Autism Awareness Blog Hop

I'm so happy to be posting as part of the Autism Awareness Blog Hop.  If you haven't had a chance to see the great posts so far, click on the picture below and go to the first post.

As a special education teacher, I've had the privilege of teaching several students with autism.  I can honestly say that these students have been some of my favorite students ever.  If you will be teaching a student with autism, the biggest advice I can give you is to take the time (and it may take awhile) to get to know the student.  Find out their likes and interests.  It may take longer to build a relationship with this student, and it may be different than the relationship you have with other students.  However, the time you invest into the relationship will be worthwhile in the end.

I alos want to emphasize that if you've taught one student with autism, you've taught ONE student with autism.  People with autism are so different from each other.  What worked with one student, may not work with another student.  However, there are some characteristics that many students with autism share and you may notice.

1.  Figurative language can be difficult for students with autism to understand.  One of my favorite girl students had autism and was just adorable.  But she didn't understand figurative language and was very literal.  I would tell the class that we would need to finish an activity so we could "move on".  She always thought we were actually moving.  LOL.

2.  Eye contact can be difficult and uncomfortable for people with autism.  I have a student with autism now and he has a hard time even looking into the camera if I take a picture.  He's always looking off to the side in every single picture I've taken so far.

3.  They may insist on talking about a topic of interest to them even though no one else is interested in talking about this topic.  You might want to consider some social skills instruction and practice if this is an area of concern.

One thing that can be helpful as a teacher of students with autism is to learn what the students are and use those interests in your instruction.  My first student with autism LOVED Star Wars.  I was able to take this interest and make an academic game for him that he loved.  

The best part was he was engaged and interacting with his peers.  You can read that blog post {here}.

An easy way to learn your students interests is by getting parent input.  Really, they know their child best and can give you great information that you can then tailor to your classroom.  I use this Reinforcement Survey to help me learn about students' interests.  Click on the picture to download your free copy.

You'll also want to stop by The Corner on Character to see her blog post today about students with autism.

Make sure you check back tomorrow to go to the last post of the blog hop at Teaching Through Turbulence.  There's going to be a giveaway that you'll want to enter!

Pass the Torch Linky

Get Ready for Bloggy Olympics!!!

Join The 3AM Teacher, the Reading Olympians, and over 80 SUPREME education bloggers as we take you through a tour of the Reading Olympians Root Study Program!!

As many of you know, I teach special education in a resource setting to Kindergarten students.  When I first opened the Kindergarten program, I was worried that it would be over my students' heads.  Anything abstract is pretty tough for them to understand, especially if there aren't visuals.

We started by reading the book that discusses how we can use prefixes and suffixes to change the meanings of words.  

My students have a difficult time expressing themselves orally and through writing and most receive language therapy.  They have a hard time using the plural form of words, and I knew this is where I wanted to start.  I showed them some pictures of common items and we discussed how to say the word (cat or cats) based upon how many objects were in the picture.  

We attempted to do to the worksheet page in the unit, but it requires cutting out some intricate (at least for my students) puzzle pieces.  It looked like they cut the pieces with a chainsaw.  :/ Luckily, my 1st grade daughter LOVES anything related to school and was happy to make me an example.

This also showed me the difficulties my students faced is probably not typical of a general education student.  I feel like this would be something most Kindergarten students could easily do, but my own students just don't have the developmental skills yet.  

So to help my students out and give us more opportunities to work on this skill, I made this Plural CVC Words - A Mini Unit for Using the Suffix -s and it's a limited FREEBIE for the next 3 days.  

I would have loved to try the Reading Olympians in a general ed class and see how the students would respond.  I think other Kindergarten students would be very successful with this program. The Kindergarten level would also be appropriate for struggling or special education students in 1st or 2nd grade.  You'll definitely want to see how other classes were able to use the program by checking out the links below.

Discover the program IN ACTION in more K-6th grade classrooms as you Pass the Torch!! Get ideas, discover the progression of the program, and enter the Raffle for a chance to win ONE of the three prizes listed below!!

First Place Winner : Gold Medal

  Prizes: Complete Reading Olympians Program
            $50.00 Amazon Gift Card
            50% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Second Place Winner: Silver Medal

   Prizes: $25.00 Amazon Gift Card
              40% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Third Place Winner: Bronze Medal

    Prizes: 30% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Pass the Torch!!!
Click the image below to visit the next blog

Kindergarten:



Grade 1 & 2






Grade 3 & 4






Grade 5 & 6


    a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five for Friday - April 5th

Another week down means it's time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for my favorite linky party!

Another week down means that I only have 30 teaching days left this year.  Not that I'm counting on anything.  ;)

Last Sunday, we spent Easter at my favorite place.....the beach!  It was a little untraditional, but we had a great day.  We brought our eggs to the beach and did an egg hunt there.  Old coconut shells make great places to hide eggs. :D

Did anyone else feel like pulling their hair out this week?  I've had pencils thrown at my head, an aide that can't come to work on time or even at all (what's up with that?), students rolling around on the floor for 40 minutes in a temper tantrum, and sat through too many hours of meetings. :(

So the only solution some evenings was to take this giant dog to her favorite place and let her chase a ball.  She's a maniac and loves playing fetch.  If you don't bring her ball, she'll find a nut and actually fetch a nut.  :/

Does anyone else play Candy Crush?  If you don't play it, don't start!  It will suck you in so quick and then you'll want to pull your hair out even more. But it is fun! :P

Meanwhile back at school, we actually did work on some skills this week.  We've been working on segmenting sounds in words.  Boy is this a challenging skill!  The Elkonin boxes with chips are definitely helping.  I'm hoping to make some progress next week with this skill and move onto word families the following week.  Wish me luck!

I hope everyone has a good weekend!