Back from our vacation and having taken a week to just do nothing, I am ready to start working on planning for the 2024 – 2025 school year. By the end of last year, I finally had my classroom set up the way I wanted it to be. It was working well with my students. And, I had finally cleared out most of the clutter that had accumulated over the years, left by past teachers. It really is true what they say – teachers do hate to throw things away!
The New School Year Brings Changes
This year though, I am moving to a new classroom. In fact, 3 of my extensive support needs team of 4 teachers are moving to new classrooms. At my school, we have two extensive support needs autism-focus classrooms, and two cross categorical extensive support needs classrooms; one of them has a DHH (deaf/hard of hearing) co-teacher. We have a great team, and an amazing department chair. I feel very fortunate to be working here.
Because I’m moving classrooms, working on my floor plan this year is a little more challenging. I have rough measurements and took pictures of my new classroom’s current layout. I’ll use those to start putting the floor plan together. I’ll share my thoughts and reasoning as I create the new floor plan in a future post.
Getting to Know My Students
I’ll also have 2 new students. I’m looking forward to getting to know them, learning their sensory needs, and communication styles. It’s always exciting for me to work with new students. Two things I am particularly passionate about are sensory integration and supporting behaviors. We know behavior is a form of communication and the more intense the communication the more excited I get about having a student in my classroom. I love the process of getting to know the student and figuring out what he or she is trying to tell us. In my experience, behaviors are generally sensory driven. By figuring out what a student’s sensory needs are, we can support him to regulate enough to engage, participate, and learn.
Setting Up Systems
In preparation for the new year, I’m going through all of my student’s IEPs again to make sure I have all of their current goals. I’ll use these to create IEP matrices to identify opportunities throughout the day, and some specific activities where students can work on their goals. I try to include as many naturalistic experiences as possible when thinking about these opportunities for students.
With the two new students, I’ll have a staff of 9 this coming year. My team is amazing and without them, the classroom could not function. My goal is to continue to improve systems so that they always know what is expected of them, how to meet those expectations, and most of all, to know how much they are appreciated.
The Challenges of Data Collection
For me, one of the biggest challenges is data collection. I never have a good system in place at the beginning of the year and then it’s almost impossible for me to get one going once the year is underway. This year, I am hoping to get ahead of this. I am working on creating data sheets for each student’s goals as I put the IEP matrices together. As I said, data collection is definitely not one of my strengths. Our behavioral analyst shared several forms with me last year. I’m working on figuring out which form works best for each goal. I may need to make some modifications to make sure I capture all of the relevant elements of the goals.
While I’m putting the data sheets together, I am also trying to figure out the best methods for collecting the data. Who collects it for each student? When and how often? Do we use paper and pencil, or do I create the forms digitally? If we use paper and pencil, where do we keep the data sheets? If we’re collecting data digitally, how do I make sure everyone who needs to access the data can, while also keeping the data secure? For now, I’m focusing on making sure every goal has a data sheet and I’ll figure the other pieces afterwards. I know if I try to answer all these questions first I’ll get overwhelmed and end up starting the year off without a system in place again.
TeachTown Curriculum
I’m super excited to be implementing the TeachTown curriculum again this year. My district began using the curriculum last year and I absolutely love it. I’ll be sharing a lot of what we are learning and how I implement TeachTown this year. In the meantime, here’s a little information on the curriculum from a previous post. In past years, getting ready for the new school year meant trying to come up with a curriculum and map it out over the semester or year. This year, I don’t have that stress. I can focus on setting up my classroom and setting up systems to keep it organized. I’ll have more time to support students goals, collect data, support behaviors, and communicate and partner with families.
Planning For Ability Awareness Activities
Setting up these systems at the beginning of the year will also allow me to put more energy into some of the projects that are important to our department. We are hoping to expand and engage more of the school and community in ability and autism awareness and acceptance. I am hoping to collaborate with a couple of the general ed classes to bring students into my classroom throughout the year. I also want to work closer with our awesome Best Buddies club. And our department wants to expand our Inclusive Schools Week activities, and regularly promote ability awareness within the school and community.
In exactly one month, I will welcome my students back. So much to do in so little time! Because setting up environments is something that I’ve always enjoyed doing, I’m focusing on my classroom set-up first. How do you start your planning for the new school year?
