Classroom Focus: High School

Introducing our newest addition to the Blog: Classroom Focus. Each month, one of our teachers will share a behind-the-scenes peek into the life of our classes. First up: Our High School classroom, with teacher Laura K.!

------

This year has started off great in the High School classroom. Everyone is adjusting to our new schedule filled with cool classes. We are learning about our rights as citizens, our rights to manage our own personal items, our rights in the workplace and skills we’ll need to be successful there. To learn about our responsibilities as citizens, we are using a curriculum that focuses on rights such as voting, choosing a place to live and finding a career. 

We have a space set up in the school where we are practicing vocational skills. We have the chance to work on tasks like shredding, collating, stapling and copying in a place outside the classroom. Some of us are volunteering in the community, helping clean for our friends at the Transition Program, and picking up trash and setting tables at a local nursing home.

We are using games to practice communicating, and to learn more about each other. One of our favorites is the question game. We take turns moving around the board and answering questions about ourselves, then share the answers with the class. Old favorites like Connect 4 and Trouble are a great opportunity to talk about colors and numbers and to practice taking turns.

Once a week we have a cooking class, where we practice making easy, healthy snacks. This week's recipe was peanut butter and jelly - yum!

Each week we have been adding to our scrapbooks. We include pictures of things we’re working on at school and pictures of our families and friends. Writing and talking about the pictures is a good way to help remember what we’ve done and to practice expressing ourselves.

Our class has been on several fun outings. We took a trip to 7-11 to practice making a purchase, then took our snacks to the beach and enjoyed some sun. A couple of us had the chance to visit our peers at the Stuart G Ferst School for an Old Town School of Folk Music concert, it was cool to make new friends and do some dancing! We have also continued our connection with the students at Francis Parker High School this year. They came to visit this month, and joined us for some games and recess. We look forward to getting to know them throughout this year.

We are all very happy to be off to an exciting and successful start. We have a great year planned, with plenty of interesting activities, fun outings, and opportunities to hang out with friends from other schools.

------
Thanks, High School Team! Next month: Behind the scenes at Transition.

And we danced!

A small group of school & transition folks attended an energetic concert today by musicians from the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Thanks to an invitation from our new friends at Stuart G Ferst School, we had the opportunity to share in a special folk music concert in a really welcoming and secure environment (Ferst school's gym!).

Lisa and I tagged along with the six students and 3 staff scheduled to attend what will hopefully be the first of many shared experiences ... and I'm so very glad we did!

I absolutely loved watching our students - and team - have so much uninhibited FUN! 

 

 

To stim, or not to stim?

We all have things we do to keep ourselves calm, alert, or engaged. How many of us fidget with a pen or paperclip during stressful meetings, tap a toe, or ...? Our students with autism do the very same thing ... but their "stims" are usually more obvious, and at times can be less socially acceptable. But we all need to regulate ourselves, right? We need strategies for keeping ourselves calm and relaxed. So how do we as parents, teachers, and caregivers decide the difference between reinforceable and replaceable behaviors?

I came across a really neat blog today (https://www.squag.com/2234/) and had to share this perfectly logical chart:

The blogger, Anabelle Listic, is a 27 year-old artist living is Seattle and is a film and digital photographer. Anabelle has autism and is profoundly visual. And she has a wonderfully unique perspective. (Her website is anabellelistic.com - if you have time, check out her awesome photography there, too!)

Most of the time, our participants can't tell us why they do things, or what they need. We often have to play detective, or employ a great deal of trial and error, to figure it out. For me, at least, it's eye-opening to be able to hear perspectives on autism from the people who LIVE it each day. Thank you, Anabelle!

Yearbooks have arrived!

Parents -- 

Our 2011-2012 Yearbooks have arrived at PACTT - and you can have your very own (see order form over here --->)!

Also, if you'd like a CD of your child's yearbook photo, his/her class photo, and copies of other fun shots that may or may not have made it to the final version of the yearbook, those are available for purchase as well.

To order online, complete the form to the right of this page. If you'd prefer to send a check / cash to school, please mark it ATTN: Paula, and be sure to note what you'd like to order.

Let me know if you have questions!

- Paula

Spaghetti + gumdrops = teamwork?

While students were enjoying their last few days of break, our School & Transition teams were back to work today - but it wasn't ALL work! 

In order to get to know our new team members, the classrooms participated in a unique challenge: Who could build the tallest free-standing structure (out of dry pasta and gumdrops!), that would also support a small stuffed toy.

Our high school group (pictured, from left: Lill, David, Matt, Laura, Shaina, Vanessa), was the most successful ... but all three teams came up with some pretty creative architecture!

Check out the gallery below for more scenes from today's fun!

 

Music to my eyes

After a long morning off-campus visiting another program, I had finally made it to my desk when I received a text message from one of my teachers: "Look in the backyard."

Uh-oh.

A million things ran through my mind as I flew down the stairs from my third-floor perch. When I hit the first-floor landing, the first spot on my route down that had a decent view, I saw this:

One of our brand-spankin-new paraprofessionals + guitar = happily listening, calm, entertained students.

It certainly wasn't what I expected on this unseasonably warm May afternoon. But you can be sure that I'll be adding it to the list of smiles, day after day, that remind me why I'm still here after all these years. :)

Behind the curtains at Lifeline Theatre

This week, I had the pleasure of joining our Transition Program for an interactive workshop at Lifeline Theatre. Organized by PACTT Arts & Recreation Coordinator Robert Mann, these workshops allowed participants to get an inside look at characters and costumes and explore the theatre space. Next week, they'll go back to see the play in action.

Our school, transition, and vocational participants each had a unique visit with the Lifeline team in the last couple of weeks. Here are some action shots from their visits:

 

Finished!

Thanks to a dedicated group of parents and friends who came out to help us move a few Saturdays ago, a committed teaching team who has spent innumerable off-the-clock hours unpacking and organizing, (and some VERY flexible students!), we are grateful to have our classrooms up and running in their beautiful new space.

The top two photos are our North classroom; the bottom two are our South classroom.

    

  

Making progress

The construction teams finished work on our second floor last week, and the cleaning crew came through to spruce things up a bit. I've never seen those floors so shiny!

  
  


From top-to-bottom: The top two photos are our north side classroom (previously carpeted). The bottom two are our south-side classroom. Both have new floors, newly painted walls and ceilings, and an added chair rail / vinyl wainscotting along the bottom of the walls