Visual Directions

Everybody knows how the following scene plays out:
Teacher: First you're going to color, then cut, then glue your pages. Everybody know what to do?
Students: Yes, Miss.
Teacher: Ok, get to work then, please.
Students: **blank stares**
Student 1: Miss, what do we do first?
Student 2: Takes out scissors first

...you get the point.

I know how hard it is for general education students (especially in the younger grades) to keep track of what to do in what order. Imagine how much harder it is for students with language delays that barely remember their own names. Now, don't get my wrong, I love my kiddos. But, to be honest, they can't handle 2-3 step directions. This past year everything was done step-by-step together as a large group so that no one was left behind. But this coming year, I feel like they need to learn some independence. So, I've made some visual directions to try and help foster that.

In a monkey theme, of course. Because I seriously have an issue with monkeys. MONKEYS EVERYWHERE!! :)

We all know that this is nothing new. Many teachers have been using this for years. I honestly don't know why I didn't use it before. Actually, that's not true. The truth is they're so delayed in language and communication that they literally couldn't be trusted to complete even the simplest work independently without my going through a thousand copies a month. So I did everything with them. Thankfully I have an Interactive White Board and document camera which made it slightly easier to do this.

This year, I think that most of my class will be able to handle working at their own pace to complete their work.

I went ahead and posted them in my TPT store for only $1.50! Go check it out! If there's a specific theme you're working with I might be able to help you out with a special request-if I have the clip art available. :)

Checkoff Lists

I don't know about anyone else, but I find it extremely hard to keep track of which standards I've covered and which I haven't. There's just so many.

In my case, this year I'm expected to cover 4 different grade levels. I know I haven't been able to cover all of them. And it really, really bothers me.

Here's the thing, though. While I currently am responsible for students from Kindergarten-Third grade, none of them are actually working on grade level in reading/la. Most are behind in math (though on grade level, they're just working much slower than general education students). I have to carefully pick and choose what to teach from each grade level to ensure they're actually learning at the appropriate level.  Some are working close to their assigned grade level and some are functioning well below it.

Please don't ask me how I do it. I don't think I do enough. I go home every night and stew over what I could have done better or different. And I get frustrated that what I just taught the day/week/month before (and have been reviewing constantly) didn't stick. Or that one day they get it and can do it perfectly, and then the next day it's like I never taught it at all. It's exhausting.

Honestly, it probably wouldn't be as difficult if I didn't have administrators breathing down my neck constantly asking me why they aren't FSA ready. And my response of "you can't put the cart before the horse" falls on deaf ears.

So anyway, in order to help myself keep track of everything, I created a checkoff list of sorts. Each grade has the strand, cluster, standard, and standard code as well as a second box to write in what week(s) the standard was taught. I'm hoping this will help me keep track of what I've already covered and what's left. I doubt I'll be able to get to everything since there just isn't enough time to teach 4 grades in the same span that general education teachers teach 1 grade, but maybe I'll do better.

I will be posting these to my Teachers Pay Teachers store soon. Right now I only have Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd done for Reading/LA and Math.