Sensational Science: Inclusion (with Mrs. D's Corner)

Let me be honest... I teach a self-contained class of students with special needs... and we don't always have time to get to science lessons (outside of ELA or Math instruction). I know, I know!

Thankfully all of my students are slated to go out of our class for at least 45 minutes a day to attend a science inclusion class. It's great! The kids get to interact with their same-aged peers and they're getting to do experiments and learn all of that science-y stuff.

But sometimes there's a downfall... and it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a miscommunication.

Have you ever had that happen to you? Or have you ever sent something home above your student's ability level that they worked on 1:1 in inclusion and wondered if the parents knew how accommodated and modified the assignment was for their child to complete the work?!

There's no more guessing, from you or the parents. Now you are all on the same page, which is such a wonderful thing!

See that sticker? It's small and un-intrusive to the integrity of the student's work... but it clearly labels the work that was completed in inclusion.

There are other stickers too!

You can let the parents know exactly what they need to know, without writing a note, sending an email, or calling home.

There are 35 different stickers included in both color and black and white. All you need is Avery Label 8160*. Print, cut on the line included to double the amount of stickers you get per sheet (so instead of 30, you get 60 stickers per sheet!), and now you're ready to communicate with parents!

These are all of the stickers you get... and now science inclusion - or any inclusion setting your student travels to - is set and ready to go!

I'm pretty excited to have these all printed up and ready to use the remainder of this year, and then really get communicating next year. I just know it's going to be super effective and the parents will appreciate knowing more about their child's school day.

{ Grab the Communication Stickers here. }

*affiliate link*

New Year... New Classroom Procedures { with Mrs. D's Corner }

I just love when the new year rolls around. Between all of us being on winter break for 2 weeks and the change of year, it's a great time to start a new procedure or try something new with my students. This year was no different.

Ya'll already know that I'm a special education teacher. Since October, I have gotten 2 new students in my classroom... for a total of 7 students now. And behavior seems to be a biggie this year. That's when Simply Special Ed came to the rescue, as she usually does.

(PS. Alyssa is just the sweetest, most awesome person... if you teach SPED, you WANT to follow her).

So this was one of my "why recreate the wheel" moments. Alyssa already had created exactly what I needed, I'd seen photos of her using it on her IG, and she sold me on it.

Before winter break, one of my paras (who came to me from an ABA clinic... talk about lucky!) helped me set them up.

Since our classroom is color coded to the max, we didn't want to change it up with their token boards. Each student has their own token board in the color that matches all of their other stuff (bins, labels, binders... you know, anything I could color code to ease transitions, organization, and work load).

We started back last week, and probably should have started using them last week... but we will start using them in our classroom today. I'm really excited to see how it goes, and I'm hoping that it will help my friends become more intrinsically motivated.

What is something you've started new this school year?

An InLinkz Link-up

Positive Parent Communication {with Mrs. D's Corner}

I am fortunate enough to have an amazing set of classroom parents... truly amazing. If I ever need anything, I can send an email, make a phone call, or even text (yes, from my personal phone) to a parent and ask. Now I don't take advantage of this very often because I'm not one to ask for anything... but just knowing that I have their support means more than the world to me.

So how do I do it?

Easy! I send home a parent know each day for each student. It might seem like a lot (especially when you have 20+ students), but I currently only have 7 students. It's a half sheet of paper and, in all honesty, the simplest way for me to keep track of behavior data and for parents to stay in the know about how their child is doing in school each day.

{ Grab the free Daily Behavior Tracker here. }

An InLinkz Link-up

On Track and On Target { with Mrs. D's Corner }

One thing I really like about the Elementary Entourage is how diverse we are when it comes to what we teach. I was so excited to find out that this month I get to talk to you all about how I track data and set student goals, and even more excited that I would get to read about different ways to track data too!

Being a teacher of students with special needs, I feel like I'm really good at tracking data because I'm constantly assessing IEP goal and objective progress. On a weekly and daily basis, I take data in 4 different ways.

One of my most important data collection sheets is my weekly progress monitoring page. This is where I write down activities the students completed each day of the week and how well they did. For example, on Monday we will be talking about the pumpkin life cycle. We will do a matching activity to different parts of the life cycle... so I will write that the student maybe got 4 of 6 parts correct.

I also use this sheet to keep track of daily IEP goal and objective progress. At the beginning of the school year, someone praised me for my use of sticky notes to keep track of data. What she said has really stuck with me, but I find sticky notes SO easy! If you were to take a look at the back on one of my weekly sheets, you'd probably find at least 6 sticky notes on the back with data collection.

Lastly, on the bottom of each daily square is a set of emotion faces. This is something I recently started keeping track of is a student's daily behavior. Every day I send home daily behavior sheets to parents to let them know how their child did at school. This is a way for me to keep track of how a student did on a daily and weekly basis just incase I ever need to look back on daily behavior.

Another weekly sheet I use is this grading sheet. Let me preface this by saying I hate doing grades. For my friends who are not on grade level, I feel like it is stupid of me to keep track of grades of how they're performing on a modified grade level curriculum. Hello, they always do well! I think that IEP progress reports are a much better indicator of how well my students are doing.

Anyway, I have to take grades on 2 things in each subject each week. This sheet helps me keep track of grades, that way when I put grades in the Friday before they're due... I can use this little cheat sheet as a quick reference and spend as little time on grades as possible.

This is a new daily data collection sheet I started using this school year. In the middle of last school year, I lost one of my two paraprofessionals and the district won't hire another one for my class due to numbers, not the actual need in my classroom.

So to build my case as to why I need another paraprofessional in my classroom, I have been keeping very detailed data on prompting. This includes prompting outside of any verbal and physical prompting a student needs that is directly related to the lesson / activity.

For example:
- "____ sit down."
- "____ keep your hands to yourself."
- "____ look at your work and focus on you."

Here's to hoping it works and gets me another paraprofessional eventually :)

Back in July, I wrote a blog post all about how I will be using my FREE easy progress monitoring binder rings in my classroom this year. So far this school year, I am still in love with the easiest and quickest way I have ever used to track IEP goal and objective data.

I use these binder rings directly with the weekly progress monitoring sheet. At the end of every week, I go back and add the data to a student's binder ring that appropriately correlates with their IEP goals / objectives. If I need more data on a certain goal / objective, I make it a point to work on that skill the following week.

When the 9-week marking period ends, I need to send home progress updates on each and every IEP goal / objective. You'd think this would be a daunting task, but with these binder rings, it literally takes hours off of the time it takes me to input data. Hours?! YES, HOURS! When it's time to input data, I just grab a binder ring, flip through each goal and type in the 3-4 data points I've collected. Add a few personal notes to each objective, such as a strength with the objective or that we will continue monitoring it until the student is independent.

{ GRAB *FREE* PROGRESS MONITORING MADE QUICK & EASY HERE }

Until next time,

Meet the Teacher { with Stephanie from Mrs. D's Corner }

Hey everyone! I can't believe that it is August already... and that August is almost half over. I just can't.

Our Meet the Teacher is next Friday, so I have been getting some things ready in my room over the last few days to prepare. Last school year, it was tough for me because I was in a brand new position, in a brand new school... with pretty much brand new everything. So I'm very excited that I feel like I have a handle on things this school year.

Like I said, last school year was completely new to me. I literally did nothing except welcome parents into the classroom and that was it. #worstteacherever

So this year I'm trying to make up for it. Here's what I have planned so far:

I found the idea for Wish Fish on Fluttering Through First Grade's blog. Even though I put a page in my Parent Handbook Flip Book about classroom donations through the school year, I wanted to give parents the option to donate things we always need now... like Clorox wipes, tissues, Velcro, tape. Since I teach friends with special needs, our supply list for the year differs from that of a traditional supply list. We cook on Friday's, so that's why we are in need of a spatula and ingredients :)

You can snag a set of blank Wish Fish here. Just print on colored paper and write on them with a Sharpie!

I saw this super simple, yet perfect back to school bulletin board over at Doodle Bugs Teaching. I put up a white background and still need to paint the sun and print the letters, but I think my students and their parents will enjoy it. It's bright and cheery, perfect for back to school.

The last thing I plan to do is pick out a casual professional outfit. Last year I was so overwhelmed with everything being new, that I didn't even do my hair or makeup.

Yeah, the parents probably left Meet the Teacher last year like that. #thosepoorparents

I'm a pretty casual person though. I live in Target t-shirts and GAP khakis because I need to be comfortable when working with my little friends. I'm constantly on the floor, lifting and transferring students, changing and diapering, so skirts and heels just aren't an option. But this year I'm going to *try* to make more of an effort... ya know, since I have a handle on this whole teaching life skills things now...

Ideally, it would be something like this.

Or this, except with white dress pants and not white jeans. There are just so many options! Hopefully there is something good left at the mall this week after it being Tax Free Weekend this past weekend.

What do you have planned for Meet the Teacher / Back to School Night / Open House?

Assessment Tips & Tricks { with Mrs. D's Corner }

Happy Monday everyone! Only a few more of these left until summer... Monday's that is!

It's crazy to think that this school year is almost over because it feels like it just started. It feels like just a few weeks ago I was taking initial data points on what my little friends know and making goals for where I wanted them to be at the end of the year.

To be honest, I kind of just threw a bunch of resources together to assess them at the beginning of the year since it was my first year as a life skills teacher. I feel like I've grown so much and learned so much from my special friends over the last couple of months, that I feel like I'm finally on top of my game. And what a great feeling it is when you find the perfect resource to help you out. Enter assessment rings!

The amazing Erin from Creating & Teaching created these sets of assessment rings and as soon as I saw them, I had to have them! I printed them out on cardstock (there are currently 5 sets available in her TpT shop at the time of this post), laminated and cut them out, then punched a hole and added the book rings. It did take me a day or two or three to get them all set up, but all completely worth it.

I added command hooks to the wall behind my kidney bean table, which is where we spend most of our time. It's so convenient to be able to grab a ring set and have assessment at my fingertips!

So what do they look like and what sets do I have? Erin created a set for colors, shapes, numbers, the alphabet, and common objects. Within each set, there are different "levels" of mastery that is perfect for differentiating the assessment for your friends.

With the common objects assessment rings, my students are working on identifying objects from sets of 1-3 objects, as well as identifying the function of specific objects. It's a great way to assess what they know, without my little friends feeling like they're being tested (and to me, that's key!).

 Snapshot of one of my friends working on identifying colors from a field of 3. 

Besides the fact that my assessment has gotten SO much easier to collect data, I love the fact that my kids can fling the rings around, shuffle them up, drop them, and pretty much do anything to them and they all stay together! It's genius!

Okay, so you've made it through this entire blog post with me sharing how amazing these assessment rings are... and you really thought that I wasn't teaming up with Erin from Creating & Teaching to give away a BUNDLE of these babies?!

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Meet the Elementary Entourage - Stephanie from Mrs. D's Corner

Hey ya'll! I'm Stephanie from Mrs. D's Corner. I'm super thankful and excited to be a part of this collaborative blog... I can't wait to learn from everyone else, and, of course, share my special education expertise with you. Don't forget to read all the way through because there might just be a cute little Thanksgiving freebie for you at the end (oh yeah, and there's a HUGE giveaway!)

This is my 5th year teaching, but only my first year teaching in the great state of Texas. I've taught pretty much every grade across the states of Pennsylvania (my home state), Delaware, and Virginia. Experience-wise, I've been around the block, or four.

Currently, I am an elementary life skills teacher and I absolutely LOVE my kiddos. It truly makes me sad when I'm out for a training. I just miss them so much! There is never a dull moment in my classroom and I wouldn't have it any other way. My students are brilliant individuals and I wake up excited to go to work every day. Now how many people do you know can say that?!

I am married to the most supportive husband. We've been married for 3 years, but this Christmas will be our 10th together. Time sure does fly, but I wouldn't trade him in for the world. He puts up with me working on products for hours on end and is pretty much the business end of Mrs. D's Corner. After all, I wouldn't be a Mrs. without him :)

We don't have any human babies yet, but we do have two spoiled fur babies. Jaxon is our 2 year old chocolate lab baby. He loves to swim and play in water. Sure, his bark is loud and manly, but I assure you he is the biggest scaredy cat ever. We adopted him from the Amish in Lancaster, PA, so we are pretty sure he is part chicken.

Zoie is our 4 year old miniature dachshund, and we adopted her from the Amish, too. Her nickname is Stinky Girl, and she definitely lives up to it. She enjoys rolling in gross stuff outside and getting into the trash. She has the biggest personality and she is definitely a big mommy's girl (unless daddy has food). I love my dogs more than anything. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll notice I post a lot of pictures of my babies :)

Family is super important to me. I call my dad every single morning on my way to work and I FaceTime my mom at least three days a week. I'm an Air Force sister, and aunt to the cutest little baby girl in the world, Reese. She's just about 18-months old now, but...

...she's taken after me since she was born. 

(photo credit: my mom!)

A couple of other random facts about me: I love Target, so much so that I should just get a job there to afford my Target addiction. I love dinosaurs and sharks; Shark Week is my favorite week of the year! I'm a salt lifer and lover of the beach; I could lay on the beach every single day for the rest of my life. TOMS shoes and everything the Gap are overtaking my closet. I collect Fiesta dishware and Jeffrey and I love to go antique hunting. Vegetating on the couch after a long day is one of my favorite hobbies. I, also, make handcrafted jewelry with my mom.

Now for my FREEBIE:

Since I teach students in the life skills setting, sequencing and sorting are big skills that we are covering daily. Thanksgiving is just around the corner (I am really not ready for Christmas, ya'll), so I whipped up these quick sorting activity mats for my students to sort Native American characteristics from those of the Pilgrims. You can grab them for free here.

You might think that my freebie was the best part of my introduction, but it isn't! Don't forget to enter our giveaway below. You could win $10 to all of our shops!

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