Welcome: Blog #1
Welcome to SPED 530- Communication and Collaboration in Special Education. Please share an activity
that you are currently involved in that uses good collaboration skills. Why are
those skills needed and how are they used effectively?
I am currently planning our menu for our summer cooking class at our school. This task takes a lot of collaboration. We work together to make sure we have healthy meals that meet any dietary restrictions we have with our class. We all know the difficulties that we have with our cooking enviroment so we also need to take that into consideration when planning meals. It can be difficult to get everyone to agree to the menu. Sometimes the teachers take their tastes into consideration when planning the meals. We need to leave our food issues aside and try to broaden the taste buds of our young chefs. This collaborative effort every year can be difficult. ( we never repeat menus) In the long run we always discuss what worked what did not work and if our decisions were correct and what to remember for next year.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun experience for your students. Creating a menu that everyone is happy with can't be easy!
DeleteDuring the summer, I work for South Suburban Special Recreation Association. I am currently working a program called "Fast Food and Flicks". During this program, we take a group of 20 adults out to eat and to see a movie at the theatre. There are 4 staff members that work the program, so sometimes things can get a bit overwhelming and stressful. In order to make the program run as smoothly as possible, we meet before every session to discuss the restaurant layout and any difficulties we for see for our participants. Throughout the night, we verbally communicate our roles in ensuring the safety and happiness of our participants. At the end of the night, we discuss what went well and what we need to improve upon for the next time. With our constant communication, we are able to run a successful program for the adults involved.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that both you and Nancy have to collaborate about food. I guess that's something we all have to deal with in some way everyday.
DeleteOne of my girl friends has recruited us to raise money for PAWS in Tinley Park. She is an animal lover!. We have created coin banks that she has distributed all over. Her slogan is Pennies for Paws Coins for Cats. Our children were involved in the process with us and made posters. Everyone is passionate about raising money for a good cause. The families are meeting again in July to see how we are doing with raising our funds. I think this is great for children to become aware of non- for -profit organizations and how they work. Nancy your menu planning sounds fun and yummy! With all of the work you put forth I'm sure everything will be successful! Colleen what a wonderful way to enjoy your summer by helping out at the South Suburban Special Recreation Association. I love the theme "Fast Food and Flicks". So happy you too are making a difference.
ReplyDeleteI love your slogan as well, Lori, 'Pennies for Paws, Coins for Cats' though I must say I would prefer to give to paws over cats :)
DeleteLori-Sounds like there was an awful lot of collaboration and communication that had to go into this. At least in schools, we are all generally in the same area all at once, which makes collaborating a bit easier, but you had different groups to collaborate with including the parents, the group members, the participants, the organization. This sometimes becomes confusing, but sounds like you did a wonderful job.
DeleteCurrently, our district is transitioning from a traditional mathematics curriculum to an integrated mathematics curriculum. As a member of the curriculum work team, we must be collaborative in working with teachers from each of the three schools, where students demographics and background knowledge vary considerably. Therefore, it is important that we do not get in the mindset of "group think" in which all ideas are accepted. Ideas must be criticized constructively in which the main goal of developing a viable curriculum for our students is emphasized. Communication must be friendly and courteous while still making sure that all voices are heard before a decision is made. It can be difficult to organize a functioning group of three different PLC's, but everyone must have an open mind and participate in the information-giving dimension of collaboration.
ReplyDeleteLori- I think that it's great that you and your friends included your kids in the process. I'm sure that they will see the benefit to all your hard work!
Your idea of constructively criticizing ideas while maintaining friendly and courteous communication is so difficult yet so important. I hope you are all happy and able to work with your finished product.
DeleteOur summer school began about 3 weeks ago, and I had a few changes with students and staff in my room. Because of this, I wanted to make sure that all 6 of my aides and I were on the same page. We have been having team meetings at least twice a week. We have been going through each student and discussing their IEP goals, behavior plans, how to take the data correctly, and just other important things about the students. This has been extremely helpful, especially for the new aides who have not worked with the students before. It has also been a good refresher for the rest of us. Toward the end of each meeting, we brainstorm ideas for that particular student, whether it is a different and more effective way of taking data, new materials that might benefit the student, or a new strategy to help that student be successful. Everyone comes together and shares their ideas, and it has been great! I am excited to continue these team meetings and to come up with new ways to help our students!
ReplyDeleteTeam meetings is a great way to build a cohesive classroom for your students. They sound productive and fun for everyone.
DeleteAn activity that our transition program has just begun is the preparation for an in-school clothing store for students in the high school environment. All of the clothes are donated from the community, and as a group, we are teaching the participants how to sort clothes, sort by colors, sizes, styles, gender choice of clothing, etc. This has been awesome for collaboration as students work in stages where each group motivates each other and relies on each other to keep laundry effectively flowing along the work-line from being washed to completely folded and presentable for the new store. I look forward to seeing and watching our participants communicate and have dialogue with people who come in to the store this Fall and also witness how it strengthens their communication skills when they enter the actual real work-force.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great service-learning opportunity for your students!
DeleteI am a member of my school's ILT leadership team, the literacy team and the diverse learner team. We frequently meet and converse via email and text message. It is important to always have a line of communication open so that we can be reached if needed. During our meetings, it is important to respect everyone's opinions and suggestions. It is also imprint to stay on task and not discuss things that are irrelevant to our meeting. Making sure everyone is heard and feels respected will create a sense of trust and build the team together. We join these teams to improve our school and in doing so, we need to make sure we are doing that in a professional manner and communicating and collaborating effectively. Collaborating with each other is extremely important in these meetings because someone may have valuable information or materials that can help that team or another team in the school.
ReplyDeleteDo you find that these teams are effective? How wonderful to be in a school that values collaboration!
DeleteI have been collaborating with the general education teachers and the special education teachers. We are moving towards the co-teaching model, so we have been discussing different strategies and activities that would work best inside the classroom. We also are trying to get to know one another since we will be working in the same room all day! We are building relationships with one another and trying to understand each others perspective on the co-teaching model. it is very important to build a relationship and a respect towards one another when collaborating.
ReplyDeleteBuilding understanding and respect is a great first step when working toward the co-teaching model.
DeleteIn my classroom, I keep a communication binder in which the paraprofessionals can write down ideas, concerns, or success stories. On a weekly basis, we meet on Wednesday for "collaborate" time. During these meetings, I discuss topics from the communication binder as well as positive/constructive feedback for the paraprofessionals. Also, I am not always available to share a conversation or answer every question throughout a busy school day. Therefore, I enjoy the idea of the paraprofessionals being able to voice their opinions and share special moments with our students. I also participate in a mentoring program at Elim. This program has been extremely helpful as a first year teacher because I know I always have an experienced teacher to turn to for advice. It is important to network with your coworkers and not to shy away from asking for help. I couldn't do this job without my support system of paras, teachers, therapists, administration, and mentor.
ReplyDeleteI love communication binders. They can serve so many useful purposes in any classroom.
DeleteI love the idea of using communication binders! This is something I definitely want to incorporate in my classroom. I am sure that your paraprofessionals are grateful for you and for having that resource available to them.
DeleteI currently work for autism home support services. In this environment I work with a team of individuals to provide in home services to an individual with autism. We are constantly communicating about what is working and the different types of reinforcement that is working. By communicating like this we are able to provide a cohesive environment for the client and are able to help lessen the incidence of problem behaviors.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to hear that you are already using good communication skills in your job to the benefit of your clients.
ReplyDeleteI am currently teaching extended school year. I began with six students but three days into ESY, I received a new student. This student was exhibiting maladaptive behaviors in another classroom. He was being non-compliant, self injurious behavior, physical and verbal aggression towards staff members. I consulted with the staff from his previous class to investigate the interventions that they had tried. I did not want to spend more time with interventions that were going to be unsuccessful. Once I implemented his behavior plan with fidelity, his verbal aggression decreased significantly.
ReplyDeleteI have two paraprofessionals working in my classroom that I have never worked with before. I met with them to discuss our expectations as a team. I gave them the necessary information about the students. I feel that it is essential for teachers and para-educators to have a clear and common vision of what each of their roles and responsibilities are towards the classroom and the students in it. The only way this can happen is by talking about it.
This shows so clearly the importance of behavior plans. I hope you find the topic on paraprofessionals helpful. It looks like you are already implementing some key strategies for working with paras effectively in your classroom.
DeleteI am currently doing my internship for my BCBA portion of the program with two colleagues from the program. Since there are two others that are observing and working with the same population we have been doing a great deal of collaborating with the teachers, staff, and each other. This collaboration is vital because it opens up a line of communication and allows mutual respect so ultimately all ideas are evaluated to give the best possible service to the client. I feel that the group going through the BCBA program I am working with covers the dimensions of collaboration very effectively. There is not only professional support, as we are all going through the same "not wanting to step on anyone's toes" situation, but there is also information giving and suggestions are welcome.
ReplyDeleteIt's great the your Communication and Collaboration course is integrating so well with your BCBA practicum. Where is your practicum?
ReplyDeleteI currently had a change in teacher's assistants in my classroom, so we are just beginning a new journey together. We are learning about our personality quirks and how we respond to various situations. We are both very organized perfectionistic people by nature and we are learning to collaboratively work together to achieve a highly structured and organized classroom with rules and routines without stepping on one another's toes. We both want so much to be organized, that sometimes we have different viewpoints of how organization looks. We are communication often throughout the day but we set aside 30 minutes every day to debrief and make lists and see how things are going, what needs to be done, if we can improve on anything, etc. We are working together to achieve what we will perceive as "the perfect classroom".
ReplyDeleteI love it that you set aside time every day to debrief and talk- what a great way to collaborate through face to face communication!
ReplyDeleteI am a member of Elim's "School Improvement" Committee. I have been a member of this committee for about two years. As a committee, we meet at least once a month (and twice during ESY) to discuss a variety of agenda items that directly relate to our employees and/or students.
ReplyDeleteOne "big ticket" agenda item we have been working on is presenting a new "Paraeducator Evaluation Tool." As a teacher, I am evaluated with an adapted version of the Danielson tool (that another committee so graciously took the time to adapt.) As many of you know, adapting a tool as involved as the Danielson takes a lot of work. We have staff members that have taken this adapted tool one step farther and adapted it to be used to evaluate our Paraeducators. As a committee we have been going through the tool to decide whether or not we feel that it is meaningful, clear, and fair. While the School Improvement Committee is made up of professionals who have a variety of roles- including: teachers, an administrator, behavior support staff, related service staff, and a counselor- we do not have any paraeducators on the committee. We decided it was necessary to build a sub-committee of paraeducators to be directly involved in evaluating the tool. It has been a lot of work deciding how to recruit paraprofessionals and how to run the meetings, but things are going really well. It has been a project that has required a lot of collaboration, and it has reminded me how much involving the "right" people can make a difference.
I love the idea of involving paraprofessionals in this process since ultimately they are the ones who will be affected by the evaluation tool. It sounds like hard work but good work!
ReplyDeleteExactly! One of the paraprofessionals who works in my classroom was actually chosen to be part of the "focus group" that is evaluating the tool. It is really neat to see her be a part of the group with such enthusiasm... I have received some really great feedback.
ReplyDeleteI am the President of my local teacher's union. I have monthly meetings with the Superintendant to discuss the "temperature" of our district. We plan our School Improvement Days together and we just began implementing last school year quarterly meetings with my Executive Board and the Principals of our district as well to discuss and deal with any issues that may occur. I was concerned at first that this collaboration would be seen as " going to the Dark Side" but so far it has been nothing but positive for all involved. We have even thought about asking the parent groups from each school to maybe join in the quarterly meetings so everyone can have a say in the climate of our district and we can all work togehter to make things better.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of responsibility in you district and can use both your communication and collaboration skills to bring about school improvement. I love the idea of asking parents to also be a say in these changes.
ReplyDeleteI was transferred to a new classroom for next school year. I will be co-teaching an eighth grade science class. We have been working together to complete the curriculum map that we will be following for the next school year. We have created several lesson plans and projects that will be used during the class. We have already divided up the classroom based on the most recently map scores to best group the students by ability and need. I being the sped teacher have already reviewed all the students files that have IEP's and discussed necessary accommodations with my partner. All the lesson that have been created were created with all the students needs in mind. We worked together to incorporate the accommodations in to all the assessments as well. Working collaboratively is key in co-teaching because without it you are just two teachers in one room. You need to be open and committed to the process for it to be cohesive.
ReplyDeleteExactly- I couldn't have said it better myself
DeleteI like your comment "Working collaboratively is key in co-teaching because without it you are just two teachers in one room." I found myself in the just two teachers in one room zone this past school year. No matter how hard I tried my co-teacher was not willing to budge on anything. She was not open to any of my ideas, co-planning, or meeting to discuss students outside of the time I was in her classroom. It was a stressful year working in this situation and I am glad to not have a repeat performance this coming school year. It sounds like you are off to a great start already this year. Good luck!
DeleteI am currently collaborating with three staff from the Elim Adult Services DT2 program and two of my classmates Annette and Julie to modify behavior of the adults in the program. In the short time I have been at Elim it is evident that the staff truly care about the clients and want what is best for them. It is also clear that they are realistic in their expectations and what we can offer them in the remaining time we are there. I have never worked with adults in this capacity previously and am thankful for the knowledge the staff at Elim has provided to my classmates and I to give us a better understanding of the program offered and the history of the clients. I had no idea what I was walking into and I relied heavily on my classmates and the staff to help me navigate the situation. Through a collaborative effort we have created a plan to begin working with the staff and clients. It is going to take a lot of trust and open-mindedness to get through the process but I am confident that we will prevail!
ReplyDeleteExcellent job preparing a job with the help of your classmates and staff- I too am confident that you will prevail!
Delete: I currently work for Autism Home Support. Care Team Member is my title and I am a part of a team that includes another CTM member, BCBA, and parents. It has been a great experience so far and I love both my client and the family. I like that we work as a team. We discuss what’s been going on both negative and positive and are able to bounce ideas off one another. You don’t feel like you’re alone and there aren’t any real surprises. The parents have seen a big improvement in our client, and it’s great to see the improvement first hand.
ReplyDeleteAnnette
It sounds like a great job- especially when you see improvement first-hand
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