Tammy Axt – Page 7

November 29, 2018November 29, 2018 Tammy Axt Field Trips, General, Special Education

Our First Field Trip Into The Community!!

This is my first year being a teacher of students with developmental delays. Being new to the role, some days are very successful and some days are a definite work in progress. Even with the possibly of bumpy days, I decided that my lack of experience was not going to stop me from setting up activities in the community with my students. After getting advice from some other amazing teachers, I set up my first field trip. We went on the city bus to the Dollar Store to buy holiday decorations for our class!!

The Dollar Store is about a 6 minute bus ride from my school and it took us about of 20 minutes in the store to purchase all of our items. However, I planned for this trip like we were doing a backpacking trip across Europe for 45 days.

I began by preparing my students for the trip by explicitly explaining what would happen on the trip and my expectations of their behaviour. I shared many pictures and explained them every day for a week. Here are a few of the pictures that I shared with my students:

I will be leaving school after lunch. I need to use the bathroom before I leave.

Then we will walk to the bus stop and wait for the bus.

I need to stay with the teachers while we are on our trip and listen to their instructions.

I need to stay with my teachers on the sidewalk while we walk to the Dollar Store.

When we get to the Dollar Store Ms. Axt will give me my money.

At the Dollar Store, we will each pick one decoration for the class.

Then we will go to the cash register to pay.

After we reviewed the pictures with the students, we practiced walking around the school like we were out in the community. My team and I had a meeting and made groups according to speed, personality and need. Each staff member took two or three students and walked in the halls at school the week before the trip.

We also practiced expectations of shopping in a store. The staff and I became the cashiers and my students practiced finding something, bringing it into the checkout line and waiting to pay for their item. The more we practiced the more independent they got.

Finally, the day arrived and off we went. The whole trip lasted about an hour and we didn’t have one issue. Preparing the students beforehand went a long way into making the trip successful.

The day after our trip, I showed all the students the pictures from our outing and asked about their experience. I put a few pictures and their thoughts in a little note and sent it home in their communication book. For many of my students, the pictures help them with their ability to explain what happened on the trip. It also gives parents some ideas about what happened on the trip, if their child has impaired verbal skills. The note I sent home looked like this…

It took about 10 minutes to make and the parents really appreciated the communication.

We are off on our next field trip on Monday. Wish us luck…………

October 30, 2018 Tammy Axt General

Student Led Conferences in a Special Needs Class

I am so lucky to be working in a class with students who have special needs. I am so proud of them everyday for everything that they learn and how kind they are to others around them. My students are just a whole bunch of awesome! For those of you who are used to student led conferences as opposed to traditional parent-teacher interviews, but are not sure how to organize the experience for kids with special needs below is one possible example. One important piece of information to note is that most of my students are verbal, have the ability to explain something simple and can recognize the numbers up to 10.

I labelled some of the areas of our classroom and had each of my students lead their parents through the numbers one to seven.

1. Pictures of places outside the classroom. Students said statements like “I go to gym to practice my basketball skills” or ” We learn about flowers outside”

2. Our morning activities on the smartboard. Students showed their parents how they could complete activities about the weather, months, date and personal information.

3. This is a picture of our business, the coffee cart. Students shared with their parents “I practice using money ” or “I practice my counting”

4. A table of student work from their teacher table time. Students shared with their parents “I practice my printing” or “I practice my reading”

5. This board is where we shared our ideas of how to be kind. Students shared their ways that they could show kindness.

6. This small cabinet holds our toothbrushes, toothpaste and wash clothes. Students told their parents “I brush my teeth everyday after lunch”

7. We have a baking and cooking program so we made sure to make a sample for our parents to try and an example of a recipe we follow

Parents really enjoyed seeing all the amazing things that happen in our class everyday!

October 30, 2018October 30, 2018 Tammy Axt General

Parent-Teacher Interviews

It is that time of year again! It is time to meet with parents to discuss their child’s progress. Over the past 11 years of teaching I have made tons of errors when meeting with parents. I have been too academic in my language at some points and I also have not been specific enough on how parents can support their children in other meetings. It wasn’t until I had nephews and listened to my sister describe her anxiety leading up to the parent-teacher meetings that I changed my approach. She was petrified and afraid to ask questions to the teacher. This conversation helped me understand that I needed to change my approach when meeting with parents. I needed to ensure that every parent I meet on interview night feels welcome and comfortable to speak to me about their child.

Below is a template for how I structure all my parent-teacher meetings to ensure that every parent feels welcome and has a voice when we meet.

Greetings, introductions and something awesome about their child:

I begin every meeting with some introductions even if they have met me before. After introductions, I share something amazing about their child. I share something they have accomplished or something they have contributed to our class. I am genuine when I give this compliment. Even if the child is having a very difficult time in class, I find something to share with the parent to set a tone that tells the parent that I care about their child.

Questions from the parents:

Before I share information about their child, I always ask the parents if they have any questions to start. This ensures that we don’t run out of time before their questions are answered. I listen, take notes and clarify while they ask me their questions. After I understand all the questions, I answer them one by one using evidence and examples if required. If the parent does not have any questions, I will highlight one strength of the student and one area of need using evidence and examples.

Specific Ways that Parents can help their child:

In the past, I was really vague when making suggestions to parents. I have learned that picking something small and specific will give parents success when helping their children and therefore feel confident in their ability to help. For example, in the past, I have asked parents to help their child with mathematical problem solving. I have learned that I need to request something more specific as problem solving is much too broad. When I started asking parents to work on skip counting by twos up to one hundred, I could immediately see the results in the classroom and the parents felt like they were successfully contributing to their child’s education.

Closing:

I thank them for coming and remind them that they can ask me a question any day of the year, any time and that my door is always open. I also tell them how lucky I am that their son or daughter was placed in my class.

Parents are our partners in education. I truly believe that the majority of parents just want their child to learn and be happy while they are at school. However, for those parents that are very difficult to work with due to mental illness, substance abuse or anger management issues ensure that you have support in the interview from a colleague or administrator.

I am wishing you all very successful parent-teacher interviews!

September 30, 2018September 30, 2018 Tammy Axt General

Activities for Community Building in A Special Needs Class

This year, I am new to my school. My students are all new to the school. 2 out of 3 ERFs in the class are also new to the school. It is a whole bunch of new!! With all this newness, we have spent a lot of September getting to know each other and our school. Figuring out where everything is and exploring our school has helped us develop a sense of pride and community within our new class and school. Here are a few activities that we used to get to know our school and each other:

1. School Scavenger Hunt

In the first week of school, we took the class on a few scavenger hunts. We looked for things that were really practical such as:

the office

or the water fountains

But I also included some really cool items in my school such as “The Kindness Rock Project” to help develop a sense of pride about the school.

The sheet that we used for our search is here: School Scavenger Hunt

2. During our Morning Meeting, we took some time to get to know each other

We learned about how I love riding motorcycles as we testing out my jacket.

We learned about how Miss. Gale is really into hockey

We learned about a love for swimming

and a love of reading

3. We also had all of our families visit us for an ice cream party before school began.

Relationships are the foundation of any successful classroom and will help us on our journey of learning this year.

September 30, 2018 Tammy Axt General

Changing Jobs

This year I have moved schools and made a fairly substantial switch in career paths from being a full-time music teacher in a K-5 school to a teacher of 9 intermediate students with Developmental Disabilities. It has been quite a big change but one that has brought a complete renewal of energy and excitement to teaching. I have always been a teacher who loves learning. I am constantly taking courses, AQs and conferences to continue to gain skills to help my students. But all the learning in the world didn’t match the energy burst of jumping into something brand new.

The awesome thing about running a program like mine is that all the students have alternative IEPs so you make programming decisions about the child’s needs and are not bound the Ontario Curriculum. The truly intimidating part of my program is that all the students have alternative IEPs so you make programming decisions about the child’s needs and are not bound the Ontario Curriculum. I have spent my entire career supporting children to meet some part of the Ontario Curriculum through accommodations, modifications and emotional support. Now that the Ontario Curriculum is not guiding some of my decisions about goals, it has been a pretty steep learning curve to develop a program that meets my student’s and family’s goals for life skills. However, it has been really awesome to work with families to decide what their child really needs. There have been so many days in my teaching career where I wished I could just focus on the child and their needs and now that is my full-time job.

I also didn’t realize how much I missed having the same students all day and having a close relationship with their families until this month. I loved teaching music but the relationships you build with families are a little bit different as you work with so many students. I love working with my families and supporting them to help their child. I already feel closer with my truly awesome families this year than I have in the past 8 years teaching music!!

Although most days, I am not sure where anything is in the building is or what teams are playing or practicing. I also couldn’t figure out where the pizza was that my students ordered or remember most people’s name on staff. Even with all of these challenges, I spend a lot of my time admiring the cool things I see and hear going on in the building. I see the cool popcorn enterprise that was started by one of the other classes for students with ASD called “McPopping”, I hear the band practicing Christmas songs in September and I see the excitement on kids faces as they head off to all the clubs and sport teams being run by teachers. All of the great work being done by my new colleagues is energizing!

A new year, a sense of renewal and a great new adventure. Can’t wait to see what October brings.

June 30, 2018 Tammy Axt General, LGBTQ2S

Happy Pride Month!

This June, Peel District School board has raised the Pride Flag at every school for the first time. I didn’t realize the impact that the flying of the flag would have on me until I saw it every single day as I came into school. It gave me such a sense of joy and happiness that I was entering a building that explicitly and overtly demonstrated to my community that our building is a safe space for the 2SLGBTQ+ community!

It is so important that our students and their families see that flag flying high as our students who are queer are some of our most vulnerable students. Rates of suicide and self harm are alarming. It is paramount that our students feel that they attend a school that values them and promotes a climate of inclusiveness.

In addition to the flag, The Peel District School Board has taken some great steps in recent years to support teachers in providing safer spaces for the 2SLGBTQ+ population. We held our 2^nd annual middle school GSA conference this year which is helping teachers bring Gay Straight Alliance Groups to middle schools all over Peel. I also cheered the day I read the following headline in the Toronto Star: “Peel Board Won’t Exempt Kids from Learning About Gay Families, Gender Issues” in 2015.

ETFO, in conjunction with many locals across the province, has been doing this work for many years and has so many fantastic resources and professional development opportunities for teachers. I attended the workshop called LGBTQ in the Primary Classroom this past year. We worked through a variety of scenarios focused on gender identity that many teachers are experiencing with their kindergarten and grade 1 students. Teachers in the workshop were committed to making their classroom a place where students can explore their identities. This included training on language used in the classroom, physical classroom environment and managing the challenging conversations with parents that regularly arise. We also reviewed Peel’s Gender Identity and Gender Expression Guidelines, which I appreciated. Every piece of policy helps support the conversations I need to have in order to provide a safer and inclusive environment for all of my students.

ETFO has created many resources including safe space posters that hang in our classrooms as a welcoming symbol to all and has provided us with training on how to start/facilitate and maneuver dialogues about inclusion. My safe space poster is beside my door. I regularly have students ask me about my safe space poster as we line up. I explain that this poster is to tell people that my classroom is a safer place for transgender, 2 spirit, lesbian, bisexual, queer and gay people. I have explained that to students between the ages of 6-11 regularly for the last 10 years. When you start teaching students about the idea of respect for all at a young age, it becomes part of the norms for our teaching space.

I hope everyone had a Happy PRIDE MONTH!!

June 28, 2018 Tammy Axt General

Thanks for all you do!

Congratulations on another successful year! Being a teacher is one of the greatest gifts and it is usually the students’ words at this time of year that remind me of the important impact that we have everyday. When I asked the students about their teacher, Ms. Duong, this is what they had to say:

“She is really caring and kind. She doesn’t leave anyone out and includes everybody. She always treats everyone equally. She is a joyful teacher and when she came, she told us she was nervous but she did a really great job! I learned a lot from her and she told us all the time that we are the best class. She brought us up and treated us well like we were one of her children so that we could be our best person.”

“She was really inspiring and every day when we saw her she had a big smile on her face and it made us smile as well. She would always let us know how great we are and that made us feel really happy. She inspired us to become more involved and join more clubs. She also made really fun projects for us to do. “

“She is really sarcastic and can joke around with us. She also gives us fun activities to do. She made a lot of jokes in class and made me feel very happy. “

“She made me feel happy.”

“She always inspired me to be myself and made us feel comfortable. She made us feel happy and had a lot of smiles and always had a positive attitude. She always made anyone sad feel better and she taught everyone in such a respectful and caring way. We had a very active and fun class which helped us be motivated!”

“She is super caring and she treats everyone in the class equally. She never puts one student before another. She is super fun and makes learning fun! She makes games and even her tests are fun because they have jokes. She is always happy and even when she is stressed she finds the humour in the day. The classroom never has a negative vibe.”

“She does a lot of fun things. She doesn’t get agitated over little things. She is really honest with us about situations. She makes learning fun and joyful and funny. She lets us watch things a lot which we really like. She does community circles which helps us solve problems and also share about our weekends and our lives.”

I know that many of your students feel the same way about you! Thank you for all the work that you do every day to help our students of Ontario be the best people that they can be!

May 31, 2018 Tammy Axt General

Shopping List For a New Class Designed for Students with Developmental Disabilities

Shopping, shopping, shopping! This week has been all about shopping. I was given the large task of ordering all the furniture/items for my brand-new classroom that will be providing a program for 10 amazing kids with developmental disabilities. As this was my first time setting up this kind of program, I visited multiple classrooms and reached out to many people for advice and suggestions. I also used my new students’ IEPs and transition meetings to guide my purchases, which is a mandatory part of the process. For those of you out there trying to make decisions without my amazing network of colleagues to rely on, below is the list of items that I purchased this week for the upcoming school year:

List of things to buy for new DD class

Printer with colour ink
Laminator
Velcro
Microwave
Fridge
Plates
Cups
Cutlery
3-seater couch
Bean bag chairs
Glider rocking chair
Carpet
Independent work stations
Shelf for books
Trampoline/active movement in the school?
Bikes
Washer/dryer
Tables
Independent work station desk
Sensory bins
Peg board
Chewlery
Cause and effect toys
Slant board
Writing tool grips
Triangular tools
Multi-sensory materials
Math manipulatives
Calendar
Bob books/Pattern books
Reading A to Z
Site word activities
Number games
Timers
Alphabet books
Playdough
Picture books
Matching activities
Thera-putty
Paint/art materials

This is by no means exhaustive and was designed to meet the needs of my particular students. Also, some of the items will come through referrals by Occupational Therapists and Speech and Language Therapists. But if you were like me last week and had no idea where to start, hopefully, this will give you a staring point! Happy shopping.

May 31, 2018May 31, 2018 Tammy Axt Communication with Parents and Guardians, Special Education

Setting up Successful Transition Meetings

I am really excited to be starting a brand-new job in September! I am leaving the world of music behind and entering the amazing world of Special Education. This has been a long time passion of mine and when the wonderful opportunity came up to open a class for students with a Developmental Disability, I jumped at the opportunity.

In preparation for my new role, I have had the pleasure of sitting through transition meetings for all of my new students which have been immensely beneficial. This was my first time sitting in on transition meetings and I am so pumped for the new school year now that I have heard all the amazing things about my wonderful new students.

Listening through the presentations, as the sending schools were sharing information with us, the ultimate goal was to make all our families feel comfortable about this big transition their child was facing. Below are a few ways that we tried very hard to make all our families feel welcome!

All families were invited to the transition and welcomed into the meeting with smiles. Food was ready and water was available in the 30+ degree heat for all families.
At the beginning of every meeting, parents were told explicitly that the goal of the meeting was for them to leave smiling. This reassured them that they were an important part of this process and that their voice was valued. Some parents took this opportunity to share their thoughts about the child’s needs and their anxieties about the transition. It was a great opportunity to begin to build trust between the new school and the parents.
We had a flyer ready for every meeting inviting all of our parents to an “Ice Cream Party” in late August right before school begins. All families and students were really excited about the ice cream party idea and it was such a positive way to end every meeting. Everyone knew that they were invited to see the school, see the classroom and meet their whole teaching team.
One of the most exciting aspects of our transition meetings for students and families was receiving some swag from the new school. A brand new Mustangs t-shirt and water bottle were a big hit with all of the families and made them feel welcome as a member of their new community. There were lots of smiles and excitement at the thought of their child wearing them.

The transition meetings were also an important forum for sharing information. If you are doing the transition meeting for the first time this year or next year, after listening to some very talented teachers present their students, this is what I saw this week that was very helpful.

Bring pictures of the child and important items in the room. One of the teachers gave me a copy of a poem that really helps alleviate anxiety about making mistakes that she uses with one of my students. I will use this familiar item to help my student transition from one school to the next as it will be so familiar to her. Also, the pictures of my students doing his or her favourite things also started to give me an idea of my student’s interests and likes. It was great to put a picture to a name from the beginning. Families smiled when they saw their child doing all these wonderful things and it set a really positive tone for the meeting.
Be specific and detailed about needs in the area of toileting and eating. Some forms do not have a specific section for both of these items so it is important that you are clear and detailed. It is important for the incoming school to fully know the routine so that we can replicate it on the first day of school.
Be detailed about strategies that work to aid in positive behaviour. It might feel a little bit obvious but it is important information to share.
Be sure to bring a copy of the IEP, transition form and behaviour plans. All of this information is highly beneficial in purchasing items needed and preparing a beneficial program for students.

Hope these ideas help you set up amazing transition meetings at your schools!

April 30, 2018 Tammy Axt Assessment

Training Students To Have Independent Reflection Skills

Assessment in my music room follows a gradual release of responsibility model. I explicitly teach students how to self-assess their ability to create and play a song correctly. I do this regularly throughout the year as we learn how to play different instruments, songs and arrangements.

Co-creating a Criteria

Near the beginning of a new unit, the students and I co-create criteria using Anne Davies’ Model. This process helps me understand where my students are in their assessment for learning and often identifies areas where they will need help. You can see from the picture below that my students really understand the idea that you are supposed to cover the holes when you are playing music on the recorder, but tonguing is something that this class needed a lot of help with, as only one student used it as part of the criteria. The criteria that we create is used in all subsequent lessons to help students have a deep understanding of how they can be successful.

After we have written the criteria, I have the students use the criteria to assess me while I am performing a piece of music. I explain thoroughly each part of the criteria as I demonstrate what a level 4 looks like. In the next three or four classes that follow, I do a warm up using the criteria until I feel that the class has a firm grasp on how they will be assessed. I want them to be empowered to be able to explain and use the criteria that we have created. In the warm up, I play for them and they give me feedback. I fill in the gaps or explain any pieces of the criteria that they are not fully understanding.

Assessment as learning

After students have some understanding of how they will assess themselves, they spend time receiving feedback from both me and their peers. They play for me in person and through Google Classrooms.

After the first couple of times that they play with me, I ask them to assess themselves with my support. I train them to express their next steps orally with me in small groups or one on one. For those students who need further practice, I do small group instruction where they play and we work through each part of the criteria until they understand it fully.

Assessment of learning/Celebration of Learning

Once each student is able to fully assess themselves confidently, they have so much ownership over their growth and I focus on helping them achieve as much as they can in one year! My assessment of learning is always a celebration of how far the students have come. I always make it a point to show them their progress as they move through various units, so that they have confidence in their abilities.

This process takes quite a bit of time, but it is well worth the skills that the students acquire. The skills required to be able to identify areas of need are the skills that will carry our students through much bigger challenges than Hot Cross Buns on the recorder.