Showing posts with label Self Determination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Self Determination. Show all posts

Pinterest April Pick 3 Linky


This is one of my favorite times for year. I LOVE tulips--this is the only time of year in Colorado where they don't cost an arm and a leg. But I also start thinking about next year of things I want to change. For this months Pick 3 is in that idea. 




I came across this link on Pinterest that has tons of free PECS. I love Boardmarker and have created many things for my students through the years with it. This year I'm using PECS for vocabulary words and story vocabulary for students. I don't keep them. I'm not sure I want too but having a place where I can go find other pictures before I go to Google would be a big help. Plus its makes a great place for me to send teachers who don't have Boardmarker or are just wanting to dabble in adding pictures to things.
These guys have free PECS too but I love how they have stored them. I like said above I don't tend to hang on to my pictures but this would be an easy way to keep them and a place where I can send teachers who are looking for one or two things without having to do it for them.




I use PECS for more than creating schedules for students. I also create games, books, and activities for them because some have such large language deficits it helps them out. I like this mat because its simple and an easy way for students to build vocabulary around a words with out me having to do tons of prep.



I hope I have inspired you to try something new or started the wheels moving on tweaking something that you do all ready. Have a great weekend and check the out posts.













Self Determination--Part 2

Getting students to ask for help is always a challenge. For the last three weeks, a group of 6th grade students have been working on asking of help to build their self advocacy skill set. I was surprised by the number of self-determination video clips, that I found on You Tube. I found three that would best illustrate self-determine to a group of 6th students with learning disabilities.






Using the videos to continue to build their background knowledge, they were able to create a 5-point scale of how they feel when they have to ask for help. I got the idea from "The Incredible 5-point Scale" by: Kari Dunn Buron.
I have used her voice scale with wonderful results.  Everyone created their own High-Low Scale with emotion icons. Then we created a group on, that I have posted in their homerooms as well as my room. Since their are no names attached to it, no one else in the class is aware of who it's for.

The High-Low Scale has helped students identify their feelings around asked for help. One reported that she felt better, now she better understood herself. She was able to work through why she didn't want to ask for help and begun asking for help when she's stuck instead for waiting to see me later and ask me then. I'm so excited that its already helped one student. I'm hoping that as they spend more time with the scale, that I'll see an increase in them asking for help from their classroom teachers.

Self Determination

As the year winds down, my 6th graders are looking forward too and talking about middle school and all the cool things that they get to do. Many are taking an active part in their IEP meeting for the first time. One thing I do to help them transition into middle school is to talk about self determination--what it looks like and what it means for them to become their own advocate. It was an exciting conversation to have with them as their teachers are having them research jobs and careers. We talked abut what self determination and created a circle map to define it. (Self determination is a person's ability to control his or her destiny.) The group defined self determination as taking responsibility of their actions and choices, making independent choices and problem solving on their own, setting and achieving goals both short and long term, and doing things without an adult telling them that it needed to get done.

What was every cooler was that they were able to clearly identify how they demonstrate their self determination throughout their day. Some of the things that they came up with were doing nightly homework, doing chores, being responsible, and making a long term goal about what they want to do after high school. They also talked about things they needed to work on like asking for help and when they achieve a goal then setting a new one.

Some people think self-determination is just for students with significant needs not students with learning disability but all students not matter need to become their own advocate. This are skills that need to be practiced throughout their K-12 education not just when they start planning for life after high school.


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Welcome to my all thing special education blog. I empower busy elementary special education teachers to use best practice strategies to achieve a data and evidence driven classroom community by sharing easy to use, engaging, unique approaches to small group reading and math. Thanks for Hopping By.
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