Fun Freebie :: Self-Esteem Rubrics

Recently, I designed a bunch of social skills rubrics covering a variety of skills:  school success, problem-solving, friendship, feelings, communication, and self-esteem goals.

Well, if you'd like to try some of them out for free, you can download the self-esteem pack! These rubrics were designed to help counselors, teachers, social workers, or SLPs keep track of a student’s progress on self-esteem goals. The set includes 5 rubrics in both a teacher and student version (for a total of 10 rubrics) in PDF format.

This pack contains the following skills:
- Positive Self-Talk
- Goal Setting
- Understanding Strengths
- Dealing with Peer Pressure
- Dealing with Mistakes

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).

Enjoy :)

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!

Tips & Tricks :: Visuals for Students with Autism

One of the most effective interventions for students with Autism is using visuals. Yet whether your school district uses PECS, Boardmaker, Microsoft Office Clipart, or my personal favorite...Google Images, the process of searching for and resizing images can easily eat a big chunk out of your day.

And since none of us have lots and lots of time laying around, I was really excited when a special education teacher in our district shared this site with me! It's called ConnectAbility and on the site there's an awesome tool called Visuals Engine. The Visuals Engine contains thousands of images you can choose, and what I really love is that they're REAL images. Then, you can select page layouts of 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, or 16 images per page - the site automatically resizes all your images to be the same size! You can also add in whatever text you want to accompany your images (or leave it blank). After you create your page of visuals you can choose to either print the page or save it as a PDF. There's nothing worse than spending all your time making visuals for a student only to have them lose all the pieces by Friday! Since you can save your work super easily, it can be a huge time saver.

Here's a page I made with 12 images per page. This took me less than 2 minutes!

Hopefully this will help you save a few minutes while allowing you to make great visuals for your students!

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 :: Gradebook Pages

If you were around this July and August, you might have seen my summer project: an organization binder for the special ed. teachers, social workers, SLP's, etc. I'd seen so many cute teacher binders on Pinterest and TpT, but felt that none of them really addressed all the IEP craziness the rest of us tend to do! As part of that full binder, I made some grade book pages. However, I quickly realized that lots of regular classroom teachers may enjoy these, but might not use the full binder.

Thus came the individual grade book pages! They're presented in landscape and portrait orientations and match the cute color scheme of the rest of the binder. And since they're in Microsoft Work format, you can add and remove as many rows as you need! So, if you're looking for a way to spruce up your same old red grade book, head on over and take a look here!







Enjoy!

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!

Tips & Tricks :: Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

This summer, I've written a blog series focusing on several different disorders that affect children at school: ADHD, Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety Disorder, and ODD. Each entry describes the disorder, gives practical strategies for improving success at school, and also provides a few social-emotional goals and accommodations that might be appropriate for students with special education services!

Last and not least is Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Some believe that as many as 11% of males and 9% of females will meet the criteria for ODD at some point in their lives. If left untreated, children with ODD may exhibit more severe behavior as they age and may be diagnosed with Conduct Disorder or Antisocial Personality Disorder as adults. Both are characterized by a persistent pattern of behavior that violates the basic rights of others. Symptoms may include vandalism, injuring animals or others, problems with drugs or alcohol, frequent criminal activity, general lack of empathy, and violation of basic societal norms.

Symptoms:

• Refuses to comply with requests or rules of an authority figure


• Does things purposefully to annoy others


• Angry and resentful of others


• Argues often


• Blames others for his or her own mistakes


• Often loses temper


• Spiteful or seeks revenge


• Touchy or easily annoyed


• Frequent temper tantrums or angry outbursts

Generally these behaviors occur across settings and not just with one particular person or authority figure, such as at home AND at school or in the community.

Suggestions:

• Contact the child's doctor if medication is to be given at school to make sure you have up-to-date dosage and administration instructions. However, don't tell a parent "your child needs to be on medication." You can encourage them to talk about concerns they may have with their child's doctor, but put your school in a vulnerable position if you start doling out medical advice!


• Behavioral therapy techniques can often be helpful with treating ODD. Doing a Functional Behavior Assessment and Behavior Intervention Plan can help the team determine why a certain behavior is occurring (what is the student getting from it?) and establish other more appropriate ways to gain that same thing.


• Avoid placing students with ODD or Conduct Disorder in therapy or intervention groups together. If students spend a lot of time around other students who have a disregard for authority and expectations, it "normalizes" the behavior and teaches them that it's acceptable to act in certain ways.


• Teach anger management skills to help students increase their frustration tolerance and learn to handle anger and frustration in safe ways.


• Provide choices as often as possible to the student to give them as much control as possible over their environment and minimize their feeling of having to "fight" for control.


• Involve students in service-learning or volunteer opportunities to help teach empathy skills. Writing apology letters when they wrong someone can also be a good way to help them begin thinking about how their actions affect others.


• Establish routines, which will help students know what to expect and feel as though they have more control over what happens to them during a day.


• Use positive reinforcement strategies such as allowing a student to earn free time, the opportunity to be the class "tech support" during computer time, be the line leader, etc. You can use tangible items, activity reinforcers, or social reinforcers, but use what the student desires - not just what you THINK will work for them! I've written another post about rewards and behavior management too!


• Avoid "nit picking." It creates a further dynamic of "me vs. them" and generally leads to more noncompliance. Discipline privately and help students to feel like you're working WITH them rather than against them.


• Check out my previous post about working with strong-willed students!

Sample Goals

• Sometimes, externalizing (acting out) behaviors like those seen with ODD are an exclusionary factor for qualifying a student for special education services under Emotional Disability (assuming they don't exhibit depression, anxiety, somatization or other internalizing behaviors). In some states where BD/ED is a category, this is not the case, so familiarize yourself with the criteria! The rationale is that it is a way to keep students who may tend to be aggressors (externalizing kids) away from students who tend to be victims (kids with learning or physical disabilities who may also struggle with assertiveness skills).
  However, they may be eligible for special education services under other areas if they have co-existing disorders. See the other posts in this series for goal ideas to use in those situations: ADHD, Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety Disorder

Sample Accommodations:

• Give breaks or extended time if you can tell the student is having a particularly difficult day


• Provide choices for demonstrating knowledge (presentation vs. paper vs. diorama, etc.)

If you're looking for activities for your students, check out my Behavior Punch Cards, Dealing with Anger Activity Pack, Escape from Anger Volcano Game, and Student Behavior Package! You can also check out my Pinterest Boards for Behavior and Anger Management for even more ideas!

Thanks to Wikipedia for contributing to this article!

New(ish) Product :: School Social Work Forms

Happy August! Many of you will be getting back at it this month and with that comes new folders, new markers, and now, new forms! Whether you're a new school social worker just starting out or looking to update the outdated forms you've been using since the mid 90's, the pack is sure to meet your needs. It includes forms commonly needed for school social work practicing, including:

- Social Work Parent Consent Form
- Student Interview Form
- Classroom Observation Form


- Self-Esteem Questionnaire
- Functional Behavior Assessment Survey



- Teacher evaluation form for writing IEP goals (K-5 and 6-12)
- Daily Contact Log


- Social Developmental Study Interview Packet
- Social Work Referral Form

and several more. 13 forms in all!

Forms are presented in Microsoft Word format, so you can adjust them to meet your needs or simply put in your name and title and you're good to go.

So spend less time looking for the notes you scribbled on the back of scrap paper and spend more time helping your students! If you're looking for a bullying/harassment reporting form, check this freebie out!

Enjoy!

*UPDATE* I just added a whole bunch of new stuff. There's now 19 forms! Go check it out here.

Organization Binder :: Covers & Spine Labels

Lately, I've seen a huge amount of teacher organization binders on Pinterest and teacher blogs. Unfortunately, they aren't meant to be used by most special education teachers, counselors, or social workers - they're all organized for classroom teachers. So, over the course of the next few weeks, I'm making one for the rest of us :)

So far, you've missed:

Group Organizer
User Name & Password Keeper
IEP Tracker
Service Log
Lesson Planning Sheets
Student Information Pages
Gradebook
Seating Chart
Birthday Page
Class List
Meeting Organizer
Checklist
IEP Accommodations Cheat Sheet
Monthly Calendar
Weekly Schedule
Notes Pages

And last but not least.....drum roll.....covers and spine labels for your binder! There are a total of 7 warm covers, and 7 cool covers, which you can also use as section divides to further personalize your binder. In addition, there area matching spine labels in a range of designs and sizes. All have decorative borders with blank space in the middle for you to customize the title of your binder (or add some photos!)

Here are the links to the warm-colored ones:





And the cool ones:





Enjoy!

These free binder posts will be up until midnight on July 31st. Beginning in August, all of these pages will be available in a single bundle at my TpT store, so if you've missed them here, you can still get them! Have a wonderful school year :)

Like the backgrounds? You can get them here!