Tammy Axt – Page 5

November 30, 2019 Tammy Axt Special Education, Teacher Wellness

Just a Little Patience

I’ve often been described as a person with a lot of patience.

However, in my current role as a contained classroom teacher of 10 students with developmental disabilities, my patience has been tested over the past year and a half.

My students sometimes demonstrate their anger or frustration in aggressive or difficult ways. Other days, my students may forget things that they have mastered for months. Parents sometimes aggressively advocate for their students and yell at me because they are frustrated by the system that allows two year wait lists for things like occupational therapy or speech therapy. All of these things would test most people’s patience.

But that is not what has challenged my patience. I am finding that what I am most impatient with is myself. I’ve asked myself so many questions over the past 15 months on this amazing journey with my students. Why didn’t that approach work today? Why didn’t I handle that conversation differently? Why is the student feeling so angry today? Why? Why? Why? I’ve been really anxious about the speed at which problems have been resolved and how fast my students have settled into their new school.

What I wish is that when all of those self doubts and impatience started to bubble up in September 2018 when I began this class, I could read what I am about to write now 15 months later…

It will all come together. Trust yourself and your skills. You will find a rhythm among your team that address the needs of your students. You will be able to anticipate your student’s stressors and know how to calm and reassure them. You will be able to anticipate the needs of parents and have built such a trusting relationship where they know that you are advocating for their children just as hard as they are. The student that is screaming 8 hours a day at school, just needs a couple of months to adjust to all the new people in his life. The student who has challenges around self regulation will be able to use a calming space regularly to help him stay safe at school.

What I didn’t realize at the beginning of this journey was how much time many of these things would take. All of these changes took many school days of an incredibly committed and reflective team. It also took a lot of humility to admit when I needed assistance. But most of all, it has taken a lot of patience with myself to allow the time needed to build relationships and to really get to know all of the awesome things about my fantastic students.

October 29, 2019 Tammy Axt Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians

Communication, Communication, Communication

If you had asked me three years ago how I would rate my communication skills, I would have given myself an 8 out of 10. I felt confident that I could share ideas clearly and listen to gather information. I consistently had good and productive relationships with parents, colleagues and students. I was confident in these skills until I entered my current role as the teacher in a class with 10 students who all have exceptionalities. Wow, my communication skills were really put to the test. In my new role, I was now communicating daily with 3 Educational Resource Facilitators (TAs), administration, parents whose children have limited communication, Speech and Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, 10 students who have all have some form communication impairment, etc.

I have learned a lot over the past year about effective communication and although our system is far from perfect, it seems to be working for us. I learned that trying to verbally tell all of the ERFs in the room something, quickly became a game of broken telephone. Throughout the day all of the ERFs have a one-hour break so that means that all the staff are together in my classroom for a total of only an hour a day. We learned throughout last year that communication has to be visual and accessible for everyone in the room so we came up with two ways to help keep everyone in the loop.

The 2 areas of the classroom where our communication is evident is on our whiteboard and our filing cabinets. The whiteboard is an all-around place to go for information regarding the upcoming week in our class. Last year, I learned that information is often shared with teachers first so the whiteboard became a place to go to keep everyone up to speed on the events in our class and school. We also realized that when supply TAs and teachers came to the school, it was so much easier to refer them to some of the information on the whiteboard.

The other place that has worked so well this year is our two filing cabinets right inside my classroom door. One filing cabinet is labeled “Work with Teacher” and the other “Independent Work”. Inside each filing cabinet each one of my students has a section of activities that they need teacher support for and another section in the other filing cabinet that contains activities that they can do completely independently. In daily conversations with ERFS and data tracking of progress, I make decisions about what activities each student will be doing in the upcoming weeks and add or take away activities for a student to work on. It is also an easy place for all staff in the room to know which activity the student is working on.

In addition to the staff in my classroom, communicating with parents has reached a whole new level. I have probably chatted with each one of my families a minimum of 5 times on the phone already this year and I write home every single day in their communication book. I have learned that writing long messages in 10 books every day is very time consuming. I have just made a new form that I am using this year that captures some of the information that I need to communicate every day but in a more efficient way. Below is the example of my current daily communication form that I use. I highlight what activities that the student has completed that day, circle what they need and write a quick note about their day.

Finally, communicating with my students has also evolved over the course of the past year. All of my students use individual visual schedules which I think is quite common for many students with exceptionalities. Our communication board helps students know what is coming up and where they should be in the classroom throughout the day.

Communication is definitely a work in progress for me but it is getting better every single day!

October 29, 2019 Tammy Axt General

Starting a class business

Starting a Class Business has been an awesome experience for my students. We go around every Friday and sell coffee, tea, cold drinks and snacks to the teachers in our school. It has been a great way for my students to get out of the classroom and visit the rest of the school and work on their communication skills.

Starting Out:

We started by doing a very simple survey with the staff that included questions like:

How often would you buy something?
What kind of drink would you buy?
What kind of snack would you buy?
How much would you be willing to pay?

Our Cart:

Once we had decided how often to go, we gathered all the necessary items to run our business. We gathered coffee makers, kettles, a cart and a few bins we had lying around. Our cart looks like this…

What to charge:

After explaining the purpose of the coffee cart to the staff, we encourage staff to contribute any amount. I have taught my students the phrase “We takes ones or twos but no I owe yous” which we proudly display on the front of our cart.

Roles:

My students are assigned roles according to the goals that they are working on. The roles include cart pusher, greeter, money collector, cream and milk leader, sugar and sweetener leader and salesperson. The goal is to work the students towards independence in interacting and completing their assigned roles.

Assessment:

I have made a simple checklist for things to look for when my students are selling coffee to the teachers on Friday. Many of the goals on the checklist are embedded into their IEP goals.


Greets teacher (eg.hello)
Explains choices available
Explains cost
Listens to order and gets cream or milk correctly
Listens to order and gets sugar or sweetener correctly
Identifies coins correctly (loonie/toonie)
Verbally Says goodbye to teacher

Adding Funds To Your Program:

Money is important to our program. We take many trips and do many activities that require additional funds. This business allows us to increase our allocated school budget to make our program super fun and exciting.

If you are thinking about starting a class business or a social enterprise please feel free to reach out, I would be happy to help!

September 30, 2019September 30, 2019 Tammy Axt alternative curriculum

Alternative Curriculum Programming

I am very fortunate that I am the teacher in a contained class for students with developmental disabilities. Every day is a unique experience with lots of laughter and learning. As my students would be unable to complete the expectations in the Ontario Curriculum, they all follow an Alternative Curriculum. In order to provide a successful alternative program, it requires regular input from parents, daily assessment data and a thorough understanding of the student’s profile (which can be found in the OSR).

Recently, I was asked what my students do all day as they follow an alternative curriculum. Below are the parts of my program. For students who are going to school in an inclusion model or a contained model you could adapt part or all the pieces of a similar program to meet the needs of your student(s).

Morning Meeting- First thing in the morning, we run a meeting on our interactive whiteboard for the entire class that includes review of the date, weather, months and seasons. It also works on communication, social skills and independence as my students run the meeting with little to no staff intervention.

Hygiene- In the bathroom, we take groups of students to work on brushing their teeth, washing their face and putting on deodorant. Some of my students are close to being fully independent and others need full support and are working on tolerating the feeling of a toothbrush.

Snack time- This is a great social time for my students. Everyone has a chance to chat while they are eating which is great for those working on communication goals. Others are working on finding their lunch bags and bringing them to their tables.

Gross Motor- We use equipment ordered for us by the Occupational Therapist and the students do a circuit through a hallway at school. It gives them time to move and build their coordination. It also teaches them how to wait their turn, do tasks in a sequence and listen to instructions.

Activity Time- This is a block of time in the day for students to work on reading, writing, mathematics or fine motor skills independently or with teacher support. In my class, a few students complete independent work, while others work with a staff member on fine motor skills, another group of students work on reading and writing and the fourth group at the interactive whiteboard playing math games. The students rotate throughout the week.

Bathroom- Some of my students require support with toileting. They are supported to become as independent as their cognitive and physical abilities will allow. We also use this time to do teaching about things like changing pads for menstrual cycles.

Art- Creating art pieces gives us lots of time to work on cutting with scissors, holding pencils or markers or being comfortable touching unusual textures.

Lunch/Recess- Similar to snack time but with a 20 minute period outside with the rest of the school. Some of my students can play with other students quite successfully and others are supported to improve in this area.

Grade 8 Buddies- Our grade 8 buddies support us with playing games, completing art, cooking, playing basketball etc… My students absolutely love them! This activity supports students goals around communication and social skills.

Cooking/baking- Once a week we cook lunch. We take this time to work on food preparation and safety, tolerating new foods, cleaning and setting and clearing a table.

Coffee Cart- We run a business selling coffee and tea to the staff once a week. My students are fantastic at selling and are quite the entrepreneurs. This activity works on communication, following instructions, listening to others and completing simple tasks.

Music- My students have music every day. They enjoy playing with the musical instruments and are working on staying focused on a task for an extended period of time.

Life Skills- After lunch everyone has a job to do. They do the job for a full week to give them time to learn the skills necessary to do the job successfully. The jobs include watering the plants, doing the dishes, wiping the tables, tidying up, vacuuming and pushing in the chairs.

Afternoon Meeting- This time is spent focusing on skills we need to practice as a class such as distinguishing between milk and cream for our coffee cart. On Fridays, we do a wrap of the week where I share pictures and we reflect on all the awesome things we did.

Integration- Some of my students join other classes for gym. But ultimately, I am always on the lookout for school wide events that my students would enjoy such as staff/student dodgeball games or the Terry Fox Walk that we join in on.

Every portion of our day is focused on developing skills and learning. My students are incredibly capable and with the right supports and practice they can achieve the goals created in collaboration between school and home!

September 29, 2019September 29, 2019 Tammy Axt Start of the year

Wearing Pajamas to the Swimming Pool

I go swimming on Friday nights with my friends. It is a good stress reliever and social time after a busy week at work. This past Friday at school, I spilled some coffee down my pants while supporting my students with our coffee cart business. Unfortunately, when I got home and began to get ready for swimming, I realized that I no longer had any clean pants. So, I did what any logical person would do and wore a pair of pajamas out in public to go to the pool.

“Why didn’t you have any clean pants?” many people could ask.

The answer is very simple and a problem that I have had challenges with for the last 15 years of my career.

It is the month of September.

I don’t know what happens in September, but my work life balance goes out the window. My lunches are whatever I can find in the bottom of the fridge, my partner and I wave at each other as we come in and out of the house and the hours spent at work seem never ending.

This year, I was positive that it was going to be different. This was the year that I was going to get it right! I have 9 out of 10 of the same students as last year. Surely, I thought, September would be a breeze. From the picture above with me in my pajamas, you can see that things didn’t quite turn out that way.

There is so much to do in September: reviewing busing routines, introducing new students, setting up activities, lesson planning, creating lesson plan templates, communicating with parents, filing violent incident reports, writing IEPs, introducing new staff, creating new log in information about computers, requesting computer support staff to come to your classroom, joining the Terry Fox run committee, signing in OSRs, reviewing OSRs, completing Annual Learning plans, meeting with Occupational Therapists, preparing for and attending ISRC are just a few of the tasks that takes up your time. It is like the Mt. Everest of work in September that somehow always seems to be crested right at the end of the month.

I see some of my colleagues who don’t look phased by the first month of school and seem to manage their school and home life well. I honestly don’t know how they do it. Do they have a secret time vortex machine that gives them more hours in the day than me? Do they have a maid, cook, gardener and nanny that helps them run their home?

What is their secret?

If you are one of those people who have matching outfits, excellent lunches and a clean car throughout the month of September please leave a comment below and let me in on the secret of how you do it.

As tomorrow is the last day of the month, I will have to say what I have said for the last 15 years….

There is always next year!

June 30, 2019 Tammy Axt General

Thank You!

Thank you for helping your students become the best version of themselves this year!

Thank you for tolerating the sound of the first day of recorder.

Thank you for giving up every lunch to help your young actors shine in the school play.

Thank you for being a safe person where students can come to talk about their identities.

Thank you for giving up your lunch and breakfast to feed your students who are hungry.

Thank you for pushing your students when they needed a good nudge to do their best.

Thank you for helping your students develop relationships with their peers.

Thank you for caring for the parents of your students and supporting them through difficult times.

Thank you for spending your free time in workshops, AQs and reading articles to learn how to support your students the best way possible.

Thank you for holding your laughter in when a student lets a very loud fart go during your lesson.

Thank you for noticing and acting when your students can’t see properly.

Thank you for recognizing and highlighting the talents of all of your students.

Thank you for supporting parents to have conversations with their daughters about their first period.

Thank you for creating an environment in your classroom where students with mental health challenges are respected and valued.

Thank you for helping your colleagues with report cards, IEPs and safety plans.

Thank you for showing up to work with a positive attitude on the day when your child has thrown up on your shoe.

Thank you for all you do every day!!

Have a well-deserved break and a wonderful summer!!

June 30, 2019 Tammy Axt General

Thriving in a New Teaching Assignment

I lead a running club for adults in my free time and many of the participants are teachers. Last week, I overheard two of the participants chatting about their teaching assignments for next year. They both were placed in assignments that were way out of their comfort zone and they were very nervous and anxious about the upcoming year. I understand how they are feeling. I took my educational career in a very different direction last year and it was probably the most challenging of my 15-year career but by far the most rewarding.

Taking on the role of teaching a class with 10 students who have Developmental Disabilities was very intimidating. I knew very little about how to plan, assess or run a program that serviced the needs of these students. It was the steepest of steep learning curves but worth every minute!!

In my board, there is a 50 percent turnover rate of teachers in my role. I can absolutely see why teachers would leave after a year. This job can be very overwhelming and incredibly different than what teachers have trained for. I understand why teachers in general are nervous about change such as when they go from grade 8 to kindergarten or from music to special education support. We are one of the only professions where we are given new assignments and are expected to figure things out on our own with limited resources, training and support.

If you are one of those people that were handed a new assignment for next year and are anxious about the change, here is how I survived the huge change in my career:

I asked around immediately for people who were experienced and amazing in the role I was taking on. I reached out to many of them right away and they were amazing!!! They shared with me everything I could possibly need and went for coffee with me when I was struggling and needed a safe place to share my challenges. Without the support network of unbelievable Intermediate DD teachers, I would not have survived.
I decided that I was giving this role 100 percent of my effort and focus. Even if it hadn’t gone well, I still was going to try my very best every day and commit to my students. That decision helped me not get distracted by challenges that came with my role.
I recognized and celebrated the successes. It could have been very easy to be hard on myself in my new role. There were many things every day that did not go right. However, I learned that unless I cheered when something went well my students wouldn’t get the cheerful and positive teacher that they needed. It kept me and the whole team giving each other high fives and laughing.
I was open to the possibility of something awesome. This was the coolest, most unique experience of my career and if I had let my fear stop me from trying it out, I would have missed this incredible experience.

Finally, right before I took my current job, I reached out to a principal that I trust and asked her for some advice. We talked through the pros and cons of the new role and finally she gave me the best advice that relieved all the pressure of the drastic change. She said simply “this job will be 10 months out of your life. If after giving it your best effort it is not a good fit, move on to something that is.”

Good luck in the 2019-2020 school year everyone.

May 31, 2019 Tammy Axt General, Mentorship

Picking Each Other Up

Just like most people in all of Canada these past few weeks, I have been watching a crazy amount of basketball. Go Raptors!! One thing I love about basketball is that every time one of the players is on the floor, his teammate is there to put his hand out and pick him up. I think teachers need to take the same approach with each other.

I have a brand-new role this year and there have been some days that I have left school and thought well “that sucked”. I didn’t say the exact right thing to a parent, I didn’t handle a behaviour situation correctly and today my one student flat out told me I was not her friend. Not exactly sunshine and rainbows. We are generally very hard on ourselves because we want the best for our students every day. Since we are so hard on ourselves, it is important that we pick each other up every time we are lying down on the court.

There are so many days in my current role where I lack confidence. I am new to the role and I second guess myself a lot. I guess that comes with being an experienced teacher. I was very confident and experienced in my previous role and it was hard to go some place new and feel like I was back at the beginning of my learning.

Some of my colleagues have been amazing at picking me up off the floor on those tough days. My favourite was a friend putting her plans aside and saying let’s have a coffee and talk through this issue that is worrying you. She asked me some amazing guiding questions and then looked at me and said this is hard and there is no easy answer. She then asked “Do you have the supports to help you learn how to help this student?” “Is there anything I can do to support?” And finally she looked at me with all the confidence in the world and said “You will get this, it will just take time”. She picked me up about 7 times during the conversation and I left the coffee shop feeling so much better!

Over my career, I have heard some colleagues be less supportive with each other. There are two common things that are sometimes said amongst teachers that definitely leave teachers on the court stranded.

“That doesn’t happen in my room.” This sentence always drives me absolutely crazy!!!!!!! There are always so many factors that could contribute to difficulty in a different setting that has nothing to do with the teacher or teaching. Depending on the subject it may include noise levels, physical structure to the space, interest in the subject etc. Even if it is the teaching style saying “this doesn’t happen in my room” is not really helpful. Instead, if a colleague approaches with a concern about a student it would be so much better to ask them if there is anything you can do to help make the situation better.

My number 2 pet peeve is “If that student was in my class, I’d straighten them out/they wouldn’t be having these problems.”I have yet to meet a teacher who didn’t have a challenging student at some point in their career. We have all been there. It is important that we offer help to each other when we are taking time to figure out our students.

Our job is hard, we need to be kind to each other. Make sure that you put out your hand to pick someone else when they are on the court.

Go Raptors!!

May 31, 2019 Tammy Axt General, Special Education

Top Ten Reasons to Work with Children who have Exceptionalities

If you are thinking about taking on a role of working with students with exceptionalities than this is the blog for you! Below are my top ten reasons why every teacher should consider working with students with developmental disabilities at some point in their career:

The laughter never stops! I have never laughed so much as I have this year. My students say the funniest things and have the best sense of humour. They are continuously trying to make me laugh! They are motivated by my positive responses and are always trying to get me to crack up.
Teamwork!! Teaching is such an isolated profession for the most part. You go to your classroom and spend all day with your students. No one else interacts with them as much you do and you have to make all the decisions alone. The only teaching job when you are not by yourself is when you have students who have additional support. Working with my ERFs this year has been awesome. It has been great to discuss things together and get input from another person’s perspective. It also has meant that I didn’t have to be everything to all my students at all times.
Constant learning. Every day that I learn some new strategy or technique for helping my students be successful, I know that I am gaining skills to serve students that I will be teaching over the next 18 years. Taking this job has allowed me to focus on developing skills that are very specialized and take a lot of time to develop.
Meaningful Work-In this role I am serving the part of the student population that is really vulnerable. I feel rewarded every day with every gain that my students make and every milestone that they cross. After 15 years of teaching this role has had some of the greatest rewards!!
The families- The families that I serve are nothing short of awesome!! Due to the fact that my class is smaller and my students have a hard time communicating, I speak to my families multiple times in a week. I care about them deeply and it is the closest I have ever been with my student’s families before.
Community- Since my class spends 3 years together, there is a really closeness that develops. We are like a family. They are a bonded little group and really enjoy the company of each other.
Connections with my students are really meaningful- There is a very special relationship that develops when you don’t use words to communicate. You are really tuned in to how they are feeling and you can respond so much more emotionally when there are no words. It is a very deep connection.
WOW moments!!!!!! When a student speaks to someone in the school for the first time or feels confident to walk around the school after a year of trying, it is the best feeling in the world!!
Every day is different. For those of you like me that need constant change, this is the job for you. Every day is completely different than the day before.
Finally, just like I said at the beginning, the laughter never stops!

April 30, 2019 Tammy Axt Special Education

Comments for Alternative IEPs

As we begin the final reporting process of the year, I thought it might be useful to share some of my comments that were written on my alternative IEPs at the end of term one. I borrowed a few of my colleagues reports in the fall to get me started and I used their model to help design clear language that addressed my students’ goals on their IEPs.

That is what we often need, isn’t it? Just an example to get us started. However, for many of us who have been given roles that are unique within our school context, it can be difficult to get examples from amazingly talented individuals with lots of experience.

I am not that amazingly talented person with lots of experience. Not yet anyway. But the comments below might just give you an idea for the perfect way to describe your students in your classroom.

Communication Comments:

_______ is adjusting well to his new classroom at __________. Throughout the day, __ initiates interaction with both staff and students by moving closer to them and making sounds with his voice. _______ is indicating his needs by motioning his hand in the direction of an object he wants. _____ does that frequently at snack time by motioning to his water bottle or during tech time when ___ would like to watch an iPad. _______will also communicate his frustration and dislike of an activity by crying or hitting others. _______ sometimes responds to his own name by making eye-contact especially when you are talking to him in a small group setting or singing him some of his favourite songs. _______________ will follow one step directions such as sit down, stand up and go to locker.

_______ communicates her needs and wants throughout the day at school to her teachers. _______ has good clarity when speaking and has made progress on her ability to speak slowly so that others can understand what she is trying to say. ________ often uses partial sentences and words to communicate with others and she will be encouraged in term two to add more detail to her sentences when speaking with others.

Life Skills Comments:

________ continues to require assistance to perform self care. He allows staff to brush his teeth and wash his face after lunch. ________ joins the class when we are pouring and stirring our ingredients in our cooking program.

______ continues to brush her teeth every day after lunch. She is really enjoying our cooking program and has helped prepare soup, sandwiches, stir ingredients and cutting vegetables. Now that her menstrual cycle has begun within the last few weeks, a focus will be placed in term two on helping _______ develop a routine where she can independently manage this new part of her life.

_____ actively participates in our cooking program in class. He loves making sandwiches, tacos, pouring ingredients and helping to stir ingredients. In January, he tried the food that we prepared for the first time. _______ continues to brush his teeth and wash his face after lunch with minimal prompting.

Functional Mathematics Comments:

______ is able to sort loonies, toonies and quarters with 100% accuracy but is unable to identify all the coins consistently. ______ can do single digit addition and subtraction using manipulatives and is able to tell time to the half hour. _______ can recognize numbers and use them in real life contexts within the classroom such as finding the date for a classmates birthday.

Personal and Social Development Comments:

______ has made gains in his positive interaction with his classmates this term. He enjoys eating his snack with his tablemates and will ask them for assistance if he needs help. He also enjoys telling his classmates when they are being kind to him and each other throughout the day. _______ happily enjoys the class and enjoys being part of our whole class activities. The dance routines he can do with four of his classmates are amazing! ________ needs encouragement to choose a friend to do a pair activity and he will continue to be supported with that skill in term two.

_______ is engaging with his peers and staff regularly throughout the day by moving closer to them and making sounds. He smiles when he sees familiar friends and staff. His frequency of hitting others has become much less since the beginning of the year and he seems generally more content with his classmates and new school. ______ will hit others if he is irritated or trying to get there attention since he is unable to speak with his classmates. He can locate the area of his locker in the morning, at snack time and at lunch time.

Fine Motor Comments:

______ continues to enjoy fine motor activities in the class. He enjoys completing puzzles, playing with lego and using Theraputty. He independently zips up his jacket and puts on his snowpants, hats and gloves. ______ has become more comfortable with writing tasks this term and enjoyed writing some of the cards for our Christmas gifts. He has made progress on his ability to open his food wrappers at snack time. Now that ______ has started wearing jeans to school, he will be working on using his fine motor skills to unfasten and fasten his top button in term two.

______ continues to carry his communication bag and lunch bag into the classroom throughout the day. ________ prefers gross motor activities over fine motor activites and will often show his displeasure to doing his fine motor work by sticking his finger in his nose. We have been providing ________ with motivators and rewards such as his favourite shows Toopy and Binoo and positive praise which sometimes motivates him to do his fine motor work.