If I could invent anything....

My second panal question is out and ready to read. The question is " If I had unlimited resources what product would I invent to assist special education students?"  To my suprise, this question was very hard to answer!!! Following is my response to the question: You can also visit the website and view it there Weareteachers.com

When I first began my career as a special education teacher the hardest struggle for me was compiling resources to develop some sort of curriculum and plan for my students. The first day of teaching I walked into my classroom and it was an empty canvas. I had a desk, a couple of book shelves and a few adapted materials left over from the previous teacher. I was stumped and confused as to where to begin. I had these I.E.P.’s that had tons of objectives and no materials or lessons to pull from. So that year I jumped into the water head first and had to teach myself how to swim.
That year I was given $1000 to help me purchase materials for the class. Luckily I had a co-worker who helped me gather materials and choose the right programs for the kids. I found some money and time programs, I found some sight word programs and also some living skills lessons, but I soon found my money depleting rapidly. I was also lucky that the school had a lamination machine, for it became my best friend. I created a lot of teacher-made materials that year and to this day still use them frequently. As the years have passed my collection of materials, lessons and programs have grown and my classroom no longer looks bare. The hardest thing I find about teaching a special needs class now is the scheduling and lesson planning. General education teachers follow a unit plan set by the state standards and are given a text book to follow, special education low-incidence teachers are thrown to the wind to figure it out for themselves.
If I could invent a product for the special education classroom it would be a complete functional curriculum. The curriculum would cover: functional academics, self-care, motor skills, household management, living skills, non-verbal and oral communication, interpersonal skills, competitive job-finding skills and some leisure-time skills. The curriculum would come as a kit and you could choose which functional would be appropriate for your class, MID, MOID and SID/PID. Within the band the lessons and activities would be leveled as well. The lessons would be organized in a 2 week format and give the teacher a direction and model to follow. Materials and manipulatives (of course modifications will need to be made for some students) will be included. For example, in the job skills section, sorting activities, stacking activities and assembly line tasks would be included in the kit.
Special education materials are expensive and a teacher could spend well over a couple of grand each year buying materials that are accessible for our students. With this curriculum the teacher would have time to focus on the student and not on gathering and searching for materials. This would be a “one-stop-shop” for low-incidence teachers, lessons for all functional skills. Low-incidence classrooms have a lot going on and anything that could alleviate some stress would definitely be beneficial.


Let me know what you think!