Classroom Dojo

A co-worker recently introduced me to this free behavior tracking app and I love it! Classroom Dojo is a visual behavior tool that allows you to easily track positive as well as negative student behaviors through a point system. Sound like a lot of work? It really isn't. Once you type in all your students' names, Class Dojo assigns a colorful character button to each name. As students exhibit behaviors tap their name once to bring up a menu of behavior options. Tap the behavior they just exhibited and a point will be awarded or deducted from their daily total. Behaviors are tracked daily and can be archived for the entire school year. Parents, other teachers, and administrators can be emailed with a daily graph detailing the percentage of each type of behavior exhibited by a single student each day. Go to their online site to customize the type of behaviors you are specifically tracking. You will also find helpful tutorials to get  you and your students started on this journey together! (Just make sure your school tech administrator has unblocked the site from any filtering services your district may implement prior to classroom use). 

Happy Wednesday!

Just Bob

The Common Core strongly recommends students get daily exposure to literature that is two or three grade levels higher than their current grade. A Snowman Named Just Bob fit the bill and then some! This tale of friendship uses many vivid adjectives which dance across the pages in poetical cadence. My Kindergarten students loved the rhythmic sound of the story as well as the charming illustrations and were eager for me to read it to them again.

After reading the story, it was time to get messy with a fun sensory activity! One of my Kindergarten team members shared with me her recipe for "snow" which is simply 1 part white glue to 1 part shaving cream. Mixed together it makes a fabulous goo the kids adore. My students opted for using paint brushes, but it could be used as a finger paint material if preferred. After painting a basic snowman shape, the students then cut miniature hats out of felt and chose two pipe cleaner "twigs" with which to embellish their creation. A dusting of sparkles to finish off was a big crowd-pleaser. My colleague had a treasure trove of sequence she let her students use as eyes, nose, and buttons. The goo dries puffy making it look like un-meltable snow. The kids went crazy over this! 

To weave in some sneaky writing practice, I gave each student a small strip of lined paper to write the name of the snowman from the story. In this example above, you see green highlighter with pencil markings close about each letter. This student has great difficulty writing independently and currently receives O/T services. At the beginning of this school year, he was often unwilling to even try holding a pencil without someone there to hand-over-hand the writing with him. Now, he will typically sit down without complaint and attempt to write independently just due to the simple use of highlighter on his paper! Green is his favorite color which adds to further the success of this intervention. I love seeing my students grow and improve over the course of the school year!

Stay tuned for some new web-resource shares coming soon. Have a fabulous rest of your week!

Note to self...

... I should really consider squeezing in time to participate in these online simulations  from Syracuse University. Read more about them here.

OCALI conference...
                              Here... 
                                        I.....
                                            Come!!!


Just 4 more weeks until I will be attending one of the best conferences on Autism in the state if not the region! I am so excited (can you tell?). This school year has been filled with new joys and challenges which have left me happily invigorated (as opposed to whooped like I felt last year). It could have a little something to do with the beautiful piece of jewelry resting on my left ring finger (got engaged last July!)... but I think it also has a lot to do with the trials I overcame last school year. 


What is that saying? What doesn't kill me, will make me stronger? Well, stronger I truly feel I have become. 


The opportunity to go to this 3-day conference is an absolute gift that cannot come at a better time. I have a little buddy who is exhibiting many characteristics of an autism spectrum basis. We have been helping him meet success in many areas despite his many sensory-based issues, but his playground social skills have been baffling me. 


I have thought of starting a lego group some days of the week during recess, but I want more ideas for helping him achieve success doing what he loves most on the playground... playing kickball! The game rules are (understandably) very black and white to his perception. He tends to want to control the game and melts down whenever he does not agree with a rule call. 


Hopefully, OCALI will hook me up with some strong social skills training resources that I can bring back to the classroom setting ASAP.


I was looking at the roster today and I am stoked! There are presenters from every aspect of the educational field ... parents, professors, veteran teachers, researchers, and people who live with Autism every day. What amazing perspective I am going to gain from this opportunity! And my students will reap the benefits. =)


I chose to upload the picture below because it reminded me of my students. These flowers were closed and full of potential when they were initially arranged in the vase together. Now that they are in full bloom, each color has intensified, the fragrance grown sweeter, and the beauty far surpasses what I had hoped this season's last batch of roses would do. My students, too, have amazing gifts and qualities yet waiting to be fully tapped, but when they do their homes, communities, and the world at large are going to benefit big time. 


I firmly believe in the excellence of all my students. And I want to keep educating myself in order to better serve these brilliant stars of the our future. 

Incredible Blog

NPR recently highlighted the life and times of Lisa Daxer a 27 year old student at Wright University. She is an up and coming scientific scholar who lives with autism. I had not personally seen this story, but am grateful a friend at work thought to pass it along to me. In the article was a link to Lisa's blog entitled "Reports from a Resident Alien." I perused the articles by topic title along the left side of her page intrigued by the insights she had to share and drawn in by her straight-forward style. Her posting entitled Safe Place was of especial interest to me as it confirmed some professional decisions I had been questioning. I really feel confirmed in my current stance now that I read this article. I strongly encourage educators and non-educators alike to check out Lisa's blog. Humans are meant to learn from one another. The plain life-lessons I gleaned from Lisa Daxer's life observations will stay with me for a long while to come. Hope you find some inspiration, too.

An Important Tip...

Photo from public-domain-photos.com

...to avoid mishaps on a days when a substitute is working in a classroom with a student on a behavior plan. A lesson I recently learned this past week the hard way - unfortunately for us and the student. 

Students on behavior plans are particularly sensitive to changes in routine, so having a substitute can be an automatic trigger that sets off behaviors. Having a classroom evacuation plan in a prominent place in your sub folder can make for a better day for all parties involved. The plan needs to be simple, direct, and to the point. 

Begin by prefacing that there are students in your room who have behavioral and emotional needs which may result in a need for them to use this evacuation plan. Naming the particular student or students is not necessary. Make sure to outline the plan in concise language. I like to use a numbered list. The plan needs to include the code word you use with your students to signal them to evacuate. It also needs to identify the teacher's room where the students will be received. You may want to draw a simple map so the substitute can easily locate the students after the fact. (Ideally, the classroom students evacuate to should be across the hall or one door down). Once the students have left the room, include the phone extension that the sub can call in order to receive immediate help from the proper individuals trained in working with this particular student and his or her behavior plan. 

Discipline Help

We've all been there. There is a student in a certain class who is giving his or her teacher the most difficult time. The teacher is at the end of her rope and comes to you. You listen to the teacher's concerns, the behaviors the student is exhibiting, and you agree to make an observation of the situation. After observing the child, you realize that this student has a very urgent underlying need that is going unmet.However, where do you go from there? A behavior plan is certainly warranted, but what are the supports most appropriate to meeting this particular student's needs?


Enter  http://www.disciplinehelp.com/ I found this site to be very user friendly having separate entry portals for teachers and parents. By separating the needs, it streamlined the process for me. Upon entering the site, click the "view all behaviors" hyperlink at the top left column on the screen. Once there, you will find a list of 117 behaviors. Simply click on the behavior you wish to extinguish and ... Voila! There is an easy-to-use, outlined suggested behavior regimen. In the upper left hand corner of the screen, a four part help guide will appear. Each behavior help guide has the same four components - Behavior, Effect, Action, Mistakes. By clicking through each step, you get a detailed explanation of behaviors in a slick, bulleted style that makes it easy to pick out the information most valuable to your particular case - probable causes; effects on classroom, teacher and child; possible actions steps; as well as a list of common mistakes to avoid when seeking to eliminate this particular behavior. To take it a step further, look at the box directly below the help guide to see a list of other related behaviors for which your student may need additional support.


My one hesitancy about this site is that it labels the behaviors in a personalized way. For example, rather than stating the behavior: Whining. It will personify the behavior through a label such as: The Whiner. I wish the creators of this site had avoided that. There are some teachers who do not need to see such a negative reinforcement of the student's behavior. When I print out the instructions, I will white out the label and replace it with a simple behavior statement.