Books I Use In Practice

I find most of what I need for daily practice in the classroom, now that I am in my 12th year of teaching learners with multiple special needs, in my head or online. However there are a few books I return to over and over to guide what I do in the classroom or to give me guidance in planning IEPs.

• The Syracuse Community Referenced Curriculum
  
• The Callier-Azuza Scale
• INCH Interactive Checklist for AAC
• FISH Functional Independent Skills Handbook
• Every Move Counts

I am sure I am missing one or two. What books do you go back to?

Number One Unused Tool

The number one unused tool of this blog is right up there in the left hand corner...

see it?

It is an empty white rectangle.

Type in a word or two relating to what you are looking for and then click "search blog" to the right of it. Give it a whirl and then come back to it when you are looking for something else. I wrote this blog and I use it all the time to find things I think I wrote about but I can't find.

But the end of this year there should be 1,000 posts on this blog, there are already over 850. Most every topic relevant to classrooms serving learners with multiple, intensive or severe special needs has been touched upon in some way... so try out the search bar up in the left hand corner if you need something.

P.S. If this didn't make any sense at all you are likely reading this in your RSS Reader... try heading over to the actual blog, you know, just this once.

Tactile Flash Cards

For now these haptic flash cards with braille on one side and textures of various locations on the other side are just an award winning prototype designed for blind students to learn about different environments.

Perhaps some day they could come to your classroom?

(They sort of remind me of my tactile books.)

The Staff Bulletin Board

Each year I think carefully about the materials I hang on the bulletin board, wall or door I designate for staff.

• The Prompt Hierarchy (link is to Adapted Learning - log in first) is an essential tool for all of those who work with learners with any kind of special need, but especially those with multiple disabilities, in my previous position I trained all new paraprofessionals agency-wide in positive behavior supports and interventions and spent quite a bit of time on the prompt hierarchy, in my new job all classroom have a weekly one hour classroom and I hope to spend one of the first meetings reviewing this
• "All Behavior is Communication" - this is a banner that hangs across the top of the bulletin board
  
• Positive Behavior Support Reminders (another Adapted Learning link) is a little sign to remind adults when to praise, ignore, redirect and to always teach appropriate behavior
• Instruct, Model, Practice, Praise - this is my mantra (well, one of many), it is how all great teaching from the littlest newborn learning to babble to a six year old learning to tie his shoes to pre-algebra in seventh grade to a college level seminar in the disturbed child and adolescent (best class I ever took, by the way, props to Dr. Ellen Wright, way to use that Bloom's) is done; I hang this to remind adults that no matter what we are teaching, from cause and effect to using a spoon to row/column scanning we instruct, model, practice and praise over and over again
  
• The Beatitudes for Friends of the Exceptional Child this is a poster version (preview below) I made a few years ago, more recently I've seen a different version of this poem credited to the writer Andre Masse
  

Beatitude for Teachers of the Exceptional Child

Please Pass on to Wheelchair Users and/or their Families

"Over my 20 years of experience with wheelchair users, I have encountered countless frustrating and even dangerous situations where people who need wheelchairs are unable to get them. Users First Alliance is trying to DO something about that. If you are frustrated with the limited choice, quality or service of your mobility equipment you are not alone. Unfortunately, your voice is not being heard by the people who set funding policies for the very equipment you need to live your life.

The disability movement has been successful in improving environmental accessibility, yet access to wheelchairs and wheelchair cushions has eroded as government and private health care policies have decreased coverage for these essential items. One of the reasons funding for wheelchairs has decreased is that nobody speaks out. Although there are many disability advocacy groups, not one focuses specifically on access to wheelchairs. Users First Alliance seeks to unite the voice of the wheelchair user by creating a community of people who believe quality wheelchairs and cushions enable people to live more fulfilling and productive lives. It is ESSENTIAL we illustrate to the policy makers that access to quality equipment, service and product choice ultimately decreases health care costs. And, more importantly, improves your quality of life.

You have a right to appropriate equipment that allows you to live your life. And, you have the power to make a difference! Tell your story about how your equipment makes it possible for you to participate in life AND tell how not getting the correct equipment has negatively affected your life. You HAVE to let the policy makers know what you need, why you need it and how you feel!

Get creative, have fun, tell your story through video, photos or writing. But speak out!!! It is your voice, your words. If you do not speak out - NO ONE can do it but you. The policy makers and insurance companies do not want to hear from health care professionals or equipment suppliers - they want and need to hear from you.

You are the only one who can do this!!!!

Email me anneubank@usersfirst.org your story.

Please share this with others, if we do not have a voice with policy makers, funding for wheelchairs will eventually disappear, regardless of the ADA. Visit www.usersfirst.org."

Website of the Day: The Spang Gang Web Program Home Page

This website, The Spang Gang, while visually a bit overwhelming, lists by grade level, academic area and standard, sites where students can learn about and practices skills. This is a great site to book mark and use in a pinch to find websites to introduce or reinforce lessons you are teaching.

Ablenet Introduces Talking Brix Communicators

Talking Brix are small (about 2.5 by 2.5 inches with a 1.8 inch switch button area) recordable talking switches, which are also interlocking in many different configurations and are magnetic.