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Baseline-
This strand is something that I do almost on a daily basis. For most of my classes that I teach there is not a set curriculum. I usually pull from a variety of sources, but I don't use a set curriculum for most courses. In my daily living classes, I have developed my own foundation for the course. I have outlined the areas that could be covered in that class. I have to adapt this for each individual student as they generally are at different levels. I also do a fair amount of assessing. This can be informal to formal testing. One of the requirements for students with special needs is that they are re-evaluated every three years. We try to do a full assessment (ability and intellectual) before students graduate for post secondary purposes. I also do informal testing to keep track of progress for some IEP goals. I am always interested in learning new ways to assess and how to document progress.
Questions:
How do you get student's to retain information that has been taught (over and over and over)?
What skills are truly functional (where do I start, what will they actually use and be of benefit to them?)
Growth- (updated April 2012)
For this strand, I was able to design a new way to keep documentation for some of my student's IEP's. I have created a folder with each student IEP goals pasted on the inside. I use this as a reminder of what goals we need to be working towards. This also assists the paraprofessionals with knowing what students need to work on. Inside those folders I have a chart where we can document daily what the students are doing and how they are making progress. I has been very beneficial as I have been able to provide more in depth information to parents and I am able to determine when it is time to implement new skills. I have also created daily routines within a few of my classes. I think this has been of great benefit for not only the students but myself. The students know what the expectations are and they are more independent. I have also implemented the Ipad, compass learning, and direct instruction. Our high school has also implemented a mod. block schedule this year. I have had to adjust the way I teach on these particular days. I think having an 80 minute time block periodically has been very beneficial. It gives me more time to focus on skills that we are covering, rather than starting something and having to continue it the next day. I have implemented station teaching on these days as well. I think this breaks up the time and keeps the students focused. I look forward to continuing to implement and try new curriculum.
