One of the biggest challenges we face every year is getting our instructional assistants( IAs) trained in helping teachers in the classroom. It is not unusual if staff is hired for our special education classrooms who have never worked with students who have special needs. They may have a huge heart for children, but they just don’t have a background in what to do when behaviors occur. Often the classroom […]
Read moreIt would be interesting to me to see just how many times a child without special needs communicates to a parent or teacher that something hurts, or there was an accident and they got injured, or they feel sick and need to lay down. That answer would give me some insight about just how many times a parent or teacher of a child with special needs cannot communicate this basic, […]
Read moreWhen I’m trying to help students read, my goal is to make things as clear as possible. Kids respond to patterns, movement, visuals…basically a multisensory approach to help make things “sticky”. The Orton-Gillingham reading decoding strategy, Tucker Signing Strategies, Visualizing and Verbalizing from Lindamood Bell, SRA reading, Kansas Learning Strategies all help kids to make sense of reading and vocabulary. Great stuff! I’m always looking for more great stuff. A […]
Read moreI couldn’t end my series of highlighting Dr. Ross Greene’s ideas from his book, Lost at School without showing you a quick overview on how to do a Plan B. Take a look!!! We’re seeing students stay in the classroom longer, making choices not to fight for the first place in line, choosing to go to a calm down area rather than becoming aggressive or destructive. Some successes come in […]
Read moreNow that you’ve been introduced to Dr. Ross Greene and one of his tools, the ALSUP, it would be important for you to learn how to use it! Remember, it’s not the behaviors we want to focus on, it’s the lagging skills that the child has not yet developed. The key to figuring out when the lagging skills occur is to discover the situations during your child’s day that the […]
Read moreHave you ever read that one book or gone to that one conference that changed your whole thinking about something? It’s an educational epic moment when you sit and listen to someone speak and you feel as though they are hitting every belief you’ve had on a topic, yet somehow that person brings clarity to the subject to an extent that you wonder why you didn’t see it from the […]
Read moreIf you are willing to take a chance, a leap of faith…you might want to try a different approach to keep students on task. Try allowing your students to engage in flexible seating. Is it novelty or is it comfort? Perhaps it’s a little of both. Either way if it helps your students stay focused, does it really matter? Take a look! If you check out Pinterest you can find […]
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