Haiti Earthquake Powerpoint

Below is a youtube link to a powerpoint a made for my students about the Haiti earthquake.
Please use in your classroom.

Link to video

Special Needs Classroom

                                                    Let me start by saying Happy New Year! and hope everybody had a great holiday season! I had a very restful and nice break with friends and family. I apologize for the December absence but I decided that my first entry of the new year with start with something positive and exciting. I am getting a new classroom!

My first year at my current school I was a small classroom that was equipped with a disabled-accessible bathroom with shower and a kitchen-like area with sink (no oven, stove...) and washer/ dryer hookups. I was never provided a washer and dryer though. It was great for that first year because I had higher-functioning students without any physical disabilities. The next year by class size doubled and a range of disabilities was present. Ok, so now my classroom is working accept for the size (which I’m sure all teachers complain about) and the fact that my school was newly built and the architect forgot to add a ramp in the school and I was not on the ground floor. I had one student in a wheelchair and another who would have a lot of trouble getting out in case of emergency. So my idea was originally to build a wood ramp that could be removed somewhere in the school. Well that was decided against. Instead they would move my classroom downstairs where the chorus room was. Ok, fine it is way bigger and laid out strange but I could work with it. I have a wonderful set of families in my class and one helped to set up a kitchen area for the class. Well then a problem presented itself, no bathroom. There was a public one around the corner but it is kinda gross and is uncomfortable to take someone in a wheelchair into. So my idea was to change my back closet (which was large) into a bathroom since its back wall connected with the girls bathroom. At the end of last year everyone agreed that this would work and it was supposed to be finished over last summer. Well of course it was not and still has not been built. So about a month before break a project manager from the system came and reviewed by class. He came back the next day an example of a special needs class he found and asked me what I thought my class should be equipped with. I explained that at my previous school my classroom had a washer/ dryer, bathroom, refrigerator, oven/ stove. It was perfect; it had everything a functional classroom could need. The p.m. was very receptive. He came back a week layout with a blueprint for my classroom. It was fully equipped. Large bathroom, kitchen area, washer/ dryer. :) He then came back with some other guy and they told me it would be finished before we returned to school. :) Well, that did not happen but he did come by to have me sign off on some plans as well as my principal, and to let me know it will be completed no later than mid-February. Let’s see!

Can one with Mild MR fail to be diagnosed before the age of 18?

First off we all say "of course". Yet this leads us to the second question, if one is not diagnosed until after 18 how can we consider them MR if there age of onset is undetermined??? But what does this mean then....
It is called the "Forest Gump Question".Click here to view a presentation on this Gump question. Can one succeed to the best of their ability if accommodations, modifications and an IEP are not in place? One tends to say "no", but why is this happening? One reason could be the student was able to coast by with low average grades, the other would be that in the late 70's to 80's many school psychs did not want to diagnose to avoid parental pain, also what about the question of over-diagnosing a specific population?

It is well-established that schools were and are reluctant to classify children as mentally retarded, particularly African-American students since the 1970s (MacMillan & Siperstein, 2002). Schools frequently assign a more ‘‘palatable’’ label to students who would otherwise be classified as mentally retarded, using labels such as ‘‘specific learning disability’’ or ‘‘speech and language impairment.’’ In Atkins cases, this frequently works against the defense’s efforts because there is no developmental history of an individual ever being diagnosed as mentally retarded, thereby making it difficult to prove the developmental criterion of mental retardation.(p.9).

Gresham, F. M. (2009). Interpretation of Intelligence Test Scores in Atkins Cases: Conceptual and Psychometric Issues. Applied Neuropsychology, 16, 91-97

I am asking these questions because they are going to play into a post that will be up soon discussing the misdiagnosis and the issue of criminal justice and the death penalty. Please stay tuned and give me your thoughts.

Age Appropriate Developmental Norms

We all know that children with disabilities develop at a "slower pace" than that of their normed peers, but what exactly are these "norms"? What milestones should we expect at certain ages? These norms will help parents and early years program teachers set realistic goals for their children. The below links will provide you with gross-motor, fine-motor and Speech Norms.
Gross-Motor Standards
Fine-Motor Standards
Speech/ Language Standards
***Remember to always set goals with a qualified professional***

NEW GAA RESOURCES!!!! and classroom resources too!!!!

Found a good amount of new sites that have printable activities that one can use in the classroom or with the Georgia Alternate Assessment. Check them out below: I also wanted to add that there are some new activity templates added to the right column, look for the orange type.
Byr-Back Manor
ABA Resources
Louisiana Signifigant Disability Access
Picture Dictionary
Think Central
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

Do2Learn and BrowserBooks

Do2Learn is a website that focuses on the disabled population. The site offers free life skills picture symbols, games, activities, songs etc. Check it out to help many activities that you already do in the classroom.
Do2Learn.com

Browserbooks is another great site.This website was created to allow beginning readers to read books on their web browser. Readers can click on the triangle in the lower right-hand corner of each page to turn the pages. If they are unsure of a word, they can click on it to hear a child's voice read the word to them.
The books have been sorted by level and by subject according to the curriculum.
BrowserBooks website

The Body System

Are you teaching The Body System? Check out the site below to find tons of websites and activities to help support your teaching.
Body System Page!!!!

GAA- Its Not Rocket Science

Follow the link below to a powerpoint created by the great special educator Juanita Pritchard that breaks down the GAA with some great advice.
GAA is not Rocket Science

iprompts!

iphone has published an app for our population!!!!The name is iprompts and the website is www.handholdadaptive.com
The app includes schedules, timers, pic-syms and so on. If you have this app please let me know your opinion!!!!!!

GAA Update and Advice

Yes, yes I have not been blogging lately and this is due to more that just school, I'm sure everyone understands. So I have to admit that I have been ignoring my GAA obligations lately which is not horrible for an experienced high performer but could be detrimental to someone who struggles with the assessment process. My planning sheets are complete and detailed but the implementation process has not started strong. I unfortunately am justifying this with the fact that I do not want to present a huge gap between 1st and 2nd collection periods, (which technically makes sense). I also wanted to present a few words of advice to my GAA readers:
1.Always take into mind your student's prerequisite skills
2. Do not reinvent the wheel, use coworkers, pre-adapted lessons and GOOGLE!!! Google can be your best friend!
3. Do not think tooooooo hard! The GAA is based on the growth shown between collection period 1 and 2, only teach what you know and can... education is always a learning process but the GAA SHOULD (which we all know it is not, lol) be all about the student. Teach to their capabilities.

I know that most of my readers are low-incidence teachers and do not agree with the GAA's (mission) but the bottom line is we have to do this, and unless we can change NCLB's gidelines, we have to deal with this assessment process and use it to our advantage in the sense of strengthing our modification abilities.

Transition Job Skills

Below is a chart of job tasks for a few job domains that are typical for the moderate population to enter into. These tasks can be completed at school as well!

GAA web resources

Here is a website with lots of useful resources for the moderate to profound population. Check it out! Northern Ireland Curriculum
Here is another site that seems to have lots of materials for all subject areas.
Interactive Activities for kids

Im Back!

I am soooo sorry to my readers for being MIA these past few weeks. School has been incredibly hectic. 2 IEP meetings, 3 re-evals, 1 new testing and to top it off a state audit. Yes, I still think I have my sanity but am not sure. How is everyone's progress going with the GAA? I have decided to use a lot of different standards and elements this year, so a new wheel is being built. For example I am switching to solids,liquids and gases for 8th grade instead of simple machines, allows me to show more growth with each student. So, I am trying to get to the blog as much as possible but please give me some slack. If there is something you would like me to write about or investigate please let me know!

100 Useful Tools For Special Educators

I received this link from a reader. Please check it out! 100 Useful Tools for Special Educators and Students

Georgia Special Education Teacher Preparedness

If you follow my blog you know I have huge issues with placing an adult into a Special Education classroom with no Special Education Training. As we know Georgia allows a person to teach SPED if they can just pass the test or if they go through the controversial "Teach For America" program. I am sorry to all you TFAs out there but I am no fan. My school has gained a special ed teacher through the Teach for America program and she is already extremely overwhelmed. She came into the school and immediately put the TFA ideas into implementation, surprisingly they did not work. She is doing a few inclusion classes and the teachers she work with are having a real hard time. So the question is "Was she adequately prepared for the job?" In my opinion NO! How could someone with only a summer's worth of training be prepared to take on the role of a special educator. I mean how many IEP's has she actually seen or how many kids did she actually get to work with before starting. I am not saying that the TFA program is always bad, we do have two science teachers who are doing a banging job.
Also at the high school my school feeds into, they placed a TFA in an MOID classroom! Now how can anyone validate that this is ok? There are so many issues that go on day to day how can this TFA ever be ready? Does he truly understand mental retardation? When i spoke with him at the beginning of the year he said all he was told was that he would be teaching special ed, not MOID. So where is the justification? Please show me! ALL SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE A DEGREE IN THE FIELD OR HAVE ADEQUATE EXPERIENCE! I am sorry if you disagree with me, but it is how I feel. Would you trust your child to a nurse or doctor who only had a summers worth of training or one who just passed a test? I definitely would not! Please leave you comments and thoughts!
Addendum!!!!
I want to clarify that I do not think that there are any teachers who are excluded from my above post. There are some people out there who do have a knack and can pick up quickly, I just do not feel that it is the majority.Of course someone who is familiar with special ed by way of teaching experience, having a child who is disabled etc, would have an easier time. I am talking about the people who are completely new without exposure.

First weeks of School!

Wow! Have I been busy or what!? So the first week seemed to go buy smooth as can be and then the 2nd week hit! I had a re-evaluation due the 4th week but my boss could only hold it the 2nd, so I had to scramble to collect all needed information. Then I had been Brigancing one of my new students and started to discover that she was functioning on a much higher level than expected. She came from a private school and therefore did not have a placement or eligibility.So i brought this to the attention of my boss and a quick eligibility meeting was scheduled for that Friday. Then Tuesday after school my boss tells me it has been moved to the next morning! Great. Love the time to prepare! So at the meeting it was determined after looking at all of her testing and performance that she was not MOID but in fact Severe Learning Disability, so she was moved! Then the flue started to spread through the school like wildfire. I have had a few kids seem ill but not stay at home. I had one child who had severe diarrea yesterday and tried to clean it up but ended up getting it all over himself. Also, 4th week into school my students schedules had not been completed. None of my kids were scheduled for any general ed interaction other than homeroom! I could go on and on but I am sure you all have your own stories and worries!

GAA website help

Below are a few websites that might assist with the GAA:
1. Adapted Learning
2. Non-reader recipes
3.News-2-you.com $ but so worth it
4.Unique Learning Systems
5.GAA Resource Board
6.helpkidzlearn.com
7. Phonics skills
8. Roy the Zebra
9. Reading

If you have a good one let me know please!

Georgia Alternate Assessment Quick Tips

I have recieved numerous emails from Georgia teachers about the hardships of the GAA. I have gathered a few tips to help.
1. Visit the GAA website and read everything!!! GAA website click here and add to favorites
2. Read your manual like it is your personal bible. It tells you everything!
3.Plan! Plan! Plan! Use the planning sheet provided in the manual. Get a poster and recreate the planning sheet, this will allow you to have space.
4. Make a planning sheet for each student and organize by grades.
5. Read the ojectives and elements thouroughly. Some are long and detailed. AVOID THESE! Choose elements that dont require to many factors. For example: do not choose an element like this: identify rhyme and rhythm, repitition, similies and sensory images in poems. Why? You will have to address each of these components to acheive level 3 fidelity to standard. Choose simple: identify the speaker of poem OR story.
6. Create a calendar! Stick by this religously, this will decrease build up in the end.
7. Manufactor 1st page of entry sheets before you start activities and fill in the 2nd page as you complete the activities.
8. Create a "standard" annotation page. There needs to be annotations for each activity and I have found it easy to just fill in the who, when, where, how.... on a standard sheet. Plus in the end, it will be easiest for the evaluator to read so they do not have to search for the needed information.
9. When looking for elements, try and find ones that can cross grade levels. For example: I teach 6-8th and I try and choose elements that are listed in all grades. "Asks relevant questions" is a LSV element listed in all 3 grades.
10. When you create your planning sheet, go ahead and identify at least 3 instances when the student is performing in differnt settings and at least 3 of when they are interacting with their non-disabled peers.
11. Make sure activity is grade-level appropriate.VERY IMPORTANT! huge issue evaluators look for.
12. Finally, be creative! The more creative you are the more fun you will have! Each child can learn, you all know this but sometimes it can be hard but it can be done. Get advice from other teachers if you are stuck or you can email me.

I hope this shed at least a little bit of help. Please comment and let me know if it did. Also if you have any other tips please let me know, I WILL post them! Thanks you :)

Back to School!

So the summer has ended for us teachers and it is time to return to school. Is everyone ready? I know I will never be ready. My classroom has moved and is still awaiting a bathroom to be built. Luckily all of my students are returning which is very exciting to me. I want to wish all of my readers good luck in the new school year!

As of today I have had 1,000 visitors! Thank you everyone!