Underestimated

At the beginning of the year I collaborated with a 6th grade English teacher in order for one of my students to attend her class. We were convinced that this student knew more than we thought, but we honestly had no idea how much she was capable of. Due to sensory needs resulting from autism as well as only recently starting to use a high-tech AAC device to communicate, she had a hard time expressing herself until recently (it's still pretty hard). It almost feels like we are peeling away another layer of an onion each day as we discover more about how she learns and what she already knows.  Here are some highlights. 

• She started writing or defining words we never would have imagined she knew (embrace, entice, reveal, etc.).
• The class is reading Out of my Mind (a book about a girl who gets her first communication device). She enjoys laughing at her general education peers as they try to imagine how it would feel not to have a voice. 
• She wrote that she can relate most to a specific character in a book because the character feels lost.  
• She has started typing (as this will allow her to be more independent).  Although she still pushes down too hard on the keys (each letter is typed multiple times), her sentences are fluid and accurate. 
• When asked what type of book she was reading, she walked to a chart and pointed to autobiographical. 
• She got extremely frustrated when she didn't understand similes and other similar terms. She was mad at herself for not knowing, despite having never been taught. After a short tutorial (5-10 minutes), she was able to apply the information she learned. 
• We have realized she has a photographic memory.  She will glance at a page and then look away and read the text in her mind. This makes it easy to think she is not paying attention. As a result, she can read much faster than I can read. 
• The other day she was learning what connotations and denotations are .. I honestly don't remember what either of these terms refer to. I may need to attend 6th grade English again. 
• She answered social studies related questions - like info related to the Grand Canyon. 
• Our realization of how much she understands, allowed us to ask her questions related to a health issue she was experiencing and pass that information on to her mother.  

It hasn't all been easy. With the realization, for her, that there are higher levels of classes available, she is less willing to do work in my class. Additionally, she has had some major meltdowns in stores when we have gone into the community.  She has gotten extremely frustrated with herself when she doesn't understand a concept and has wanted to give up as a result. She doesn't grasp how to make friends. One girl who wanted to be her friend, started bossing her around (treating her like a small child), so she is no longer interested in that friendship.  It is a learning process. As a teacher, I am definitely being challenged in how to best provide for her education in the best possible way. She has come so far in just a few short months and I look forward to seeing how much she will learn by the end of this school year.  

Smarter than Me!

It can be a bit humbling when your student, who is considered to have a severe cognitive disability, proves to be smarter than you. Let me set the stage. In our classroom we have been doing some market math worksheets that encourage the use of the calculator to complete the problems. Students complete problems by referring to a page that has prices from a grocery store. They take these prices and add them together to find out the total cost of combined items from the grocery store using a calculator. 

A couple weeks ago when we were starting these pages, I was working with a student. He requires a hand helping hold his pencil steady when he is writing, but he does the actual movement. We were on the easiest sheet which just required reference the price page and writing down the price for items. He would start writing down the next price without even looking at the page. At which point I would stop him and make him find it physically on the page. However, this caused great frustration. It started to dawn on me that maybe he had memorized the page and was doing it from memory, so I tried to keep up. Later my instructional assistant was finishing up the same page with him and told him "I can't find it as fast as you." So, he started pointing to the menu price with his left hand, while writing with his right hand as if saying "here you go ... I'll help you find it since you're so slow."

Fast forward a few days and we were on to problems that required adding two items together. Most of us would look at the price list and put the prices in the calculator one at a time until we got the total to write down. This student just started writing on the answer blank. Of the 10 or so problems, he got 9 correct. All this without using the calculator and periodically referencing the price page (when he had forgotten a price). However, when we tried to video tape him doing the same thing for his parents, he got every answer wrong. He is one who will not perform for anyone else which can be ridiculously frustrating.

The lessons I am continuing to learn:
1. When a child refuses to look at the paper after a quick glance (price list, reading assignment, etc.) it might be that they have a photographic memory and are reading the list in their heads while looking into space.
2. When a child is frustrated, maybe it is because I am the one holding them back.
3. Forcing a child to use a calculator when they can do the problem in their head is ridiculous.
4. Don't be afraid to admit to a student that they can do the work faster and better than you can and ask for help.
5. When a student doesn't complete work successfully, it might not be because it is too difficult.

Blown Away

This week I have been blow away by several of my students. When I think about where they have come in just a few short weeks of school I am both excited and overwhelmed. I am excited because there is so much potential and some of my students are finally showing a desire to learn and interact with those around them. I am overwhelmed because my task of trying to unlock that potential has increased in difficulty considerably. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the responsibility that has been given me. I have three short years to try to unlock as much potential in these students as possible. I am thankful that this responsibility is not mine alone, but is shared with staff in my classroom, others in my school, student families, and friends.

Yesterday I saw a joy that is beyond the joy I usually see in my classroom. At one point, a student was running around my room, clapping his hands, and smiling in a way that lit up the entire room and had the adults in the room fighting back tears. All this from a text to mom .... here's the backstory.

I have spent the last several weeks completely frustrated by this student. He is so smart, yet chooses to pretend he isn't. For example, on day one of school he indicated he wanted to change from wearing pull-ups to underwear. This is not something we usually do on day one ... but we figured we would honor his wishes. Well, he stayed dry all day! Then in the coming weeks he would go into the bathroom right before lunch (multiple days) and choose to urinate in his pants while standing by the door in the bathroom.

He wanted help with everything and would act like he wasn't capable of doing anything on his own. I knew this was not true, as I had been in his elementary school classroom and spoken to his teacher. He seemed to thrive on the attention he got (negative or positive). When frustrated, instead of pushing through, he tended to just give up. One of the most frustrating things for us was seeing that he likely knew more than he pretended to know (he acted like he didn't know the alphabet or his numbers), but having a difficult time getting him to actually be willing to show us what he knew. 

To compound his challenges, he is non-verbal. Even so, he has an uncanny ability to express what he wants through signs, facial expressions, etc. He has started carrying a classroom communication device with him everywhere he goes (including taking it home in the evenings). He is quickly learning new words, of which his favorite are bike, mom, help, granola bar, hot dog, chocolate milk and bathroom. Each day seems to add at least one word to his expressive vocabulary.

This week has seemed to be a turning point for him.  We figured out that his greatest motivator is his mother. He loves to share things he does with his mom and is willing to work to make her proud. He will point to our cell phones when he is working to indicate that he wants us to send a picture to mom via the Seesaw app that we use in our classroom. His second greatest motivator is the exercise bike. He loves riding it and will work to earn classroom dollars for a chance to ride.

We work on spelling and dictation in small groups in our classroom. Up until yesterday, he had refused to participate. However, yesterday he sat at the desk and as I said letter sounds, he wrote the letter that made the sound. Due to physical challenges, he has to have someone provide some support over his hand when he writes. However, my instructional assistant providing the support was not the one moving his hand. He wrote every letter correctly. We then moved on to spelling words. He wrote each word that I said correctly as well. 

At the end of the day, he took his spelling paper out of his folder and stuffed it in his backpack. I then told him how proud of him I was for his work and proceeded to text his mom. As I was typing the message, I was reading it aloud so he knew what his mom would be receiving.

The message I sent included ".. worked great today. He wanted to bring home a paper we did today. ... As a result, we are realizing he knows how to read and spell." When I got to this part, he clapped his hands, got a HUGE grin on his face and started running around the room out of sheer excitement. I pulled him over and told him that we would continue trying to find out what he knows and making it harder so that he could keep learning. He took off running around the room again. I'm hoping he continues his quest for learning and doesn't go back to wanting the easy way out.

This was just another reminder of the power of positive reinforcement and not underestimating the potential of my students. Some of the hardest (and most rewarding) students I get to teach are those who refuse to do work if it is something they already know. It makes it extremely difficult to figure out where to start and what to work on next. Although I am overwhelmed at times, I am also really excited to see what this school year will bring in our lives.

A Voice for the Voiceless

Wow, I just realized I have not posted on my blog for a really long time (almost a year). Oops, I need to get on that more often.  It's been a rough start to the year, as I was sick for the last month. I got the flu and it has taken me three weeks to finally get my strength back. I am thrilled to be back at full strength and looking forward to what the rest of the school year holds! 

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know I have a specific passion for students who are non-verbal. Currently, I have five students who have limited speech. For these students, we introduce the use of a communication device for different aspects of communication (based on individual needs, strengths, and challenges).  

Last fall I attended a conference. During that conference a quote was shared that really touched me.  "If AAC learners only see symbols modeled for communication twice weekly for 20-30 minutes, it will take 84 years to have the same exposure to aided language as an 19 month old has to spoken language."  This really saddened and challenged me as a classroom teacher. I look at my students and don't want them to have to wait until they are 84 years old before they have the communication abilities of a 19 month old. As a result, I have been slowly trying to implement things in my classroom that will allow them to have practice, but also modeling from staff and other students, on a daily basis. 

I have created a Donor's Choose Project that would allow us to focus on communication in a couple different ways. First, it would allow us to really increase the modeling we do as staff in the classroom. Second, and even more important, it would allow students who don't have personal devices (or whose personal devices break) to have an iPad that is dedicated solely to their communication needs throughout the day. 

We have 9 days (until February 28th) to raise the additional $5600 needed. Please consider donating or passing this along to anyone you know who might be in a position to help and has a passion for students being given a voice.  Thank you! 

Surpassing the Teacher

One of my students continues to surpass me in his knowledge of his communication device. Last year, at the beginning of the year, he was limited to 84 words. There is a setting on the device that prevents anyone from making changes without a password. Until recently, we activated this setting because we were afraid of what he would do to break his device (as this has happened in the past).
However, he has also recently learned how to add words to his device. He especially enjoys adding science words from the general education science class he attends each day.  One time when we were adding words, I forgot to lock his device again.

This gave him the opportunity to play around with the settings. He changed the location of a specific button. Recently, I have found him switching between several different "languages" in the device. He likes the jokes from one, the pictures from another, the words he already knows in the one we use mostly in class, the extra number of words available in a more complex interface, and the word prediction in another. He keeps switching back and forth between interfaces as he communicates.

In April, a consultant, from the company who makes the device, is going to come to our class and help us customize his device. Her knowledge of the device far exceeds my knowledge. We are going to try to give him access to the parts he likes and the possibility to add words, without the ability to delete the settings we customize. I am really looking forward to being able to have his device meet his needs even better than it already does. I am trying to get as much of this done this year, as he moves to the high school next year.

A Chance to Catch Up

One of my students has autism. Although he has trouble staying focused and is missing some social skills, he doesn't have major communication or sensory issues that impact his learning. This is his second year in my class. I keep finding that my assignments and activities are not challenging enough for him. He finishes work quickly and with ease, as long has he remains focused. 

I use technology a lot to meet the needs of individual students. One website we use for reading, Moby Max, progresses students through grade level material. At the beginning of the year I began all my students at a kindergarten level in Moby Max. I figured it would give students the opportunity to experience initial success in learning. 

A month ago this student maxed out Moby Max Literature. It showed him reading at an 8.8 grade level (although he is only in 7th grade). This level of reading is easily comparable to his peers in the general education setting. 

In speaking with his mother and my administrators, we decided to give him a chance to attend some general education classes. Starting the day after break, he will be attending a general education English, Math and Social Studies class. He is going to have to get used to having some homework. He is also going to have to get used to being challenged and maintaining focus. He will have to read for understanding and produce something related to what he has learned. I look forward to seeing how he does with these new challenges. I am really hoping he succeeds and can continue to be challenged more in the future!  

Swimming

As a class, we go out into the community to learn once each week. Last week we went to the YMCA to swim. I always enjoy swimming with my students. They love it and have gotten so much braver as they have opportunities to swim in PE class and at the Y.  They learn lots of small lessons every time we go: how to be polite, dressing/undressing, putting things away in lockers, remembering where one's locker is, and general pool rules and manners.

Last time, two of my students were able to take a test to swim in the deep end. They had to swim the length of the deep end. However, this time, the test had changed. Before swimming the length of the deep end, they had to jump in the pool and tread water for 30 seconds. Neither of these students had learned to tread water before. Although I was convinced they could, they were not quite as convinced. One student particularly struggled. I was trying to teach him in the shallow end and he kept putting his feet down, as he is pretty tall. He was on the verge of giving up when the lifeguard gave permission for him to try it at the edge of the deep end with me in the pool next to him. He jumped in, treaded water for 30 seconds (although he looked like he wanted to give up after about 20) and then swam the length of the pool. I was so proud of him for not giving up, even when it became difficult.

Another student, who in the past had clung to the wall the entire time, walked 1/3rd of the way into the center of the pool and even went under water in order to get a diving stick off the bottom of the pool. It is so fun to see each student improve as they become more comfortable in the water.

AAC Awareness Month

This month is AAC awareness month. For those of you who might not be familiar with AAC, it stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. AAC includes any form of communication that is not oral speech (gestures, facial expressions, use of communication devices, pictures, etc).  In honor of AAC awareness month, I thought I'd share some of my experience with AAC and some things I have learned along the way.

Over the last couple years, I have learned a lot about AAC use from my students and colleagues. Currently, I have four students who are nonverbal. Three of these students use a device, similar to a tablet, to communicate. They are each at different levels of communication. Since so many of my students need AAC devices, we do some activities as an entire class using an app on our classroom iPads. It has been fun to see all my students benefitting from this form of communication.

Contrary to popular belief, the use of an AAC device does not impede learning to speak. Actually, research demonstrates that those using AAC devices, often begin speaking more. I have seen this clearly with one of my students. In the last year, his verbal speech has increased significantly as his use of an AAC device has also increased. Today he even said the word "communicator" to describe his device. Both his speech pathologist and I were surprised. It's fun to actually experience what I have been told research shows. As a result, I have learned that the earlier a person can start on an AAC device, the better, as vocabulary is likely to continue to increase with age.

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend (as well as present) at the second annual Indiana AAC Summit.  I have implemented a lot of high tech AAC in my classroom. However, I really didn't have a lot of low tech options for students. After returning from the conference, I printed off some boards that match the home screen of the devices my students use. I also printed off some symbols and words (matching the buttons on their AAC devices) for specific things that students might need to be able to communicate in the hallways.

We have one student who has struggled with indicating the need to use the restroom. His device has been broken since the beginning of school, so we have been using an iPad for his communication. However, he usually doesn't take it with him when he leaves the classroom.  Up until my printing of the boards and cards, he would wander around the room or get upset when needing to use the restroom.  We would take him to the bathroom every couple hours to prevent an accident. This often caused frustration because he would have to sit in the bathroom even though he didn't need to use it at that time. The day I printed the cards, he walked over to one of my aides during specials, grabbed the bathroom card and tapped it ... the same way he taps the icon on his communicator. We have only had one accident since printing these cards and that was when we forgot to carry our cards with us. He also flipped through the cards at one point and indicated "all done" and walked to the classroom door.

We are going to have some larger boards printed with the home page of their AAC devices on them. We plan to hang these in places around the school where our students often spend time (buss pick-up, cafeteria, gym, hallway). This will help in two ways. One, our students will have ways to communicate even without their devices (although they should always carry them). Two, other students will become aware of what AAC is and how it is used by our students.

Some helpful etiquette for communicating with someone with AAC:
-be patient, it takes longer to communicate this way
-only predict what they are saying if they give you permission to predict
-don't assume someone who uses AAC has cognitive disabilities
-do not touch or take their AAC from them without permission

Success through Movement

Last week I was sitting in a training in which I was required to sit in a student chair for two consecutive days. By the end of the training, I was having trouble focusing and was uncomfortable. Although I learned the material presented, I probably would have learned the material better if I had been less concerned about how uncomfortable I was. I came to realize that my students face that same challenge every day in my classroom.  As a result, I decided to submit a proposal on the Donors Choose website for alternative seating options in my classroom.  

You can see my proposal here.  Also, any donation that takes place by September 5th using the code LIFTOFF during checkout will be matched (up to $50).  Please think about how you can be a part of bringing movement, core strength, and more learning to my classroom!  

Transformation

School started two weeks ago tomorrow. In some ways, it feels like much longer. Yet in other ways, I am amazed at how far we have already come in two weeks.  The first hour of school this morning I saw something that brought me joy down to the core of who I am. I never thought students working together on a puzzle would bring me such joy.  

Let me give you some context. Two weeks ago the bell rang for our first day of class. I was running somewhat late to my classroom, where 11 sixth grade students waited for me. Thankfully, most of them were running late too as they tried to figure out how to open lockers and get to class. These 11 students and my two sixth grade students make up my Panther Success class. This is a group of students who will come to my classroom every Wednesday from now through the end of their career at Southside Middle School. The plan is for every student to have a teacher who cares about them and their success.  Our school decided to start the first two and a half weeks with panther success every day. For the rest of the school, this provides some routine and a good location to share rules and expectations. 

For me, it was a little more stressful, especially day one. I had one aide and we were trying to figure out how to welcome our 8 students to school, make sure they had breakfast, divide them up into their groups, provide the structure and routine they needed, and still make sure I was able to interact with the students in my panther success group.  Thankfully, my aide figured out how to manage all my students during breakfast and drop them off in their classes on the way to my classroom. She then helps with a few needs in my class before joining another teacher with my students in another classroom.  

The first few days were definitely stressful for everyone involved. Most of the sixth graders were stressed (both groups) as they adjusted to middle school. On day two I had a few minutes with my Panther Success group before my students joined us. I brought up my students for discussion, explained some things, and answered questions. They had some good questions those first few days.  One of my students is nonverbal, but makes a decent amount of noise. Initially, this brought a lot of stares and some frustration from my other students. The first time I fed a student Pediasure using a syringe (without a needle), I thought eyes would pop out of heads.  Every time I did something new, I would explain it to my class. 

What a difference two weeks makes. Today, I planned an activity that everyone could participate in equally. Students were supposed to read, work on puzzles, or do homework. Most ended up choosing puzzles. Before we even got started, one of my Panther Success students suggested that my other student might be hungry and want his Pediasure before we got started with anything else. She then proceeded to check his backpack and help him get what he needed out for the day. 

Later, as they were working on puzzles around the room, I saw the same student talking with my nonverbal student and engaging him about his puzzle. It didn't matter to her that he couldn't respond. He was happily working on his puzzle with a friend. Just a few minutes later I turned around to see three boys on the floor working a puzzle with another of my students. It didn't matter that he could have done the puzzle by himself. They had chosen to get down on his level and talk with him about his puzzle while they completed it together.  

I am still amazed when I think back on the looks of fear and confusion on their faces during the first few days of school compared with the natural interaction I witnessed today. What a transformation! I am so thankful that I got to witness this today and can't wait to see how these friendships will grow over the next year. 

Happy Birthday Wishes

One of my students had a birthday today. He is primarily non-verbal and uses a device in order to communicate. In the last year, he has made a lot of progress with his device. Since coming back to school, it has become clear that he has been using his device more at home because he has been using it constantly in class.

To give you a little context for the fun story following, I have three non-verbal students in my class this year. I really wanted to incorporate them better into our calendar time (and later at other times).  In order to do this, my class iPads have an app called LAMP. It is set up in the same way as their devices. This week we have started having the whole class use them during calendar to say the date, the days of the week, and the months of the year. This slows down my verbal students and puts them on the same playing field as my nonverbal students (actually, my nonverbal students are often faster because they are more familiar with the device). It also works some on their reading skills as they have to read the words in order to select the correct word when they first begin.

Today, while we were doing this I heard "happy birthday" in the background. I didn't know who said it using their device, but I encouraged the rest of them to try to wish their friend a happy birthday using the device. Some of my students started trying to use the spelling portion to type the words. I encouraged them that whoever could find the buttons that actually said "happy birthday" without having to spell it would get an extra class dollar, as in the long run this is a faster method of communicating.

One student found it and then started showing everyone else. They then asked how to spell the student's name and added that to the end.  Once they were finished they kept getting up, walking over to the student who was celebrating his birthday and making it say "Happy Birthday ... " The smile on his face was one of the biggest smiles I have seen. I have seen him have this kind of smile at two other times that I can think of. One was when I changed his device from being able to say 84 words to being able to say thousands of words. The second was when he came back from his first general education science class.

Earlier in the day, when I said happy birthday to him, he barely responded (just a small smile). However, when his friends gave the same greeting, using the voice of the device he is used to, he was filled with joy.  This just reminds me of how important it is for us to continue modeling using the device in class and encourage his peers to use the device as well.

Reflections

I have been reflecting a bit on the last few years. I have a hard time believing all the changes that have taken place in three years.

Three years ago, I was living in Kazakhstan as the only expat working for my company and dealing with the grief of a friend and co-worker in the end stages of cancer. I was worn down and struggling to survive, let alone thrive. At work, I was looking at how to best support families of children with disabilities in Taraz. It seemed all I could do was cling to God and trust that He would guide me through this difficult time.

Two years ago, I was saying goodbye to friends in Kazakhstan in order to return to the States. I had no idea what my future held. I didn't know if my future included living in Kazakhstan or the USA. I was looking forward to seeing friends and family, but also dreading leaving behind others. I was uncertain as to the future, but chose to cling to the promise that God would guide me.

One year ago, I was preparing to be a first year teacher for the second time. In the intervening year, I had moved back to Muncie, had my first (and hopefully last) kidney stone, graduated with my Masters in Special Education, and purchased a house. The details fell together in such a way that I have not doubted God's guidance in these decisions.

This summer, I find myself resting after a busy first year teaching at Southside Middle School.  I loved my class, although it was an exhausting and challenging year. I enjoy building into my neighborhood and am slowly getting to know some of my neighbors. I have become more involved in my church, including getting to spend a week in Nicaragua with a group of friends from church. I am working on house projects and spending time with friends as I take advantage of the two months I have off this summer.  I will get to visit family in Montana before settling back into the routine of school.

At church today, I was struck by the reality of where God has brought me during the last three years. Today, as we sang the words "when my heart is torn asunder and my world just falls apart" I found myself fighting back tears. However, they were tears of joy mingled with tears of sadness. I remembered the days, only a few years ago, when I could barely make it through the song due to feeling like my world was falling apart. I hurt for the people around me who are currently living the reality of those words. I thanked God that at the moment those words are a memory for me. Yet, I also cling to the reminder that I have learned to trust God more as a result, and will continue to grow the next time I face circumstances that make these words a reality. For now, I live the words later in the same song stating "there is hope beyond the suffering, joy beyond the tears."

Independence - Shoe Tying

This year we have been working on tying our shoes. This may not seem like a big deal, but once you get to middle school, it is awfully difficult for parents to find velcro shoes in big enough sizes. As a result, either parents and teachers tie shoes multiple times every day or we learn to tie our own shoes.

At the beginning of the year, none of my students were able to tie their own shoes.  Some of them struggle with the fine motor skills needed to tie a shoe. Others had just never figured out the complex steps.

Last year when I was doing my practicum, I found a method for tying shoes that doesn't require complex coordinated movement with two hands at once. As a result, it is much easier for those students who have more difficulty with fine motor tasks. It is also easy to break down into distinct steps. We started working on tying our shoes after Christmas break and three students are able to complete all the steps. Two others are a couple steps away from being able to do it without assistance.

Personally, I keep learning how important it is to lay out information in very specific steps for my students. I have to be very careful how I first introduce information because my students will follow a routine very rigidly once they have learned that routine. If they learn it wrong the first time, it is hard to reteach new routines. Also, too many instructions at once only serve to confuse my students. I am learning to break tasks up into their simplest components. It is so much fun to celebrate the small (yet big) successes and watch my students become more independent!

Communication is Power

I thought you might enjoy a specific story about a student in my class.  For the sake of this post, we will call this student Dan.

Dan transitioned to middle school this year and ended up in my class. I had met Dan last year while doing my practicum. The very first day of practicum, while we were having free time, he walked over, grabbed my hand, walked me over to the CD player, and handed me a CD. Despite his clear intelligence, he tended to refuse to do any work.

His favorite things are anything to do with music (tapping a rhythm, clapping, playing the keyboard, etc.).  He also loves going on bike rides, swinging, and chewing on things.  Last year, his mom purchased an app on his iPad to try to encourage him to begin conversing, as he has no functional communication.  Despite lots of work, he did not really seem to grasp the power of communication last year.

Midway through the first semester I had a practicum student in my class. As she started thinking about a project to complete, we decided to give Dan another chance to try using a communication device. We tried a different app on his iPad (LAMP Words for Life). My practicum student spent four weeks working to teach Dan nine different words using LAMP. Over this time, he was able to go from no functional communication to being able to request several things on his iPad (bike, walk, toy, chewy, finished, etc).

He even started using the phrases on his device for new meaning. For example, he had learned to use finished when he was done riding the bike. However, he started using the word finished to let us know that he was done communicating and wanted to go back to playing his favorite game on the iPad. Just this week he has learned how to navigate in and out of apps by himself to go between communicating and playing his games.

Initially, I didn't think he would get past 84 possible words to use for communication.  I honestly wasn't sure he would succeed in 4-5 words. However, when it became obvious that he learned words quickly, I had to do some reconfiguring of his device. He now has to tap up to three different icons in order to have the device say a word (instead of just one).  Although this is harder for him than what he originally did, he is already starting to learn how to do this (we have only been doing this since coming back from Christmas break). We have also added additional words to his vocabulary (swing, upstairs, downstairs, etc).

This has all been a major reminder to me of how important it is to give students a new chance at learning over and over again. Last year, he wasn't ready to communicate, but it seems like something has clicked this year and he is learning that his words have power. It will be fun to see how Dan continues to increase in communication skills as the year progresses. Our biggest challenge now is keeping Dan busy as he is no longer content to sit at his desk. He wants to go on bike rides, play with his iPad, take a walk, etc. I guess this is a good problems to have!

A Reason to Communicate

It has been a long time since I last posted. I will likely be able to update more regularly now. My first semester was a struggle. It took all my energy to get to know my students and get everything planned for the next day. I felt like I was treading water.

Christmas break was wonderful. I had a great time with my family in Montana. I also did some planning and was able to make some changes to my daily schedule. Even though we haven't been able to implement that schedule very often due to the recent bad weather as well as standardized testing, it seems to be working well.  I thought I'd take this moment (now that I have some extra energy) to share some fun success stories from my class. I'll probably do several longer posts in the near future to give more details on some of these.

• One student has learned to tie his shoes and another is close
• One student has been attending art class and another just started science class today
• Two students have learned to zip their coats
• One student has memorized his lunch number and now enters it independently in the cafeteria
• One student has moved from a communication device that had 84 choices to one that has over 500,000 options.
• Four of my students can now add single digit numbers
• One of my students has moved from no functional communication to being able to express 9 or 10 words using a communication device. 
• One student has learned how to shred paper, including independently going and getting the paper that needs to be shredded. 
• All my students have participated in a low ropes course multiple times
• One of my students hugged another student today (this is huge for a child with autism)
• One of my students has gone from being able to read zero words to being able to read over forty words and write sentences using his words. 
• One of my students is able to clean the tables in the cafeteria after breakfast

I'm sure there are some I am missing, but we have been working hard. I am so proud of my students and how far they have already come. We still have a lot to work on. I thoroughly enjoy going to school every day and am thankful for the other staff in our school, especially my aides. I am also thankful for my students and their parents. We have a lot of fun each day even though we are working hard. I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the school year will hold.  

Positive Peer Pressure

So often we hear about peer pressure in a negative context. However, I have had the opportunity recently to see it played out in a positive way in my classroom. I am thoroughly enjoying being a teacher at Southside Middle School in Muncie. I enjoy the challenges and rewards each new day brings.

We have been focusing on positive reinforcement in my class. My students are able to earn dollars each day, which they can use to pay me at the end of each day for some free time. If they don't have enough money for free time, they don't get to play with my toys and have to do work instead. If all the students in the class get free time on any given day we cross off a letter from the acronym SWAGGER (students who achieve good grades earn respect). SWAGGER is a school wide initiative encouraging our students to get good grades. Once we have marked off all the letters, we get to go somewhere special. The first time, we went to McDonalds for a quick afternoon snack. The second time, we went to Fazolis for lunch and the park.

Although the entire system encouraged positive peer pressure, our time at the park allowed me to experience how helpful peer pressure can be in the right context. One of my students tends to not like changes in lighting. This presented a problem when he attempted to go down a slide that had a cover over it. He spent about 20 minutes standing on the stairs and reaching one foot up to the slide. Anytime any of the adults would encourage him he would back away and start again. If other students came up behind him, he would back down in a slight panic and let them go. Finally, he gave up and went to another part of the park. This was when one of my other students stepped up and said "let's go down the slide, come on" and took of running towards the slide. The other student followed him up the stairs, under the cover, and down the slide. All it took was an encouraging friend who showed him how to do it and made sure he knew it was okay. I was so thankful that one of my students took the time to encourage his friend to give it another try.

I'm hoping I see many more examples of positive peer pressure in my classroom this year!

Bedroom Progress

This is a bit overdue, but figured I'd go ahead and paste some before, during, and after shots of my bedroom remodeling. My room is such a fun getaway. I still have a small amount of painting left to do in the alcove, but the larger part of my bedroom was completed in time for my Kodai Tamak, which was a blast. It was fun to get to see so many of you! 

The bedroom was probably my hardest room to do so far. It had wallpaper on the walls that was glued to the walls very well, especially at the seems. At times it was coming off inch by inch. Also, there happened to be a layer of paint under the wallpaper that started peeling off the wall with the wallpaper. As a result, I had to sand the entire room to make sure the paint didn't bubble when it went on. It was a tedious project and not one I would like to repeat, but the finished product was definitely worth it! 

Wallpaper Removal

Preparation for Sanding

I hopefully didn't scare off my neighbors

 Walls and floors cleaned from dust and ready for primer and paint

 Painting Finished and Furniture moved back in - The gorgeous bed was given to me and fits so perfectly in my room and my house!  

Final touch: curtains

Furniture

It's been fun to see how God has provided furniture for me along the way. I bought the buffet below for $35. I have had fun staining and painting it to make it my own. I wasn't sure how I would like the blue, but I love how it turned out.  I look forward to doing more of this in the future.

Living Room

I have been working on all sorts of different projects around the house. It seems like I rarely get a chance to complete a project, but am instead in the midst of a bunch of different things all the time. Last week I was able to complete (for the most part) my living room. It has been so much fun having people over now that my dining room and living room are livable. Here are some pictures from the project.  

Come to my Kodai Tamak (God meal) on April 12th to see it in person. A Kodai Tamak is something Kazakhs do to celebrate the blessings God gives. In this case, I would love for you to come and celebrate God's blessing of a house with me. Drop by anytime between 3-5pm. Email me for my address.  

 Thankfully, wallpaper removal for this room was fairly painless

Finished (mostly) product

Living Room Remodel

I have been working hard to revamp some of the rooms in my house. The first project I started on was removing the wallpaper in the living room.  The wallpaper came off easily.  I then fixed up some of the walls and did some priming before I was able to paint.  I was able to find some inexpensive used furniture. I also installed hung some new curtains. I have some more work to do related to decorations, but it's coming along well.  My next project is removing the wallpaper in my bedroom. Here are some before/after pictures of my living room as well as some flowers I found in my flower bed.  Enjoy!