Engaging Students: Working in an SDC class can be challenging to keep students engaged and on task. Art is one area where the students seem to universally respond and stay focused for prolonged periods of time. Taking advantage of this by, including fine motor and art tasks in to curriculum. Using activities such as directed drawing, or find and color to help students develop listening skills and following directions.
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| Student Research Outlines |
Research Projects: As part of upper grade standards, students are tasked with learning how to research and present topics. I was able to combine the students love of art projects to this standard by having students work together to research a planet, make a paper mache planets, then present their planet to the class. After the presentations the class worked together to help arrange the planets in order and my aide and I hung them in the classroom. The students are proud to show their projects to everyone who enters the classroom.
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| Student Planets |
DioRamas: Throughout all topics taught I do my best to make the content come alive for students. A student favorite was a performance task on story elements and summaries, in place of a unit test. Once we reached the end of the unit, I
took scenes from the chapter book we had read as a class, adjusted the language to better fit students learning levels, then tasked students with identifying each of the main story elements in the chapter section, which they built upon to write a summary and create a 3-D diorama to pair with their summaries.
took scenes from the chapter book we had read as a class, adjusted the language to better fit students learning levels, then tasked students with identifying each of the main story elements in the chapter section, which they built upon to write a summary and create a 3-D diorama to pair with their summaries.
Science: When we returned to the classroom after a year of distance learning I wanted to show my students WHY we were being so strict on hand washing, not sharing items and general cleaning. This lead to the question: Does hand-sanitizer clean as effectively as soap and water?
1. Students swabbed their hands upon returning from recess
2. I applied hand-sanitizer to right hands only, then swabbed students right hands.
3. Students washed both hands with soap and water for 30 seconds, dried them and last swabbed left hands.
Results: While hand sanitizer will clean your hands, it is NOT as effective as soap and water.
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| Petri Dishes 72 Hours Incubation |
Experiment 2: Students were then tasked with HOW clean was our classroom? They were given pre-divided petri dishes and directions to pick 8 items or places to swab in our classroom to see how clean it was. They were pleasantly surprised to see that items such as desks, chairs and doorhandles grew no bacteria, while phones, computers and the drinking fountain had a plethora of bacteria growth. Ultimately the students are more aware of their environment and why we are taking extra steps to clean during the pandemic.
Must Have SPED resources: There are infinite resources available to the modern teachers. Technology provides access to teaching strategies and methods from around the world to help support students in a multitude of ways. My top 3 resources, may be a bit of a cliche but seem to always be my go to in a pinch.
1. Teachers Pay Teachers - There is such a variety of available resources that it is always my starting point. Even if I can't find something exactly like what I want or need, there is generally SOMETHING that is a good foundation and easy to edit to match what I need. Start with the free materials and work up from there. Some day I will browse with the intent of finding inspiration or a different approach. Click Here
2. Break Room - If there is one thing I learned this year it is the importance of taking care of emotional needs BEFORE learning can take place. I was accustomed to building brain breaks into lessons, but struggled with this during Distance Learning. I was beyond thankful when a fellow teacher shared her virtual break room with me. I was able to adapt it to fit me and my students better, and the links to various resources I would update with new material to help keep it from getting boring for students.
2. Break Room - If there is one thing I learned this year it is the importance of taking care of emotional needs BEFORE learning can take place. I was accustomed to building brain breaks into lessons, but struggled with this during Distance Learning. I was beyond thankful when a fellow teacher shared her virtual break room with me. I was able to adapt it to fit me and my students better, and the links to various resources I would update with new material to help keep it from getting boring for students.
Template Copy - Replace bitmoji's and resource links to make it your own :)
3. Live School - I love live School, it helps me track student behaviors and support our schools PBIS. It also gives students the immediate feedback for their behaviors and monitor themselves. Frequently they will check themselves as soon as they hear the "womp womp" of a negative behavior being noted. The weekly paychecks allowed me to keep parents in the loop of how their child was that week, and let students track their progress. Students were able to develop a sense of responsibility and understanding of how hard work pays off. Click Here