Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
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Primarily Au-some is a web based blog, teacher store, resource, and freebie maker.Connecting to parents and educators everywhere to help children with Autism
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
I was extremely lucky during my first few years of teaching to have a small kitchenette connected to my classroom. This allowed for weekly lessons in cooking and baking for my life skills class of students. When I moved buildings and classroom, I quickly realized how good I had it in my old classroom.
My new classroom had 4 walls, a mounted tv and pencil sharpener, and a few shelves. That was pretty much it. I had a hard time thinking of what could be done to continue helping my students learn how to cook.
After thinking for a while, some Pinterest, and a little creativity, I figured o ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
Want to bring your behavior management game to a whole new level?!
Some people call it, “Beat the Teacher”, “The Good Behavior Game” but I’ve heard it called the Student vs. Teacher Game. A game you say, with classroom management? Oh, yes. It’s a thing. A really awesome game, that your students will LOVE to play.
So how do you play it?
Draw a scoreboard on the board. The board needs to be visible to all students and the teacher. It also needs to be easily accessible. You have to keep the game going.
Set the Rules!
Every good game has a set of rules. Prep your students with the ru ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
Have you ever had a student who has struggle with adding and subtracting? Especially with two digit and three digit numbers? Well I’ve got a great way to share with you on how I teach adding and subtracting with two and three digit numbers, especially with borrowing and carrying over! oh, and best of all, it’s FREE!
Here’s what you need…. 1/2 sheet of poster board, masking tape, index cards, Sharpie, Velcro, laminate, and a ruler.
First, take the poster board and use the ruler and masking tape to portion off 1,2,3 or more “block” spaces. You will want your spaces big enough for th ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
I honestly never thought much about how trauma impacts my student’s learning. Sure, I knew that certain events in my student’s lives impacted them, but I never truly understood to the degree that they do impact student learning. I knew that little Eric may have it rough at home. And Caroline spent the weekend with her mom so her day will be rough today. But what trauma did they face? What effect will that trauma have on their ability to learn? I never thought of these things.
Trauma is a response to a negative external event or series of events which surpasses the child’s ordinary ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
As an admin, I visit several classrooms each week. I see great teaching, and I see not so great teaching. I’ve seen several running themes across my experiences. I’ve compiled the five most common mistakes I have seen in the special education classroom, in hopes to help you identify if you’re making any and how you can
fix it if you are! I promise it will make your life easier!
I think this one is HUGE in special ed. classrooms. Visuals should be included for schedules, embedded in classroom expectations, used in prompting, used within instruction and reinforcements, and to help calm  ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
It doesn’t matter if a special education teacher has been around for 1 year, 5 years, or 15 years. The common complaint I have heard from all of my teachers is how are they supposed to keep track of all of the data that they need to collect on a daily basis! It’s enough to make a teacher’s head spin. With that in mind, I’m coming to you today to give you 4 easy tips on how to use data to inform and even improve your teaching.
1. Collect Data from a Variety of Sources
I love a good analogy but sometimes my analogies don’t always pan out like they should…so, stick with me here. Imagine you have ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
Meaningful transition activities are sometimes difficult to come up with, or at times even implement. Working with teachers in many capacities – it seems most of them share a common frustration: coming up with transition activities that are relevant to their students, engaging, and authentic.
With that, I felt that a good, in-depth list of transition activities that could be utilized would help out.
So, without further ado, here is the list.
Activity
Completed
Research career options
Learn about the student’s disability
Interview a person who has a career of ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
I love repurposing things. I’ve used crystal light containers for sorting. Paint sticks for movable schedules. You name it I try to repurpose it or figure out a way to use it in the classroom. Although I’ve never repurposed dressers or chairs…. because that would require WAY more handiness than I am capable of!
BUT in the Sped classroom, I’m a repurposing fool!
I’ve compiled a few ideas for you below!
1. Scrabble Letters Everywhere.
Who doesn’t love a good garage sale? Ever seen old games there hanging out? Typically people sell their scrabble games and some of the letters may be missing. For ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
In special education we differentiate in our sleep, right? Wrong.
As a special education administrator, I’ve noticed some of my teachers who are self-contained in a special education resource room fall into a bad habit. They think they are using differentiation purely because they asked a student after the fact a question with two choices or they read something aloud. It really depends on what the task is and what the teacher’s intentions were to tell whether or not something was actually differentiated for the different level of students.
As an admin, whenever I pop into a class, I can easil ..read more
Primarily Au-Some - From Disability to Possibility
3y ago
Hey ALL! Happy (hopefully) summer break to you! Since I’m in administration, I’m working all summer, so I am jealous of all of your who are lounging around by a pool! Any who, I wanted to talk to you guys about Post-Secondary Transition. More specifically a Program that I was able to help start in my county this past year.
If you haven’t heard of Project Search yet, I BEG of you! STOP! STOP what you are doing right now and head on over to their website to check out what the program is.
Project Search is a multi-organizational team approach to Post Secondary Transition for Students with ..read more