Lunch time!

The ability to choose what you would like to eat each day for lunch seems like such a little thing!
Some of my students can not  tell me what they would like to eat for lunch so I offer them another way to make a choice. Choice is so important to students and their independence. Each morning, we display the lunch choices for the day. On their turn they come up and make their choice.

 I honestly had taken this activity for granted until just a few weeks ago. It was Ava's turn to choose and she usually enjoys a hot sandwich or pizza every once in a while. Ava was determined on this particular day to not eat these options. I was trying to entice her to make a choice and she was literally pushing past my choices to another option. She wanted NACHOS. In a year and half I have never seen her choose anything other than the hot sandwich or pizza, so without this activity she would have never had the opportunity to branch out and try something new. She LOVED the nachos and I was reminded of the importance of choice.

SmartBoard Success!

My students need a variety of different levels of supports to accompany their learning. The SmartBoard allows me to quickly modify assignments of all my learners to have equal opportunities to participate in class.
During our Morning Meeting, students are working on learning their personal information. The SmartBoard allows me to offer different ways for each to student based on their current needs. As they progress I can quickly adjust the materials to their progress.

Two choices that include picture symbol supports:

Multiple choice field of 4 that changes the location of the correct answer daily:

Three choices and enlarged for a student who is visual impaired:

Having the ability to quick customize for each student ensures student growth and success!

Pep Rallies for EVERYONE!

Pep Rallies--a right of passage for middle schoolers.....

Several times each year our student body gathers to celebrate athletes and their accomplishments. These events are celebrated with loud music, cheerleaders, performances by groups and the famous spirit competition. Students look forward to these events and enjoy the festivities!

 This year I have a student who gets so excited to see the Pep Rally symbol on his calendar. He spends all day anticipating the event and working hard to be able to attend. We make it to the pep rally, secure a seat by his friends and then quickly he asks to return to class. In reality, the event is too loud, too crowded and too overstimulating for him to handle. I always feel so deflated for him to not be able to attend!

Fast forward to February at the SC CEC conference......

 I attended many wonderful sessions at the event, but between sessions I was talking to a fellow educator about Google Apps. We were talking about how nice it is use to the calendar to schedule IEPs, how Drive and creating forms has made my peer tutors assignments more streamlined and then she mentioned Google Hangouts. I couldn't figure out why she would have even used this app. She then told me how they live stream pep rallies and assemblies for her students who wish to attend, but have the same concerns as my student. I returned to school with a mission. After meeting with Mrs. Swetnam and sharing my findings, we spent some time with the process and figured it out!!

I am thrilled beyond belief to be able to stream the upcoming Spring Sports Pep Rally for my student. This will allow him to enjoy the event in the comfort of our classroom.