New Product :: Social Skills Rubrics

These rubrics were designed to help counselors, teachers, social workers, or SLPs keep track of a student’s progress on school success, problem-solving, friendship, feelings, communication, and self-esteem goals. Each individual set includes 7 rubrics in both a teacher and student version (for a total of 14 rubrics + 2 blank ones to customize).

Rubrics are presented in PDF and editable Microsoft Powerpoint Format, so the wording can be customized to fit your students’ ability levels and needs. Also, you can use Powerpoint’s printing settings to print multiple rubrics per page. Great for when you have multiple students working on the same goal!

If you'd like to save a little money, you can download the Complete Social Skills Rubric Pack for a discount! It includes 42 rubrics in both a teacher and student version (for a total of 84 rubrics + 2 blank ones to customize). The following skills are included:

Enjoy :)



School Success Skills
- Following Directions
- Work Completion
- Remaining On-Task
- Asking Questions
- Being Prepared
- Attendance
- Following School Rules

Problem-Solving Skills
- Debugging
- Tattling and Reporting
- Compromise
- Point of View
- Fact and Opinion
- Dealing with Disagreements
- Dealing with Gossip



Friendship Skills
- Choosing Friends
- Feeling Left Out
- Being a Good Sport
- Apologizing
- Taking Turns
- Giving a Compliment
- Accepting a Compliment



Feelings Skills
- Feelings Identification
- Reading Body Language
- Responding to Negative Emotions
- Feelings Demonstration
- Expressing Feelings
- Dealing with Anger or Frustration
- Dealing with Anxiety



Communication Skills
- Introducing
- Having a Conversation
- Talking on Topic
- Interrupting
- Conversation Body Language
- Personal Space
- Mental Filtering



Self-Esteem Skills - some skills offered as a freebie
- Positive Self-Talk
- Goal Setting
- Understanding Strengths
- Dealing with Peer Pressure
- Dealing with Mistakes
- Self-Reflection (Complete Pack only - not in freebie)
- Working in a Group (Complete Pack only - not in freebie)

Enjoy!!

Pinterest Find :: Toys for Vestibular Development

The other day, I came across this awesome blog post from The Inspired Treehouse. Now, I'm most definitely not an Occupational Therapist, but I feel like sometimes teachers come to me thinking that I am! It's probably because our poor OT friends are often stretched so thin and across so many buildings that they aren't always around every time a teacher has a question. That being said, I try to at least have SOME idea of some strategies I can recommend for teachers to try until I can consult with our OT and make sure I'm not just making things up!

Which is why I was very excited when I found this post discussing the best toys for helping kids develop their Vestibular System! At our school, we have several students with Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, or other sensory difficulties. One of major areas they need extra support is with movement (usually needing more of it!). This post is actually written by OT's (which means they know significantly more than I can pretend to know!). It's one I bookmarked right away and will refer teachers to next time I have a question about a movement-seeking kiddo.

Check it out here!

Tips & Tricks :: Classroom Transitions

Many kids have a lot of difficulty changing from one activity to another during the school day. Add to that Autism, ADHD, or another disorder and you've got the scene set for distractions, tantrums, and frustration.

I'm not sure what it is about this time of year - maybe it's the fact that it's too cold to go outside (at least here in Illinois!), that the sun isn't out nearly enough, or just that routines are getting boring for some kids now, but I feel like February and March are two of the most difficult months to get through as educators!

To help fight the transition blues, here is a list of some ways to spice up and tighten up classroom transitions to help keep things moving in the right direction!

1.  Establish a consistent schedule or routine for the student to follow.  As unpredictable as the school day can be, consistency can go a long way in reducing anxiety or disorder in transitions, especially for students with disabilities.

2.  Adjust students' schedules to have the fewest amount of transition times possible.  For example, if a student is already out of class to go to P.E. or Music,  it may be a good time to schedule social work or speech-language time in order to reduce the number of transitions in and out of the classroom.  Another option would be to provide push in therapy services to avoid transitioning in and out of the room. On the other hand, if improving transitions is a skill a student is working on, gradually increasing the number of transitions during the day as they can tolerate them may be important.

3. Provide visuals for the students to follow. Not only does this help students with diagnoses such as Autism, but it helps most other students as well! I've written some information about visual transition timers in a previous post about Autism here. You can buy a bunch online or make your own!

4.  Before an activity begins, be sure a student understands what is expect of him or her at transition time. This may take a few times of role playing and practicing the transition. For example, after a student is somewhat familiar with a routine, the conversation might go like this:

Me: "Johnny, I'm going to set my timer for 5 minutes for your break. When it goes off, it will be time to clean up and go back to your classroom.

Johnny: "I know."
Me: "So how much time do you have?"
Johnny: "5 minutes."
Me: "What happens when the timer goes off?"
Johnny: "I go back to class."
Me: "Perfect! Enjoy your break!" [set the timer]

5. Give verbal and/or physical cues before transitioning to an activity. Depending on the age and needs of the student, I like using at least a 5 and 1 minute warning.

6.  Sing songs or chants to signal transitions.  Use the same songs each time so children can anticipate what is to happen next. Here are a few of my favorites:

7.  Keep it simple with directions for the transition.  Concise one or two-step directions are often the most effective.

8.  Positive reinforcement! If a student did a good job transitioning, reward them with praise, a high-five, a smile, etc. Students often learn about appropriate behavior by watching what happens when other students perform well or not.

9.  Scaffold as skills improve. As a student demonstrates increased competence, gradually pull back the support you give. Fade and reduce any verbal or physical prompts to all the student to transition as independently as possible.

10.  If changes need to be made, give feedback quickly and move on. Don't dwell on the negatives or allow them to take over the next 10 minutes! The more you delay the start of the next activity, the more a student learns that if they don't transition well, you'll get wrapped up in the drama and they can avoid transitioning even more!

New Product :: Following Directions Game & No-Print Version

I'm really really excited about this new product! One of the things I love about TpT is having an excuse to pull out my lovely Scotch laminator and have an excuse to spend a few minutes laminating, cutting, and assembling the new things I just bought!

That being said, there are many times when I'm in a bind and just need something quick to pull and put together 2 seconds before a counseling group comes in my room (Monday mornings, anyone??).

So, I combined 2 products in 1 for this next one.

Lots of students have difficulty following directions, but not all directions are the same. Some struggle with motor-skill-based directions, while others struggle with cognitive directions, such as those involving basic concepts or basic math/reading tasks. That’s where this game can help! It can help students with ADHD, Autism, Cognitive Disabilities, Learning Disabilities, or other difficulties improve their memory and concentration.

Not only does this download include printable cards (PowerPoint) and scorecards (PDF), but it also contains everything as a no-print version in PowerPoint format for use on laptops or Smart Boards! No printing, cutting or laminating required! I read each card only 1 time and award a point if the student does the tasks correctly. There are also a few “gain a point” and “lose a point” cards thrown in too.

Cards are color and symbol coded, so you can easily find the deck you need. The following cards are included:

(10) 1-Step Directions - Movement-Based
(10) 1-Step Directions - Basic Concepts Skills
(10) 1-Step Directions - Academic (Basic Math & Reading Tasks)

(10) 2-Step Directions - Movement-Based
(10) 2-Step Directions - Basic Concepts Skills
(10) 2-Step Directions - Academic (Basic Math & Reading Tasks)
(15) 2-Step Directions - Combination of all areas

(10) 3-Step Directions - Movement-Based
(10) 3-Step Directions - Basic Concepts Skills
(10) 3-Step Directions - Academic (Basic Math & Reading Tasks)
(15) 3-Step Directions - Combination of all areas

120 cards in all! And since they're in PowerPoint, you can edit the directions for your students' needs!

Enjoy!

Fun Freebie :: 45 Classroom-Friendly Fidgets

Recently, I've been on the quest for fidgets that teachers won't throw a fit when I give their students. Come on, we've all been there. :) Well, luckily, I found this awesome freebie on TeachersPayTeachers from Snagglebox that gives great ideas all about different types of fidgets!



Here's another idea for a fidget!

While I was working through school this week, I noticed several of my more energetic students sporting a good 5-10 rubber band bracelets. It's amazing how you can wait 10 years, start making friendship bracelets out of rubber bands, change their name, and all of a sudden, the boys like making them even more than girls! While they were standing in line, my students were spinning them, twisting them, and rolling them in their hands. Natural fidgets! Now of course, teachers have had to set ground rules about them (no making bracelets during class, no sling- shooting rubber bands, etc.), but what do we NOT have to make rules about at school?



What fidgets do you have that work well for your kids??

New(ish) Product :: Brain Breaks

This week was one of those weeks for me! Regardless of how hard I tried to sit and write IEP goals, do my medicaid billing, or lesson plan for next week, I just couldn't! Now granted, this week was our parent-teacher conference week, which meant we were at work until 7 (and I couldn't go home in between school and conferences because I live 45 minutes away), but still. My attention was definitely not what I wanted it to be this week.

Instead, I found myself wanting doing other "less cognitively demanding" things instead: delivering forms for students to have parents sign and return, checking in with a few teachers regarding my student progress, laminating and cutting out some new TpT things, etc. Throughout this week, I couldn't help but think several times how we as adults have a ton of different options for clearing our heads during the day, but many of our students don't have many of those options!



As adults, we can get up and walk to the bathroom if we need a minute or two to give ourselves a break. We can also decide to procrastinate or rearrange the order of our tasks during the day depending what we're in the mood for. We can even listen to music, send a friend a message about dinner plans or, heaven forbid, take a quick look at Facebook). Our students can't! It's no wondering problems with work completion, following directions, or paying attention are the most common things I have teachers asking me for help with!

In college, I took a class that talked a lot about neurological research and how to improve memory. And one of the things my professor mentioned was that people always remember the first and last thing they learn in a given segment of time. So...if you're teaching a class for 35 minutes, chances are they'll remember about the first and last 3 minutes. However, if you teach a class for 10 minutes, break for 2, teach for 10, break for 3, teach for 10, they'll remember the first and last 3 minutes of EACH of the teaching segments.

So when teachers need help with a student who struggles to focus,  one of the first things I do is talk about brain breaks. I've heard all kinds of statistics about how long students of various ages can pay attention, but the bottom line is that it's MUCH MUCH shorter than you'd think. The purpose of brain breaks is to provide some type of physical and/or mental time-out so that students can return refreshed to their tasks a few minutes later. Many are physical in nature (do 10 jumping jacks, crab walk, etc.), but they can be mental as well (say the alphabet backwards as fast as you can, summarize what I just said to your partner, etc.). Ultimately, anything that gives your students a chance to do something DIFFERENT for a few minutes will work. And while It doesn't last more than 2 or 3 minutes, I'm always amazed how much of a difference it makes when I use them in my room!

Recently, I put a brain breaks card pack in my TpT Store, which you can get here. I thought I'd already written a post about it, but I hadn't, so I'm sorry about that! It contains 33 different ideas (in color and in printer-friendly black and white) for helping your kids get out of their seats and move around. They're presented in Powerpoint format so you can print them out many different sizes to fit your needs!

Enjoy!

Review :: Superflex Social Thinking Curriculum

Each year, every teacher at my school receives a $50 purchase order to spend on supplies, curriculum, or materials for our classrooms. It's definitely not much, but I was so happy with my purchase this year that I wanted to share it with you!

Normally, I'll buy colored card stock (for making my numerous visual schedules, break cards, and the like), a few books discussing bullying, divorce, or other issues, or school supplies. This year, however, I decided that I needed some new curriculum! Sure, I have binders upon binders of worksheets and other things, but I'm getting so BORED with them...and so are my kids.

I'd heard really good things about the Superflex Curriculum and read a few good reviews online, so I decided to give it a try. It's a Superhero comic book-based curriculum for students in grades 2-5 to help teach social skills and behavior regulation. If nothing else, I thought that since it featured superheroes and villains in a comic book format, it'd be my best shot to compete with the video games, movies, and TV shows my kids are interested in! And lucky for me, the starter set came in at just under $50! Perfect :)

If you aren't familiar with the curriculum, I invite you to take a look at the Social Thinking Website first! After several weeks of using it, here's what I've found:

Things I Love:
- The comic books are super colorful and grab my students' attention.

- Teacher guide includes prompting questions and really good lesson plans for organizing your instruction
- Each villain (called "Unthinkables") has a cute name that is really easy for my kids to remember and addresses many of the social difficulties my kids have.
- Some of the books come with a CD that has all the printable pages. No more need to squish my teacher guide in to the copier and deal with crooked copies! I can just print one from my computer and make pretty copies!

Things I Wish Were Different:
- I know it's an educational curriculum, but it makes me sad that it has to be priced like one. I have a hard time coughing out $20-$30 for a book! Also, the store sells squishy flexible brain stress balls, but I got them for super cheaper on Office Playground.
- The only "comic books" available at this time are for defeating the first 3 (out of 14) villains (Unthinkables). The teacher guide provides other books that can be used to explain the remaining 11, but my kids keep wanting more of the original comic books, not random other books that I can pull in to describe the Unthinkables! I believe more are coming though.
- My original Superflex book started coming apart at the binding after only 2 weeks of use. I'm the only one who holds the book and the staples holding it together started ripping through the pages. It's already taped up, which makes me sad!

So far, I've used it with students with Autism, ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, and Developmental Delays and it has worked very well for those students. A few of my kids with more severe Cognitive Impairments get distracted by all the action in the comic books (I have to show only 1 page at a time and keep portions of it covered) and have a hard time understanding the concept of "fictional characters," which the teacher's guide warns about.



Even despite a few negatives, I love this curriculum! My planning time has been SO reduced, which is wonderful. I'm still getting used to the layout of all the lessons, but my students have been paying attention, contributing appropriately to conversations about social thinking, and even using Superflex vocabulary outside my office!! "Rock Brain got in my head yesterday when I didn't want to let my sister use the TV." I have to say, THAT is pretty awesome! So if you've got some grant money, unspent purchase orders, or extra TpT earnings laying around, I highly recommend Superflex!

Note: None of the images in this post are mine. They are all from Social Thinking and Office Playground. Also, I was not compensated in any way for this review. It's just something I wanted to share!

New Product :: Social Emotional "I Can Cards"

Even though social workers and counselors aren't required by most schools to use common core in their individual and group counseling sessions, there has been a huge push in the educational community for states to adopt Social Emotional Learning standards instead.

According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), SEL has been shown to promote students' academic success, health, and well-being, while also preventing problems such as alcohol and drug use, violence, truancy, and bullying. It also reduces emotional distress and conduct problems.

So far, Illinois is the only state to officially comprehensive, free-standing standards , but many other states such as Washington, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont are in the process of creating their own or using variations on the Illinois standards, while all others have some goals or benchmarks integrated into state academic standards. For more information, check out the CASEL website!



This download includes 339 4 x 6 cards from the warm set, cool set, and printer-friendly set depicting “I can” statements for the following Illinois social-emotional learning standards. However, they are presented in Microsoft Word format so the text can be easily changed to fit other states' standards or to adjust the wording for your students.



They are designed to be used to help students know exactly what types of skills and knowledge they are expected to learn, or can be used as a reference for you as you develop social-emotional IEP goals or intervention plans.

There is 1 card listing each goal (3 total per set):



1 card listing each standard (9 total per set):



and several (101 per set) for each performance indicator under each standard (early elementary, late elementary, middle/jr. high, early high school, and late high school). Skills are presented in age-appropriate language depending on the performance indicator level.


Enjoy!

New Product :: Fall Social-Emotional Activity Pack

I'm really excited to announce the arrival of my new Fall Social-Emotional Activity Pack! I already have  Holiday and Spring Social-Emotional Packs in my store, so I knew I wanted to add a Fall pack too. This one was specifically designed with kindergarten through second grade students in mind, but may be appropriate for older students too who are working at a lower level.

It contains several social skills, anger management, and social emotional activities that are sure to get your students excited about the cooler weather! It contains the following:

- 24 Fall-Themed Conversation Cards*
- 24 Friendship Scenario Cards*
- Angry Monster Coping Skills Activity

- “Banish the Boos” Positive Thinking Activity (and answer key)

- “Debug” Problem-Solving Activity

- Halloween Behavior Punch Cards (2, 4, 6, 9, or 16 per page)

- Listening Poster (4 different genders/races used)

- Pumpkin Emotion Cards for matching, role-playing, or other games

- Pumpkin Friendship Glyph*
- Thankfulness Turkey Activity

- Thanksgiving Behavior Punch Cards (2, 4, 6, 9, or 16 per page)
- Trick or Treat Behavior Sort Activity

Enjoy!

Tips & Tricks :: ADHD

During this summer, I'm going to be starting a blog series focusing on several different disorders that affect children at school: ADHD, Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety Disorder, and ODD. Each entry will describe the disorder, give practical strategies for improving success at school, and also a few social-emotional goals and accommodations that might be appropriate for students with special education services! I hope that you'll join me!

First up is ADHD. Short for Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD is a psychiatric or neurobehavioral disorder. Students with ADHD often have significant difficulties in either attention (inattentive type), hyperactivity and impulsiveness (hyperactivity/impulsivity type), or both (combined type). While the actual rates of diagnosis of ADHD differ by geographic location, socioeconomic status, and doctor, school professionals tend to agree that it is one of the most common disorders they encounter in working with children.

Symptoms:

Inattentive Type -

• Be easily distracted, miss details, forget things, and frequently switch from one activity to another


• Have difficulty maintaining focus on one task


• Become bored with a task after only a few minutes, unless doing something enjoyable


• Have difficulty focusing attention on organizing and completing a task or learning something new or trouble completing or turning in homework assignments, often losing things (e.g., pencils, toys, assignments) needed to complete tasks or activities


• Not seem to listen when spoken to


• Daydream, become easily confused, and move slowly


• Have difficulty processing information as quickly and accurately as others


• Struggle to follow instructions.

Hyperactive-Impulsive Type -

• Fidget and squirm in their seats


• Talk nonstop


• Dash around, touching or playing with anything and everything in sight


• Have trouble sitting still during dinner, school, and story time


• Be constantly in motion


• Have difficulty doing quiet tasks or activities


• Be very impatient


• Blurt out inappropriate comments, show their emotions without restraint, and act without regard for consequences


• Have difficulty waiting for things they want or waiting their turns in games

Suggestions:

• Encourage the student to get involved in extra curricular or sports activities in order to boost their confidence and self-esteem


• Keep routines and schedules structured and predictable so the student will always know what to expect


• Try a visual schedule. This can be made out of paper and pictures, or you can try one of the several apps for iPads or Droid devices.


• Provide visual reminders of behavioral expectations such as pictures of rules posted on their desk, behavioral charts, etc., or have students act out rules. Simply yelling a student the rules over and over probably won't work!


• Color-code materials for different subjects throughout the day to help with organization


• Develop a private nonverbal signal you can use to correct minor student behavior


• Provide verbal and visual warnings about 5 minutes and 1 minute before transitioning to a new activity


• Change the way students are called on to avoid calling on students one at a time and having everyone else get bored. Instead, have students respond by "telling their partner," writing down, or drawing their response.


• Provide notebook organizers or other graphic organizers


• Try music, either through headphones for 1 student or for the entire class. Sometimes students actually NEED noise in order to focus.

Sample Goals

• Given small group practice, Mallory will improve her classroom performance from requiring frequent redirection to independently remaining in her seat and following directions.


• Given behavior training, Michael will improve his behavior in the hallway from from running and  bumping into others to keeping his hands to himself, maintaining appropriate personal space, and following verbal directions with minimal adult prompting.


• Given small group practice, Carrie will improve her attention skills from working with frequent redirection for 5 minutes to remaining in her desk, following directions, and asking for help when needed for 10 minutes with no adult prompts.


• Given small group intervention, Austin will improve his cognitive organization skills from being unable to discuss any information from a story to creating and filling in graphic organizers for putting events in order, comparing and contrasting, and organizing details from a story with no more than 1 adult prompt.

Sample Accommodations:

• Break work into smaller pieces


• Allow extended time for assignments  as well as frequent breaks which give the student a chance to get up and move (all kids benefit from this!)


• Provide different types of fidgets to keep their hands busy and help improve focus (exercise bands tied to desks work well too!)


• Teach students who to use and create graphic organizers to learn and apply new information


• Allow students who struggle with organizing their writing to dictate assignments, or record their verbal answers and then write them down

If you're looking for hands-on activities for your students, check out my Organization Activities for Students with ADHD and my Graphic Organizer Pack! You can also check out my Pinterest Board especially for all things ADD/ADHD for even more ideas!

Thanks to Wikipedia for contributing to this article!

Pinterest Find :: Free Movie Clips

Ever been in that moment when you've got a super visually-oriented or antsy group? (I know....NEVER, right?) I don't know about you, but I just don't have the time or memory to scale youtube or my own personal movie stash looking for a clip to demonstrate what I'm teaching.

Which is why I was very excited when I came across this movie clips website recently on Pinterest! You can sort by traditional movie topics such as editor, genre, actor, or my personal favorite....THEME!

From there, they have topics such as:

- Character- Aggression
- Grief
- Betrayal
- Compromise
- Distrust
- Equality
- Listening

and TONS more.

Now, I do have a disclaimer: not all clips are appropriate for all ages (obviously - this is Hollywood, people!), so make sure to preview anything you play for your students and/or obtain appropriate parent permission if necessary.

I've already used tons of clips and my students have loved them!

Hopefully this will help put a little spark in your lessons :)