TWS

1. Age Calculator: The biggest life saver when figuring out age for testing.  Those pesky little dates are very important for the big tests.  Mentor teacher said to bookmark this so you don't have to spend five minutes trying to figure it out.

2. Kindergarten Ideas: Mrs. Bremer's Class blog is great for Kindergarten level learning.  Great fun, art projects.  I liked the site word activity.  Helpful for unit plan creation.

3. Montessori Mom: This site helped me create most of my instruction for my unit plan.  My student needed more tactile instruction and Montessori is the way to go.  Gives a great overview of how Montessori instruction works.  Blog.

4. Montessori Printables: Free Montessori printables and ideas for instruction.  Montessori America, Canada, UK, and Australia- more international links for education!

5. Procedural Safeguards: This is a document that is given to every parent who is involved in an IEP meeting.  SPED teachers need to know this information regarding parent's rights. Utah document.

Independent Study for Facilitating Services

This class has been FILLED with new resources for a future special educator.  Most of my resources have been affiliated nationally or for the state of Utah, but this class took a turn east for North Carolina. My future teaching opportunities will most likely end up on the east coast and I need to familiarize myself with the services offered in my home state.

Parent Services : Exceptional Children's Assistance Center is a parent information hotspot.  They have links and classes in different areas ranging from NC law, IEP forms, new parents, workshops, and training centers.

Public Schools of North Carolina: This is the basic site for exceptional children in public schools by the Board of Education. This site gives more resources for parents as well as state sanctioned teaching practices.

Autism Society of North Carolina: The Autism Society of North Carolina strives to create a community where people within the autism spectrum and their families receive respect, services, and support based on individual differences, needs, and preferences. The organization works to directly improve the lives of individuals and families affected by autism through advocacy, training and education, and direct services.

ASPEN: Asperger Autism Spectrum Education Network- ASPEN provides families and individuals whose lives are affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders (Asperger Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder-NOS, High Functioning Autism), and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities with education, support, and advocacy. It is important to learn more about AS/ASD to better understand and relate to your child. 

Vocational Rehabilitation Services: Services people with disabilities in the areas of employment, independent living, assistive technology, Client Assistance Program (CAP), and disability determination. These services are provided to people with physical, psychiatric or intellectual disabilities and to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing or have other communicative disorders to assist them with living independently and with finding a job and staying on the job. 

Severe K-6

Math Lessons: http://www.updc.org/counting-objects/ & Touch Math
           The website is the Utah Personnel Development Center. It is a program for teaching one-to-one correspondence and counting objects in random order. The site has four different unit videos for examples. 
           Touch Math is a methodology that can be tremendously helpful for some children.  It reaches children who need kinesthetic learning techniques and visual cues when counting. This program will eventually be faded out for children and not every child will grasp onto this concept.  But for some children, Touch Math really grabs their attention and teaches strategies for counting. 

Prompting Hierarchies: http://instructionalprogramming.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/3/13733774/prompting_hierchies.pdf
        This PDF is a great resource to print off and laminate for a reference. Prompting hierarchies provide a systematic method of assisting students to learn and use new skills, as well as, a framework for teachers and TAs to communicate about a student’‛s learning and level of independence.

Step-by-Step IEP and IP Planning: http://instructionalprogramming.weebly.com/
          This blog was created by one of my professors at Westminster College. This site has helped me go through my planning and provided templates for previous Instructional Planning.  Great snap shot for teachers and TA's.

Looking Up On Down15 minute movie clip
        I was introduced to this movie from a friend of mine and I fell in love with it.  Professor Feuerstein founded the institute in 1965 in Jerusalem working with families and children with Down Syndrome. "Prof. Feuerstein’s main thesis is that human intelligence is not a fixed entity, but rather that human beings of any age, culture, or economic conditions have an inherent and unpredictable propensity to improve their cognitive abilities regardless of age, status, cultural background, or even developmental disabilities. Around this thesis he developed a unique educational method, directly flowing from the theory that enables the development of learning aptitude and the enhancement of intelligence." --It's worth a look! Institute Website 

Assessments

Ethics and Considerations
Testing Ethics Policy 
This site specifically tells teachers what is good and legal practice for different types of testing.  This pdf would also benefit parents to know what is legally expected of the state for testing information.

Accommodations
Accommodations and Modifications & NCEO
The Organized Special Education Teacher is a great site that provides ideas for accommodations during testing.  The whole blog is for every teacher, home school- to- religious teaching. NCEO is from 2001 but provides information on accommodations and controversies of the different types of accommodations. 

Dynamic Learning Maps
Dynamic Learning Maps
The new DLM alternate assessment system will let students with significant cognitive disabilities show what they know in ways that traditional multiple-choice tests cannot. This new testing will be implemented in 2014 in 14 different states.  Special Educators will be using the new form of assessment- now you can brush up on new facts! 

Templates of Summary Reports
Sample 1  &  Progress monitoring templates 
Using the scores from an assessment (let's say the WJ III) you can then progress monitor.  This way, a teacher can actually keep data and have more accurate data. 

SPED Behavior Supports

LRBI Manual : This document incorporates the model of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Response to Intervention (RtI). It suggests that effective educational practices remain implemented throughout the educational programming and across settings, even when more intensive and intrusive procedures are selected.

Issues with Bullying : The issue of bullying is particularly important for students with exceptionalities and therefore for special educators. It can be an unintended side effect of inclusion: when exceptional children are exposed to the general classroom, the risk of bullying increases.

Positive Behavior Systems   : Almost a decade of research has identified the most effective approach to addressing issues of behavior before they become a problem: schoolwide positive behavior support (SW-PBS). The most successful schools use this as part of a continuum of support that involves three levels.

Social Skills and Relationships :

Learning to successfully interact with others is one of the most important aspects of a child's development, with far-reaching implications. Although most children acquire social skills by example, and possibly osmosis, research clearly suggests children with learning disabilities (LD) may have difficulty making and keeping friends

Utah Mental Health Resources   : Provides a list of local services and agencies as well as support groups, personal advocacy resources and evidence based practices. Click on an area that pertains to your situation and see what schools are available. 

Wrap up

Overall, I feel like my experience was ....interesting.  I did not work with one particular student the whole time.  I saw the relationship between the special ed teacher and the gen ed teacher and found that I do not one like my current example.  I learned that respect and communication is key for corroborating with co-workers.  I would love to see another example of co-teaching in a positive light for a more well-rounded experience.

Three Days into One

2/29- SPRING BREAK! had the week off :)
3/7 - This day was quiet boring. My teacher didn't do anything but sit and observe next to me.  As I have spent my time here, she sits with me more and more and will not help out because there isn't much time to help other students.  Most of the time I am there is lecture from the General Educator.  I get more and more confused of why my teacher sits in the room.

The class lesson was about nouns, verbs, and adjectives. My teacher took notes on her iPad to help with after school lessons.

3/14 It was a reading day.  They spent three hours in their 1st period class reading.  She sent me home! haha Nothing to observe that day.