Working with Low-Functioning Students: Believing Students are Capable

When you're a teacher or an assistant working with students who are on the lower-functioning end of the Autism spectrum, it's important not to get caught up in all the things the students can't do (a better way of putting this, really, is "currently can't do" because even the lowest-functioning students almost always make some progress over time). When you believe lower-functioning students are helpless, you can easily fall into a pattern of doing too much for them. This sets up a cycle of dependency that is hard to break. When students are given the time and space to use and develop their capabilities, they are much more likely to make progress (this is especially true of functional living skills, but holds true for everything else). Learning to observe and appreciate a student's abilities tends to have a profound effect on what you believe about a student and what he or she can do. Your understanding of your students' abilities has a profound impact on how you work with them, the choices you make as an instructor, and ultimately, the rate of progress that they will make during your time together.

As an instructor, you make a difference in the life of each student you work with. What you do in the classroom each day sets the student up for his or her future. Your choices will have a huge impact on the student's life far down the road, so it pays to make sure all of your interactions support the student in becoming more independent and capable. Knowing that the stakes are high, having a strong belief in your work, your students, and in yourself means that you will be in the best position to advocate for the goals, experiences, and opportunities that are in the best interest of your students.

Many people believe that lower-functioning students (or students with profound disabilities) are totally helpless, and are incapable of learning. This can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you show students through your actions and words that you believe they are incapable of doing things for themselves, you will do too much for them, and they will become more dependent on you. This sets up the cycle of dependence that is hard to break once established. If

In order to support your students, not only do you need to form a good working relationship, but also an understanding of what each is capable of now--with one eye always aimed towards the future. When you "pay attention" to students on a daily basis, you will often see little clues or signs that the student is ready to increase his or her independence. It's really important to slow down and be alert for these small windows of opportunity, because if missed, they may not come again for a long time. When given the opportunity to try a new skill at just the right moment, students will discover they are capable, and experience the motivation to use that skill again in the future. If the effort is overlooked or rebuffed, it increases the student's passivity and decrease his or her motivation to try again in the future. Students need opportunities to demonstrate that they can be successful and participate, so it's important to seize these moments when they arise.

Putting it into practice:

1. Talk to the student often about what is happening (forecasting) as you go through the routines of the day, especially during transitions. Use clear and consistent language that supports student's participation.

2. Give the student a chance to respond or participate in daily routines or instructional sequences--watch for signs of initiation. Praise any signs of effort you observe at these times.

3. Slow down--the key is to give students time and space to develop and use their abilities. Give lots of wait time to give students a chance to do things independently. Avoid the temptation to hurry the student along or do things for them until they've had ample opportunities to try the task or skill on their own first. If it's clear to you that the student needs help, still take the time to ask them if they need help before providing assistance.

4. Be mindful about opportunities where existing capabilities may potentially lead to new skills...or new settings where existing skills can be brought in and practiced (to increased generalization).

Helping lower-functioning students develop increasing independence is an enormously complex undertaking that requires years of effort. In most instances, the students come in and out of your life before you can see the payoff of your efforts, so much of the time, you are making an investment in an unknown future. While you can't control the future, you can do things today that will make a huge difference in the present and future lives of the students you work with. If your work with students is done with the mindset of increasing their independence and honoring their abilities, you will have a positive impact on their future.

the myriad joys of the third trimester

1. Some days, I can see my abdomen expanding by the hour.

2. The shuffle you see comes from both the relaxing joints and ligaments and the new-found back pain that I'm having. I'm experimenting with a maternity support band to see if it helps before I give up and try something more awkward and expensive.

3. The baby is kicking more frequently and purposefully, so sometimes I can see my abdomen bouncing around (it doesn't hurt though).

4. The heartburn (that went away during the second trimester) is starting to come back (oh joy).

5. I had to invest in clothes that are 4-6 sizes bigger than what I normally wear.

6. Most days I am way too tired to walk the dog, so she's getting restless and squirrely.

7. I finally broke down and bought a stroller. It's probably the only big-ticket baby item that I'm going to be purchasing new--I haven't seen anything used either on craigslist or at a consignment store that I really liked, and my desire to go out and hunt around for this kind of stuff is rapidly decreasing.

8. I actually do a better job of remembering to eat and stay hydrated at work than I do at home on the weekends. This is a compelling argument to keep on working as much as possible.

The importance of classroom interventions

Academic literacy is so important, yet I often observe that a majority of students with language processing difficulties, learning disabilities, home language other than English (HLOTE) and other factors that interfere with literacy attainment often never get the level of help they need to be successful in a school setting. What's troubling about this is the poor outcomes these students have. Consider the following:

-74% of children who are unsuccessful readers in the third grade are still unsuccessful readers in the ninth grade. (Journal of Child Neurology, January, 1995)

-Only 52% of students identified with learning disabilities will actually graduate with a high school diploma.

-Learning disabled students drop out of high school at more than twice the rate of their non-disabled peers. (Congressional Quarterly Researcher, December, 1993)

-At least 50% of juvenile delinquents have undiagnosed, untreated learning disabilities. (National Center for State Courts and the Educational Testing Service, 1977)

-31% of adolescents with learning disabilities will be arrested within five years of leaving high school. (National Transition Longitudinal Study, 1991)

-Up to 60% of adolescents who receive treatment for substance abuse disorders have learning disabilities (Hazelden Foundation, Minnesota, 1992)

-62% of learning disabled students were unemployed one year after graduation. (National Longitudinal Transition Study, 1991)

Clearly these students need serious intervention in order to have good outcomes, but the truth is, few are getting it. The bulk of the problem can be blamed on poor educational funding (which impacts staffing levels). To some extent, it is also one of training.

For one, most mainstream classroom teachers have never been trained in any way to work with students who have language-related difficulties. This wouldn't matter a whole lot, except that mainstream classrooms are where most of these students spend the vast majority of their day. Few classroom teachers have much training that goes beyond the typical demands of their subject area. If they have any training related to learning disabilities, it's from attending a one-hour in-service and mostly of the "awareness" variety. The majority of teachers never receive any practical training on how to work with students with learning disabilities or language acquisition difficulties, and yet nearly all teachers will have one or more of these students in the classroom.

Why is that a problem? After all, mainstream teachers didn't sign up to work with these kinds of students, right? Well, the reality is, most mainstream teachers are doing so, whether they want to or not. Due to the funding cuts over the last several years, fewer of these students will be served by trained specialists regardless of placement (there aren't enough Special Ed personnel or resource teachers in most schools to realistically provide an adequate level of service to students with learning disabilities, so guess where most of these student will end up? Your fourth period class! (After all, the person who does the scheduling appears to have a perverse sense of humore and will probably lump all of your most challenging students together in one period.)

Furthermore, in many or most schools in this state, you won't even have a para in the classroom because most of the paras who once provided some additional support for students placed in mainstream classes were laid-off in the past couple of years). I've noticed that with ELLs (English Language Learners), most are being dumped into mainstream classes with little ongoing support from anyone from the ESL department either. In the case of ELLs, as with many of mainstreamed students with IEPs, most of the support that was formerly provided by paras in a mainstream classroom was withdrawn when the majority of bilingual paras were also laid off. (Basically, outside of self-contained Special Education or ESL, except in the instances where an individual student is receiving one-on-one support, you won't see a lot of paras in a mainstream classroom anymore--if you do see one, he or she is likely there to assist one student very intensively and won't have time to work with any other students who might benefit from having an additional adult in the room. Yet, as I said before, that is where the majority of students are.)

To make a long story short, what has happened, at least in my state, is that these students were systematically dumped into mainstream classes with teachers who were never trained to work with them, and left to sink or swim. It's no surprise that the majority sink...A few of the luckier ones will receive intervention outside of the school day, but most will not. The kinds of programs that offer targeted interventions in literacy acquisition are usually not adequately funded, so they can rarely serve the number of students who truly need them. Tutoring and other fee-for-services programs will naturally only be able to serve those who can afford to pay.

Educational funding is unlikely to increase to the point where students who need help will get it anytime soon. In the meantime, I would recommend that ALL teachers who care enough to want to do right by these students take the time to self-educate about learning disabilities, language acquisition issues, and other related topics. For your students who have IEPs, find out which specific learning disability/ies your student/s have, and learn what you can. The internet is a good place to get started, but for quality information, you are really better off checking out books from the library, or acquiring textbooks on learning disabilities (a good source of affordable books on this topic is previous edition of whatever textbooks they are currently using in school of education courses--because they aren't the newest latest edition, they are usually not being used by colleges, and therefore a lot cheaper. If you're really lucky, they'll turn up in places like Goodwill or a yard sale). For ELLs, besides the obvious step of learning something about the cultural issues in your particular population (do you work with Mexican migrant families or refugees from Somalia?), I would highly recommend learning about second language acquisition and its impact on academic learning in English. There are some really good websites, journals, and books on this topic.

Particular strategies and interventions can be learned either through training, or consulting with a specialist (your school or district specialists may or may not be able to camp out in your room, but they would probably be more than happy to share their knowledge and expertise with you). In the case of learning disabilities, make sure you stay in regular contact with the student's Special Ed teacher/s, case managers, or the student's family. All of these people are a potential source of valuable information about ideas for working with your students.

Until the general populace and politicians come to their senses and make educational funding a priority (rather than an afterthought), those of us in education are stuck with a huge mess. As cathartic as it may be to blame others, it's even more cathartic to increase your own effectiveness in working with students who have educational challenges. The more you know about the difficulties your students face in school, the more effective your teaching will be in reaching them. You may never realize what a difference you could potentially make when armed with new knowledge, but even the smallest thing (like suggesting a simple strategy) might really have an impact on the performance of a kid in your classroom.

quote of the day

"In order to effectively teach a non-verbal child with autism, the teacher must trust that the non-verbal autistic can: hear, see, smell, taste, feel, think, formulate ideas, communicate with himself, understand what he hears, understand what he sees (including reading), question that which he doesn't understand, achieve intellectual superiority as compared to his age group, and deal with reality an age appropriate manner. The teacher must do all this in the midst of not having any reliable way of knowing what the autistic person is taking in or understanding anything that takes place around him..."

(from Teaching the Non-verbal Autistic Student by Wally Wojtowicz, Jr.)

More work with PECs

I'm writing more about PECs today, since that's something I've been working on with Bob. Since I've never worked with anyone at the beginning stages of learning expressive communication, this has been an interesting journey for both of us.

Bob was introduced to PECs during speech about a week ago, but since he only has speech once a week, it's something I've been practicing with him whenever I can (since it'll never work out if it's just a once-a-week kind of thing). Currently, I've been incorporating some work with PECs into our DT sessions (as kind of a wrap-up activity).

I'm only working briefly with PECs right now (to maintain interest and not wear out the reinforcers too rapidly). At this stage, I'm only using a few items (3 reinforcers that we've identified). I also have been taking my stash of food-related items down to lunch so we can practice a little bit in there (but I keep it really light, since it's not intended to be a form of torture). It's recommended to practice in different settings, so for now, these are the two easiest. I might do some practice on the bus too--that's something we do a few times a week.

Introducing PECs

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was primarily working with a non-verbal student named Bob* this year. A big goal, with any student, but especially a non-verbal one, is increasing expressive communication.

Currently we're working on introducing PECs. PECs (a picture exchange communication system from Pyramid Educational Consultants) is a visual system of communication. PECs is a widely used system to teach functional communication skills to individuals with Autism.

Currently, as far as I'm aware, there does not appear to be a functional communication system currently in place for Bob (in other words, he has no way to make his wants or needs known to others). Right now, I'm attempting to ascertain what motivates Bob, and having some success there, but it would be nice to expand on this.

I feel that Bob is capable of initiating some spontaneous communication in specific settings or situations, and if taught to do so, would be able to function more independently than he does now. Since his visual tracking is pretty good, and his attentiveness is fairly high, I think this is the best possible option for a communication system. Although his motor skills are a bit inconsistent, I think they're sufficiently developed to enable him to exchange pictures to initiate communication.

Right now we're working on reinforcers, which is step 1. Fortunately, it's pretty easy because we have already identified several good reinforcers--things that are not too freely available in the classroom that can be rationed out during training sessions only. Symbols seem to be a bit too abstract for Bob right now, so we're starting with actual pictures and working towards introducing symbols. Since Bob knows shapes, I think eventually we could transition to using more symbols.

Right now my focus is on making sure he understands the cause-and-effect relationship between handing me a card, and getting a reinforcer. I've practiced this a few times, and he seems willing to do it with me. I've also introduced (briefly) the idea of making choices this way (during lunch), but it's not something I expect Bob to fully master for awhile yet.

I find this unbearably depressing...

I saw this article in the news today. What a downer...

New Light on the Plight of Winter Babies: Researchers Stumble Upon Alternative Explanation for the Lifelong Challenges Faced by Children Born in Colder Months

Basically it claims that wintertime kiddos are due to have a crappy life. "Study after study has shown that they test poorly, don't get as far in school, earn less, are less healthy, and don't live as long as children born at other times of year."

Great. Just what I wanted to hear...I remember last year reading something that states that Oregon has an unusually high rate of Autism too.

New Light on the Plight of Winter Babies: Researchers Stumble Upon Alternative Explanation for the Lifelong Challenges Faced by Children Born in Colder Months
Justin Lahart, Sept. 22, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125356566517528879.html?mod=yhoofront

It's fall but you wouldn't know it...

Man oh man it's been hot this week. Today's the first official day of fall, but you sure wouldn't know it. At this point, I'm about sick to death of my summer wardrobe, and would love to move on already.

Of course, we don't have air-conditioning at work. Good luck finding a school in Portland that does...we have fans, but that only goes so far. Fortunately, it stays bearable until about the last hour and a half of the day...At this point, I might be just fine with nine months of rain.

28 weeks

I'm now at the 28 week mark, so anyone who's not legally blind can tell I'm pregnant, and nearly everyone who sees me asks me the inevitable question, "So, when are you having that baby?".

What this means for me is that barely any of my old clothes still fit (I had to buy a bunch of size 16 shirts the other day--thank goodness for a well-timed yardsale), my back aches on a regular basis (I think I'm gonna need to invest in some sort of back-support device if I'm gonna make it through the next three months), and most days, if I sit still long enough, I can feel lots of kicking and other fetal acrobatics. Feeling my little squirm-worm move around is quite entertaining, and gives me a reason to laugh several times a day.

My work situation is surprisingly compatible with pregnancy. I carry a cushion around to sit on, and that makes sitting episodes bearable. I don't have to stand around a whole lot, but the day is interspersed with several short walks. Nobody needs toileting. Our class schedule includes Yoga every day, so I get to stretch on a daily basis (which makes me feel a LOT better). Since I'm not constantly responsible for supervising students every single minute of the day, I can take short breaks throughout the day to take care of my own needs. I don't have any students with severe behaviors to deal with (no runners to chase after, and no grabbers, screamers, hitters, or biters to worry about), so I'm perfectly safe while I'm at work. And since I'm not working in a mainstream classroom setting, I don't have to worry about breaking up fist fights, or dealing with Axe Bodyspray, or any of that nonsense.

confession time: I hate my dog

I know this sounds horrible and mean, but ever since I've been pregnant, I have been so annoyed/grossed out by my dog.

For one, she's always been on the stinky side, but now that my sense of smell is ridiculously acute, I can't stand the way she smells--and unfortunately I can smell her when she's not even in the same room. Gross! What's sad is that it makes me NOT want to pet her at all (or even be anywhere near her), but she's such a needy/affectionate dog that I'm sure she's totally mystified by my lack of interest. Everyone thinks I'm so horrible and mean to her because I won't pet her, but I honestly just can't stand to be around her--if I touch her, I feel like I need to get up right away and wash my hands (annoying), so I just basically don't want her near me...which of course makes her want to be near me even more.

And forget about giving her a bath--I can't lift her into the tub (she won't go in on her own and she weighs 85 lbs) and I think the smell would just be amplified in a hot steamy bathroom. Wet smelly dog--ick! I wish I could afford to take her to a groomer more often--because the few days' break I get from the smell seems so worth it.

On top of the smell issue, she sheds like crazy--I could vaccuum 2 or 3 times a day and it would literally make NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER. All I can think of is how much hair there is everywhere (even in places where I know she doesn't spend time--her hair forms "packs" which drift around the house). Thank god I don't have carpeting--it would be jet black and smell just like her! Sweeping the floor is pretty easy (even in the third trimester) but it just seems SO POINTLESS. The hair just reappears within a few hours, and it looks like I've done NOTHING. How will I be able to cope with this when I have a new baby crawling around on the floor? Uggh! ). I could brush her more (that's what I usually do), but frankly sitting that close to her (even outdoors) makes my stomach turn, and now we're well into the rainy season.

Sadly, I'm the only one who really ever does anything with the dog (besides feeding), which means she isn't getting walked at all, and never gets played with. Don't worry though, folks, I'm not in any danger of giving her away because I've invested a lot of time and money into training her, and she really is a good dog. She's a really good dog that I just don't want to be around here right NOW. I secretly wish someone could come take her off my hands for a few months until the hormones settle back down, and I'm less cantankerous.

working with a non-verbal student

Now that I've had time to collect my head and figure out which end is up, I figured I'd talk a little bit about exactly what it is that I'm doing this year. I'm not subbing...I managed to ease out of that into a full-time gig.

This year, I'm working in a high school life skills classroom (our particular school has two life skills classrooms, and I'm in the more academic of the two). I mainly work one-on-one with a non-verbal student (on the Autism spectrum). In honor of three of my favorite musicians (Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, and Robert Johnson), we'll call him "Bob".

Non-verbal students tend to be rather interesting (and challenging) to work with, and Bob is no exception. Amazingly, Bob doesn't have any "difficult" behaviors (no hitting or grabbing), and is amazingly easy-going (not usually the case with kids who are non-verbal). For about the first week of school, I spent a lot of time just trying to assess where he was at (skills, interests, abilities), and learning how to "read" him. Now we're getting the hang of the new school schedule, and working with each other, we're starting to make some definitely progress.

Bob is by no means the first non-verbal student I've worked with, but he's one of the few that I've encountered who hasn't been successfully taught how to use any of the commonly used communication systems (ASL, AAC devices, communication boards, or PECs). This makes communication a challenge, and currently it's very one-sided. Because he's completely non-verbal, and doesn't use any gestures, increasing his communication options is one of my big goals for him this year.

In my zeal to educate myself (in order to be more effective when working with Bob), I discovered that there's not a whole lot of freely available information out there about working with non-verbal (autistic) students, especially older students. Because I'll be learning this as I go, I'm going to make an effort to write about what I'm learning here in this blog, so that maybe someone else who's in the same boat can make use of my insights.

whew, what a week!

It's been quite the week. Every day gets a little easier than the one before as we iron out the kinks. The people I'm working with are awesome, and the kids are great.

I'm starting to slowly but surely figure out my student, so it's getting easier and easier to go through the routines of the day. I'm starting to get a feel for what he can do independently, and what he needs (or doesn't need) help with. I think he's also starting to figure me out as well. A lot of things are going smoother, and through a lot of patient trouble shooting, I'm starting to get a feel for where he really is with his DT program.

I've always liked working with kids with Autism, and I've got a really fun group of kids to work with this year.

today's rant

I'm getting increasingly annoyed that just about every single conversation I have begins with, "So, how are you feeling?" or even better, "When are you due?" While we're at it, it would be nice to get through the day without being asked about whether I think it's a boy or a girl, and whether we've thought about names yet, and so on. The most annoying part is that you quickly realize that these questions are asked with the same level of sincere interest as is the "How are you doing?" that you get in the checkout line.

I know that people are just trying to be polite or whatever, but it's so predictable that it makes me want to scream, "I'm FINE!, How else would I be?" If I am in the grips of some minor discomfort at the moment, the last thing I want to do is dwell on it. And if something was really really wrong, I probably wouldn't be out and about going about the daily business of life. And let's face it, there's so many ways you can say you're doing just fine, and keep it sounding fresh. But the truth is, I'd rather talk about something else for a change. Maybe this makes me a bad horrible person, and I should be more grateful for all the unsolicited interest in my pregnancy status, but I really wish people would either treat me like a normal person--or just leave me alone! The latter is totally okay, trust me.

My standard answer is "Great!", and usually that's true. What I'm usually thinking though goes more like this: "I'm fine, the baby is fine, nothing to see here, babies come when they're ready, and I couldn't care less if it's a girl or a boy--as long as it has two arms and two legs, I'll be happy. Now is there anything else you need to know?"

Sometimes, I think people assume that just because I'm pregnant, I have to be miserable, or tired, or feel like life sucks or something. Sure it's not always a picnic every moment, but by the time it's visibly obvious to you, I'm well past the worst of it, or have gotten totally used to whatever changes or discomforts I've been dealing with. I realize that it's just part of our culture to inquire about women's pregnancies, but believe me, after so many months of being asked the EXACT SAME questions you start to feel cranky. Maybe this makes me look like a crabby person, but you know, I'm not crabby because I'm pregnant--I'm crabby because complete strangers off the street keep bugging me about how awful I must feel because I'm pregnant. Grrrr!

Moral of the story, never, ever ask a pregnant woman how she's feeling! Trust me, most of us would LOVE to talk about something--anything--else. If you're not sure where to start, there's always the weather...

Listening to your Instincts

One thing you quickly notice when reading books about pregnancy is that they all have lists of things you should and shouldn't do. You must do this! You should never do that! I guess there are some people who need this--after all, we live in a society where even the cup holders in your car comes with warning labels. We also live in a society where self-reliance and intuition are seen as less valid than expert opinions and commercial messages promoting reliance on corporate products. I'm sure there are tons of people out there who need the reassurance of being told what to do during pregnancy.

An intriguing question then, is how much do you think your natural instincts tell you about how to take care of yourself and how to properly care for and nourish your developing baby?

This idea intrigues me because I've always been one to follow my instincts when it comes to caring for myself in general. (This is no doubt due to the deep-seated mistrust that I bear for the medical establishment). I tend to feel that if you know how to pay attention to what your body is telling you in other areas of life (what is safe and healthy for you), this should also hold true for pregnancy. Or maybe it's just because I tend to loathe being asked to follow long lists of rules...

When it comes to pregnancy, I appreciate hearing about other people's experiences and ideas, but when it comes down to it, I tend to rely on and trust my own intuition. After all, pregnancy is a highly individualized experience, but one that women are for the most part biologically equipped to do.

For instance, I had some definite instincts about what I've been drawn to or averse to during the course of pregnancy.

There was the feeling of immediate repulsion to sweets, caffeine, alcohol, and the like, and an almost instant craving for fruit, fruit and more fruit.

During the first trimester, I didn't beat myself up if I wasn't particularly hungry one day. I would just make up for it on another day. If I didn't do such a good job of hitting all those nutritional goals on day, I'd try to choose better foods the next. Pretty much from day one, I haven't had the slightest interest in junk food, sweets, alcohol, or fried foods.

I keep hearing about how you should avoid fish, but that's a tough one because I'm craving it. I try to stick with the types that are supposed to be lowest in mercury, but there's no way I'm avoiding sushi for the remainder of my pregnancy, no way, no how.

Who are you and why are you here?

The first day of the school year is always a bit hectic. In that sense, it's just like every day of subbing--you go somewhere and hope it all works out for the best.

First, I missed my bus--it went flying by as I stood across the street from the stop waiting to cross (doh!). Fortunately, catching the next one still gets me there on time, so it's not an emergency situation--just a minor nuisance (the later ones are more crowded, that's why I like to catch the earlier one).

I waltzed over to get some coffee (definitely needed the boost) and went in to dump my stuff off before the buses arrived (since I'm doing a one-on-one EA position this year, I have to go retrieve my student from the bus and bring him inside).

We were concerned the buses would come too early, but actually the opposite happened, and they were all late, so we stood out there for awhile, and I got to meet all the kids in my class as they trickled in. Then my student arrived. Of course, he didn't know me from Adam, so convincing him to get off the bus and go inside with me was a bit dicey (can't blame him there) but after years of subbing, I'm used to being the stranger in the room and can roll with it. It took longer than it should have, but I got him inside and ready for the day.

Most of the rest of the first day was spent getting to know the kids and figuring out the basic routine (which of course will change completely in two weeks when kids start going to off-campus jobs). Since there's 14 students (a couple of whom I already know from working at their previous schools), it didn't take too long to get the names down. Plus, they're such characters, that they're quite memorable.

These first few days are going to be all about figuring each other out. My student, a completely non-verbal boy with Autism, has to get used to me (a stranger), and I have to get used to him. From what I can tell so far, he's pretty mellow, and easy-going, and doesn't seem to have a lot of behaviors (yes!). I have to learn how to "read" him, since he can't tell me what he needs or wants. (Fortunately, I've spent enough time around people whose languages I couldn't speak, that I'm actually pretty comfortable with it). I also have to figure out where he's at with his skill levels--I'm suspecting there's been some "loss" over the summer (even with ESY). I'm going to spend a lot of time simply observing him so that I can figure him out, so that things will go as smoothly as possible.

On your mark, get set, GO!

Today marks the beginning of a new school year. For the first time in awhile, I won't be subbing either--I've got a permanent full-time gig at a high school this year.

Today was my first day at the new job, and at this point, it's still a bit hard to accept the fact that summer's over. Right now I'm just getting to know the building and my co-workers and the lay of the land. Next week, we'll be throwing kids into the mix too.

It feels like a bit of a daze right now. I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm pretty sure I'll be fine no matter what. I'm very flexible. Some things I'm expecting to be doing this year include:

-working primarily with students on the autism spectrum (grades 9-12)
-providing behavior support during the school day
-implementing instructional modifications
-data collection
-supervision during community activities and work activities (in other words, I'll be off-site at times)