Hello again, it’s been a while, but I’m back. Today I want to share what’s been going on with the student that I mentioned in the podcast. This is the student who has been diagnosed with Autism, but is demonstrating behaviors that are becoming more and more violent. She was recently suspended for hitting a teacher, but this week she was back in our classes. Today I had my first experience with her outbursts.

To go back a bit, we finally had some district help with the situation. Trying to get help from downtown, as you will find, is not always an easy task, but once the incidences starting becoming more violent, the distict started moving. What they did was hire an outside agency called CARD – Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.

They sent us a trained aide who will stay with the student throughout the day, following her to all her classes. Today, as I mentioned, the student had an episode in my class. Continue reading “Doing What is Best for a Student” »

Recently, we had a staff meeting where the principal was “encouraging” the staff to use more higher-level, more engaging lessons with the students. She especially was concerned about the use of wordsearches in the classroom. Evidently she had found a wordsearch left in the copier.

I use wordsearches.

But wait! I don’t use them like you may think. I totally agree that a wordsearch is a poor tool to use when trying to teach a concept or reinforce a lesson. They are basically a sit-down-and-don’t-bother-me activity. Lazy teachers use them as part of their lesson. Yes, I said lazy teachers. They have no real instructional value past the first grade, when they can be used as a spelling tool, I guess.

So why do I use them?

I’m glad you asked. Continue reading “When It’s OK To Use Wordsearches In The Classroom” »

Hello All,

Today I was part of a meeting called an IEP (Get used to being in a lot of meetings. I’m not a big fan of most meetings, but it’s part of the job.), and I noticed that there were a lot of abbreviations being thrown around. I thought it would be a little confusing for a new teacher, so I started writing some down. Here’s the list. These are only a few of the abbreviations that new teachers will encounter. I’ll add a more complete list in a later post.

FAPE - Free and Appropriate Education (This was new to me.)

IEP -  Individual Education Plan

SLP -  Speech and Language Program

BSP -  Behavior Support Plan

EL –  English Learner

ELD –  English Language Development

Stay tuned for more.

Thanks,

Sam

SuccessInTheClassroom.com