the "Developmental Skills" program for Soccer. Basically, how to put cleats on, how to wear shin guards (and tolerate them), how to kick (ever so lightly), what a "goal" is, chasing after the ball, and basic following directions skills. These are the kids that are brand new to a sport with Special Olympics. I also coached Developmental Basketball Skills last year. That was so fun. I would hold the kids up on my shoulders so they could make a basket. It's not all fun and games - I also coached the junior team (8-12) and we won the Silver Medal in the State Games last year! They come running towards me, shout "Coach Sarah! Guess what?" They are a great group of kids.

People ask me, "You do that after a full day of your job?" Yeah, I do. I love it so much, that yes, I do! I was a little nervous in the beginning, that I had taken on too much. Or that I wouldn't be able to be fully there for the kids because I'd be so exhausted with my grad school work, job, other duties of being a 26 year old. I was wrong! Even on my most tiring days, to walk into the gym and have the kids run up to me, hug me, call me over to watch them shoot, it made it all worthwhile.

Tonight, the parents got flowers for the coaches. After all of the kids got their trophies and medals, the parents stood up to deliver "the coaches awards." They stood up and said great things. One mother said that I, "Have a passion for what I do and the kids know it, and the parents appreciate it." They gave me flowers. They said, "Thank you for all that you do for our kids." It felt so good. Not that I need to be recognized, but in my field, it's not a frequent thing!

As a side note, they presented an award to a little boy tonight. This kid is 13 years old and for his "Bar Mitzvah project" (?) he started up "Unified Sports" in this township's Special Olympics group. He got all of his friends to come and play soccer. It caught on, and more and more kids joined. We had a huge group of "typical" kids playing with our Special Olympics athletes. What a cool kid to take on a project like that and share it with his friends.

If you've never had a chance to check out Special Olympics and all of the wonderful things that happen, please do. Even if you just watch. The smiles will pull you in. There are often "day-events" that you can volunteer for, even if you know nothing about sports (filling out name-tags, being a "runner," to take athletes from one event to the next, scoring, ribbons, awards ceremony, passing out drinks, refilling water bottles, the works!)

I could see myself working for Special Olympics some day. I'd like to look into starting a Unified Sports team (probably basketball) at my school. That would be a great way to bridge the gap between my kiddos and the other kids. Maybe we could achieve success with sports, too!

Make a table.

So, we are in the middle of APA (Alternate Portfolio Assessment). For those of you who don't know, this is the "testing" that is mandated by the state. It's basically a huge waste of time. I think it's admirable that they want to hold teachers accountable for what they teach, but less than admirable to make students with significant cognitive disabilities achieve "grade level standards." I am ALL about exposure, don't get me wrong. However, the amount of time that is required to prepare these activities, as well as the amount of time getting the kids to "memorize" the information is ridiculous. I say "memorize" because in order to "learn" something, you have to acquire the pre-requisite skills. For example, in order to know the factorial of a number, you must know your numbers, as in: identify two when I say, "two." So, as I teach my kids what a factorial is, they are not actually learning the skill, they are memorizing the task (when my teacher hands me the cards, I must put them in this order). I am okay with that, though, because I recognize that this is clearly above their ability level and the furthest away from being a functional skill for them. We have to make a first round of activities that show the kids are "not proficient" and then make more activities by April to show that they've met the proficiency level expected. Yes, the teacher has to create each and every one of the eight activities per student (in my case, 40 activities X 2 entries). Tons of work.

Today's assessment was on "collecting data from a survey and creating a frequency table." Don't worry, if you just had to go google what a frequency table is, I also had to look it up as I was creating the tasks for the kids.

First, they had to ask their friends what their favorite season was. Then, they had to put tally marks next to the season as their friends responded. One kid wrote the seasons in the boxes in the data chart. The other kid made tally marks, but they weren't to the corresponding seasons. Almost!

We are just supposed to let the kids respond without assistance, and mark their score at the end. I kept telling them they were doing a good job, because this was so above their heads.

The next step was to put the "data" that they collected into the frequency table. I read the directions, "Put your numbers into a frequency table." This means they had to write the seasons and put a number as to how many people chose that season as their favorite.

This is what one of my kids did:

I'd say that's an "A" for effort. He made a table. Bless his heart. Take that, State of New Jersey! This is higher level thinking at it's best. The data is "in" the "table."

Nice work, bud.

The only hope is that we are proficient at making a frequency table by April. And I don't mean a table with chairs.

Birthday Club!

How great does it feel when a group of people comes to sing you, "Happy Birthday" on your special day? It's even better when that group is a class of kids with autism, with the greatest smiles, singing at the top of their lungs.

After a few different people getting the opportunity to experience the ASD class belting out Happy Birthday and delivering handmade cards during a grand serenade, I discovered what a great way it was to "get my kids out there." The adults love having kids sing to them. My kids are just a perfect example of pure joy. How can you not smile after something like that?

I decided that I am going to start a Birthday Club. I will have teachers sign up and write what period is their prep period. We will have a master list of staff birthdays (not just teachers!) We will make a huge batch of generic Birthday cards, and on Birthday Club members' birthdays, we'll make a personal delivery with a song.

It's okay that they don't know the real words and only sing matching syllables and sounds to the ever-so-famous "Happy Birthday" tune. It's okay that they shout the song at the top of their lungs, sometimes to the point where other teachers come in the room to make sure everything is okay. It's okay that we're not in the choir. It's okay that I have to say, "Hands up" in the middle of the song to the kid who is putting hands where they don't belong (gross). The fact of the matter is, we're spreading birthday cheer. The kids are getting major social skills out of the experience. They feel good about themselves because it's something they are confident in being able to do. Not only that, but we get to leave the classroom, which doesn't happen very often. People have talked about our birthday songs WEEKS after they've happened. I just want to be sure that we share the joy with everyone.

Pretty soon, people are going to be lining up to be in the Birthday Club. Wouldn't you?

Dinner with Obama? Wow!

We've been practicing the question, "Who is our president?" A few of the kids picked it up after a week or two, but the others just recently started to consistently and correctly answer the question. Our big batch of library books this week are all about Obama. They're from the "juvenile" section rather than the kids section, so they're higher level books. The kids have still enjoyed them and looked through the pictures. One of the books is about Michelle Obama - and I've recently added the question, "Who is our first lady?" to our bag of tricks. The kids picked up on it very quickly! They are now answering both questions correctly!

We have also been focusing on "wh questions" (who, what, when, where). These are very challenging for my guys. It is not unheard of for one of them to respond "pizza" to "who did you see last night?" It is very common for them to only listen to part of the question (such as "last night") and impulsively answer the first thing that comes to their mind (such as, pizza). They are also so used to hearing the same questions over and over, that they start to just spit out answers in hopes that the one they impulsively give me will be the right one.

Today was a perfect example of mixing up questions and answers. Yes, we know our president. Yes, we know that when you answer a "who" question, you have to name a person.

This morning, I asked one of the boys one of our daily wh- questions, "Who did you eat dinner with last night?" He immediately and impulsively shouted, "Ba-racka O-bama." Man, am I proud of them for knowing that Barack Obama is our president. But, I highly doubt that he had dinner with the president. I smiled from ear to ear and bent over, "YOU ate dinner with BARACK OBAMA?" He looked me straight in the eye and giggled, saying, "yep." I replied with, "Boy, are you lucky! Who else was there?"

"Michelle Obama."

Gotta give the kid credit for making up a pretty funny story and all of the pieces fitting together. We all laughed and clapped, "He had dinner with the president and first lady!" Any time a visitor came into our room (which happens fairly frequently), I would tell him, "Tell Mrs. ___ who came to your house for dinner last night!" He would pull out his Barack Obama card from his notebook and point to it while laughing hysterically. The kids got a huge kick out of it and that was the "joke" for the rest of the day.

We might not be eating dinner with President Obama, but we can finally say his name. And now we know his wife's name too. How's that for achieving success?

Guten Tag!

We are learning about Oktoberfest during Social Studies this week. Yesterday, we made a huge German flag and marched around yelling, "Guten Tag! Guten Tag!" The kids got a kick out of that. This is our article about Oktoberfest. It is about 4 pages, but this is the front page just for you to get an idea of our adapted newspaper! (© News-2-You.com)

The kids have been really into learning about another country! On Monday, we learned the Chicken Dance (an "oom-pah" song) because we were hearing about Oktoberfest's oom-pah music. Not only did the kids love the dance, but they loved saying the word OOMPAH. It's their favorite! No, they can't remember the sight words consistently, but YES they can remember the word OOMPAH! One kid got off the bus this morning and responded to my "hello!" with "OOMPAH!" Haha.

Today's big excitement was our "cooking project." We made German Pretzels. The recipe is below. I modified the chocolate chip part to be a container of frosting, this was the next best thing to a microwave and chocolate chips.

The kids dipped the pretzel rods into the chocolate frosting, twirled them around in the sprinkles, and ta-dah - German Pretzels. They were a big hit!

Now for the fun part of the day. There are still a few people at the school that are "unsure" about us. They don't mean to, but they stare. Hard. They look at the kids like they're aliens. Nobody deserves that! I figured, what better of a way to lighten them up than to hand-deliver homemade German Pretzels! Mmmm. We picked a few starers and a few ASD supporters.

I made the kids be extra sanitary for our delivery goodies. They washed their hands and made up a nice big batch of German Pretzels for some different friends around school. We put each one in a cup for travel purposes. I wrote on each cup, "Happy Oktoberfest from Mrs. Smith's Oompah Band." I downloaded oompah music onto my iPhone and off we marched.

First stop, the technology guy who installs software onto the computer. He seems like a nice guy, but is never really smiling. Well, I saw our first smile today when we opened the door to his office, marching in, oompah music and all - with his very own German Pretzel. Friends with the tech guy, check.

Next stop, front office. We marched through and handed out the German Pretzels to the secretaries. They got such a kick out of it and cheered as we marched through. The kids were smiling and clapping with all of the excitement. They love making people happy!

We saw some big smiles today! Our last stop was the Child Study Team secretary. She wasn't there so we left her a note. We later received a very excited phone call letting us know that she thoroughly enjoyed her German Pretzel. She also left a thank you note in my box.

As we were finishing up our delivery route, I had the kids chicken dancing down the hallway back to class. A few boys walked past with puzzled looks. One of them said, "Wish I could do the chicken dance in school!"

We marched to the beat of our own drum today. Well, we do that every day. That's what helps us achieve success daily.

Ooompah!

Save the Date.

When we ordered our Save the Date magnets two years ago, the company made a mistake on our order and printed them on the wrong kind of magnet. I complained and they credited our account. I called to see if they wanted me to send them back, but they said not to worry about it. I had 300 Save the Date magnets that we weren't going to use...

I saved them. And saved them. They even survived from the move from TX to NJ! Well, I finally found a use for them. You probably know how important I think that literacy skills are, even for kids with significant disabilities. This year, we are using Reading A-Z for our language arts curriculum. It includes everything from high frequency words, to phonics, to the alphabet, to reading comprehension, sequencing, and cause and effect. There are leveled readers in which the kids progress through. They are all printed from the website and copied. The great thing about this is the kids can take the "readers" home with them and keep them at home to practice. So far, so good. We've progressed through the first list of the high frequency words and we are about to start level "aa" of the leveled readers (the first level).

Each reader has "content words" that you preview with the students before reading the book. This is ever-so-important for my guys, because we are ALWAYS looking to improve and increase language skills, both receptive and expressive. I decided that for each book, I would make flash cards of the content words. We can practice them before we read the book, so that they have an edge on knowing what certain things are in the book. This is also important because I have a classroom full of diverse learners. Two students just moved into the country last year and had never spoken English before. Add that to autism and you've got quite a road ahead of you.

I wanted to make the flash cards so that we could display them and refer back to them. Our whiteboard is magnetic. I thought it would be great to make magnetic flash cards so we can make sentences on the whiteboard, match them with other words on the whiteboard, write the words next to the flash cards, you get the picture.

That's where the Save the Date magnets come in. I cut them up into 12 pieces each. I hot glued a small piece to the back of each flash card. Voila! Magnetic flash cards, without having to buy anything!

Magnets, glue gun, flash cards

s

"Winter" content words

"The City" content words

I made all 24 sets of flash cards for the next four weeks. My fingers are a little burned from the glue gun (never fails), but I'm sure it will be worth it.

We'll see how the reading goes. I am hoping the kids will progress through the program at the rate I am planning for. The level "aa" books are a Kindergarten level (DRA A-1, Reading Recovery 1). There are 24 stories and I hope to get through them in four weeks. I just ordered a Hooked on Phonics K level kit from eBay. We will be doing this at the same time, hoping that the phonetic approach to reading will set in with at least a few of the kids. Right now, they are using memorization and picture clues. I'll keep you posted on our progress. In four weeks, I am hoping we will move to level "A". They go in alphabetical order once you get to A. Level D is first grade. That would be a great goal to hit sometime after Christmas.

It surprises me how much literacy is ignored for students with severe disabilities. They are capable, it just takes creativity and patience.

For the list of high frequency words, these are the percentages of where we are with the boys right now:

(For list 1 of sight words from the start of the school year until now)

1- 79% to 100%

2- 67% to 91%

3- 46% to 77% (missed the first two weeks of school!)

4- 0% to 37% (still learning English, but making steady progress!)

Literacy is the key to independence in today's world. We can do it!

"Stand Up."

At my school, we have a "word of the week." Each teacher is required to post this "character education" word in the classroom and talk about it daily. We get a handout of what to say about the word each afternoon. Even though the words are sometime hard, I usually use this as an opportunity to discuss social skills and allow the kids to repeat and say new words.

This week, the word is "kindness." Today's handout about the word talked about kindness meaning to help others when they are in need. I stood at the front of the room and I wrote on the board, "Ways That We Can Help Others." I underlined it. One kid raised his hand and said, "Help." Well, almost there, but not quite. I said, "Yes, how can you help others?" My assistant raised her hand and gave an example to see if that would jump start them. Still nothing. I always try to throw in some role-play so the kids can see it in action, especially when we are working on social skills. This was a perfect opportunity.

I moved from the whiteboard to one of the open areas behind our group table. The kids moved their chairs around so they could see me. I said, "What would you do if THIS happened?" (As I said it, I completed a very dramatic 'trip' onto the floor and landed sprawled out on the ground). The kids just stared at me. My assistant looked at all of them and said, "Guys? What would you say if that happened to your teacher!?"

One boy raised his hand. My assistant called on him. He stood up, walked over, pointed at me on the floor and said, "Stand up!"

One thing I love about these kids is that they are so pure, so real. They have no filter. Of course you would tell your crazy teacher who just did a fake fall onto the middle of the classroom to stand up. I love it.

Here's to helping others.... we'll add that to our learning to-do list.

Emergency in Room 413 - Total Chaos!

Well, today was the first day that I officially left the kids alone with a sub. This is something that is hard for any special education teacher to do, especially in the beginning. It's actually more work for me to write down every single detail so that the sub knows what the routine is, than it is for me to just be there and complete the routine myself. People always wonder why I don't take a sick day if my throat is hurting. Or go on vacation a day early. The reason is the time it takes to prepare a sub for the day-long journey they are about to embark on... is just not worth it.

I didn't have a choice this time. It was a state-mandated training for APA (alternate proficiency assessment) for all of the NJ special ed teachers who serve "the most significantly cognitively disabled students." I qualified! I have to admit, it was kind of exciting to think about a day of watching powerpoints and playing on my iPhone. I was also excited at the prospect of leaving the training right when it ended and heading home. It's always a hard thing to leave on time when I am at school. I sat through the morning portion of the training. I was not excited to find out that the training actually consisted of someone clicking "play" on various powerpoints on a computer screen: my overachiever self already downloaded all of the powerpoints and watched them this weekend. Any time someone had a question about something, I would say, "Oh, they tell you in the next slide!" Haha. Maybe that's why I have trouble making teacher friends. The administrator loved me, though!

"Sarah, would you please come see me?" I wondered what I had done to deserve the personal invitation to the front of the Board of Ed office. I walked up front to a very frazzled special ed coordinator. She said, "There has been an 'incident' at school. Would you be willing to leave the training to return to school?" Hmm. An incident? What kind of incident could it be? She told me that one of my students had bit someone and that "nobody knew what to do." This is coming from an administration that has never dealt with children with autism. But, with all of the hullabaloo I figured it must be pretty serious. I gathered my things, just as you do when you get sent to the principal's office in secondary school. I headed out of the district office. It was a great three hours while it lasted!

My boys were doing a puzzle on the ground. One of them said, "Mrs. Smith, we missed you!" I told him, "I knew you missed me, so I decided to come back today!" He grinned from ear to ear. Meanwhile, my "biter" was separated from the group, on a mat, playfully looking at her favorite magazine, Modern Bride, while four adults hovered around her. Honestly, kids with autism bite. If you couldn't talk and tell me what was frustrating you, don't you think you'd bite me? I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to live in a life of silence. People automatically think that kids with autism are crazy because they resort to these types of behaviors. This is definitely not the case. Not being able to communicate would be tough.

My assistant told me that the principal came in the room and said, "I want to see her in my office. Right now. She needs to explain exactly what happened this morning." I thought to myself, man, if my non-verbal student could explain exactly what happened, I think we'd be in business!

My boys were a little frazzled from all of the hustle and bustle in the classroom. They weren't quite sure what to make of their broken routine and the extra chaotic adults. They pick up on attitudes and they definitely knew something was wrong. One boy said, "I want to go home. Something is wrong, I need to go home." I told him it was alright. He has NEVER said this before. I mean, who wants to go home from Mrs. Smith's class?

In the end, everyone calmed down and I tried to assure everyone it would be okay. This kind of thing happens. No need to call the police, have five adults in the room, seek additional placements, etc. The whole "biting" thing definitely didn't help our cause for trying to "fit in" to the school. But that's okay. We're different, we know it, and we embrace it. I still love them just the same!

We still achieved success today. We did a little impromptu autism awareness training for those who needed it. And hey, let's look on the bright side. Tomorrow is baking soda and vinegar volcano day in science.

He's on Fire!

Kids with autism have a hard time understanding idioms. We had a great example of this in class today. One of my students, who typically takes a while to get going in the morning, was answering every question correctly and raising his hand for every answer. I was so impressed with him! I turned to my assistant and I said, "Man, he's on fire today!" My one student immediately put his hands to his cheeks (in sheer terror) and said, "Oh no!" Haha. I explained that when someone is doing a good job, getting all of their work done, or answering lots of questions you can say they are "on fire." He listened patiently, but kept glancing over at the other boy to be sure he was okay.

We made some friends at lunch today! After a "mean girl" episode, we did have some luck with the other students. As soon as we sat down, a little girl immediately got up and moved to the table to the right. She turned to her friends and said, "Ew! I am NOT sitting with THEM. Sick." I stood up and asked if there was a problem. She said, "No." I asked why she moved tables. She said, "Because I wanted to sit over here." I told her that I heard what she said that type of thing would NOT be tolerated at _ Middle School. She said she was sorry. I said that everyone has feelings that can be hurt. We got back to business at our table though. I let my boys eat while I worked my middle school magic. I made friends with the girls at our table. They all went around and said their names, then I prompted my guys to introduce themselves. Then, one of my boys asked the little girl across from him for help with his salad. She politely helped out and handed it back! As we were leaving, they all said goodbye, and my guys said goodbye back! We've got a few friends, score! Later, we saw one of the girls in the hallway and she was surprised to get a very cheerful "HELLO VICTORIA" as we were walking by. She smiled and said hello back. We'll get there!

Today was Day 1 of the EARTH unit. The kids had a blast! First, we talked about the core, mantle, and crust of the Earth. We did this by cutting open a peach.

The "core" was the pit. The "mantle" was the "peach" of the peach. The "crust" was the skin of the peach.

Then, we got our own Earth "models" to paint. The kids painted the core and the mantle, and the remainder was the crust.

We used yellow for the mantle, red for the core. The white outside was the crust.

We also had vocabulary cards that we practiced. In my classroom, it is all about exposure. Some of the kids have articulation goals and this is a great time to practice repeating words correctly. MMMMMMMMantle. What letter does it start with? M. So, even though learning about the Earth may not be a functional skill, I am able to incorporate sensory, art, music, and IEP goals into my science lessons. The kids love it! They deserve to learn about the same things the other sixth graders are learning about!

Another successful day! Let's just hope I don't get any concerned parents calling about a "student on fire."

It's Raining Flashcards.

Well, today was an extra interesting one. I had spent quite a few hours this weekend creating flash cards, worksheets, and data sheets for one of my more involved students who hasn't started yet. I was determined that if she showed up today, I would be ready for her. I spent a good amount of the weekend hours cutting out flash cards and laminating them. I had several little decks of cards (alphabet, shapes, letters, colors, numbers, sight words) that were ready to take to school today. I created several worksheets in Boardmaker and printed them out to copy at school. I was ready!

Well, you know when you're getting ready to go somewhere and you have a thousand things in your hand, and for some reason it seems like a good idea to put one of those things on top of your car? Yes, you know where this story is going. The bin of flash cards was put on top of my car. I was just about on Route 1 when I heard a funny sound and looked into my rearview mirror. It was raining flash cards. My beautiful alphabet cards, number cards, and sensory toys were blanketing the access road to the highway. Awesome. I pulled to the side of the road, and was frantically trying to recover them, as cars were speeding by and driving over them. It was sure a pitiful sight. I will admit, I had tears coming out of my eyes at the thought of all my work being run over. A couple school buses and a few staring cars later, I was able to gather mostly everything up and put it in my car.

I hoped and prayed that my student would not be there today, because now my nice little stacks of flash cards and brand new sensory toys were all in one big ruffled pile with tire marks all over them. Rats. When I got to school, I told my assistant the whole story. She, being the wonderful person that she is, stayed in while I went to go get the kids off the bus. When we got back, she had all of the sensory toys under water and was cleaning them at the sink. She had re-stacked all of the flash cards into their appropriate piles with rubber bands. She had re-laminated the cards that had seen better days. She is so wonderful. Teachers can only dream for paraprofessionals like her. She's a self-starter. She does everything I ask, and everything I don't ask! I don't have to even say stuff and she reads my mind. She tells me it's not fair for me to have to stay late at night, so she asks what she can do to help me. I brought her cookies today. She is part of the reason the experience has been so wonderful so far.

Because we can't have a blog entry without a kid story, I'll throw a quick one in. I was flustered this morning. I was getting over the fact that I had driven nearly a half mile with my teacher supplies on the roof of my car. I was pretty much over it, but I guess my hair was a little "ruffled" from the whole experience. One of my boys sat down at the table and looked straight at me. "Mrs. Smith? You didn't brush your hair today." Haha. Oh, but yes I did. I told him it had been a long morning and sometimes hair gets crazy. He laughed. So did I.

Today was a great day. The kids were good, I still only have three kids, the science coordinator brought all of our supplies for our Earth unit, we can open our lockers by ourselves, it was quesadilla day in the cafeteria, life was good. Until I came out from my grad class tonight.

I was standing in one of the Rutgers parking lots talking to some grad school friends. We got out of class an hour early, so that was exciting. We were saying goodbye to each other, and I opened up my car door. That's funny, I thought. I'm sure I didn't leave the window open? I am also sure that I didn't leave shattered glass on my seat. Oh, the car had been broken into. Some awesome somebody thought it was a grand idea to bash the window in so they could steal my GPS! Now, the 4-Runner has shards of glass ALL over the seat, floor, back seat, even the driver seat, I have no window, and no GPS. After filing a police report and getting on my way, I realized I couldn't figure out how to get home without the GPS. Downtown New Brunswick is no place to be lost late at night. I guess that's what I get for relying on my GPS to get me everywhere. My mom said, "At least you're okay, honey." Thanks, Mom! I'm okay. It's true. My job is so great that I can't even really let this upset me. What can I say? I must have forgotten to brush my hair today. Tomorrow is a new day.

Teachers just know.

I love my new job. The kids are so great. They say the funniest things! The week has been long and tiring, but I'm so glad I am in the position I am in. We're still stomping on vocabulary words and playing all kinds of games to learn new things. The color coding system and all of the time that I put into setting it up has been 100% worth it. I could leave the room and the kids would follow their schedules and know exactly where to go and what to do. They are completely independent in following their routines and that is the ultimate goal of every autism teacher.

Today, we got our locker combinations. My one little guy has been talking about putting his backpack in his locker all week. I opened it for him and he said, "it's my turn to try." I tried to explain turning right, then counting the lines on the lock to find the number, and then turning it past the second number once (who came up with that anyway?), but it was a bit much for him. He was pretty disappointed that he couldn't open the locker. I thought about it all morning and I knew I could come up with a way that the kids could open the lockers without us having to do the combination each morning...

Kids with autism are visual learners. They need visuals to make sense of the world. I came up with a solution to the locker dilemma, and it was a success. They still need a little practice with it, but it's a definite opportunity for them to be completely independent, yet again.

I put small strips of colored tape on the right parts of the combination lock. I rigged it so that the "turn left to blue" and "turn left to red" includes the crazy lock step of going past the second number. The final step of "turn right to green" lands them with an open locker!

I felt good about coming up with the color combinations for the lockers. I'm pretty certain some of the regular ed kids could probably benefit from my solution. That was just the start to a great Friday!

I think that I could write a book called, "101 Autism Quotes" - and it would be pretty funny. We were reading a short story this morning that used the repeated line, "I see a ___." The blanks were filled in with various community helper careers. The purpose of the book was to work on sight words, but I always fill their little brains with extra information as we work on various things. We were talking about what each job was. I said, "What does a pilot do?" They answered, "drive the airplane." I said, "What does a doctor do?" One answered, "He gives a check up with the cold tool." I thought that was a pretty good description. Then comes the fun answer. I said, "What does a teacher do?" One of my kids said, "Teachers just know." It's true! They do, they just know!

On to the next great thing. I finished lesson plans for the next two weeks. The only thing that is somewhat hard to plan for is our social studies/science period. I don't really have a curriculum to follow and we don't even have textbooks. So, I just have to look at the state standards and see what I need to come up with for the lessons. One of the topics for sixth grade is "Earth." I found a great set of lesson plans from the Core Knowledge website... and it is a first grade lesson plan called "Exploring the Earth: A 10 day Journey from the Inside Out." Although it's first grade, it does cover a lot of the more advanced topics that you learn about in middle school (plate tectonics, volcanoes, kinds of rocks, etc.) So, that's what we'll be doing for the next two weeks! I had plans to hit the hardware store this weekend to get a few of the things we'll need for the experiments. I'm so used to spending my own money, I figured if I shopped carefully, I could get the items fairly cheap. Well, we were standing in the hallway looking at the rain this afternoon (we finished all of our work so fast today!) -- and a very nice lady walked up and said hello to us (this is big for a school that has never had kids with autism before). My kids turned around and said hi, waved, and then went back to looking at the rain. The woman had talked to me during the first day of school training and I had vaguely remembered her, but she introduced herself again and told me that she was the science department coordinator. I took that opportunity to seize the moment and ask her if she had materials available for us to use. She said, "definitely!" She told me to send her a list and she'd have all of the supplies in my room Monday morning! Wow!

As if THAT wasn't enough, at the end of the day today one of the 6th grade teachers came into my room to tell us that all of the sixth graders were meeting in the room next door and having a "sing along" with the school counselor. He brings his guitar and sings to the kids and they love it. She came to get us! She sought us out! She invited us! We came and my kids had a blast. He even asked a few questions at the end, one of them being, "What is one great thing that has happened this week?" One of my boys raised his hand and said, "I'm in middle school!" (He's been saying that all week.) The kids all laughed (in a good way) and the counselor told him that was a wonderful thing. Pretty great experience for everyone.

Last but not least, as we were walking out to buses, one of my boys said, "Mrs. Smith, no school tomorrow. I will miss you." Very impressive for a student with autism to develop a relationship like that, AND know how to express it. I told him I'd miss him too.

What can I say? I think we're Achieving Success. Daily.

The first day of school-SUCCESS.

Well, today was the day we've all been waiting for. The day I've been working all summer for. I really couldn't have asked for a better first day. Two of my five students were absent because they were not up to date on their shots. So, it made it a nice little ratio of adults to kids, with only three students there. It also made it so much easier to show them the new routines, the rules of the classroom, where to go, etc. with just the three of them. The three kids that came today were absolutely adorable. Very compliant, talkative, happy to be there and just plain excited about middle school. One of them kept saying, "I'm in middle school!" all day. I kept telling him, "You sure are!" He was so psyched to have a locker and his own desk.

Their little color coded schedules (see earlier blog posts) worked like a charm. They knew exactly what to do. They sat nicely and did everything I said! I rewarded them with plentiful amounts of stickers, but I think they would have been happy without them as well. We did a "certificate ceremony" after each time they filled up their sticker charts. They got a kick out of that. One student told me that his teacher last year never did certificate ceremonies.

I used all of the tricks in my bag to keep them busy and excited today. For starters, we played "Louder and Louder" during language arts. Kids always love this. I showed them a sight word card, I said it, they repeated it. Then, I told them that we were going to start real soft, and get louder and louder. So we said, "the, the, the, the, the" from a whisper until we were screaming the word "the." I'll never be able to figure out why kids love that so much, but it's fine with me because they learn the words! Later, we learned about weather during science. After our main lesson, we played "stomp that weather." I put picture cards of different weather (Sunny, Cloudy, Windy, Rainy, Snowy) on the floor, and they had to jump from card to card when I called out the weather. One kid was just stomping on all of the cards, so we'll have to work on that... but the others really picked it up! I even let one of them be the weather man and call out the "forecast." Another teacher peered into the room as we were all shouting weather words and jumping around the room. I bet she was jealous!

It's going to be so much fun to teach these kids. Let's hope this first day momentum keeps going! We definitely achieved success today. Here's to another great day tomorrow.

Everyone needs a shot

Today was our district convocation. We all met in the high school auditorium and listened to various people speak. The final presentation was presented by the superintendent. He showed the video of Jason "J Mac" McElwain, a student with autism, and his final basketball game of high school. Click here to see the video, if you are not familiar with it. It will really warm your heart! It was a great, inspirational story to play at the conclusion of the convocation. I thought, "Wow, this will be great! Everyone just saw that kids with autism can contribute so much!"

This will be the first year that my school will have kids with autism attend. They told me that I would have a lot to overcome, with "unaccepting" teachers and other various hurdles to jump. I figured I'd have to educate people about autism, provide supports in the classroom, and other typical duties of an autism teacher.

Boy, was I wrong. I had no idea what I'm up against. I am determined to prove to my fellow teachers that EVERY child deserves to be in school. EVERY child deserves to take elective classes, and EVERY child deserves to have friends without disabilities. We had a meeting today. Some of the supervisors of the ASD team created a powerpoint to share with the electives teachers. The purpose of the powerpoint and of the meeting was to give a brief overview of autism and some of the behaviors and challenges they might face. We hadn't even turned the lights down to start the powerpoint and someone stood up and said, "THOSE kids aren't going to be in OUR classes, are they?" The SPED supervisors calmly assured them that we would answer questions at the end. The lights turned down. "They'll come with paras, right? They better not send THOSE kids into my classroom without a para." More snickering and rolling of the eyes. I kid you not. These people are completely adamant that "THOSE" kids don't belong in their classes. Well, these are MY kids. And nobody will talk about them that way.

Someone raised their hand and politely suggested, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could just have electives classes devoted to these special students? That way, we could make it real easy so that they would get something out of it." A good idea in theory, but not when you're complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. "What would they get out of being in my class anyway?" "I've got 25 other kids, I'm not doing something special for ONE student." "If they can't follow along, they don't need to be in my class." My jaw dropped. I am so excited about this job, this class, this program, this opportunity. But, I have never in my life heard such JUDGMENTAL statements. The supervisors tried to ease their fears, reassure them that they'd be provided with support, but everyone left the "town hall meeting" (that's what it seemed like) in such a huff.

I've got work to do. It is my goal to show them what a joy these kids are. It's my job to show them. I'll give up my prep periods to accompany them to electives classes to be sure that they're being treated fairly and they're enjoying themselves. It takes work, but it's worth it. I bet these teachers wouldn't say the same things if these were their kids.

It's Perfect.

Today was a great day. I met four out of my five students and their moms, along with a couple sisters. The meet and greet was from 1:30 - 2:30, or so said the letter the parents got in the mail. My first student arrived at 12:45. I guess he was excited! I figured it was better to be early than to not show up at all. We walked down to the classroom and I showed him our daily schedule, our morning focus board, I explained that his color was "green." I showed him that everything in the classroom that was his was green or had green tape on it. He loved it and kept saying, "I am green. The green one is mine. Just for me, green. Green locker, green book, he's green."

His mom asked about school supplies and I told her that I would send home a list the first day. She asked when the bus would pick him up, where she could send the check for his lunch, and whether someone would pick him up from the bus in the morning. The school psychologist answered most of the questions because she knows more of the details than I do.

When we were done talking about everything, my student was looking around with big, excited eyes. The psychologist said, "Well, what do you think about your new classroom?"

He replied in a sweet, soft voice as he looked towards the floor, "It's perfect." I just about melted on the spot. I could have ended my day right there and called it a success.

I hope that this is just the beginning of what's going to be a "perfect" year. Thanks, big guy!

Ready for Meet 'n Greet

I went in to school for a few hours this morning and finished up the classroom. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I thought the room was a little small when I first saw it, but when I took all of the furniture out and set it up, it's actually huge!

This is a view from the entrance. You can see the Morning Focus board, the calendar, the dry erase board, the group table, the "Today is a great day to learn something new" banner, and the daily living area.

This is a student work station with a color coded work system.

This is from the back of the room facing the entrance. You can see the kids' lockers!

Side view of daily living area and group table.

The "Look what we did" wall of fame. There is a clip under each students' name and I will hang up work to display it!

I'm very pleased that the room is finished and ready for the meet and greet on Monday. I am hoping that the room is bright, cheery, and "cool," but still age appropriate!

Jambo!

Achieving Success Daily

Just in case you didn't know, the reason this page is called "Achieving Success Daily" is because my school calls my class the ASD class. We are the ASD room. I am the ASD teacher. It stands for AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER. I'd rather make it stand for something more fun, so I did! And we will ACHIEVE SUCCESS DAILY!

So, I got into the classroom today. I am so excited to get things set up! I'm about 65% set organized. There is a place for everything. Tonight, I will make labels for the cabinets. The labels are for the kids and for me!

I'm trying really hard to stay "age-appropriate" - that's tough for my group at the middle school level! I think my calendar is still "cool" so I have that hung up. We also have a "morning focus" area (we have a full period devoted to this, so I felt like I had to represent!) So far, there is only a USA map and two sight words posted. There will be more. This will be current events, calendar skills, pledge of allegiance, review our daily schedule, geography skills, sight words of the day, classroom news, all about me books, etc. I will somehow make it last 44 minutes.

People always ask why I put the kids' desks around the perimeter of the room (against walls, in little corners) instead of in the middle. The reason is, kids with autism can feel "lost in space" when they're not against a wall or room divider. It also (to me) makes the room look bigger and more open. These are two individual work areas for my kids. The room is still fairly bare, but that will not be for long. I will set up their TEACCH work stations close by.

I will probably use the cupboards on either side of this desk to store independent activities for the kids work systems. I could probably fit 4 on either side.

This is a multicultural bulletin board that I designed. I was having a hard time coming up with a "theme" that would be "cool" for middle schoolers but still fun for my kids to look at. I think this will be neat! Especially considering the five students in my class come from five different countries! Cool. There are little cards that say HELLO in different languages, with a picture of a kid from that country. It's fun. Jambo!

This is a really great (huge) supply closet that I am using to store independent work box tasks and our science activity tubs. They are these fun hands-on science kits for various topics. They fit perfectly on the shelves! Unbelievable. The science tubs are too high for the kids to reach (lovely!) and the independent tasks are just their height. They will be able to easily match their schedule piece to the task and bring it to their desk.

Tomorrow will be the big day. This will be the day that I get mostly everything put away, labeled, etc. I'll post more pics of the full room tomorrow.

The parents come on Monday. This is why I wanted everything lookin' fly before the weekend. (It's a "Meet and Greet." I hope they come!)

Behavior keychains

A new idea for visual supports in the classroom... Easy to flip to each thing!

The new laminator prevails!

Today I finished packaging the independent activities. Each activity has a small square of electrical tape (colored) on the back. This way, I know which activities correspond to each student's IEP. I can utilize one activity for multiple goals with multiple students! They are all packaged in the mondo size Ziplock bags.

I also made "Me Books" for each kid. We'll work on these during Morning Focus (1st period). The pieces are color coded to match each kid's assigned color. They include basic personal information (birthday, name, address, age, school, etc.) They will also be used as an independent activity in their work stations. I have a couple kids with personal info goals, but it's good for every kid to know this stuff!

How productive! I just wanted to also mention that I had a very nice laminator from my friend Heather that bit the bullet on Sunday. It really was a work horse. It was a business size laminator. I tried to replace it with one from Staples, but that one ended up eating all of my stuff. After visiting another Staples AND an Office Depot, only to find them out of stock! I bought one from Target for $25. It is surprisingly amazing! It's SCOTCH brand.

My Summer Break

I've spent a good portion of my Summer Break (all of two weeks!) making things for my new classroom. I have done a serious amount of color-coding (almost obsessively so) and I think it's going to work great for independence in the classroom. Each student is assigned a color, and virtually everything that belongs to them is marked with that color (either by being the actual color, such as folders, or marked with electrical tape... which is great for color coding).

So far, here are some things that I have made:

• Independent activities (recognizes name, arranges numbers on clock, traces name, matches abbreviations with days of the week and months of the year, time concepts, money concepts, and many others). I made so many that I broke my laminator that Heather got me last year. :( Never fear, I just purchased a new one!
• Locker tags (with color coding tape to denote each student's personal locker)
• Schedules (I called them Daily Agendas because I thought that was cool for middle school). I color coded all of the pieces so if a kid loses a schedule piece on the ground, I will know who it belongs to.

The name is written in cool cursive font but I blurred it for confidentiality. The lion is our school mascot!

• Schedule match boards (so the students can match their schedule pieces to the correct part of the classroom) They will each place their color schedule piece on the correct part of the match board.

• Extra schedule pieces (because you know it's easier to make a second set while you're in the groove, instead of being frustrated in 3 weeks when a kid loses their "snack" card)
• TEACCH work system folders for Language Arts and Math. Each folder has a different activity inside of it that corresponds to the child's IEP goals. They have to follow the schedule (the page that says 1-2-3-4) by doing each folder, one at a time, and matching the piece to their work system. Each student has colored folders based on their "color" in the classroom.

• I bought some clipboards on sale at Target (99 cents!) and color coded them. These will be for morning work or data collection, not sure yet.
• I made a binder, that is also color coded with dividers corresponding to each student, and printed the IEPs. I created IEP data collection sheets, which look spectacular! I would post them, but they have a lot of personally identifying info (including the school logo!)
• I also bought the materials to make a great bulletin board. I had a hard time coming up with something that was interesting to look at, not too busy, and not too babyish. I chose ethnic hellos. I bought a set of cards that has pictures of kids from different countries, and the word "hello" written in different languages on the cards. The bulletin board will say "Hello from around the world!" (That's cool, right?)

That's all for now. I have to go clean up all of my laminatey pieces on the floor.