Legos and Job Skills

Who knew Legos could help teach a life skill? Apparently a lot of people did, but I only just learned this myself from reading another teacher's blog.

Today's hilighted lesson included 3, 50-60 piece Lego puzzles. The objective? Divide the work into three jobs: builder, supplier, and instructor. The instructor is the heart of the team, they are responsible for naming what "supplies" are needed to build, and they must be able to describe the building process to the builder in a way that the person can understand. The supplier must organize the "supplies," and then listen to the instructor to identify and provide the supplies being described to the builder. The builder is the last piece of this team who must use the supplied provided and listen to the instructor to attempt to build the item being instructed based off of the instructions given. 

I was amazed by everyone's involvement in the Lego activity. Half the class instantly perked up as soon as I wrote the word "Legos" on my daily schedule and the rest happily joined in once we got started. I saw so many amazing accomplishments happening at once. For starters I have to give a huge shout out to my trainee who likes to refer to himself as "Dr. Fluffy." This one particular person instantly picked up on a need to sort each Lego piece by color and looks. Second, I was amazed by how the small community within the classroom instantly fell into the flow of their roles and did their best to help to reach the ultimate and oh-so-important goal, to build a tiny Lego plane. In all seriousness everyone learned a good lesson about how when one is trying to follow instructions there are certain requirements: give instructions OTHER people can understand, ask questions when in doubt, it's okay to make mistakes, and listen carefully. 

I look forward to practicing these skills more in the future, especially because my amazing boss was thoughtful enough to buy Lego puzzles which could be assembled into 3 different models. In the future the students will practice acting in each role with each different model in order to feel comfortable in each. 

Capitalization and the CLA

Class time on Thursday was devoted largely to capitalization. Everyone in the class needed a lesson about proper nouns. I have noticed from certain trainees' writing habits that they require some aid recognizing when to use punctuation and capitalization. As a class we covered punctuation about 2 weeks ago, the week before that was about how to combine sentences, and this week has been when to use capitalization. My focus on writing comes from my concern for the trainees to fill out job applications with as little aid as possible, and to help them communicate through writing in the workplace setting.

Thanks to the internet I found a fantastic Jeopardy Game which thoroughly reviews capitalization. I started out covering capitalization by passing out a review packet which teaches about how capitalization is used at the beginning of a sentence, for names, for titles, for initials, for holidays, etc. I divided the class into two groups, one group works very well independently and they were allowed to ask Arc's staff person as needed, the second group I read the examples and questions with and we discussed possible answers and why they were right. My first group worked very quickly and in order to provide an extension I modified a worksheet about punctuation and capitalization which required the trainees to correct the errors in the sentence. The second part of my worksheet required the trainees to write their own incorrect sentences and then trade with another group member and see if they could find the errors. The trainees LOVED doing this part of the worksheet and one trainee in particular who normally hates writing ended up writing 7 sentences.

Thursday finished out the first week of the CLA portion of the class. On my end, I find it much easier to plan and focus my lessons on key skills with these shorter days. The CLA teacher has expressed great optimism for how the class is going and from what I have observed I have to agree. The trainees have responded very well to the material. Only one trainee has expressed some disinterest in the content, but based on this person's past I would credit their resistance more to the fact that their motivation to stay in the CLA or HSE class is based around their significant other's continuation with the program. 

Next week I will introduce spelling and vocabulary. I've already created the spelling lists and planned the exercises, now I'm just waiting on getting started! 

Mythbusters and Life Skills

What does Mythbusters have in common with workplace skills? 

Today for a soft skill lesson I covered accepting help from others. To demonstrate why it can be a benefit to accept help from other people I chose a Mythbusters episode called, "Driving Blind." In the episode the mythbusters  test out the myth that a person who is blind can drive if directed by a person with functioning vision. I chose this episode because I thought it was an amazing example of how two people can accomplish a seemingly impossible task if they work together. The class loved the episode and everyone gave the episode their full attention. After the episode everyone identified the "helper" and the person being helped as well as the benefits of the two parties working together. 

After the Mythbusters episode the class tried out blind driving for themselves. I asked the trainees to pair up, once everyone was in pairs partners were asked to guide their blindfolded comrade around an "obstacle course" set up in the tiny classroom. To make things harder the blindfolded person had to hold a spoon out in front of them which had a small bouncy ball resting in the spoon; the blindfolded peson had to not only navigate around the objects in the room but alos not drop the ball. The main objective for the groups was to practice helping out their friend by giving them clear directions which they could follow. The exercise was amazing, we all had a blast laughing at each other and everyone learned a lesson about why it can be helpful to rely on other people and about giving clear directions which other people could understand.

Day Eight: Lawton Park

I stink.

I stink because myself and the rest of my class went out out to a local park today and helped out our community by spreading mulch at the playground. Out of the 6 who went with me today, 4 trainees expressed an interest in possibly working for a lawn-care business or another physical job. This outing today was a great opportunity to experiment with outside job environments, physical jobs, and jobs which require team work.

From today i personally learned that I need to put a strong emphasis on teamwork in this class. The trainees, while each are all individually wonderful, do not enjoy taking orders from each other. In some ways I can understand why any person in the work environment does not like taking orders from someone who is supposed to be an "equal." I personally can instantly think of one coworker who I sometimes struggled cooperating with, however in the end I was forced to swallow my pride and reply to that said person with a cordial response. The trainees in this class will need some practice identifying when they should accept a "coworker's" comments, and when to politely give a negative reply. On the flip-side though some trainees need help practicing how to phrase what they want to communicate so that the person receiving the message is not offended.

Regarding the positive behaviors seen on the outing I saw hard work, a willingness to attempt new tasks, and endurance. One trainee had prior knowledge from doing lawn work for his family and was very willing to take the lead role and help direct people. I was especially proud of one student who had originally been dealing with his own personal emotions, but was able to put his feelings aside and work on the task at hand. Compartmentalizing is and necessary but difficult skill to learn in life, but I think my one student did a particularly good job at it today.

After class we came back, ate lunch, and worked on silent reading. 

One trainee was reading a magic book and it gave me an idea for a future lesson plan. The magic book included step by step directions with pictures. I personally think being able to follow directions is a valuable job skill and I could not help but wonder if this magic trick would be a fun way to practice out each trainees' ability to follow directions through either words or pictures. I'm going to have to try it.

Day Seven: Beginning of the C.L.A. Classes

Today was the beginning of the Certified Logistics Associate (C.L.A.) courses! I'm incredibly excited to hear how things went today from the trainees and the C.L.A. teacher! This certification could open so many doors to the trainees.

As far as my classroom portion went, things were fantastic today. One of my trainees, who I had lost some sleep worrying about, came in today with a renewed sense of purpose regarding the class. Her brand new attitude was short-lived as her attitude changed very quickly once class started, but I'm not giving up on her. Another trainee aced his subtraction test and will officially begin practicing multiplication tomorrow!

Now that the C.L.A. portion of the class has begun my instruction time has been cut down to roughly three hours. As anyone would expect it is much easier to plan for three hours. I personally think on my end it is much easier to command the class's attention for three hours compared to six, and I find myself prioritizing my lessons more now that I have a smaller window to work with. This change is a good one because I can choose 1-3 skills I want to focus on for the day and then I can decide what to do to teach them. I'll be very interested to hear what the trainees have to say about cutting their day in half.

Tomorrow the class is volunteering at one of Fort Wayne's parks and I cannot wait to be able to share more about it! In the mean time I really need to log my payroll hours before I forget again...

Day Six & the Arc Raiders Basketball Game

Go Raiders!

The Arc Raiders are the basketball team E.S. Arc has, it plays different teams from other organizations from football and 4 of my trainees currently play on the team. This has been my first chance to make it out to the game and it was a blast! I'm proud to say at least one of the trainees scored 3 baskets and 2 others showed some amazing sportsmanship! I'll definitely be going to more games.

Class today was a learning moment for me. The menu math word problems which went over so incredibly well yesterday had some problems today. Today's word problems incorporated measurements by using foods like foot long sandwiches. I completely forgot to check for an understanding of yards, feet, and inches before I launched into the lesson and I ended up seriously confusing 2 people in the class. The bright side is now I know better for next time and it has opened my eyes up to the value of fact sheets. I've always used multiplication, addition, and subtraction tables, but I never considered measurements and math facts.

After math came a brief language arts lesson about how to combine 2 sentences with the same subjects. I give that lesson a solid 75%, I wish I had provided more build-up to the subject for some of the students. Deciding on how much support to provide is a juggling act I struggle with on a daily basis but I get better everyday and sometimes students defy expectations. My amateur mistakes have created some pretty cool results, my best example was when I didn't yet know that the workbooks The Literacy Alliance uses come in different levels starting at "E" and then going to "M, D, and A". At the time I didn't know about the levels of workbooks so I accidentally brought in "M" level workbooks in math and the trainees tackled the content very well despite the fact that for some of the trainees the book was a level above what they normally worked at.

I also discovered the power of British Broadcasting Company's Skillwise website! This website offers a plethora of worksheets and educational games. I could not have been more thrilled when I looked over and noticed one trainee was going to town sending me PDF after PDF of word puzzles and crosswords he wanted me to print out for him to have and fill in. The rest of the class became interested in what he was doing and it turned out that everyone loved the stuff he found and the last half hour before lunch became another "smile and pretend like it's on the lesson plan" moment.

After lunch was silent reading, half an hour outside to burn off some energy, and then conducting personal interviews with a partner. For the personal interviews trainees had to choose some one to work with, ask them questions to help earn a better understanding about their character including questions like, "What would you do with a million dollars?" and then turn the information they learned into a six sentence sheet. Two trainees really enjoyed getting to know each other and sharing about themselves, one other could take it or leave it, and the last resists any lesson which asks him to share information about himself. This last trainee can be a tough nut to crack, as a person he is very sociable, but he clams up when he is put on the spot to talk for an assignment. I'm trying very hard to figure out how to help him figure out when are the appropriate times to talk. 

You may have noticed my class size in the last paragraph adds up to a total of 4 students and your math is correct, attendance is becoming a bit of a problem for the class. The class originally started with 10 people, 2 chose to go back to the workshop about 2 weeks ago, another recently got a job (yay!), one is usually absent at least once a week, another is on vacation this week, and the last trainee is dealing with some personal concerns. 

I'm absolutely thrilled that one trainee got a job, this particular person has always been very bright but he was having some trouble filling out job applications and figuring out the correct responses to interview questions. Ever since the first outing I took the class on to collect and fill out job applications a fire was lit with this one trainee and he started filling out applications and turning them in on a daily basis. Obviously the hard work of the client paid off because he can now proudly say he has a job and is on his way to gaining more independence for himself! 

Attendance has also been affected by the boyfriend/girlfriend relationships that I've had in the class. I completely understand the need and want to be around your significant other, but in the class this desire has affected attendance. I'm currently in the midst of trying to motivate a boyfriend/girlfriend couple to make the best choice possible for themselves and not allow their relationship to affect those choices. The boyfriend is the one trainee who recently got a job, and the girlfriend is afraid of being left behind. This concern for each other has nearly convinced the boyfriend on a few occasions to reconsider taking the job and has made the girlfriend wonder if she wants to stay in the class if her boyfriend is not in it. Myself and the Arc staff member are trying very hard to make the girlfriend still feel like she has people she can lean on and feel supported by, but ultimately this decision is going to be her's.

I've said more than enough for today though and it's 11:00 at night. I still need to make some decisions tomorrow regarding content and next week's lesson plan. Peace out!

Day Five

Wednesday we started the day off with word problems called Menu Math instead of our usual, individually based assignments. The word problems were a huge hit with everyone, the reading portion appealed to the trainees who are stronger in reading, and the math portion drew in the math geniuses in this group. I personally loved this lesson because it simulated real world math.  I reminded the class before we got started that this type of math would be the kind of math they would use if they worked in a restaurant. I split the group into 2 groups, one group I worked with contained two students who struggle with either reading or math so that we could decode what the question was asking as a group. My second group is a little more self-sufficient and they were paired up with a volunteer who read the questions allowed and asked prompting questions when needed. Overall the lesson was a huge hit and I will definitely continue to use this lesson.

After menu math we practiced a production exercise where the class as a whole created a paper chain which will be used as a decoration at Arc's summer carnival out of construction paper. I tried to imitate production by setting rules for the production process including making the construction paper strips 2 inches, and the chain must alternate colors and can't have the same color right after each other. Everyone, minus one student, enjoyed getting to work on something which Arc would be using at their carnival.

After lunch we spent 30 minutes reading meaning that everyone in the lass has filled in exactly 2 circles for the summer reading program. One trainee I have struggles with reading but he had a magazine he wanted to read really badly, so we ended up sitting down together and I read while he listened. The magazine article was about Marshawn Lynch and how he was modeling to be a character in the next Call of Duty game. The trainee listened well, we stopped and explained what unknown words meant, and he stayed awake for the entire article.

After reading we had a "pretend it's on the lesson plan" moment. One trainee asked after finishing reading, "Can I make a PowerPoint about what I just read?" Instantly that made me think of how we've been practicing summarizing information. What ended up happening was everyone made a PowerPoint summarizing what they had just read. The activity was great because everyone had the chance to write 6 sentences about what they read and include pictures which went with their sentences. Most students had a lot of fun. I paired up with my one trainee who struggles with reading and writing and I wrote as he told me what to write. I'll try to post later one example of someone's work, they did a great job!

Day Four

On Tuesday we went to the library and Earth Fare.

I have never been inside Earth Fare and I was very surprised to see all of the products it has to offer and so were the trainees. Two trainees took the initiative to ask store employees about their jobs and what they do and one of the two asked for and received a job application. I wasn't able to use the evaluation forms I created due to a printer problem, but maybe next time.

The library was a great experience for everyone except maybe the librarians who were not expecting to help 7 people locate the books each person came in with. In the future I'm going to set  a book limit so that we can avoid this problem. While the class was there one trainee noticed that the library was offering its yearly summer reading program and suggested the class do it and I completely agreed with him.

After we came back from the outing we played some online math games. The math games, like the Arc staff person pointed out, kind of jump around from skill to skill. The jumpy nature of the games makes them fun games to play, but not good for tracking progress or going in order. This makes me think I need to rely on Khan Academy a little more, I have a class set up on Khan but I haven't been using it lately. I have nothing against Khan, but I forget to use it because we, as a class, spend so much time working in our workbooks and on worksheets that I've been hesitant to overwhelm them. I know I can fix this problem by budgeting my time better and possibly dividing the class in half between workbooks/worksheets and Khan and then switching.

After class I spent 2 hours fiddling around online looking for ideas to teach the soft skills portion of the class. I'm in a constant battle with myself trying to decide how much of the class should be geared towards H.S.E. skills and how much of the class should be devoted to employment skills. I found a pdf. online previewing curriculum which is written to help students develop skills in four job areas: clerical, retail, food service, and grocery. I read through the teacher's manual and it looks very good  for several reasons:

1. It includes differentiation.
2. The curriculum has evaluations the teacher can adjust.
3. The lessons are centered towards specific jobs.

My only beef with the curriculum is that it only focuses on 4 specific types of jobs. I don't want to box the trainees in and limit them to only 4 types of jobs. I'm stuck between this curriculum and a much pricier curriculum which focuses not only on jobs but daily living skills, interpersonal skills, and employability skills. The second curriculum is backed by a notable organization as well, but it is very expensive so I'm thinking very carefully before I make my final decision.

That's it for day 4.

Day Three

Today the class had to go take drug tests. This class is not only a class devoted to helping the trainees improve their basic literacy skills but also work towards earning a certificate called a Certified Logistics Associate (C.L.A.). The C.L.A. is a certification recognized by most employers in the state of Indiana, it's partnered with Ivy Tech & WorkOne Northeast, and if earned, will make everyone in the class more employable and give them an advantage when applying for jobs. The C.L.A. is mostly used in manufacturing jobs like at warehouses, but being able to show that each client has completed a 10 week course and met the expectations set for them can speak volumes about each trainees' character.

The drug tests are simple urine tests but it was a very slow process waiting in the waiting room for 5 individual so to be called into the room and complete the test. The trainees were all men and they walked out of the examination with an odd look of achievement on their faces.       

Next week my classroom hours are going to start changing due to the C.L.A. I will not be teaching the C.L.A., another teacher will be. For the next ten weeks my schedule will be:

Monday: HSE Class from 9:00 AM- 12:00 PM; C.L.A. Class 1:00 PM- 3:00 PM

Tuesday: HSE Class 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Wednesday: HSE Class from 9:00 AM- 12:00 PM; C.L.A. Class 1:00 PM- 3:00 PM

Thursday: HSE Class from 9:00 AM- 12:00 PM; C.L.A. Class 1:00 PM- 3:00 PM

I’m kind of excited about this new schedule, I’ve been struggling to stay within the allotted amount of paid time I am given each week to teach and prep. To be completely honest I haven’t been staying within it, I usually end up working a total of 37-40 hours a week. I’ve been curious about how I could try to stay within my allotted hours and one way I’ve considered it has been to cut class time down, but I haven’t made any firm decisions yet.

We got back from the drug screening around 1:30! Everyone was very hungry and after lunch we only had about 45 minutes left to work as a class.

Using our last 45 minutes I squeezed in a very brief lesson about summarizing and its importance. For the lesson we first established as a class why summarizing is important. I provided an example of how to summarize a very long account of someone’s busy weekend. Then as a class we went over a worksheet I got from Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs, a book a teacher recommended to me and I find myself using all of the time.  The activity in the book suggested an opportunity to apply the lesson by allowing students to watch videos or read news articles and then attempt to sum those items up in one sentence. As a class we went to www.wane.com and selected the news story “Two Officers on Leave After Officer-Involved Shooting.” The story was just the right length and the subject was a huge hit in the class, especially for one student who is very interested in criminal justice.  Unfortunately the lesson was interrupted by a staff member from WorkOne coming in to finish some paperwork for the C.L.A. portion of the class. Hopefully we’ll get to continue this tomorrow though!

Now all I have left to do today is figure out how I'm going to spend the last of my budget for this class which is turning out to be a lot harder than I first thought! I don't know if I'm just incredibly thrifty or picky- possibly both. All I know is I have until the end of this week to submit anything I intend to use in the class which will fit the needs of the students and still fall in under academic material. I start to move in one direction with my ideas but then something about it turns me off or I find myself thinking of a "cheaper" way to achieve my goal without buying the materials. I know, boohoo, other teachers wish they had this problem.

Day Two

Day Two of blogging!

Today is the last day of the teaching week for me; I'm a part time teacher and my hours go from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Monday through Thursday.

I didn't take the time yesterday to explain where I'm teaching from. I teach out of Easter Seals Arc's building. Easter Seals is a non for profit organization which provides resources and support for people with disabilities. A lot of my trainees, I prefer not to use the term "student" to refer to them, come from other classrooms and programs Arc offers. Previously, in these other classes and programs, they would sometimes go out in the community to parks, businesses, museums, volunteering, etc. When the clients weren't out in the community they were either in their room working on individual goals, playing games, watching movies, or they were at the establishment's "workshop." The workshop is a work setting where the clients can earn money by getting paid to do various tasks; they're paid by the part so it's not a job the clients can make a living off of, but it is money in their pocket.

It's been a little difficult getting some of the trainees used to being in a classroom for six hours a day, but most have gotten used to it, and I try very hard not to make the classroom feel so much like a classroom. Ideally, if it were possible, I would take the trainees out twice a week for 2-3 hours a day to volunteer at various organizations, and spend 2 full days and 2 half days in the class room. I see three good reasons to go out and volunteer. First: it's always good to help your community, second: it's a way to gain some work experience and skills, third: it provides the trainees with a chance to interact and network with people in the community. I still put an emphasis on classroom work, but the trainees definitely look forward to the days when we go out.

Outings the class has gone out on so far has included: a walking trip to the strip mall across the street from our building to pick up job applications, volunteering at our local food bank, and a trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana's main library branch. Volunteering at the food bank has been a favorite activity for the class, they like being able to team up with their friends in the class and do hands on tasks like stocking shelves. A close second favorite was our trip to pick up job applications at a strip mall. The outing to the strip mall was my first outing so it was kind of messy. I try very hard to collect information that I can turn into data for The Literacy Alliance so I created a very crude form to keep track of where the trainees picked up applications from and if they turned them in in the future. I found a great evaluation sheet from a blog titled Empowered By Them that I copied and created for the future so that my trainees can evaluate the place we go in the future.

Right now my plans for outings are hindered due to the fact that one of the vans recently broke down, but thankfully Arc is working with me as best as possible to try and make the outings possible! The class is scheduled on Tuesday to go to a smaller library branch here in Fort Wayne and I'm going to take the class over to a large store called Earth Fare while we're out. I can't wait!

Day One

Today is Wednesday, it's June 10th, and I'm still teaching while the rest of the schools in my city are closing for the summer. My classroom isn't the conventional classroom, I teach adult education. Adult ed. is an education for adults who are seeking their High School Equivalency (H.S.E.), the new version of Indiana's former degree called the G.E.D. My class currently consists of 7 wonderful and daring adults with developmental delays who went through the public school system, received a Certificate of Completion, and are back for round two to try and sharpen their reading, writing, math skills in order to make them more employable; get started on earning their H.S.E; and obtain a job.

I myself am a first year teacher, I have a bachelor's in Secondary Education and my concentration was Social Studies Education... Yes, my concentration is Social Studies Ed., not Special Education. Luckily for me I work for an amazing non-for-profit organization, The Literacy Alliance of Fort Wayne, and I have amazing students who see me as a capable educator for this particular class and I'm a determined person who refuses to disappoint anyone.

I have started this blog to try and help me keep track of what I do everyday in this classroom and reflect on the day, so ready, set, and...

Day One of Blogging:

The quick summary of today goes as follows: aigoasijiogdahg!!

Like I already said, my background is Social Studies and not Special Education. In my world I am used to desks, classroom rules, consequences, rewards, a structured curriculum which is set by the state of Indiana, and 48 minute class periods. I'm slowly (for 2 months now) getting used to the fact that my classroom will never be any of those things. I don't hate that my classroom is different from what I expected, I'm just not used to it. Right now, the idea of assigning my students online computer games which practice their varying math skills feels so wrong! I'm a social studies teacher, I am most comfortable in front of a classroom having an active lecture/discussion with a class full of 12-18 year old's about why Martin Luther chose to break away from the Catholic Church. My students on the other hand don't like lectures or discussions, they like computer games and they require games with repetition so that the math facts stick. Those educational requirements mean we do what works best for them and I will force myself to adjust. In the mean time I'll continue to sweat bullets, critically evaluate myself, and someday feel like I have reached the "ultimate reality" which Hinduism refers to as "Brahman."

I really need to be going now though, I received a call an hour ago that the bus I had reserved to take my class on an outing to the Community Harvest Food Bank has broken down, so that means I need to do some last minute lesson planning for tomorrow.