Life Skill Lessons

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Functional Academic

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Life Skill Portfolio

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Birth date

My Zone Coordiantor and I met with the High School and Middle School MH/SH teachers this morning. They LOVED the idea of the portfolio, collaboration meetings, and Life Centered Career Education program.

Next post is the PDF of the cover page. I sent the portfolio pdf to the Director so her assistant could begin making our binders. The Zone coordinator said that her assistant will keep them at the Zone Office and will make labels for the side of each binder with the student’s name. 

Also, they loved the LCCE program. And can’t wait to get their hands on their own copy.

One of the High School teachers wants to start using the portfolio with each of her students immediately (which is my plan). This is awesome since the request was for them to use it with at least one student this year.

This program is truly best practice for our students. We are all very excited about it all.

As donors and donation come in from the donorschoose.org and adopt-a-classroom websites, I’ve decided to make a photo card with a picture of the students on it to send to them. I thought that I could said something like “Thank you for make our classroom wishes come true”

I found some adorable (but not too young) ones at Target. They are $5.99 for 10 cards at Target.

I think we are just going to have to do it!

Adopt-A-Classroom invites the community into the classroom  in support of teachers  and their students.   By   adopting   a   classroom,  donors form   partnerships   with   specific   classrooms providing   financial   and   moral   support.   The result is a meaningful contribution to education in  which  donors experience the impact of their efforts and celebrate in a classroom’s success.

Copy & Paste the link to my “homeroom” page

http://www.adoptaclassroom.com/adoption/Locator_Adopt_donate.aspx?src=search&Private=0&inter=0&state=CA&city=Costa%20Mesa&SchoolId=89833&ClassroomID=74467

I just found out that while one of my paraprofessionals is out on sick leave (for the whole year) instead of retiring, I will have to have a sub paraprofessional for the 1:1 position for a blind student. The good news is that the District thought that they would have to send me a paraprofessional when they are not needed at their official school (so there would be days with no one) but they have a full time sub for me. The bad news is that she was my paraprofessional 5 years ago and I had stopped wanting to come to work back then. I’m really struggling with the fact that she has the union rights to stay in my classroom and I have no rights to have her removed. I’ve already written to my principal, the coordinator of special education in charge of paraprofessional placement and the HR director of classified and the final word this afternoon was that she HAS to come to me.

This morning after our staff meeting, Coach V, one of our math teachers approached me. He will be teaching a life skills class this year as an elective. He asked me if we could find at least one day a week for our classes to work together. I love when teachers approach me for inclusion.

The bonus news is that I only have 1 paraprofessional for the first ½ hour of the day and this is the time that he wants to work with me.

Dear D, 

           I spoke with Laura on Tuesday after my Genesea training about the materials you had purchased for me this summer to review. She was very enthusiastic about the idea.

        We discussed potential ways to use these materials in our district. After some discussion about different options it made sense to start with the TeWinkle (7^th & 8^th grade) moderate and severe classroom and since the make up of the High School has changed its classes to true Moderate/Severe classrooms, we felt that it would be beneficial to have all of them use this program. This would give a consistency for these programs in the secondary level with the idea to bring the 6^th grade teachers on board next year. Laura and I discussed the buy-in difficulties we might have with the elementary classrooms until it “proves” itself (as it will this first year at the middle school and the high school).

            We also discussed that best practice to implement this program would be to have team meetings once a month with the middle school and the high school (and mid-way through the year invite the 6^th grader teachers to join in). I plan to contact Jennifer, as she is the “veteran” teacher of the program at the high school to explain the concept, get her buy in and then set up an initial meeting of the teachers to explain it to all of them. We would then set up one Friday a month to meet at the high school during their collaboration time (they start earlier then TeWinkle and we could still be back on campus by the time our students get here).

            What we need from you to support this program is a copy of the Life Centered Career Education: Modified Curriculum for Individuals with Moderate Disabilities (you can get this from CEC) per teacher (total of 5 books needed as I already have one) and a portfolio for each student in these programs in a 3-ringed view front binder. (71 students)

            This is very exciting and I can’t wait to get the process started. This is going to bring some consistency and continuity into our programs which is Best Practice for all of us. Thank you for all your support in the conclusion of my thesis and the pursuit of what is right for our students.

Thanks again,

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have just finished my Master’s Program. My bound “project” is called Connecting the Curriculum to the Community: Building a Productive Lifestyle for Adults with Moderate Disabilities. The basic conclusion that I found is that (of course) students do better with a cohesive curriculum to learn from. When teachers is left to decided what they find important to teacher (and then teach) that, there is no consistency from year to year with in a program. This has been the feeling I have had from my current program.

This summer I had asked the Director of Special Education for a little fund to buy some potential materials to examine. She said yes. After reading through them this summer, I had a meeting with her last week to discuss my “project” and the materials. What I found was both a Career Education curriculum and a Portfolio system to streamline the teaching in the Moderate and Severe classes in our District. The Director liked the idea but wanted the buy in of the Coordinator for these programs.

I met with the Coordinator this past Tuesday and she TOO LOVED the idea. This is going to add more adjunct responsibilities to my plate (with no extra $$) but I am finding that my passion is falling into teacher education and curriculum development. This new responsibility will allow me to work in both these areas. Wish me luck

A few years ago, I went to an Autism training and received a bag like this one. I have modified it and know give it out to my trainees. I have put on two trainings in two days for our District web-based IEP program…Hope you like the Survival Kit

What the stickers says…and what’s inside

something Chewy…Laughy Taffy

something Choclaty…Tootsie Roll

something Minty…Life Saver

something Sweet…Nerds

A Pencil

A Highlighter

A Fidget

On Friday night, while at the Tom Petty concert, I realized that I have a Master’s class on Monday afternoons that starts 15 minutes after my school day ends and is 15 minutes away. This does not take into account that I’m supposed to get my students on the bus. So after a quick panic, I talked myself down and told myself that I could deal with it later.

The only reason I’m stressing about this is 1) I’m down a full time aide this year 2) I have a student who is medically fragile and has a full time nurse (who last year caused problems with the teacher and family)

The next day, I was a little calmer because I figure my students can go to the library for “story” time on Mondays. Last year we went on Tuesdays for a whole period. This way my students would be with a credentialed teacher and my one paraprofessional would not be alone.

Today, Monday, I find out that my librarian has left our school. We don’t know if we will start the year with a librarian or is s/he will be willing to work with my class each week.

So my issue returns. I sent out an email to my paraprofessionals to see what suggestions they had. One of my paraprofessionals, who I’ve mentored into a moderate/severe teacher credential program, suggested that she would be willing to get her substitute teaching credential so that we would be legally covered by her credential if I was to leave early on those days. I told her that I really appreciated it but that I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her for those 15 minutes, alone with all 12 students. The chance are that the new nurse might be helpful and I could possibly have a full time sub-paraprofessional for mine that is out this year but I still felt that was a lot of responsibility for her to take on.

But she’s eager and willing to do it…so now I just need to get my principal’s approval.

What wonderful paraprofessionals I have! Boy am I lucky. Cross your fingers I get approval and then I don’t need to drop this LAST class for my Master’s.