Magic Wand...

If there were no barriers (time, money, etc) what is the one thing you would do to increase student achievement in our district?

Parent-Teacher Conferences

It's been on my mind lately after the same question was posed to me......and I'm working on a lengthy blog about my own thoughts.

But, in the mean time.....in your own ideal fantasy education world, where what-ifs became a reality and there were no limits or parameters, what would effective parent-teacher-student conferences look like to you?

Feel free to post your positive vision or a word that comes to mind!

P/T Conferences

The principal at the high school recently asked us staff how we felt about intervention conferences. I selected "other" as my option and 1 million thoughts began to swirl in my head, and, as a natural response, I found myself curiously researching articles on effective, research-based models of parent-teacher conferences.

My initial thoughts were that they seem like a great idea and of course I'd like to meet with parents of struggling students! The unfortunate problem about intervention conferences is that it's often "too late in the game"....not so late they can't pass, but late enough most students give up. Or, the parents you most need to see on that night can't make it whether it's because they have a night job, can't find a sitter, or some other reason. Who knows what that reason is but whatever it is - few families attend and therefore it's highly ineffective for a majority of people.


Then, I started thinking about general conferences. Having been an elective teacher, we'd see fewer parents than the core classes on open conferences night. Other teachers would have lines waiting to speak with them and, if I was lucky enough, I'd have one family waiting. If only it was because I was such a fantastic teacher and ALL of my students were passing.....NOT the case! Again, it was the parents of students who were very successful in my class that attended conferences, generally. Yes, I did see a few families of struggling students throughout the years but on the whole - it was parents who remained engaged in the process and see their student succeed.


Yes, I want to see those parents! But, PLEASE I want to see parents who are less engaged in the educational process. I'm going to make a crazy statement here but I think ALL parents want their students to be successful, both in AND outside the classroom.

So, how do create a system where parents are excited, engaged members of our student population and educational community? How do we, as teachers, maximize our time so we are working with ALL parents? How do we inform the parents on where students are falling on the standards continuum? How do we teach parents about test numbers and what all that educational jargon means?

So often, for ease of scheduling, district assign a few dates a year to have conferences. Yes, it's easy. Yes, it gets everyone on the same page. But does it differentiate for our parents? I don't know how this decision is made. Thinking about the ever changing demographics throughout the country, Shakopee included, doesn't it make sense to have the clients decide the when, where and how it's done? I'd LOVE to find a way that works for everyone but mostly for our parents.

How do we educate our PARENTS to be better educators? We know the theory behind what we do but they don't have that piece of information. Why not share our knowledge about best practices with someone who can continue it at home? AND, how do we, as a school community, continue the parent engagement throughout the school years, even as the child graduates?

Closing the Gap

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to go to Closing the Gap conference in Bloomington, MN. "This conference builds on a traditiona of providing a comprehensive examination of the most current uses of technology by persons with disabilities and the professionals who work with them. Topics covered a broad spectrum of tech ology as it is being applied to all disabilities and age groups in education, rehabilitation, vocation, and independent living.

This confrence touched base on the best practices to use within the classroom and had up and coming ideas on how to implement them.

Closing the Gap is a great resource for educators working with children with special needs. For more information, please go to

http://www.closingthegap.com/solutions/

Closing the Gap 2011

This week I had the opportunity to attend the National Closing the Gap conference on Wednesday and Thursday in Bloomington. Closing the Gap focuses on education and collaboration related to the field of Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC). (http://www.closingthegap.com/)
I was able to attend the following sessions:

"The Foundational Steps of Developing Language Competence for AAC Speakers"
"Going Beyond Templates with Boardmaker Studio"
"Utilizing a Structured Framework to Support Diverse AAC Learners"
"I Touch, I Hear, I Talk: iPad Tools of the Trade"
"Tips, Tricks and Strategies for Using Speech Recognition to Increase Productivity"
"Auditory Scanning: We Know It Can Be Done, But How?"
"Making Evidence-Based Decisions About Speech Generating Devices & Apps"
"AAC and the Switch Makeover: Jump Starting Communication for Students with Significant Disabilities"

The conference allowed me to collaborate with other Speech-Language Pathologists from across the country, expand my knowledge base, and network with AAC vendors and representatives. It was truly a valuable experience, and I will be utilizing new strategies with my students right away. I would highly recommend this conference for any SLPs, OTs, PTs, AT specialists, SpEd teachers, or anyone who would like to learn more about the world of AAC.

(The attached pictures show where attendees are from, and show previous Closing the Gap brochures)

Technology: Love it or Hate it?

Funny I title my post this, I had an interesting thing happen before this post was finally made. First, I had the entire post written about everything I love about technology and the new things I am trying with my SMART board. Sadly, I hit something on the keyboard as I was going to post and deleted the entire post with no hopes of getting it back. Second, the SMART board in class today was not being very 'smart' and was not working to par. This also contradicted my first post that I tried to make this morning about how much I enjoy technology and how it improves lessons. I am going to try my best to explain what my first post this AM was about, before it was deleted to no more.

I was very excited when I learned that my classroom was getting a SMART board this year. I have had the board for about 3 weeks now and can already see a change in how students are engaged in the lessons. A couple little things that made my students more interested was including objects that covered answers (like balloons), which you could pop to get the answer, or side screens that can be pulled up at anytime during the lesson to make an important note. I have also seen a great improvement in students volunteering in class.

The downfall that I have had so far is that it takes all students time to learn the board. There are little ticks that will prevent the board from working correctly. (Like having more than 1 person write at a time). This can really take a lot of class time when you are trying to teach and show them how to use the board. Another issue I had today is nothing wanted to erase and no matter how many times I calibrated the board, it was not working as well as it should. I found a great site that I wanted to share. Anyone who has a SMART board in their room should check it out because there are many different lessons available.

If you have any great technology stories and how they helped or hurt a lesson, comment how you handled it!

You will have to enter an email address to access all of the lessons.
exchange.smarttech.com/search.html

S.W.A.T. Time

Last Thursday, the Junior High participated in the first "S.W.A.T." time. S.W.A.T stand for Student Wide Achievement time and happens about 2x a month. During this time, students either 1) work on catching up with classes 2) have enrichment opportunities in core subjects 3) interventions on core subjects 4) have a "option" time for fun/enriching activities that students normally don't get to do during the school day. So examples of "options" were "how to make rootbeer" (science) yoga, signlanguage, craft activities, etc.
My students participated in the community by going to the apple orchard. We went to Emma Krumbies in Belle Plaine and had a wonderful time. Students counted apples, went on a hayride, taste tested apples and "voted" on which were the best (graphing), and more. It was a great social activity and a nice way to get our kids out into the community.

Keeping Attention

After an interesting 4th hour yesterday, I thought I would attempt my first post to see if there is any helpful hints out there.

I have a class this year where I have 5 high functioning autistic kids, alongside other students that need that need some extra tender, loving care.
I have had a couple of incidences now, where my autistic students start to get a little uneasy and then it can escalate into screaming or crying, etc. Yes, I have wonderful paras that are in here to help, but my concern turns into the fact that during lessons my students focus their attention on whats going on and we slowly start to lose that important time together. Then I spend the time trying to re-gain their attention and figure out where we left off.

I guess I just wonder if there are any helpful strategies or techniques that people have used in the past that would help not only me to learn how to work through whats going on, but also keeping my students engaged at the same time??

S.W.A.T.

School Wide Achievement Time (S.W.A.T.) officially kicked off at the Junior High this week. As an enrichment activity, I offered a "beginners sign language" option. About 20 students attended, and luckily I also had a Paraprofessional with me who was fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). The students had a great time, and I even heard that many of them were finger spelling in their afternoon classes :)
It turned out to be a great opportunity for me to meet mainstream students. The majority of students I work with are diagnosed with either a Learning Disability, Autism, or Developmental Cognitive Disability. This was a wonderful way for me to connect with more students in our building, and they were also able to learn about Deaf culture and being sensitive to those with disabilities.
The only concern that arose out of S.W.A.T. time for me today was for those students who were pre-assigned to an intervention (extra help in math, Phy Ed make-ups, etc.). Many of those students did not know they were pre-assigned, and had been looking forward to an enrichment activity (such as How to Make Root Beer). I believe it would be beneficial to notify students when they are pre-assigned to an intervention.
Overall, this was a positive experience for me. Hopefully the students enjoyed their time and learned something new!

Science Writing

In science classes we are now required (in our standards) to have more writing. Which means science writing. Have any of you ever read a Science Journal?? It is a very daunting activity. Half the time I can't even understand what is going on in the Journal. I am having my students read more of these (simplier ones) to get a better understanding of science writing.

An English teacher sent me an article called "Why I Write: Timothy Ferris on Writing to Learn" http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3664

This article is saying that writing in science is important, and that Scientist should do more writing. Making a daunting theory or law into something that "a bartender could understand." Write on how the world works, and you will get a better understanding of it. Great little article on the importance of writing in all classes.

IEP Wrap Up

Last Week I had the 2nd part of my Standardized IEP training. Although this training was geered towards kids taking the MCA's, some of it was beneficial for my students who take the MTAS.
Here are the key points that were summarized and will be useful to write SBIEPs for my students
* You need to address the grade level standard in the PLAFF. EVEN if your student is no where near the standard, you need to pick a STRAND where the student learns "prerequisite skills" to reach that goal
* Students should be exposed to the standard. Even if not at their grade level, the standards are "tiered" and you can effectively address the standard at a lower level
* Students who Exceed or Meet the MTAS requirements will need to take the MCA-Modified.


We will see how this goes when I write my first IEP of the year in December :o)

Until next time...