2013-2014 Classroom

I am in a new program this year specifically for students with the most severe behavior and communication challenges. I am very excited about the switch from middle school to elementary and I now have 3 students ranging 3rd-5th grade and 2 fabulous paraprofessionals! So here's how I set up my new classroom (so far!) I used so many resources from TpT it's crazy! I credited most in my post from last year's classroom but if you want to know specifically, just ask! 

    

Well that's about it! Happy new school year everyone! 

- Danielle

New year, new room and a FREEBIE

I made a switch this year to a new program and I am so excited about it! I have previously been teaching at the middle school level in a classroom for students with a variety of diagnoses and skill levels. This year, I will be moving to an elementary self-contained setting where I will specifically work with students on the more severe end of the autism spectrum and we can focus more intensely on behavior, communication, and pre-academic/functional skills. I am spoiled and will only have three students and two aids so I am hoping with such a good ratio we can get some great things accomplished! This is truly my area of passion and I can't wait to share some of my adventures!

For now, here are a few pictures of the room as I walked in. Fortunately, the previous teacher left almost everything, however I had a lot of my own so the organizational process has been daunting!

I haven't accomplished too much so far but here are a few sneak peeks! (Sticking with my ever favorite owl theme!)

This is for my daily rotation of which adult will work with which student.

Here is a Pinterest inspired project where I plan to display our work.

Group area

Starting to look a little more organized...

Really thrilled with my organizer from A Modern Teacher !

Name tags for individual work areas, from Miss Elementary !

Stay tuned for the completed tour and some upcoming posts on visual supports I plan to use in my new room!

Before I go, here's a little freebie I made to use in my room this year, an environmental print alphabet - because how many kids can relate to X for Xylophone? Enjoy!

Environmental Print Alphabet

Have a great school year start!

Danielle

Classroom Management

Sorry for the lack of consistent posting. Who knew that teaching full time, grad school at night, and wedding planning could be so crazy?!

Speaking of crazy, my classroom can quickly get to that point, especially without some of these key tools that I have found to be very effective!

Visual Schedules

This seems like an obvious one but visual schedules are key in keeping students on-track and in many cases, avoiding some not so fun behaviors. This is a visual schedule that is on the back of a "coach's clipboard" (the kind you can open and keep papers and pencils in) We use the front of the clip board to hold daily data sheets and the back is the visual schedule. As you can see, the line up is at the top, I show only A.M or P.M. at a time for this student. Whatever we are doing "now" goes in the green square. There is a pencil bag attatched (with velcro of course!) to the bottom half where the "finished" icons go. I have seen many variations of visual schedules but I like this one because it keeps everything in one place, no need for multiple clipboards, binders, folders, etc.

Reinforcement

   

We all know reinforcement is a huge factor in promoting desired behavior. Some students need more frequent reinforcement than others. This is a penny board my behavior specialist set up for one of my students. I like it because it's durable and portable (a mini plastic clipboard). Pennies are used to incorporate money skills in a basic way, the student is "working" to earn money which can be exchanged for a reward. The reinforcer is whichever icon the student selects to work for. These are laminated velcro icons so they can easily be switched out.

Whole Class Systems

Two of the main reinforcers my students choose to work for are the computer and the Wii.  I have some students who have difficulty "giving up" their selected reward when their turn is over, despite multiple warnings, countdowns, and visual timers. This incorporates  a "red light, green light" concept.  The student gets a warning, if they do not comply, their light turns to yellow. If they can appropriately go back to work at this point, they can "earn" back their green light. If they continue to refuse to give up their reinforcer or do not act appropriately when doing so, the light under that item turns to red and it is no longer a choice for them to select on that day. No more power struggles trying to get the Wii remote or computer mouse back.So far, this has been a life saver for us!

Para educator Management

I have some paras who rotate in between my room and other classrooms. Sometimes I felt like I lost track of who I had told which messages and I got tired of repeating the same message throughout the day as people came in and out. This is simply a small dry erase board where I can post messages and my paras can read it whenever they come into the room.

These are just a few of the tools that I use for classroom management and I hope some of you may be able to get ideas from them too! Comment with any suggestions or questions!

- Danielle

Home - School Communication Binders

Tomorrow is my official first day with students! I still have a lot of projects I want to finish but here is one that I have recently completed. I want to first thank Clutter-Free Classroom for the awesome FREE printables I used to create my own version of these binders. Check em out :)

Hoping these will make my daily communication with parents more successful!

2012-2013 Classroom Set-Up

I am so excited to begin this school year! Even though I only have 1 semester of teaching under my belt (I was hired mid-school year in December) I feel like I have such a better concept of what is really important for both myself and my students in the classroom! While I still kept many aspects the same as my set up last year, I did some major rearranging, organizing, simplifying, and of course decorating! (cuz I'm a teacher-nerd like that!) So here are the pictures of my set up so far (that is if I don't switch it up again before next week..)

I could not pass up this adorable printable from School Girl Style

Her owl collection was exactly what I was looking for and she was great about making changes for me when I asked for help. Everyone should check out her store on Teacher's Notebook!

This is something new I added this year. I am all over the building during the day. I go with my students to lunch, sometimes I am observing them in their electives or in an IEP meeting, office, etc. I wanted my co-workers to be able to find me if necessary, or at least have a general idea of where I am.

Close up! This is just a blank frame template cut and pasted to scrapbook paper :) 

View from the door looking in. I basically flip-flopped the location of my group instruction area. 

You can compare it to my previous set up in 2011-2012. 

I felt like everything was cramped by my desk the way I had it set up before. This is a change that I made towards the end of last year and it has worked out great so far!

Calendar area. I still have some features I want to add to this so stay tuned!

My student's magnetic name tags that will be paired with their pictures for my "at school", "not at school" columns (easier way for my kids to understand "attendance") I downloaded the clip art owls for free off of Teachers Pay Teachers but I can't remember the exact link! Just search "owls" :) 

Our Visual Schedule. I plan on doing a large "First"/"Then" and breaking the schedule down a bit for some of my kiddos.

Life skills area

This area seems kind of "blah" boring but it's my work box system (explained Here )

and it is important for my students that this area is as distraction free as possible so they can focus on independent vocational work. If you read my post on the work box system, you might notice that I have added more boxes and the wall charts will contain jobs as well. More on that in a future post! 

I printed my clock labels as a "flash" freebie from Clutter Free Classroom. LOVE how this turned out!

The blue flower next to the clock is actually a magnetic clip where I plan on sticking misc. papers that accumulate during the day that I need to send home with my students. 

This is the going to be a 1:1 work area.

Friendly reminders of expectations posted to reference. 

I am going to use this space to write in what times/which students our Speech, O.T., P.T., and Vision Specialists will be seeing. It seems like every week there are changes or cancellations so I figured this would be better than re-printing the schedule each week. I can't remember where I got these but I am pretty sure it was TPT again. (sorry!)

This is more for myself and my paraprofessionals to keep us all organized and for me to avoid answering "where can I find ___" 25x per day! Hehe

These cutie labels are from Heather Perkins' TPT Store A FREE Download! 

Bulletin board behind my desk. I know it's random but it's "my area", and I heart pugs, coke zero, and more cute owl printables. The name banner is from MiTeacher-Girl-Store. "Live, Laugh, Learn" printables were a FREEBIE from Kickin' It In Kinder's TPT Store ..I love how they pop against the black background. 

Couldn't resist this awesome guy at the Target Dollar Spot :)

This mini bulletin board was pinterest inspired. It was seriously so easy! Just rolled masking tape to the back of the black paper, slapped it on, did the same with the border, and voila! AND I get to use magnets on it which stay wonderfully against the metal file cabinet. 

How stinking cute are these! $2.50 each, once again at Target! This is where we will keep I.D. cards.

We are finally making it almost all the way around the room. This is my sensory/break area. Those of you who read my set-up post from last year may be wondering, where did that adorable-perfect-classroom-sized-free-dorm-hand-me-down  blue couch go?! Well friends -  I quickly learned that if you provide a super comfy inviting couch, some students will get just a little too comfy! Bye bye awesome couch, hello smaller chair! The curtain is actually a fabric shower curtain from the dollar store. It is covering the clutter/storage on the massive built-in shelf.

These owls I added to my wall decal I still have up from last year. Also from School Girl Style!

That brings us full circle! Whew - if you're still reading this mega long post then you are my new best friend! Hope someone gets some ideas from this and I am always open to suggestions. Feel free to PIN anything you see here. If I used one of your printables and forgot to give credit, please let me know! 

- Danielle