Austin based teacher trying to empower and educate the next wave of scholars. I teach special education and heavily integrate technology into my daily routine. Up the Ponx!
Chalk is a disaster for my students. They get it everywhere, sometimes it stains certain knits, or they try eating it so frequently that I cannot keep up with redirecting them all. However, it is also a lot of fun for practicing handwriting and hanging out outside.
I had not seen much in the form of chalk paint except at craft stores and the colors are quite dull. I used baking soda, flour, and a few drops of food coloring (add more or less depending on how hot of a color you want). Depending on size and how thick you would like it to be, use about equal parts water and flour to make a mixture of 2/3s. Then, match that to 1/3 baking soda to complete the mixture. My students practiced tacting shapes, tracing, and holding the brushes with a more firm grip. I used a thicker mixture with students who had a harder time with fine motor skills. This helped it transfer to the concrete without the student showing more of a struggle than the rest of the class. After all, this is supposed to be fun!
I will definitely use this play based learning activity next year and have the students more involved with the measuring and mixing next time.
Trying to break down intricate topics to my students can be tricky. I need to scaffold concepts down to the core thought and then pair with something gimmicky or eye catching. Think of when you are daydreaming and a light reflection hits the corner of your eye and pulls you out of deep thought. Essentially, my students are always inside of their own thoughts and its my job to come up with a way to present, catch their attention, and then keep them engaged for 5-20 minutes depending on the student. Music is, and will always be, my go to way to break down mental roadblocks. Teaching secondary students allows me a bit more freedom to play current pop songs and not the same boring renditions of classic nursery rhymes. When incorporating music videos with high energy dance moves, I notice my students' attention is quickly gained during the most intense learning activities.
For my Force & Motion lesson I used infographics, music videos, tactiles, and interactive experiences to teach a basic concept in Physics. The videos I used were Willow Smith's, "Whip My Hair" and an instructional dance video fot the instrumental of V.I.C.'s, "Wobble" (if you haven't seen this dance, chances are you don't live in the Deep South). To grab my students attention I started with Wobble and introduced the thought of movement. I used pinwheel .GIFs to show a speed of movement, spun arrows to show direction of movement, and then introduced "Wobble" and had the kids get up out of their desks and try the dance movements. I was in heaven because it is a really fun dance, but my kids absolutely loved being silly and trying new things (SO COOL). I continued the discussion with a couple more slides with info graphics and then we made paper planes to further the discussion. I could tell I had a few kids drop off while folding the paper so I ended the slides with "Whip My Hair". I did not care how or why they moved in a certain fashion, I just wanted them moving and using their communication skills to tell me, "I'm moving".
Both songs feature low to mild beats per minute (BPM). "Whip My Hair"'s BPM is 81, but "Wobble" clocks in around 95 BPM. A typical workout playlist will probably feature a rate of 170+ BPM. For example, Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" has a BPM of 227. Knowing the BPM is very important in my classroom setting because students with Autism are naturally aroused and overstimulated by their environment. Playing high intensity music at all times would emotionally exhaust the students and increase the chances of unwanted behavior occurring. The last two years I have been taking data on what styles of music student with Autism react positively to. 1960s soul is by far the lead runner (65-80 BPM) and is a style I will always play if unwanted behaviors manifest. When some of my previous students (high school angst and high functioning rears its head) were having a bad day, "Don't Bother Me" by Bad Brains typically allowed them to cool down, refocus, and go to their next class. When you write your next lesson, do not forget to incorporate music into the slides or interactive lesson. Playing music in any class setting takes away the rigid feel of classrooms past and breaths fresh air into the possibility of an education tailored to the students.
Special Education is an endless mountain of papers. Every year there is progress toward using the newest, most efficient program. However, all of these programs have one major error--- They are all reliant on paper! My student population in Special Education can run from high functioning, to showing motivation for only a single item and a small desire to follow 1-step directives to obtain the item. I don't always have time to run, get a clipboard, record behavioral data (ABC, sample observations (MTS), rating scales (BRS), etc.) legibly. There is not a 100% reliable method to maintain empirical frequency and rate data while also being in the thick of a meltdown. Even after all data is collected, papers can be stored incorrectly and the high risk of broken confidentiality is present.
I am currently using Google Forms to record data as behaviors occur during the regular school day. So far I have made an ABC data form, Interval Behavioral Data form, Parent Feedback form. I started with a simple form that I can use to communicate daily behavior with parents. Very basic in design and the response form is linked directly into the personal student website I made earlier in the year. This response form is embedded to the site so when they visit, a real time description of the behavior is present. The verbiage is reader friendly for the forms directed to the parents. My hope is that it encourages the parents to read the response or fill out the forms more often. The parents can view the response form online as little or often as they wish and easily see how their student is doing. Also, by providing the beginning of a sample sentence, I don't feel the need to always write a lengthy response.
For students with specific motivators, I have an ABC Form. It has simple headers that any staff, old or new, will be able to quickly identify and understand.
I made a master of all the forms, then clicked "Make a Copy" under the "File" tab. This allows me to have a different file for each student and tailor the responses to choose from specific to the student. One student will manifest unwanted behaviors differently than the next so modifying the forms is important. My staff and I can access the form via Google Drive, QR Code located on the wall near an area of the room that has reduced stimulants, and also icons on the staff cell phones. The cell phone icons have been very helpful when we are out in another part of the school or when access to the computer is not realistic. Overall, I feel the addition of tracking behavior using the forms has increased my hands on productivity with the students, limited the amount of actual papers I lug around, and also gives me the option of creating a graph using the data in the form within seconds (perfect for IEP preparation).
