Weekly Behavior Logs

In an earlier post, I referenced the fact that I use weekly behavior monitoring logs to communicate children's behavior with their parents, in addition to helping to keep kids accountable. I thought I'd go into a little more detail here, as well as provide you with a copy (with English and Spanish on one sheet!) of the format that I use.

I store all the behavior logs on the back of a door in my classroom, so that they are visible and accessible at all times. If my kids are having some issues getting themselves together, I can walk over to the door and pick up the stamper. That usually helps to modify some behaviors pretty quickly.  :)

The front part of the sheet is basically just a grid, with the each day broken up into sections. Based on the students' behavior during a given period, they either receive a happy face or a sad face. You can use a marker or pen to draw the faces, but it can get time consuming. I use a self-inking happy face stamp that I found at my local teacher supply store; I've found it's the fastest way to get the job done.

On Fridays, I take all of the sheets down and fill out the backs while my students get some free time (it's a win-win for all of us!).  I usually write a very short note (1-2 sentences) about the child's behavior to the parents. The form also includes a place to indicate what related services they've received that week and how they are doing in each subject. I like that I'm able to communicate with parents each week, and it's not super time consuming. It also covers my you-know-what so that parents can't say I'm not keeping them informed about what's happening with their child at school.

Unfortunately, I was only able to upload the weekly behavior log file to Google Docs as a PDF, so you won't be able to modify it. I copy the two sheets back to back, and then cut them in half to save on paper, so each printed page makes two behavior logs. You can download it as is here, but if you need to change it to suit your needs (like if you don't have recess or you need three sections in the afternoon, etc.), shoot me a note in the comments and I'll try to make a version that works for you.

Happy monitoring!

Simple Paint Cup Solution!

I don't know about you, but I get reallllly tired of washing out paint cups! I try really hard to incorporate art into my classroom, which can be hard to do with an increased emphasis on standards based curriculums. One of the ways I do this is by setting up a painting center. Now, I know a lot of my general education counterparts set up an easel outside of their classroom and let two kids at a time go out to paint. As a special education teacher, I can tell you this is pretty much a bad idea for me and my kids.  So thanks to DonorsChoose, I now have a solution!

I love this easel! It's on rollers, so I can slide it anywhere I want in my classroom in a matter of seconds. Plus, it has four sides, which means four kids at a time can use it, making it a totally valid center. (They're pretty pricey, but you can buy one here, through Lakeshore. Or, just do what I did and ask for one on DonorsChoose.org.) We slide some butcher paper underneath it to catch any stray paint drops and, voila: my kids can paint, and I can supervise them while still attending to my other students.

Well, after my third of fourth day after school scrubbing paint cups, one of my brilliant colleagues showed me an easier way. An "Are you serious?!? That is genius! Why did I never think of that!" kind of easier way.

Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you...

Dollar store sandwich bags!

Just stick these little suckers into the paint cup...

Pour in the paint...

And close the lid. When you're done with the paint, all you do is pick up the plastic bag, toss it in the trash, and boom. You're done.  Makes painting in the classroom MUCH less time consuming for me, which means I'm more likely to actually do it. A win, win for everyone!

Assessing The Munchkins- Assessment Measure Included!

I don't know about you, but my district requires that we monitor the progress of our special needs students about once every 15 and a half minutes.  There are lots of ways to do it, and I'm sure each teacher has their own strategy. I've tried lots of different measures in the past, but this year I've finally developed an assessment tool that is super fast to administer and measures students' progress in several different areas. I give this assessment at least three times a year, or more often, depending on the student or administrative "requests." :)

Now, I should probably say that this tool was designed to measure progress of first grade students with moderate disabilities, but I could see it working for Kindergarten through 2nd (or higher, depending on your students' disabilities and IEP goals).

This assessment includes letter names and letter sound recognition, as well as word reading, letter writing, counting, reading, and writing numbers, and addition and subtraction skills. Each assessment takes me around 5 minutes to administer. I give msot parts of the test individually during our "Universal Access" or small group time. The only exception is for letter writing and addition and subtraction, during which I put up study carrels (or "offices" as some people call them) and assess two to three students at a time. That helps it to go a little faster!

The picture is not the greatest, but hopefully you can get the gist of it, or you can just go here to get the printable assessment. I usually copy them back to back to save on paper, and to make them easier to keep track of.

What do YOU use to assess your students?

Copy Organization: Binder Clips

So I've been crushing after this Lakeshore Copy Organizer for months now. When my school gave us some money to spend on our classroom (What?!? Money to spend?!?) I came thisclose to buying one, until my friend Jessica had the good sense to talk me out of it. After all, as she said, "there's gotta be a cheaper way to make something that can do the same thing."

Ah, Jessica. Such a wise girl.

At first, I thought that I would just buy some $1 magazine holders at Target and find a way to hold them together. Around $5 for the same idea, with a grand savings of about $45 dollars. Not bad. But then I realized that the only thing I ever seem to need to organize is my copies. I don't usually pull all of the week's books, workbooks, and supplies ahead of time, so the organizer might just take up space we don't really have in my too tiny classroom (you Special Ed teachers can probably feel my pain on this one.)

So, after stumbling across a similar idea on Pinterest (pretty much the source of anything cool I ever do. Like, ever.), I decided that I would simply make labeled binder clips to suit my purposes. This project was super siimple and cost less than $5, including the Sharpie I bough so that my clips and writing could color-coordinate. And who knew they made binder clips that were so pretty?

I wrote the full name on one side, but thought that was too hard to see quickly, so I made the other side with just abbreviations. I'm excited to use them this week! Should be a cheerful little way to organize!

What do you think readers? What else could we use these little suckers for?

Behavior Post-It Notes

I was so excited when I found this Post-It template on Pinterest (originally posted by Melanie at SugarDoodle- check it out here), that I actually screamed. Out loud. Which kind of annoyed the Hubs, and definitely scared the Pup. But I couldn't help myself.

For years (and I mean YEARS!), I have been looking for a way to quickly notify parents of their child's behavior on a daily basis. I haven't yet found any commercial sites or teacher supply stores that sell exactly what I need. For a while, I would send home daily behavior logs with comments for parents to sign and return each day. This obviously had a few obstacles. For one, it took FOR.EV.ER. Secondly, most parents didn't send them back daily, and so I basically made a bajillion extra copies and couldn't keep tabs on how the kids were doing over the course of the week.

Last year,  I started weekly behavior logs instead, which works much better from a management standpoint. I can monitor kids week-long behavior, and parents can find out how their kids did during the week on Friday afternoons. But for many parents, this wasn't enough. They wanted to know how their child did everyday. For a while, I gave stickers to the kids who did well, so their parents would see the sticker and know that their child behaved. Then I had one genius little stinker who began stealing stickers from other kids, peeling them off of walls, and soliciting from the bus driver so he could trick his mom. And they say SpecialEd kids are slow. Right!

So when I came across this template, I  pretty much died. And then I knew exactly what I would use them for: to create daily, mini behavior logs. I purposely made them extraordinarily simple, and left out a comment section. I plan to store these with a pen on a little clipboard by the door, so I can circle a face and slap them onto the child's homework folder on the way out.  Follow the directions below to make your own!

Look What I Did!

Ah, the "Look What I Did" board. It's one of my favorite things that I've ever done in my classroom, but no one that comes into my classroom ever seems to notice it. Except, that is, for the kids.

When I was observing another class for my credential work, I saw that a teacher had a board that was for students' accomplishments. The students' best writing samples for the week were hung on the board, so each child could see their best work. They weren't all from the same assignment, but they were all quality examples. I loved the idea, but wondered how some of my non-writers (or tracers, or "copy from a model-ers") would feel about the work that was displayed there.

So I added my own take on it, and created the "Look What I Did" board. It's basically just a huge, bright bulletin board that holds a hodge-podge assortment of work samples and feats, from all different subjects, assignments, and work types.

Look At All That Extraordinary Work!

The gist of the board is that anytime someone does anything out of the ordinary, whether it is a particularly good art project, doing more writing than was required, or mastering a new skill, their work (or a note about what they did) is added to the board. The students get to pick where their work goes on the board, and we all cheer and make a big deal about it. Seriously, the kids will do ANYTHING to get their work up on their board. And the look on their face when their work is chosen for the board- it's priceless. The kids never know what I'm looking for, and they know I won't put anything up there that isn't spectacular. So when something gets picked, they know it means they did something incredible that day, something to be proud of.

What I love about the board is that kids can be honored for their accomplishments, no matter what level they're at. Take a look at the close-up below to see what I mean...

I mean, in one place we can celebrate a student writing their first sentence, a rare moment of silence and hard work, a student mastering digraphs, an exceptional chicken (I mean, cutest thing ever. Right?), and a coloring and cutting activity from a student who rarely completes assignments. It's the perfect analogy for my class- all these different, weird little talents and successes happening in one happy little place. I love it, and the kids do too!

My Classroom

 After the gabillion blogs I've visited in the last couple of years (Sidebar: did you know I once actually taught a fifth grade class that after trillion came gabillion? Not my finest teaching moment.), I'm a little hesitant to post pictures of my classroom. I mean, it's not the messiest or depressingest classroom I've ever seen, but it's also not the cutsyiest. But I figured I would go ahead and post some pictures so you can get a feel for the classroom set up, especially in case any of you are just starting out and aren't really sure where to begin. I'll probably go over some of the things you see in more detail at a later point, but I figure a quick tour will suffice for now!

The View from the Classroom Door

Mrs. T's Work Table

My Paraeducator's Work Table, Plus an Art Display :)

The Classroom

Daily Schedule. The back of the cards say "Finished," so we can flip them over when we're done to see where we're at in the day. 

The "Look What I Did" Board- This One Definitely Needs More Explanation in a Later Post!

The Cupboard Decorations/Kids' Yearbook Pages- Will Post More About These Later, Too!

Writing Board

So we can practice our sight words as we exit the room

Some art my kids did. I love this one!

A display on telling time, from when I had a much (much!) smaller class.

Our Calendar Routine

Like I said, just a quick tour. I'll post more as time goes by, and give more details about some of the things shown here in later posts!