Classroom Organization Tips To Make Your Day Run Smoothly

Does anyone else delude themselves with thinking that this will happen?  LOL!  In all seriousness though, having your classroom well organized does make the day run more smoothly.  When your teaching materials are organized and everyone knows where everything is, it increases engagement in your students and you or you assistants don't waste any instructional time looking for needed materials.  

A reader recently asked, "How could I organize my room better so that materials are more easily accessible for my students and assistants."  Today I am going to answer this question by sharing some ways I organize teaching materials in my room.

Colour Coding

I know I am not the first teacher to do this, but I love assigning each of my student's a colour.  Not only does it help the students to understand which cubby, which schedule, etc. is theirs, it also helps staff to know which teaching materials to belong to each student.  My students are all at different cognitive levels and their teaching materials are individualized for their goals.  By colour coding their teaching materials, my assistants don't inadvertently use materials that are too hard or too easy for any particular student.   

Visual Supports

The easiest way to ensure that you always the visual supports you need handy is to post them around the classroom.  In each area of my room, I have velcroed choice boards, first/then boards and token boards to the walls or furniture.  I also make sure that these are kept with our SMART Board and in each of the student's DTT bins.  No matter where we are working in the classroom, these visuals are within reach when we need to use them with the students.

Centers

For my math and language arts centres, I organize the teaching materials in numbered bins.  We have two centres that the students rotate through, there is a bin for Table 1 and a bin for Table 2.  We have language arts in the morning, so those bins are kept on the top shelf and math in the afternoon, so those bins are on the bottom shelf.  Table 1 is teacher time, where the students receive direct instruction.  At this table, they complete a worksheet and do discrete trials for their math and language arts IEP goals.  To keep staff and students organized at this table, each student has a duo tang in their assigned colour with the worksheets they are to complete for the week.  I also have a teacher binder at this table which contains the students' teaching materials, any visual prompts the students may need, and data sheets.  The binder is colour coded using dividers and plastic pouches I found at the Dollar Tree.

For Table 2 during language arts, the students work on word games, spelling or reading comprehension.  All of the tasks at this table are for independent practice.  Because all of my students are working at different levels, I keep their materials in these plastic binder pouches I found at the Dollar store.  And again they are colour coded, making it easier for staff and students.

For Table 2 during math, the students play math games or complete work independently.  I organize each activity in a ziplock bag with all the materials the students need to complete it.  The students choose which activity they want to complete on their own.

Reinforcers

For my students, reinforcement is just as important as visual supports.  Some of my students use a token economy system, while others still require tangibles such as edibles or toys.  We keep these small containers in the students' DTT bins, for those who work for edibles and also in our center area and at the SMART Board for group and whole class lessons.  We have a cupboard at the back of the room where we keep bins of edibles to restock these containers and another cupboard where we keep toys and other tangibles.  Both staff and students know where these cupboards are located and what they contain inside!

For those students who use a token economy system, we keep token boards in their DTT bins, at the SMART Board and in our center area as well.  We also teach the students to carry their token boards with them from activity to activity if they haven't earned enough tokens in one activity.  We have one student who is a collector and likes to work for multiple toys at once.  For him, we have a bin which has velcro dots on it for his tokens and inside are the toys that he is working for and a timer.  We have taught him to carry this bin around the room and when he earns enough tokens, we set the timer and he gets 3-5 minutes of play time with the toys.  When the timer goes off, he puts the toys back in the bin, or chooses new toys and we re-start his token board.

 Community Supplies

I have found it easier to have community supplies in my classroom rather than each student having their own pencil case.  To ensure we have what we need in each area of the room, I bought pencil cases that are meant to go inside binders, so I can hang them in different areas of the room.  We teach students where they are located and to go get them when they need them for their work.  We also have a shelf where we store extras which is in our center area and easily accessible by staff and students.

Augmentative Communication

Most of my students are non-vocal and use AAC systems to communicate.  They have a home base which is in the middle of the classroom beside their visual schedules.  While we teach them to carry their AAC device with them, they are still kids and sometimes leave them in another area of the classroom.  To encourage students to use them as much as possible, we all have a symbol on our lanyards for their AAC device which we show them as a cue to go it.  We have also started using core boards, so we have these posted around the classroom.  That way, if a student doesn't have their personal AAC system with them, they have another way to communicate.

Do you have any awesome organizational tips to share?  I'd love to hear them!  Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time,

Running DTT in Groups

A few weeks ago, a reader asked if it was possible to conduct discrete trial training in pairs or small groups.  Well, the answer is YES!  One of the myths about DTT is that it has to be conducted one-on-one and I think that this causes a lot of teachers to avoid using it as they don't have the staff to provide one-on-one DTT sessions throughout the day.  I am fortunate in my classroom to have 3 staff members and 5 students.  I can't provide one-on-one instruction all day long, but with creative scheduling, I can fit in short one-on-one DTT sessions.  But, these short sessions (usually 20-30 mins) does not provide enough instruction or practice for my students with severe ASD.  So, we have to group students for DTT sessions and we also embed discrete trials into our math and literacy centres.   

There have been several studies that indicate that you can run discrete trials in pairs, small groups and even larger groups, however I have only ever conducted discrete trials with a maximum of 3 students.  Most of the discrete trial sessions in my classroom occurs in pairs.  Before you try to conduct dyad or small group DTT instruction, you want to make sure the instructors are properly trained in providing DTT.  Once they demonstrate competency in running DTT sessions one-on-one with a student, then you can have them try it with a pair of students.  Running effective discrete trial training takes time to learn, lots of practice and a high level of organization.       

My amazing EA Kathy running discrete trials with two of my students.

1)  Knowing When Your Students Are Ready

Just as you want to make sure your staff are ready to try small group DTT instruction, you also want to ensure your students are ready.  Good indicators of this readiness include the ability to stay at the table for upwards of 15 mins during one-on-one DTT sessions or other group lessons.  You also want to make sure that they have good attending skills.  If you have difficulty gaining and maintaining a student's attention for a short period of time (5 mins) during one-on-one instruction, then this student is most likely not ready for dyad or small group instruction.  Finally, the student should have low frequencies of excessive or disruptive behaviours.  If you student exhibits mid to high frequency behaviours, such as loud vocal noise (screaming/yelling), aggressive or self-injurious behaviours, then they are not ready for group based DTT.  Lastly, the students should have repertoire of mastered tasks that they can do independently.

2)  Groupings 

When making your groups for this type of instruction, you will want to put students together who have the same or similar goals.  This will make it easier for you to organize teaching materials and run the trials.  You also want to make sure that they get along.  If you have two or three students, like I do, that aggravate or target each other, you will want to avoid putting them in the same group.  And finally, consider the type of reinforcers the students like.  I have found that is it easier to group students who have similar tastes in the edibles they like or are able to use token economy systems.  When running group based DTT, I avoid using toys or pairing students who like the same toy as this usually ends up in a fight over that toy.  It makes the instruction run much more smoothly if you can use edible reinforcers or tokens as they are quick to deliver and disappear quickly so you can carry on with instruction at a good pace.

3)  Organization 

When you group students together who have the same or similar goals, it makes organizing your teaching materials so much easier.  In this post, I shared how I organize my DTT area of my room, including how I organize teaching materials.  When setting up materials for dyad or group DTT, I put all of the students materials in one bin.  If we are using flashcards, I put them in a baggie and label the baggie with the goal number so it's easy to locate.  

Discrete Trial Learning Kit:  Letters

If we are using cards that have a choice of answers on them that the students point to, I make sure that both of the students targets for that goal are in those cards.  We usually put these cards on a binder ring, so that it's easy to flip to the next card.  

Assessment Rings from Erin from Creating & Teaching

Assessment Rings from Erin from Creating & Teaching

We use a lot of visual prompts with my students, and found the easiest way to organize them is to put velcro them to choice boards.  Then when we are teaching that skill and we need to use a visual prompt, the one we need is easy to locate and hold up quickly.

If you're using token boards with your students during dyad or group DTT, it's easy to organize the tokens.  If you're using edibles, it can be more complicated unless you store them in containers like these.  These little containers have several compartments and make it easy to store a variety of edibles (based on your students' preference) in them.  

4)  Running Trials 

Now that you have everything organized, you're ready to teach!  There are three ways that we run discrete trials in groups.  The first method is to have students take turns in responding.  I personally prefer this method as it allows me to stay organized and keep a good pace of instruction.  When using this method, you are presenting trials on the same goal to every student in the group and you present the trial one at a time to each student.  For example, if we are working on identifying numbers, I would present Kathy's trial to her, then present Dan's trial to him and then Tim's trial to him.  While I am running the trial with one student, the others are sitting and waiting for their turn.  This method allows you to present each student's particular target to them and allows them to respond at their current level, eg., receptively by pointing to the target or expressively by vocalizing the target.  The video below demonstrates this method.

The second method is called chorale responding, which I am sure you are all familiar with!  Basically, you present the trial and the students in the group all respond at the same time.  This is a great method to use when you trying to teach students to look to their peers to know how to respond or what the correct response is.  The final method I use in my classroom is to have some students work on a mastered or independent activity while you run discrete trials with another student in the group.  We use this method during our math and literacy centers, when students only have one or two goals they are working on that require discrete trial instruction.

5)  Data Collection 

It wouldn't be DTT without data!  But how do you collect accurate data during group based DTT?  I'll be honest with you, this is something that I am still struggling with.  I haven't found a method that I like and that is easy enough so all the staff in my room can run the trials, keep the kids on task and engaged and collect data at the same time.  But, I do have a few options that we have used to share with you.  I'll start with the easiest.  We use this data sheet from Christine Reeve's Taming the Data Monster book during math and literacy centers.  Because we only running discrete trials with one student at a time, it's easy to take the data on that individual student's responses.  I have a binder with each student's data sheet in and their teaching materials for DTT that I keep in the bin that is used for that center.  Staff simply have to pull our the binder, flip to that student, pull our the teaching materials, run the trials and collect the data.  Easy peasy!

Christine Reeve Discrete Trial Training Data Sheet

Another data sheet we have used with dyad DTT is similar to the first data sheet, but has space for staff to collect data on two students for the same goal.  As this one isn't self-graphing, you need to graph the data on a separate sheet.

The third option we have used is another one from Christine Reeve's book, which she calls a "Naturalistic Data Sheet".  We use this one during whole class lessons, but have also adapted it to use when running group DTT.  This one is especially useful when all the students are working on the same goal and for chorale responding.  It has room for up to five students and five goals per student.

Christine Reeve Naturalistic Data Sheet

Do you run dyad or group based DTT in your classroom?  What are you best tips?  Have any data sheets I might find useful?  Please share with me!  

Until next time,

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! To show my appreciation for all of you, I have teamed up with some great SPED sellers to host a giveaway! One person will win an Erin Condren Planner and $130 Gift Card to TPT!!!  Good luck and thanks for all you do!

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Tech Tips for iPads

For special education teachers around the world, iPads open up a world of possibilities.  I have been using iPads with my students for 5 years now and am still learning about of all the features on them!  I love using iPads with my students because of the number of wonderful tools built into the system.  The accessibility options are perfect for a special education classroom like mine.  But, I am guessing that some of you, like me didn't know they existed or how to use them.  I have compiled a list of 20 tips and tricks to help you in using iPads in the most effective way with your students.

1)  Protective Cases

Before you start using iPads with your students, I would suggest you do some research and get the appropriate protective case.  My students are rough on iPads and I know that they will be dropped, stepped on and thrown.  We invested in Otterbox cases because of their durability and the lifetime warranty that comes with them.  If the case gets broken, simply take a picture and send it to the Otterbox company and they will send you a new case free of charge! Other cases that I like are Griffin Survivor, Gumdrop, iGuy and Big Grips.

2)  Labelling the iPads

Each of my students have their own iPad that they work on.  They contain specific apps for that student to use to work on IEP goals and reinforcing apps that are geared to the student's individual preferences.  In order to easily identify which iPad belongs to which student, I changed the desktop backgrounds.  All you need to do is go to Settings >  Wallpaper, and then tap wallpaper. From here, tap "Choose a New Wallpaper" to change the lock screen wallpaper and the wallpaper you'll see behind your app icons on your home screen.

3)  Apps, Apps and more Apps

There are a ton of great apps on in the App Store, some free and most at a cost.  It is easy to get overwhelmed or carried away with all the cool apps.  When I first got my iPads, I downloaded so many apps that I thought were great that we quickly ran out of storage space and the iPads were confusing to navigate.  My advice:  do some research and choose apps that are versatile or have many levels and get progressively more difficult so you can get more use out of fewer apps.  Some of my favourites are Bitsboard, Ready to Print, I Like Books, Special Numbers, and Special Words.  Also, look for apps that are customizable and allow you to enter your own content.

4)  Get Free Apps

We all have limited budgets, so when I can get things for free, it make my teacher heart happy!  Alligator Apps offers free apps, for a limited time, when you join their free app club.  You will receive emails notifying you when their apps are available for free.  Their apps are structured in a similar manner to running discrete trials, which are perfect for my students with ASD!

5)  Group Apps Into Folders

Variety is the spice of life!  I like to use a few different apps to work on the same skill to keep my students interested and engaged.  To make these apps easy to find and to declutter the home screen, I group them into folders.  To do this, touch and hold your finger on the app icon until you enter edit mode (the icons begin to jiggle). To make a new folder, drag the app icon on top of another one that you want in the same folder.  A new screen will appear with a suggested title at the top.  Tap the word and type to change it.  For existing folders, simply drag the app icon to that folder. 

6)   Download Previously Purchased Apps

As my students make progress, I often delete apps that they no longer use from their iPad.  When I get new students, however, I find that they need that particular app and I have to put it on their iPad.  Fortunately, I do not have to buy this app again.  I can simply go into the app store, tap on "purchased" at the bottom of the screen and see all of the apps that I have already purchased.  From there, I just tap on the cloud with the arrow and it downloads the app onto the iPad.

7)  Create Shortcuts

For students who cannot type on their own, I like to make shortcuts to their frequently used websites on the home screen.  To do this, tap on the Safari icon to open a webpage.  Type in the address and then tap on the box with an arrow beside the address box.  A menu of options will appear, tap "Add to Home Screen" and then "Add".  An icon for that website will appear on your home screen.

8)  Restrictions

Before you put an iPad in the hands of your students, you may want to turn on some restrictions.  I didn't know about setting restrictions when I first got my iPads and one day I had to delete 829 photos that one of my students had taken.  With restrictions, you can limit what your students have access to on the iPad, including the internet, camera, the iTunes and App stores to name a few.  To set restrictions, go to Settings > General > Restrictions.  You will have to enter your 4 digit passcode to enable restrictions.  From there, you just move the switch to turn certain features off.

9)  Guided Access

This has been a lifesaver in my classroom!  Sometimes, my students don't want to work on the app I want them to work on.  And being so smart, they know how to get out of the app.  But, thanks to guided access, they can longer get out of the app, until I decide they are finished!  To set up guided access, tap on Settings > General > Accessibility and then scroll down to find Guided Access.  Tap on it and then move the switch to turn it on.  Then tap on Passcode Settings to set the Guided Access Passcode.  Then select an app and triple-click the home button to turn Guided Access on.  You can also set Time Limits with alarms to let students know when their required time in a certain app is finished.  

10)  Create Instructions Using Screencasting

While iPads are very intuitive, sometimes I want to teach my students how use certain apps or features independently.  On of the best ways to do this is by creating a video model.  I have researched different ways to do this and the best method I have come across is by using an app called Reflector 2.  It allows you to mirror what's on your iPad to your Mac or PC and record what's happening on your iPad screen as well as audio of you talking or giving instructions.  It's a bit more work than I'd like, but it's the only app I have found that allows you to add audio.

11)  MultiTasking Gestures

Multitasking gestures can be useful, but I find that they really aren't that useful for most of my students as they have fine motor difficulties and use these gestures more by accident than purposefully.  Basically, these allow you to navigate your iPad a little more easily.  There are three main gestures involving 4 or 5 of your fingers to pinch to the home screen, swipe up to the app switcher and swipe left or right between apps.  If you want to use them, you can turn them on by going to Settings > General > Gestures and moving the switch to on.  You can do the same thing to turn them off.

12)  Limit Max Volume

I don't know about you, but some of my students like to play with the volume and crank to the highest level.  This can not only be annoying, but also damaging to their ears.  That's why I love that I can be in control of high the volume will go by setting a maximum volume level.  The first step in the process is to lower the maximum volume by tapping Settings and then scrolling down and selecting Music. Next, tap Volume Limit and pull down the volume slider to the maximum volume level you've decided on. Then, tap the back arrow until you're back at the main menu.  Then go to Restrictions and scroll down to where it says Volume Limit. Tap that, change it to "Don't Allow Changes" and then back all the way out to the main menu.

13)  Talk Instead of Type

I love this feature for my students who are not yet typing, but can speak clearly.  They can convey their thoughts by saying them and then the iPad will convert that to written language for them!  Use this feature to send emails, texts or write stories.  Simply, tap the Dictate buttonthe Dictate button on the keyboard and speak your words (including punctuation), then tap Done.

14)  Let The iPad Read For You

This is a great feature for kiddos learning to read.  The iPad can speak selected text, or the entire screen. Explore the options in Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech.

15)  Remove Webpage Clutter

Our students can get distracted, a lot!  This feature reduces distractions on webpages by getting rid of the ads.  Heck, I could use this feature!  The Reader in Safari makes articles easier to read by getting rid extraneous stimuli. When you see the Reader button in the search field, tap it to see just the text and photos — without ads.

16)  Quickly Open the Camera

Have you had a moment when you wanted to capture your student doing something, but it took too long to get to the camera and you missed it?  Well, this may help.  When iPad is locked, swipe up or left to access the camera, depending on your IOS.  Then you can take photos and videos and hopefully capture that special moment.  

17)  Find it Fast

Need to find an app fast?  Can't find it by scrolling?  Search your iPad, the Internet, nearby places, the weather, and more — from anywhere on your iPad. Just swipe down from the top of the screen to show Search.

18)  Close All Of Your Safari Tabs At Once

My students (and staff) have a bad habit of keeping a bunch of webpages open at the same time.  the one drawback of Safari is that it opens new tabs for webpages when you click on an external link on a page.  I have had 15+ tabs opened on an iPad at a time!  It's a pain to have close each one these individually.  Thankfully, you can just touch and hold the Pages button.the Pages buttonto close all of them at once.

19)  Quickly Find A Photo

Photos automatically identifies places and objects in your pictures, so you can search for them. You can search for beach or dachshunds, for example.

20)  Zoom In

There are a couple of ways to zoom in on pictures and print.  The first way is to double tap on the picture you want to zoom in on.  Zoom out by double tapping again.  The second way is to use your thumb and forefinger to pinch in and out.   

Do you have any cool tips or tricks?  Share them below!  Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time,

Cheap No Prep Work Tasks!

Happy Friday everyone!  It's my day to post on the We Teach SPED page and since it's Friday, I thought I'd keep it light and simple!  I have been seeing lots of awesome posts on work task systems and ideas lately and wanted to share some of my favourite cheap and quick no prep, well almost no prep tasks.

Paint Chip Tasks 

Tell me I am not the only teacher who goes to Home Depot with a big purse and fills it up with paint chips!  But who can resist free materials?!  Plus, there are so many different things you can do with them!  

Here are a few ways I use them:

• colour matching tasks; use clothespins and make it a fine motor task as well
• use as colour sorting mats with paperclips, pompoms, possible sticks, erasers
• cutting practice; you can get paint chips that have a number of lines from one to five, so you can increase the work load as the students progresses

 Put-In Tasks

These are so quick and simple to put together, but are great for working on fine motor skills, such as pincer grasp.  My favourites are ones made from recycled containers such as tea tins, chip cans and spice jars.  I also love using travel games from the Dollar Store for more difficult put in tasks.  What can be easier than opening a package to make a work task???

Life Skill Tasks

I love teaching my students functional skills that they will use for the rest of their lives.  I also love it when I find cheap materials to use to teach these skills.  I love it even more when I find cheap materials that are already packaged up as work tasks!  I found these tasks at my local Dollarama and Dollar Tree.  My students are using them to practice sorting cutlery, matching and screwing on lids (a great fine motor skill), packaging toothbrushes into containers and cutting food in a safe manner.

Dollar Store Finds

I know I am not alone when I get excited over finding a great deal on items to make work tasks.  This is one of my favourites:

All three boxes of these cards came in one package for just a $1.  That means you get three, no/low prep work tasks for $1!  You could make file folder games with these or do like I did and just throw them in a baggie/bin!  There are also 3 different skills to work on:  matching identical pictures, matching number to quantity and making words.  When get three decks of cards for $1, you get what you pay for.  The number matching game is missing the cards for the number 5 !

Well, that's it for me today!  I am off to have a nice glass of wine, eat some pizza and watch Netflix!  Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!