Hope you have a nice weekend and check out our combined blog: Teacher Chat. Ann posted some resources about iPad apps and I posted an informative video about the genetics of autism. Don't forget to check the site often for calendar updates and events. Thanks!
This week the 5 point scale work continued. Some of the kids continued coloring and labeling their scales while others I was able to take pictures of for each number of the scale. The first graders worked on sharing and joint attention with one another and peers. In my second and third grade group we spent quite a bit of time playing with the iPad camera to make our scales. Those should come home next week. I also read the book, "It's Okay to Make Mistakes" by Todd Parr. I love his illustrations and simple messages of tolerance. I talked about how everyone, including me and all adults, make mistakes. I even was conscious of goof ups with schedules and spelling errors to point mine out and say, "look what I just did! I made a mistake! Am I in trouble? Do you still love me?" The kids seemed to have fun watching me be imperfect! We talked about good and poor ways of handling mistakes. I showed them how I didn't blame anyone else for my errors. The older kids and I also tried an activity from "Cultures of Thinking", which is to make our thinking visible (a win-win) called "Chalk Talk". There were four questions I asked the kids to answer on chart paper with a marker. They rotated through alone to have privacy to answer. Here were the questions I asked 2nd/3rd grade: What behaviors are expected?, What do I remember about Social Detective?, How do I make a friend?, and What do I need Ms. McQuillan to help me with this year? Their answers were pretty spot on and self-reflective for being open-ended questions. It was great to see them try and expose them to a thinking strategy that is part of a model of thinking the district is adopting. I'm excited to watch their skills with this type of questioning grow.
Hope you have a nice weekend and check out our combined blog: Teacher Chat. Ann posted some resources about iPad apps and I posted an informative video about the genetics of autism. Don't forget to check the site often for calendar updates and events. Thanks!
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This week we reviewed the numbers, colors, and meanings of our 5 point scale. The kids colored a voice scale and a scale to take home for numbers regarding stress, frustration, and happiness. Some of the younger students and I began to label pictures of children displaying different faces. We also began to use the app, "Model Me Kids" with 4 emotions. We looked at happy and played the song that goes along with it as well as sad. The kids had to request playing the song again and repeat the emotion we were working on. The kids have started their MAP testing, DRA testing, and some grade level assessments. Our room was also used as a "testing center" and that worked well. Testing continues this week.
I will be starting my class talks with the general education classes, which our kids do not take part in, but instead take a sensory break or game break while I push in. I explain with the general education teachers how our kids learn differently and how peers are some of the best helpers. We go over strategies the kids can use to cue each other and what they can do to enhance friendships in their class and reduce bullying behavior. We tie this into our Leader In Me initiative as well. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. Since the beginning of the program at Lakewood class talks give children transparent information which helps them understand different learners and has reduced negative behaviors towards our students. This also displays a team mentality for the kids between their gen ed teacher and myself. They see that she and I have the same expectations and will be upholding the same expectations as well as a "no tolerance" bullying policy. Kids are human and make mistakes, so this is not a perfect system, but it takes some of the secrecy out of our program while maintaining confidentiality. Mrs. Reece and I are committed to this process and enjoy the relationships we see being built throughout the year. We also are always touched at the compassion displayed and showed to our staff as kids "toot their own horns" by telling us how they included our kids, lent a helping hand, or did the right thing because they knew it was the right thing to do. The best is when the gen ed teacher toots their horn and the peer didn't know anyone was watching. Those are great moments we love experiencing. Don't forget the fun run on Friday! Have a great week everyone! The second week brought the addition of working in our social groups. For second graders Mrs. Reece and I decided that it made sense to combine second and third graders and have me teach that group. For first graders we will be making time to work on games with Mrs. Szalay and some peers as well as working 1-1 to meet first grade needs individually. It was great to begin our data notebooks this week. We started keeping track of our attendance. We will be adding a reading goal and tracking our reading levels. Kids will also be tracking their social goals from our IEPs and learning about what they need to work on. This will give them ownership of what to work on. This Thursday is our picture day and our curriculum night. Mrs. Reece and I will be presenting a slideshow about our program and focus. If you are interested in attending you can choose the first session and then head to your grade level for their presentation, or vice versa. We hope to see everyone there! Also, I will be out Friday afternoon. I am going to be one of the representatives for the special education cohort in the process of new teacher evaluations. We will be looking at how to best track student growth for a variety of learners as a district. This process is 3 or 4 dates throughout the year. I am excited to look at how we differentiate progress for students. I hope all of those germs have gone away for a while! Sorry to those of you who had sick little ones. Wow! We made it! What an awesome first week! I couldn't have asked for more from the gang. They tolerated change after change. From a new lunch/recess set up, new classrooms, new teachers, a new art teacher, and new classmates, they rocked it! The first week we do not pull kids for social skills groups (so many new procedures and routines to learn) and as a school we are trying to iron out specials schedules. We share specials teachers and most of our support staff with other buildings, so there are always kinks to work out. Next week, I will begin my groups and we will move more solidly to a new routine. Speech, PT, and OT have all been in and spent time reviewing schedules and paperwork along with interacting with the kids. Mrs. Brower has been in to say hi and check on us, too. Stay tuned for weekly blogs about topics covered as well as Teacher Chat for resources. If you have any resources you found valuable and want to share with other parents (a YouTube clip, article, piece of research, organization, etc.), please feel free to pass it along. Parents can really help one another this way. Hug your kid, they were my SUPERHERO this week~ |
Megan McQuillan
Megan McQuillan is the lower elementary teacher in the ASD program Archives
June 2017
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