Life Skills and Positive Behavior Support

At our school, we use a system called the "Discovery Program" to teach life, social and behavior skills. This program has proven to be especially useful in our alternative high school setting where all teachers are on the same page and teach Discovery classes to students.

"Discovery Bucks"

This year, we have combined this with a positive behavior support system that we call "Discovery Bucks". The basic premise: catch kids doing something right. We put the six Ps from Discovery (prompt, prepared, polite, positive mental attitude, participate, produce) onto a "Discovery Buck" tickets. Whenever we see a student meeting the requirements of one of the six Ps, we check a box, initial the ticket, and give it to the student. The student then writes their name on the ticket and places it in a small bucket (one is located in every class).  

Student-decorated little buckets for each class

 Every Friday morning, the whole school meets for a drawing in which we pour all tickets into a large bucket and draw five winners. Our staff decided that giving the winners an hour lunch (rather than a half hour) would be the best approach for our population. 

Large bucket for drawings

The combination of Discovery and the positive behavior support system helps not only the students, who now try more often to achieve AND for teachers who have a system in place for frequent positive reinforcement. 

Teaching About Relationships

Having an open dialogue about relationships is one way in which teachers (and counselors, admin, and of course, parents) can have the biggest impact on a student's life. This lesson (SmartBoard version found here) can help you start discussion about the different types of relationships, traits of good and bad relationships, warning signs of abusive relationships, and jealousy. 
The bulk of this lesson is meant to guide classroom discussion. While sometimes this can be a challenge, students typically find this topic one they are very interested in (so much so, that it can be difficult to get them to STOP talking). Enjoy!

Bullying in Schools

One of our nation's worse epidemics in schools is bullying. It's something that often goes ignored until someone gets seriously hurt. Teachers, administration, and even students, need to become more proactive if we are to stamp out bullying. The following lesson is a good way to open up discussion between teachers and students. Get the SmartBoard Lesson here and the case study (Eve's Story) here.

Classroom Tips

Some amazing classroom tips (not just for elementary school!). I love these.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/clever-classroom-tips-for-elementary-school-teachers?s=mobile

Practicing Social Skills Digitally

New software may soon be available to help practice social skills for those who deal with anxiety. This has great potential for people who struggle with social interactions, such as those with autism.

Full article found here.

"Interpersonal skills are the key to being successful at work and at home," Hoque says. "How we appear and how we convey our feelings to others define us. But there isn't much help out there to improve on that segment of interaction."

A (not so) Brief History of Special Education

The history of special education has been a tumultuous one. Only within the last 40 years have significant gains been made. In the years before 1975, students with disabilities were not entitled to receive a free public education as everyone was. Progress to get equal rights for people with exceptionalities slowly crept along in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Previous to this, the only movement was backwards. In 1691, a New York act grouped mentally challenged persons in with the “vagabonds and idle persons” it wished to discourage from residence. In years to come, this lack of empathy would only increase. In 1773, New York passed another law that actually permitted the denial of mentally ill or mentally challenged people to reside there. The law encouraged their families to “see to their care”.

It was during these times that the first psychiatric institutions were being founded. The same year that New York passed its law denying the mentally ill residence, the first institution in America was founded in Williamsburg. Eastern State Hospital was the passion of Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, Francis Fauquier, who showed a great compassion for those in need. In 1766, he stated, “Every civilized Country has an Hospital for these People, where they are confined, maintained and attended by able Physicians, to endeavor to restore them to their lost reason”. Of course, by today’s standards the word “confine” would never be used, but by the standards of his day Governor Fauquier would have been seen as showing unparalleled kindness toward a group most wanted to ignore. Unfortunately, Governor Fauquier died before the completion of the Eastern State Hospital and didn’t get to see his vision come to life.

Meaningful education for people with disabilities didn’t start to emerge until the 19^th century. In 1817, Thomas Gallaudet founded the first private school for the Deaf in America called the “American Asylum for Deaf-Mutes”, now the American School for the Deaf. Gallaudet started his career in working with the deaf when he met his neighbors’ nine-year old deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell. He began teaching her and subsequently traveled Europe studying ways to teach deaf students. While in Paris, Gallaudet learned how to communicate using sign language as well as teaching methods. After returning to America, he opened America’s first school for the Deaf and young Alice was one of his first students.

Soon after Gallaudet opened his school, Dr. John Dix Fisher opened a private school for the blind. After visiting Paris, Dr. Fisher brought back new ideas for teaching the blind in America and in 1829 a group of top men got together in the Boston Exchange Coffee House and signed papers to make the New England Asylum for the Blind a reality. In 1831, Fisher brought in Samuel Gridley Howe to head the school. A year later Howe would open his own school in his fathers’ house. The institution grew so much that soon the school had to relocate to a mansion, owned by trustee Thomas Perkins. Eventually the school would be renamed Perkins Institute for the Blind (now Perkins School for the Blind). Howe developed many techniques for teaching the blind, including special embossing (similar to Braille). Of special note is Howe’s success with a seven-year-old student, Laura Bridgman. Laura was left both deaf and blind after a bout with scarlet fever and was considered uneducable. Howe used tactile stimulation to reach into Laura’s world and pull her out. She soon showed her thirst for knowledge and was quickly reading raised-text books, finger spelling and eventually writing. Howe’s success was so widely known that Dickens wrote about it in his Notes on America, which led Helen Keller’s mother to contact the Perkins Institute. The Institute sent one of their recent graduates, Annie Sullivan, to work with Helen and the rest, as they say, is history.

Despite the fact that in 1864 the first higher education school for the Deaf was federally funded, cognitive disabilities still carried a heavy stigma. While the people of the day found the deaf and blind relatable, they still lacked the empathy to relate to children who were cognitively or behaviorally impaired. In 1852, a New York school began a class for “unruly boys” which served to segregate and control rather than educate. In 1856, Edward Sequin wrote Origin of the Treatment and Training of Idiots in which he claimed, “The idiot wishes for nothing, he wishes only to remain in his vacuity”. The rights movement for the disabled was set back again in 1893 when a ruling from the Massachusetts Supreme Court found that a student who was “weak in mind” could not benefit from education.

Dorothea Dix came on to the scene in 1841, after she began teaching Sunday school to women at a Cambridge jail. While there she saw that many of the inmates had disabilities and suffered from severe neglect and abuse. During the 1840’s and 50’s, Dorothea began advocating for people with disabilities. She felt the best was to accomplish an improved life for this group was to gain support from the legislature to expand and create new asylums. In 1843, Dorothea presented a petition to her state legislature to expand the State Hospital for the Insane in Worcester. She wrote, “I proceed, gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cases, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience…” Because of Dorothea’s promotion of asylums, the Massachusetts legislature granted a large increase in funding. She ultimately played a role in the establishment of 32 new institutions.

Of course, public education for cognitively and behaviorally impaired students was nearly non-existent at this point. But that began to change at the beginning on the 20^th century. In 1915, Minnesota became the first state to put into place special education teacher requirements. The state legislature also granted a set amount of state aid for the education of “defectives”. It seemed as though proper treatment of those with disabilities was on its way in… but then came the eugenics movement.

Harry Laughlin was the forerunner of the eugenics in America during the 1920’s and 30’s. He felt “[the government] should seek to, so far as possible, to reduce to the minimum the production of the feebleminded” (Spring, p.315). In 1926, Harry Laughlin wrote “The Eugenical Sterilization of the Feebleminded”. He believed that “only those persons best endowed with superior mental, physical, and temperamental hereditary qualities should be permitted to reproduce…” (p.315).

Those who were institutionalized, he reasoned, do not have the need for sterilization, as those institutions would keep them from breeding. But once those “feebleminded” individuals were released they needed to be sterilized as not to risk reproduction. In 1909, California (who was at the forefront of the eugenics movement) began sterilizing every “mentally ill or mentally impaired” person released from an institution. Thankfully, the eugenics movement lost its momentum in the 1930’s and 40’s when people began to be appalled by what the Nazi’s were doing. Their quest to “create a superior race” made people realize to horror of forced sterilization.

With the famous case of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954, it paved the way for advocates to bring attention to the federal court the injustices special needs students were suffering. Schools continued to segregate, discriminate and flat out deny education to those with disabilities. Even as late as 1958, the Supreme Court of Illinois held that compulsory education legislation didn’t require the state to provide free public education to the “feeble-minded” or “mentally deficient” (Department of Public Welfare v. Hass).

In the 1960’s, during the heart of the civil rights movement, American’s began to look at people with special needs differently. The 1950’s saw the advent of organizations like the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children, but it wasn’t until the 60’s that the judicial system was prepared to take on the issue of special education. Despite lobbying efforts from associations like PARC and the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), local and state governments were not prepared to change how they addressed handicapped students in public schools. With no luck in the legislature, PARC took their case to the courts. In the groundbreaking case PARC vs. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1971, the courts found that the segregation of disabled children was unreasonable. This case made it so every disabled child was entitled to free public education within the state. This set the groundwork for Public Law 94-142, which the CEC lobbied extensively for.

The fact that this movement took place during the Civil Rights movement is of no coincidence. During the 60’s American society began to develop empathy as a whole. Injustices started to be seen for what they were and Americans began viewing the potential of each person. In 1970, only one in five children with a disability was educated in American schools. Without the Civil Rights movement, special education would not be what it is today. Once segregation of races was seen as wrong, the floodgates opened and revealed many issues. Of course, the American education system of today is not a perfect system, but it is certainly leaps and bounds above 50 years ago in regards to equality. Even the most severely impaired students receive free and appropriate education, just like everyone else.

Public Law 94-142 established the laws of special education in America. It held that every child with a disability was entitled to a free and appropriate public education no matter how severely they were impaired because all children can benefit from education. It also gave a broad definition of disability categories (11 exist today in the current version of this law). It laid out the guidelines for the IEP (Individualized Educational Program). P.L. 94-142 also put in the guidelines for what is called the “least restrictive environment” which states that children with disabilities should be around non-disabled peers as much as possible while still being educationally appropriate.

Eventually, P.L. 94-142 became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. In 1986, it expanded to include early intervention for infants and toddlers, a critically important aspect of special education. It 2000, it was estimated that $4.9 billion was spent on the education of disabled children in America, a far cry from just 100 years ago. In 2004, IDEA was reauthorized and aligned with the No Child Left Behind legislation. Today, IDEA is responsible for providing services to more than 6.5 million children and 200,000 infants and toddlers. Students with disabilities now have the same rights as everyone else… just as it should be.

Self-Assessment

The ability to self-reflect is one of the most important quality humans have. Without it we cannot learn from our mistakes. For many people, self-reflection is a tough thing. They either don't want to, or don't know how to reflect on previous experiences. But it is crucial to growth we do.

Students with exceptionalities may have a particularly difficult time reflecting. I find doing a "self-assessment" at the end of each period helps build there skills. It also creates the opportunity for grading system that isn't skills based (should you chose to implement it).

Here's my self-assessment document:

At the end of each period (last couple minutes), each student grabs their self-assessment. They score themselves on how "respectful", "responsible", and "safe" they have been that period. They can get up to 10 points. To avoid students who mark 10 each time, an adult must initial it before it's turned in. This also give you a chance to touch bases with your students if their behavior was below (or above) expectations.

I also used this as a non-skills based way to grade my students. The data is easily inputted into any grading system.

E-mail me (sara.kerbs.r@gmail.com) if you'd like to use my document as a template.

First Day of School

As a teacher, you know that the first day of school sets the tone for the rest of the year. Obviously, lessons about school rules and classroom expectations are your first priority. But also showing the kiddos your fun side and getting to know your students is critically important. Here are a couple of activities I've used in the past for the first day of school. "Getting to Know You" Questionnaire

If you have a classroom full of students who are able to write, giving them this questionnaire to fill out will give you a good sense of who they are. If at all possible, I like to pull students aside one at a time and go through it with them. This gives you a little one-on-one time with the student, establishing a relationship with them. Pulling students out individually will be necessary if you work with an especially young population or any group of students who have little to no writing skills.

Time Capsule

One of the funnest activities I like to do is a time capsule. Not a 30 year time capsule mind you, but a year long one. It's so amazing to see how much your students change in the course of one year. Both you and your students will enjoy seeing the growth.

Instructions for this one are simple. First, you'll need a box (not too big, because you'll have to store it ALL year). Then on the first day of school, take a picture of each of your students (Polaroid works best, unless you're so tech savvy you can print your picture instantly). Have your students put their picture in the box as well as some crafty item they've made that day. I also like to have my students put in a copy of their "Getting to Know You" questionnaire, so we can see how much their personality has grown/changed. Of course, there are endless items you can put in your capsule, depending on how big you want to make it. Be creative!!

When your class has put everything in the capsule, seal it up tight and have them decorate the outside. Store it in a safe place and don't forget to open it on the last day of school!

Surfers

I love having photos of my students up around the classroom. On the first day, I like to have them color a little surfer guy, then we paste their photo on the top. I usually have set up some type of board with waves on it. We put the surfer guys up and it's a great classroom decoration!

Autism vs. Communication

Below is video about a girl named Carly. She has severe autism but learned to express herself through her computer. Check it out!

Morning Calendar

Every morning my class starts off the day by doing what we call "Morning Calendar". It's a chance for us all to sit and discuss what day it is, what the weather is like, and learn some basic daily facts like how many minutes there are in an hour. Originally, I did Morning Calendar on a whiteboard, but since the addition of an ActivBoard in my classroom, it's grown into a whole big activity. Whether you have an ActivBoard, a whiteboard, or a chalkboard, you can still take the general principles and use them for a fun lesson each day. At the top, we discuss the date, then we move onto the season. After that we circle what the weather looks like outside, then make guesses on what temperature we think it is. We write out guess next to our initials and click on the hyperlink that goes to a website with our temperature readout. Next we decide what the appropriate clothing would be for the weather outside, and dress this poor guy accordingly.

Next is money. For students who are just starting off with money, we do basic facts (quarter=$0.25, etc.). For students with a better understanding of money, we practice adding the money on the screen, then reveal the answer underneath it.Fractions are next. We count how many piece are total and put that number on the bottom. Then how many are shaded and that number goes on top. Every day I change the location and number of the shaded pieces.

Moving on to time. We discuss basic time facts and then read the exact time on clock.

Then we discuss facts about the calendar. How many days in a week, etc.

Next we answer some simple questions about ourselves (address, date of birth) and some questions about our location (zip code, coast). Afterward we click on the hyperlink to Google Earth and continue with our geography. We go through and list our planet, country, state, county, city, and school.

It took years for my students to be able to answer all these questions. If you implement a lesson such as this, start simple. Then move on to more complex questions.

Teaching Appropriate Reactions to Situations

Ever had a student explode with profanity (or tears) over a minor situation? Seems to happen every day in special ed, so I made this lesson for my kiddos. It's a visual that shows the strength of our reaction to various situations. The meter starts at "Flatlands" (every day nothing occurances) and goes all the way up to "Volcano" (the worst possible situation). During the lesson, we discuss various situations and what the proper reaction may be. Maybe a person accidentally bumps me in the hall. That's a tiny anthill of a situation and I can handle that myself. Perhaps someone is hurting my friend. If that's the case it's a mountain situation and I need to see the school counselor.

Click on the picture below for a larger view.

Given this starting lesson, there are countless lessons that can follow. You can take situations that have really happened and place them on the meter; then see how the situation should have been handled. For students that have daily issues with improper reactions, it can be useful to give them a copy of the meter to carry around as a reference when needed. It's very important to first use the meter when a student HAS acted appropriately, so they are able to understand it clearly, without the clouded judgement that behavior brings. Then, once they know how to use it, introduce it during a time when they've had an inappropriate reaction.

E-mail me at sara.kerbs.r@gmail.com if you would like the ActivInspire lesson that accompanies this.

Adaptive PE

I've found over the years, that the classroom teacher is usually responsible for creating and implementing all aspects of an adaptive PE program. So, when these opportunities come along, it's a great time to start thinking creatively. In my hopes to create a fun, stimulating program, I bought my classroom a Wii. There are endless possibilities for physical education (as well as just plain fun). For anyone familar with WiiFit, you can instantly see adaptive PE applications. Each student can keep their own profile with weight, body mass index, as well as their "Wii Fit Age". They can play exciting balance games, run with friends on-screen, do ski-jumps, along with dozens of other fun activities. Each month it seems they come out with a new fitness game geared at getting people healthy through gameplay. The kiddos enjoy it, it creates an awareness of overall healthy, and it's such a hoot! And when the kids aren't doing PE, the other games increase hand-eye coordination, help with fine and gross motor movements, and increase balance.. My students' favorite is Wii Bowling. Everyone can participate and have a wonderful time. If you're thinking that this sounds all to expensive, you're right. A new Wii console costs between $150-200, with games extra. In our class, we sell Otis Spunkmeyer cookies to buy classroom items (but that's a blog post for another time). Some schools will allow you to take this expense from your classroom budget, if you present a valid argument. If not, throw a fundraiser. I assure you it's worth it.

In Their Shoes... Control

There is a reason behind every behavior. As pointless as is may seem when a student tells you to "go to hell" or when they refuse to work... there is meaning behind it. Behavior is simply a way for a student to get their needs met.

The Problem

One of the biggest behavior issues I've seen stems from the need for control. A student may move very slowly getting her pencil out to make the whole class wait. A student refuses to complete his assignment, despite the fact he has the capacity and drive to do so. Why? Simply put, control. 

Students in special education (especially the more severe) have a life that is run by others. Their clothes are chosen for them each morning. Their meals are planned by someone else. They do not get to choose their classes in school. They have little independence and little control in their life. There is one thing they can control though. Their behavior.

The Solution

The struggle for control is usually pretty easy to identify. The problem arises when trying to come up with a solution to this problem. Obviously, the student feels like they have no choices in their life. So the goal is to introduce something they can systematically control. This may be in the form of a plant the student can grow and take care of. Maybe it's choosing from a list of snacks to choose from the store. Perhaps you get the family involved and the kiddo can choose their outfit each day. Whatever you choose to give them control over, make sure they won't have to relinquish that control too often (like letting them choose how long to take a break).

It may seem like it's just easier to do the opposite, because after all, don't kids need to learn how to behave when they aren't in control? True, but the first and foremost thing is that we meet our kids needs. Second, is teaching them. After meeting their needs is when we can address more complex things like how to react when we don't feel in control. Needs come first.

Special thanks to Jill Dolbeare, Kim Durrer, Fran Taylor, and Leah Green for input on this post.

Music Time

Music time is a very exciting part of the day for some of my students. While the older ones are out doing vocational training, the ones in the class get the pleasure of a fun filled 45 minutes of music and laughs.

Above is a picture of our music board. It's basically just a large, lightweight picture frame I picked up at Fred Meyer. Under the frame I placed 4 different colors of paper. On top of the plastic front is Velcro with picture icons (yes, they are hand drawn). Each color in the background corresponds to a different CD, containing that specific series of songs.

In case you're wondering how I keep track of which songs go to which CD's without looking each time, I write the song number on the back of the icon in that specific color. For instance, the icon for Five Little Monkeys has 31 (written in pink), so I know it goes to the pink CD.

This may seem like an overly complicated system, but when we are working on colors, I can put in the green CD and say to a student, "pick from the green section". This also allows me to have hundreds of songs to choose from, because I have 4 CD's worth of music. I have extra icons Velcroed on the back and can rotate them out at any time.

Survival Signs

A big part of life skills class, is training to be able to read and respond to survival signs in the community. Among other things, we like to use the Survival Words curriculum from Remedia Publications. It gives many good vocabulary words and starts many a conversations about what to do when you see certain signs.

A really fun activity is MAKING survival signs. The whole top half of my classroom is covered in signs my students have made. It's all about being hands-on. If you make a "No Loitering" sign, you are more prone to remember what it is and what is means.

Regarding Paraprofessionals

Paraprofessionals -or- parapros -or- EA's -or- IA's or... any other number of names they go by, are the life skills teacher's greatest asset (besides patience). They help when you are shorthanded, they take on duties you don't have time to do, they offer support (both educationally and emotionally), they instruct, they guide, they are.... indispensable.

But often times we expect that they will simply "jump in" without guidance. This can cause problems. Every person is so unique, so different, we can't expect them all to do things the same way. But, consistency is KEY when teaching life skills kiddos. So how do we solve this problem? One word... TRAINING!

When trying to maintain a SPED class, the last thing we have extra of is time. But, consider how important this is that each child is taught the same way from day to day, no matter who is giving the instruction.

I have many resources to share with you, regarding paraprofessional training. The following document is a general guideline I use to show my aides how to run a group lesson.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgzr544p_1dmqkngcf

Another helpful tool, is to have expectations laid out for the actual aide themselves. Everyone appreciates having guidelines (whether they will admit it or not). Plus, if an issue ever arises, you can always refer back to the guidelines you have set in place.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgzr544p_0dnbp7ffq

Feel free to take this documents and copy or edit them for your own purposes.

Timesheets

Here is an ActivBoard lesson I created for learning to use timesheets. The kids have the same timesheets that they fill out every week. At first, I write on the board as an example until the kiddos get the hang out it. Soon, they become independent and no longer need assistance. You do not need an ActivBoard to do this lesson. Get creative and use a projector against a whiteboard or use an old fashioned overhead projector.

Every day before students leave for vocational activities, have them sign in. When they return, remind them to sign out. At the end of the week, having the kids add up the hours is great math practice!

Fine Motor

Kids need some grasping practice? I bought a 2-drawer, Rubbermaid container and put rice in one and dried peas in another. Inside each drawer I've hidden objects of various sizes, shapes and textures. Kids love the feel of the rice and peas of their hands, plus... they get a prize after they take out all the objects. Students grasping improves while they enjoy the experience. Nothing better than learning without realizing it.

Anxiety Meter

For students with anxiety, using a personalized "meter" may help. If you can personalize it to the specific child it will mean more to them. Even better if they help you make it. This meter uses a specific students own words as well as options that they came up with that would calm them down.
On the front, is the meter that lists what level the student is at. From "Fine" all the way to "Freaking Out!". After the student identifies were they are on the meter, they open it up to find the corresponding action. Similar to the "Incredible 5-Point Scale", this has proven itself as an incredibly useful tool.