Tuesday, August 12, 2014

New Directions

Wow! It's been so long since I've updated. I've been in the middle of a career change (kind of). I'm starting my masters degree in functional special education with the hopes of then becoming an autism specialist.

So help with my pursuit of this dream, I have started working at the Sherwood Center which is a non-profit school that teaches students with autism. I started back in June and I am loving it! I teach in a classroom of six students ranging from ages 6-11 with a variety of abilities.

As usual I've been making lots of things for the classroom, many of them are more fine motor skills and basic academics. I've been working on creating a lot more file folder activities for academic practice skills. Pinterest has definitely been my friend as of late!

 Linking chain
 
For this task I cut off strips of felt and used color coordinated buttons sewn on to creating this linking chain. This is a great fine motor skill for students to practice linking and buttoning.

Safety Pin Colors
 
 
I've used safety pins on reading group activities before, but I am loving them for creating dual purpose tasks. This works on fine motor skills and academics. Students here are practicing matching the color word to the color while also squeezing the clothespin.
 
I will do better about keeping up with updates now that things have settled down. If you're interested in learning more about the school I teach at now, visit the Sherwood Center website.