Back to School Tips

Schools across the country are reopening their doors and welcoming students. For parents of children with varying needs the start of the school year can prove to be a stressful time. Thoughts swirling if their children's needs will be met and if their child will succeed in their new environment, socially, emotionally and academically. The article linked here from LD Online puts together a list of eight helpful back-to-school tips that aim to make the transition into a new school year a little easier for parents and their children.

Motivational Monday: Back to School

Wishing all of the teachers, students and families a wonderful year ahead! 

Top 10 Back to School Proloquo2Go Tips

In schools around the globe, teachers have focused their efforts on preparing lesson plans, learning new curricular programs and keeping up on the latest in educational technology. All of this is with the intentions to enable students to be engaged and have a meaningful learning experience.

The amazing folks at Assistiveware have put together a top 10 list of tips to help you prepare for the new school year...Be sure to click here for the full article which contains links and more details about how you can better prepare for those students using Proloquo2Go!

1. Make a backup of your student's vocabulary

2. Update to the latest versions of Proloquo2Go and iOS

3. Check out our resources

4. Update your students' vocabulary and voice

5. Talk to the parents

6. Make sure home and school stay synched

7. Create a “How I Spent my Summer Vacation” story

8. Connect to other professionals

9. Make sure you stay up-to-date

10. Check out our iPad keyboards


Source: Assistiveware

ISTE's 2018 Back to School Technology Guide

As teachers around the country welcome new students through their classroom doors, there is no time better than the present to begin thinking of how you can enhance past practices to create a more engaging learning environment for all learners. 

ISTE's Back to School Technology Guide provides manageable ideas to get your students learning with technology. Whether you want to personalize learning, gamify your classroom or help your students become better digital citizens, there are lesson ideas and educator-tested resources to help you get started.

ISTE's Back to School Technology Guide

As teachers around the country welcome new students through their classroom doors, there is no time better than the present to begin thinking of how you can enhance past practices to create a more engaging learning environment for all learners. 

ISTE's Back to School Technology Guide provides manageable ideas to get your students learning with technology. Whether you want to personalize learning, gamify your classroom or help your students become better digital citizens, there are lesson ideas and educator-tested resources to help you get started.

How to be an A-Plus IEP Leader

With many teachers already back to school or with the new school year just on the horizon, you’ve probably been thinking about your current/incoming class and all the ways to support your diverse learners.

So, let’s talk IEPs. Specifically, what you can do as an educator to lead and support a smooth IEP process, from start to finish.

Below you can find a handy booklet of quick tips for you—it’s adapted from a recently published book, The Educator’s Handbook for Inclusive School Practices by Julie Causton and Chelsea Tracy-Bronson. It outlines what to do:

• A month before an IEP meeting
• The day of the meeting
• After the meeting

You’ll also get some helpful tips to keep in mind during the whole IEP process to ensure the best results for everyone involved.

Download the booklet here, and please share with your friends who are passionate about inclusive education.

The original article created by Brookes Publishing has been adapted for this blog.

How to Help Your Child Defend Against Bullies

Often times children, particularly those with learning disabilities, find themselves the target of schoolyard bullies. As part of their "Start School Strong" campaign, the team at Understood.org discusses what you and your child can do to prevent bullying, defend themselves against bullies and protect others who may be bullied. Within this post you will find hyperlinks that will lead to other resources to support your anti-bullying efforts.


















At a Glance 

• It’s normal to want to protect your child against bullying, no matter his age. 
• Help your child understand what bullying is and how best to react to it.
• Consider role-playing different bullying scenarios.
  
• Encourage your child to recognize his strengths so he feels worthy of defending himself.
  

It’s natural for parents to try to protect their children. But if your child has learning and attention issues, you’ve probably done more than most. Chances are you’ve had to stand up for his needs in and out of school.

You can’t always be there when your child needs protecting against bullying, however. That’s why it can feel so important to empower your child to defend himself. Use these tips to help him respond well when students act aggressively toward him or others nearby.

Define “bullying” for your child. 

Use the word “bully” at home and when you see it out in the community. Encourage your child to use it to describe what bullying truly is. Bullying is serious, hurtful behavior that happens repeatedly. It also is done on purpose. And most of all, make it clear that bullying is not acceptable.

Remind your child that it isn’t OK for others to pick on him and it isn’t OK for him to pick on others. Not because “everyone is doing it,” and not because it makes him look cool around his friends.

Tell him to report bullying.

Remind your child that when he sees someone picking on another child in person or online, he has a choice. He can be a passive bystander. Or he can be a brave “upstander.” As an upstander, he has a responsibility to report bullies to adults who can help.

Tell your child that this isn’t “tattling.” Instead, it’s acting out of compassion and concern for another child. And the more he looks out for other students, the more likely they’ll help defend him against bullies, too.

Assure your child that he won’t get in trouble for sharing his bullying experience with a trusted adult. That goes for incidents that happen to him or to another child. Talk through who your child could tell in different circumstances.

“When your child is somewhere safe, he can and should express his feelings. Bullying hurts, and he’s allowed to feel hurt.”

Role-play ways to respond to bullying.
 
Help your child think through ways he could react to being picked on in different circumstances. Who would he tell if someone was pushing him on the bus? What would he say to someone who called him a name? How should he respond if other students exclude him from a game?

Tell him to:

• Ignore the bully, when possible. 
• Walk or move away, if he can.
  
• Tell the bully to stop in a loud voice. Even if he feels nervous, he should try to speak and act with confidence. This can sometimes stop a bully in his tracks.
•  Ask for help from friends or trusted peers.  
• Try not to get too emotional—this can egg bullies on. 
• When your child is somewhere safe, he can and should express his feelings. Bullying hurts, and he’s allowed to feel hurt.  
• Avoid bullying back! Retaliating can be dangerous.  
• Always tell an adult (teacher, coach, principal, parent, etc.) afterward.
•  Encourage “self advocacy.”
  

When a child is a victim of bullying, he may start to feel bad about himself. (This is especially true when bullies pick on kids who have learning and attention issues.) The worse your child feels about himself, the less likely he is to try to make the bullying stop.
 
Empower your child to speak up for himself and become a self-advocate. Help him take responsibility for his own reactions to bullying. Ask him for his ideas on dealing with aggressive situations. This gives him a sense of control over bullies.

Bullying can take a big toll on a child’s sense of self-worth, so give your child opportunities to increase his self-esteem. Point out ways in which he’s special and help him to recognize his own strengths. Having that self-awareness can make him feel better about advocating for his own safety and happiness.

Key Takeaways

• Students with learning and attention issues are bullied more often than other kids. 
• Teaching them to defend themselves against bullies is important. 
• Help your child learn to recognize bullying. 
• Teach him ways to respond without making the situation worse. 
• Remind him which adults he can tell.
  

Encourage self-advocacy, a skill that will be important throughout his life.

Click for the original article

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13 Tips to Support Your "Socially Worried" Child

With the new school year rapidly approaching, the following 13 expert tips can help those children who need a little more support overcoming their social anxiety. 

Back to School....Teaching With Tech

Back to School is around the corner for millions of children in the U.S., and for many of those students, with special needs and learning disabilities, the thought of the daily demands of the educational setting can be overwhelming and stressful.

All too often, learning disabilities and special needs are not only challenging for the students, but for parents and educators as well. Thinking outside the box, and coming up with new ways to implement learning is an ongoing, ever evolving process. Educators are beginning to discover that traditional learning methods, including worksheets and textbooks, leave students lacking. Thanks to technology, many students are now learning and retaining more information in ways they have never done before.

Take a look at this infographic from www.masters-in-special-education.com, which outlines how educators and parents are using technology to help children with special needs and learning disabilities.

 Adapted from the original article written by Avatar Generation