Preparing for special circumstances

I watched the Champs video on preparing students for special circumstances. Randy Sprick talked about two special circumstances. One was having new students come into your classroom and the other was having unique events in the school day. To be prepared for a new student he suggested teaching the student the expectations individually, and also go over the expectations with the whole class as a refresher. This works well if you do not have a new student very often. If you do have students more often you might consider pairing these students with a buddy. The buddy should not be the most responsible student, but a student who has made improvements in their responsible behavior. Give the two students permission to talk in order to have them explain what is expected throughout the day. Another suggestion he gave was to make a welcome video. For a school that often has new students, some schools develop a welcome room where new students can get oriented to the school.

The other special circumstance was unique events in the school day. Sprick suggested being well prepared for field trips. Get all the details, such as how long the bus ride is and what it is like there, and let the kids know what the expect ahead of time. The other example he gave was teaching assembly behavior to the students. He concluded by saying that if you develop going over expectations often, they will develop into rituals and routines.

Special circumstances that I have gotten better at prepared for as the school year has gone on have been changes in the schedule. Every week there is late start Wednesday, at least once a month we are on assembly schedule, and then we have half days for holidays and conferences. There are also schedule changes due to testing for benchmarking and special events that are going on school wide or in the student’s individual classroom. I make sure that all teachers have the pull out schedule for normal days, late start days, assembly days, and half days. I remind them the day before an assembly or a half day what schedule we are going to be on. I also prep my students ahead of time to let them know what time they are coming the next day. I make sure to be aware of field trips or special classroom activities, to make sure the students are prepared for that as well. Some of my students who are less flexible end up coming at their regular time anyway, and I send them back to class with a sticky note for them to put on their desk of when they are going to leave.

When I have a new student coming in I make sure that the teacher is prepared with their pull out schedule in advance. I make time to observe them in their general education classroom to get an idea of what they need to know and what they are struggling with. I typically have the other students in the group teach the new student the group expectations.

Something I need to work on with my students who are intellectually deficient or who have autism is how to better prepare them for schedule changes. After going through winter benchmarking, I realized that the added stress of the schedule change could have affected their performance on these tests. I need to make up visual schedules for them in advance for these days and teach it to them well in advance of the event.

I also liked the idea of making a welcome video that the students I currently have could help me make. I get about two new students a month, both from students with IEPs moving into the area and currently attending students getting qualified for sped. Having a video about what a Learning Center is and what the classroom expectations are would be helpful for them.

Is tech taking away social skills

There is a big push in the world of specially designed instruction for the use of computerized instruction.

I see a lot of my students gravitate towards computerized learning. The ones who really seem to enjoy it are the students who do not get along well with others.

While having my non-participators on the computer is easier, and where these students are the most successful, what are they not learning from a computer screen?

So today I decided to test being the computer. I started implimenting flash card practice into my group routines. 

I had never seen one of my boys smile as big as when I told him he was right after each flashcard. He needed very little repetition as well to learn the new skill of telling time that I was teaching to him.

High praise = high cooperation

It's really that simple. It's kind of sad that kids have to turn to a screen to get approval. The computer is predictable. You are either right or wrong, and it's not going to change it's mind. 

Be consistent. When there is an error, correct it. Then praise the student for getting it right. 

Those are my lessons learned today from the computer. Thanks technology.

Behavior kids without advocates

Last year I was a behavior teacher at a Jr. High. I left because the job was too stressful and frankly too heartbreaking for me.

Yesterday, one of my former students contacted me because he wanted advise on switching to a home-school partnership program. The student has always had behavior problems, and has always missed a lot of school because of it. 

He has ADHD and was labeled as one of the trouble makers since kindergarten. He was one of those kids who got put in a padded room when he was in primary elementary school. When he came to me he was so shy that he rarely talked and spent as much time as he could in my behavior classroom.

I worked with him, and he was a lot of work. I partnered him with teachers who he could have some amount of success with, and who made sure that the other kids didn't pick on him. When he didn't come to school, I would call him, or have one of the other boys in my program who had grown up with him call him. Eventually, I had him coming to school on a regular basis. 

He wasn't the smartest kid, but he was good at reading and writing. He could also read and write in Spanish and loved to work on cars. He wanted to be a mechanic when he grew up. His step father, who his Mom was in the process of divorcing at the time, works picking brush, and the boy went to his work after school to help out.

Because of his anxiety he didn't eat lunch in the cafeteria and left school 5 - 10 minutes early to avoid the crowds, and I could never get him to go to an assembly, but he did get his credits with him. It was a lot of work, but I created an environment that he could be comfortable in. I knew that most days he came to school because he wanted food and someone to talk to more then he wanted an education, but he got one anyway. 

This year he went to high school. They never tried to make him feel welcome. They didn't even try to put him in mainstream classes. He spent 4 periods a day in the behavior room getting ignored. He told me that in one of the classes that he did go to, math, his teacher told his class that he was stupid. His attendence had always been bad, but he's to the point where he doesn't even feel comfortable going.

So they're going to talk to him about doing home partnership and taking away his IEP. If he has an IEP, the school is obligated to have a graduation plan for him. If they take it away, which they probably will, because his mother isn't knowledgable enough to advocate for him, they probably will simply push him out. 

Bottom line it, when he turns 16 this summer, without any connection to his school, he will probably drop out. He has a pattern of drug use already at 15, and it will probably get worse with no one to check on him. His older sister has already dropped out of school. She is 16 and has already been to rehab.

He isn't a bad enough kid to be on probation, and in all likelihood his Mom will probably just be happy that she doesn't have to take him to truancy court anymore. Unless you are on probation or are recieving mental health services, you don't get an advocate. 

Schools preach about building resiliency in there schools. They say that have positive behavior support. But if they find out that a behavior kid is vulnerable, they push them out. They don't want to deal with a kid who just doesn't fit in. It makes me very sad.

I advised the student to ask about staying on his IEP, but he's 15. He isn't going to be able to advocate for himself. It makes me feel like I failed him to see him falling through the cracks.

Do The Thing You Have Been Avoiding

I got some really great advise for getting through this time of year the other day.

Do the thing you have been avoiding.

Just get it off your list. You will feel better afterwards. If you are feeling bogged down by everything you have to do, just get that one thing off of your list.

Today it was revising my schedules. This is a task that I find to be a pain in the ass. I don't like doing it. 

But I did it, and now it's done and I can move on to everything else that I need to get done this week.

A Good IEP Meeting

Some things I've learned about have a great IEP meeting.

1. Appear prepared. Parents like it if they feel like you have fussed over them a little bit. Have the copies of the IEP neatly laid out on the table. Be ready for them at the table.

2. Do not get up for anything! The parents are taking there time to be a the meeting, make them feel heard and valued.

3. Show the facts. I keep the data binder for that student handy, with there progress monitoring and work samples in it. Base everything in the meeting on that data! Do not let parents trick you into talking about something else. They want you to be professional, but are not above testing you a little bit.

4. Be warm, but professional. Let them know that you really know there child and care about there progress.

5. Thank them for coming at the end. They like to be appreciated. 

Math rich motivation

I've been think a lot about what I can do to make my room more math friendly. One of my students made me realize the other day that it really doesn't require a lot of purchasing of materials or cutting, glueing, and laminating of things to make my students think about math.

I was working with my 4th grade students on memorizing the pattern for there 9 facts and had put them on the white board to practice with.

At the end of the day one of my 1st grade students came in for check out and asked to be able to write on the board as his reward for having an all smile day. All of my kids like to earn privleges like that rewards.

This is what he drew:

They have been working on exclamation points in class.

While his pattern isn't perfect, it made me realize that he is eager to learn, and that just seeing the 9 facts written on the board sparked his interest in number patterns.

Got to love low tech, uncomplicated learning aids.

Sped kids in general ed.

I'm a resource room teacher.

I take pride in what I do. I am good at delivering specially designed instruction and I like providing a safe and friendly learning environment for my students.

More and more the idea of co-teaching has come up.

According to one of my professors, there is a lot of research to support kids not doing pull out instruction. The research says that kids pick up on the skills they need faster when they are immerced in it. That is why there is not such emphasis on life skills in high schools anymore as well.

That is great, but I can't help but worry about the kids I have who fall through the cracks in the general education classroom environment.

They are always the nice kids. Really, they are the kids who do nothing. They don't raise there hands for help, they don't talk to the other kids in class, they don't do more then the bare minimum of the assignment. Most of them wait for the teacher to put the answers on the board and then just copy it. When the teacher is giving whole group instruction, there minds are a million miles away.

They are not immerced in their environment. They are hiding in it.

The nice thing about pull out is: there is no where to hide when there are only 3 - 5 kids in a group. They have to talk. And they do talk. They have to work. And they do work.

I have a boy who goes through periods of doing nothing in his general education class when things are not going well at home. He just shuts down. But he comes into my room and he works consistently everyday. He is getting to the point where he is at grade level in math and getting closer to it in reading. But what will happen to his math when I don't pull him for instruction anymore? How will his skills stay up when he goes through several weeks of not doing anything at all?

It's a scary thought to me. 

At my school all the kids do core math and core reading instruction, with supplimental math and reading at different times of the day. it works. 

Sometimes in sped it feels like we break things for the sake of fixing them. We wait for a student's scores to be low before teaching them. We restructure for the sake of restructing, and when that doesn't work, we move on to something else.

I want to do my job well. I know how to deliver high quality specially designed instruction. Let me teach.

Specific feedback - research!

Myers, D., Simonsen, B., & Sugai, G. (2011). Increasing teachers’ use of praise with a response-to-intervention approach. Education and Treatment of Children 34(1) 35-59.

Summary

Study Question

The study by Myers et al. (2011) looked at how applying response to intervention logic to support teacher development, specifically the use of praise, would effect the teacher’s feedback. They also looked at how the change in the teacher’s behavior changed the student’s behavior in the classroom setting.

Methodology

This research study was in a urban middle school in the northeastern part of the United States. The school had over 1,000 students, 90 teachers, and had a significant amount of students who were on free or deduced lunch.

The teachers who participated in the study volunteered. Seven of the teachers reported having significant behavior problems in their classroom. Base-line observations were conducted in order to determine the ratio of positive to negative interactions. Seven teachers were observed, with three of the teachers not continuing to participate in the study. In the four participating classrooms, three students were randomly chosen to be observed in order to collect behavior data. During the study Tier 2 interventions were staggered throughout the study, while Tier 3 interventions were implemented based on the data collected from the Tier 2 interventions. The dependent variables of the study were the teacher and student behavior.

Findings

The study showed an increase in the teacher’s praise statements and an improvement in the specificity and differentiation of that praise. There was also a downward trend of the student’s disruptive behavior and an upward trend of student’s positive behavior. It was not possible for the researchers to determine if the interventions had an effect on the teacher’s evaluation feedback.

Limitations

Limitations of this study included that the intervention took place in the school setting. There are many factors that cannot be controlled in the school setting. The observations of behavior also all took place in the classroom. There was also no way to confirm if the students who were chosen for observation were really chosen at random. The teachers who participated also volunteered, making it hard to determine if the interventions who be as effective on less willing participants. The last limitation that is listed is the setting. The study was conducted at one urban middle school.

Connection To TPEP

This study connects to criterion 5 of TPEP in that it shows that if you increase your acknowledgement of compliance to rules and procedures, you will probably get a higher rate of compliance. It is important to remember that a fairly simple intervention, such as increasing your negative to positive ratio, can have a big effect on the climate of your classroom. The amount of behavior issues also decreased, which shows that you would not have to apply consequences as frequently if you increase the amount of praise you are giving.

Importance

It is important to remember in this study that the praise given was specific to the student and differentiated. I do a lot of Connecting Math Concepts and Reading Mastery in my classroom, which gives scripted, frequent praise. As a result, my praise to negative ratio is very high when I or one of my para’s are doing these teaching segments. However, saying good job or yes, that word is ________ is not necessarily specific praise. The students are also so used to hearing that this praise, that they expect to hear it.

Giving meaningful praise to my students that is specific to them would be more effective in improving behavior. That does not mean that I’m going to stop giving the scripted praise, because it is important feedback. I am going to try to incorporate more student centered praise. It is also important to be aware of times when I am giving a negative statement without realizing it. I should self-check interactions with my students to ensure that I am not giving them mixed messages about what is expected and that I am not being negative in my interactions with them.  

January Currently

Listening: Have you ever been driving around running errands and you heard a song from 15 years ago and thought to yourself "this is really good, why isn't more music like this these days". Well my friends, you are officially old like me. It's sad, but most of the music I like these days is 10 - 15 years old. Who knew that it would make me feel so old to be 31.

Loving: Having enough of everything I need. People asked me what I wanted for Chirstmas this year. The truth was that I could not think of a thing that I actually needed. It's nice when I have moments of awareness like that. 

Thinking: Improving my teaching! I've got action steps to come up with. Tomorrow I need to write my project proposal for my graduate school class on how I am going to improve my classroom management. 

Wanting: To go have fun. But, I'm not going to.

Needing: To go to bed. I really do need to go to bed at a decent time. My New Year's Resolution is to get up and go to the gym before work. I need to start really working on taking care of myself. Lack of self care contributes big time to new teacher burn out.

One Little Word: Nostalgia. Blame it on the time of year, but I have been thinking a lot about all the good times that have passed. This Christmas break was another good one for the books. I went to visit a friend in New Mexico, was in a holiday parade with my neice, read some good books, spent Christmas Day with my family, went golfing with my Dad, and got some work done. It may sound a little dull, but I like dull. 

Happy New Year's folks! 

Five For Firday 1/2

Packing it up. Christmas is finally over. So is New Years for that matter. I tried to make it a good one. 

Like the compulsive teacher that I am, I went and organized my student's binders. It felt so good to be organized and ready for the new school year.

I am almost finished with my winter break reading. It sounds boring and nerdy, but I love to read. So there.

Hollow City was good. It is hard to write a good 2nd book in a series. There adventure was both serious and funny. It was a good read.

Better Than Before is also good, but I am quickly losing interest in it. I get it, I need to work on good habits.

I'm doing research on how to characterize behaviors that students have, and then strategies to work with each behavior. It's interesting. I think I'm going to turn it into a product when I'm doing with it.

I'm going back to school on Monday! I've thought about how to welcome my students back. I definitely want to give some kind or reward for getting back into the swing of things quickly. I'm think having them earn playing Winter Picture Bingo on Friday for the left over candy canes I have laying around my classroom.

Math Intervention Time

I liked to look at the What Works Clearinghouse. It's a good refresher before going back to school on what really makes a good math intervention, and what doesn't.

If you have time, take a look at the recommendations behind the research:

Teaching Math To Young Children

If you do not have the time, here are my "ah ha" moments from the reading:

1. There is moderate evidence behind teaching numbers and operations in developmental progression. If you have the flexibility to teach math skills in a sequence that makes sense to the child, do it! If you are following a math progam that is not so skillful at doing this, think about how you can scaffold the activities for the students to make the program flow better.

Example that I am working on with my 2nd graders on:

1st: Place value

2nd: Adding and subtracting number up to 3 digits

3rd: Quanitity discrimination

4th: Regrouping

Regrouping isn't going to make sense if the students do not have the other three skills mastered. Remember that students learn at their own pace, and that pushing regrouping before they have the other skills mastered first.

2. There is minimal evidence saying that geometry, patterns, measurement, and data need to be taught in a developmental sequence.

Interesting.

My student really struggle with applied problems. It is good to know that really, the important thing when teaching these skills is that they are taught, not in what order they are taught in.

So, if my 1st graders want to do money flashcards (which they are currently in love with) I should let them.

3. Progress monitoring has minimal evidence supporting it, mainly because the studies done with it are always coupled with other interventions. Progress monitoring alone is not going to make a difference, you do actually have to teach.

But, using progress monitoring data to guide instruction is always a good idea. I was once told to use the student's faces as a guide to if they understand a concept or not. That was terrible advise. Use data! If students know something, they are going to be able to show that they know it. 

4. Vocabulary building is important. Knowing how to talk about math is just as important as knowing how to do math. Intergrate math language into your classroom. Encourage students to recognize and talk about when math is being used in everyday situations. Don't be scared to sound like a nerd.

5. Dedicate time every day to teaching math and integrate math activities into the classroom.

The great thing about math is that it's fun and kids generally like to count. There are so many math games that can be easily integrated into the school day. Plus, math is easy to incorporate into morning work, calendar time, and center times. 

Something that teachers need to be especially aware of making sure there classroom is a "math rich" environment. I have taken a lot of training on creating a classroom that is "literacy rich". I have objects labeled with words, books set out in the shelves, and posters with words on them on the walls. Being "math rich" is something that I haven't given as much thought to.

Math rich classrooms have math tools available and at eye-level to the students. They display charts with sequenced directions and use numeric systems. 

The good news is, my classroom already has a numeric system, where each student's things are labeled according to there student number. Who knew that organization was mathematical!

Also, I have math tools all around my room. I just need to work on having them prominently displayed. I'll look at if that makes a difference in my student's ability to do applied problems or not. It will be an interesting experiment.