One final push...

The end of another school year is approaching (in 7 days - but who is counting).  When you work to provide students with transitional supports, this is crunch time.  This is a time of countless meetings, adjusted schedules, trainings, and trial runs all with one thing in mind...a smooth transition.  Whether it be a transition from school to work, school bus to city bus, mom and dad's home to MY home...this is the time where we learn if what we have been working so hard towards is going to pay off. For so many of our students and families, this transition is the biggest one of their lives.  It is the first time in 13+ years that the supports and structures that the school system provides are no longer in place.  Now, if we have done our job well, no one will even notice that shift.  There will be no lapse in services, a new set of supports will take its place, but it is all very scary, nonetheless.  Much like an athelete preparing for a big game, a tv anchor as the news kicks off, a vocalist belting that first note, THIS is when my adrenaline starts rushing.  I have spent the school year, for some of them even more, coaxing them to the edge.  Now is the time to give one last push and watch them fly away!

This year, I will take a leap right along with my students.  I will be leaving what I know, love, and find so comfortable, to try something new.  Throughout the past few months I have been taking the steps and preparing for this transition, but as I step close to the edge, ready to take the leap myself, I now see and feel why it is so hard and so scary.

After 6 years in this job I will be moving and taking on a new role next fall.  My new role will look very much the same.  I will still be focused on providing supports and services for students as they grow older and prepare to leave school and venture into the adult world.  I will still be providing instruction in the community...just this time in a new community.  One that is closer to my family and friends that I grew up with.  In my time in my current position I have gained so much and established a strong foundation of my educational beliefs and my approach to teaching.  I have had opportunities and experiences that most would not encounter in a life time of teaching and working.  And because of that, I want to take a moment to say thank you.  Thank you to those who made those opportunities and experiences possible, to those who worked along side me, helping to build and grow hard working young adults AND a transition program that I think is quite fantastic (but I am quite biased).  Thank you to my students, past and present.  Each and every one of you has changed me as both a teacher and a person.  I am so glad I was able to be a part of your journey!  To the families, thank you for your honesty, vulnerability, and willingness to take risks and allow your child to take risks too!

Now...inching closer to the edge with each passing school day, I carry the knowledge and strength I have gained from my time at the PrairieWood Transition Center and
I am ready to leap into the unknown, right along with my students, and start the next adventure of life.

Enjoy your summer!  Tune in next fall as I embark on a new community and prepare more young people to come to the edge!

Mackenzie

Using TEACCH in a Functional Classroom - Part 2: Schedules Galore

Schedule, structure, and routine is found at the foundation of any successful special education classroom.  I firmly believe nothing would get accomplished without those three.  But step outside of the special education classroom, and do those three carry as much weight or importance?  Look inside a general education classroom, still important?  What about outside the educational world?  In a retail store, a factory floor, an office building, or even your own home?  Do you find schedule, structure, and routine in all of those environments?  Absolutely!  We all thrive in environments where there is a solid foundation of schedule, structure, and routine.  The difference between those mentioned environments and a special education classroom is that in the special education those schedules, structures, and routines need to be explicitly taught and tailored to the needs of each individual student in the classroom, and in the other environments, most people fall into those schedules, structures, and routines without even realizing it.  Now, what happens when you take a student who needs that explicit instruction and you move them outside the classroom, into the adult world?  Well, if done right, the schedules, structures and routines go right along with them.

The pictures shown are examples of the schedules used by several of my students.  These schedules, in my mind are the ticket to independence and freedom.  There may be a bit of upfront work in preparing and individualizing schedules for your students, and in training them to access the schedule, but the upfront work pays off big in the end.  As you can see, I have tailored my schedules to meet the needs of each individual student.  The beginning of the school year, we play around with approaches to our schedules, trying to determine the best fit for each student.  One of these students is a non-reader, and does best when pictures are provided.  The other student is a reader.  Visual systems is not the only differentiation.  Some students require a schedule that allows them to manipulate and remove the task as it is completed, others cross tasks off lists, others just need the schedule there as a guide, or a means to ease anxieties.  As I write this, the school year is wrapping up, and my students have been using their schedules all school year.  They move through their day seamlessly and often times do not refer or manipulate their schedules as they go throughout their day.  One might think it would be necessary to fade the schedule.  However, before you do that, imagine how you would feel if you lost your calendar, or you phone that held all your appointments and contacts for the next 6 months.  THAT is how your student would feel if their schedule was taken away.  It is not necessary to fade the schedule.  Use it as a tool.  Then, when something occurs and the schedule needs to be changed, the student can see and expect that change.

Always be sure to make the schedules mobile.  Put them in a notebook, attach them to a clipboard, or even better, put them in an iPod or iPad.  Wherever the student goes, the schedule goes, adjusted in each environment and used as a tool for independence and allowing them to be independent.

Do you have schedule systems that you have found to work in your classroom?  Please share!!

Come to the edge...
Mackenzie