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.

New Blog!

Well, our internet has been out for a few days. While it was out, I thought about how fun it would be to have a blog. Most people tell me that the stories I tell about my class and my students are entertaining. Working with kids with autism is one of a kind. You either love it, or you hate it. I love it. I can't get enough of them. I love making things for my classroom. I love teaching! I have a long term goal of starting a school. We'll have to wait for my pastor husband to bring in the big bucks for that one. (ha ha!)