Hi there, welcome to room 805! Before I officially start my classroom tour, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.  And first off,  THANK YOU for following my journey.

INTRODUCTION

Hi, I’m Ms. Fiona, Ms. Fenona, Ms. Ona,  or Mom (among one of the many different things my students call me) .

I am a mod/severe adult transition teacher at a k-12 + Transition Non-Public School (NPS) in Southern California.   For those of you that are not familiar with what an NPS is, our school contracts with over 50 districts in surrounding cities that are unable to provide an appropriate placement, or do not have a transition program for some of their students in special education.

If you are not familiar with what an adult transition classroom is – I teach 18-22-year-olds (age may differ depending on the state) with a focus in independent living, social skills, and vocational skills.  Aside from being a teacher, I am also a vocational program specialist.  I am in charge of coordinating on and off-campus work experience as well as vocational curriculum for our high school and transition classrooms. Alright, enough about me, let’s proceed with this classroom tour!

ENTRANCE

These are the first words students see when walking into my classroom along with and organization tray of worksheets we use daily/weekly.

Daily Schedule: Each morning students will go over was yesterday was, what today is, what tomorrow will be, the date, weather, their schedule, and so on.

National Day: Each day we read about what national celebrations there are, we usually pair it with a YouTube video, and then we fill out the visual reflection sheet.

Community Outing Reflection: We typically go on community outings on Fridays. When we return on campus, we reflect on where we went, how we got there, what skills we practiced and so on.

End of Day Notebook FREEBIE: Students reflect on how they felt today, what they learned, what services they had, what they ate for lunch…etc. This saves me so much time from having to do daily school to home communication with parents, and I’ve received a lot of compliments from parents that they love knowing what their young adult does each day (and the fact that they filled it out themselves). This worksheet also helps students communicate to their parents at home by being able to use the visuals.

STUDENT TIMESHEETS

In the past we were having a hard time remembering to turn in timesheets at the end of each pay period for off-campus jobs, so my solution for that was to make it visible – in your face – so that it’s hard to forget! I used command hooks for the clipboards along with a hook for their backpacks and work badge.

WHY WE STILL PRACTICE FILLING OUT TIMESHEETS: In the real world you might not fill out a timesheet at most jobs, and if you do it’s not displayed on a wall, this is a great way to promote independence through easy-to-access visual reminders and the student can understand the process of recording their hard work and getting paid for it. From there you can fade the wall display and have the student keep their timesheets in a personal binder. If students don’t have an off-campus job, they can fill out timesheets for their attendance at school, or for their on-campus/classroom jobs.

If you want to read more about the benefits of timesheets check out my blog post here. 

FINISHED STUDENT WORK

Student work sample organization & vocational task all in one. Have your students practice simple filing job skills when they are finished with a worksheet by having them find their name and file their work in the correct spot. Make it even more complex by including subject folders within each student’s file. Less work for you to do in the end!

I don’t have too much decor in my room because I think that it can be distracting to students, but I wanted this area to have a home feel to it! This beautiful garland & rainbow are handmade from a dear friend The Hostess Edit.  This (birthday) bulletin board is set up above an office desk where staff or students can work independently, use the computer, or file their work away.

I also included a filing task (sorting papers to files) that the previous teacher left behind and is super easy for you to make or customize on your own! What’s more realistic than using an actual desk to file in!

PEG BOARD

Stock the shelf vocational peg board activities. Students can choose from several different activities to sort and hang items. This peg board is from Ikea or you can get pegboards at any hardware store. The activity you currently see is “Clothing Sizes Vocational Sorting Activity” click here to download.  If you’re great at talking your way into free things, you might even be able to get a place to donate real items (like gift cards) to use for this activity board or its easy to Google Search and print items like gift cards, seed packets, school supplies etc to use and hang on a peg board.

This peg board activity is one of my favorites because not only is it hands-on, but it is pretty realistic to some of the job skills you might see in the real world. To make this task even harder, have your students put the pegs into the board in the correct spots. This seemingly easy task has proven to be SO HARD for many of my students. Those little metal pieces are funky looking and it is hard to figure out which direction the pieces go into the peg board, and it usually takes a few tries and some problem-solving for students to install the pegs.

RELAXATION/SENSORY AREA

 I technically didn’t spend any money creating this area because I utilized things that were in storage (cubicle walls/shelves), teacher supplies that the school provides (bulletin paper), my @officialcricut for the quote, the tropical leaves were leftover supplies from my wedding decor ?, and the game chair was donated by a parent.

This calm corner has it made a huge difference! I have several students that are working on goals to minimize their overuse of preferred items like the iPad or certain sensory items, or those that are working on asking for breaks during non-preferred activities. Having this distinguished area has created an opportunity to define a space that preferred items can be enjoyed for a limited time. When one student is using the area, its an opportunity to practice waiting and turn taking. It’s another preferred place to look forward to earning after finishing work. Not every student cares for it, but for those that do, it’s been awesome seeing students utilize & enjoy this space.

FUNCTIONAL SIGNS AROUND THE ROOM

This is a super easy & functional idea for your classroom sink especially if you have on or off campus jobs, classroom jobs, or do cooking in the classroom!! All I did was searched the images on google and then print. It’s the perfect way to practice reading a community sign on the daily!

MY DESK AREA

My desk area is nothing special but here are some of the functional and organized parts I think you might enjoy.

Every moment is a learnable moment! Do you have your students answer the classroom phone? What might seem like a seamlessly simple task, can actually be pretty complicated for some of our kiddos. This is the perfect way to practice scripted portions of a phone call, which then requires the student to act upon a request to either get a specific person, relay a message, or write down a message. Life skills and vocational skills practice and of course, visuals help ?

Next is the lesson plan tray for any printable activities I use. I use the folders to separate multiple worksheet packs, but you can easily just do this with a paper clip! You can download the labels for FREE in my TPT store HERE.

KITCHEN

I am one of the only lucky teachers on campus to have a kitchen. This has opened up so many possibilities for me to teach essential life skills. Here are some ways I have made my kitchen functional for student use:

I love being organized but these labels have a dual academic purpose. Not only are they serving as a visual for my students, we are also able to play a functional reading game with these visuals.  I put these visuals up with two separate velcro pieces so that I can hand students one or the other. From there, they will go to the kitchen to match the visual to the word or vice versa. Very simple activity, but it’s nice having hands on activities and also getting up and moving around sometimes!

These labels/visuals are in my TPT store and you can get them for FREE HERE.

2nd Picture: Microwave Times Visuals – help build independence using a microwave by providing your students with a little visual help when reading and inputting microwave times from instructions on a package! You can download these visuals for FREE in my TPT store HERE & they come with different colors and fonts!

3rd Picture: I put tape on the floor as a visual for when students are sweeping. I was finding that my students were sweeping crumbs in all sorts of directions, and it was hard for them to visualize putting them into a pile, so now I am easily able to tell them to push the crumbs into the square. When there are no crumbs, I will occasionally dump shredded paper so we can practice the skills of sweeping!

BULLETIN BOARDS

I don’t have bulletin boards in my room so I just created my own by putting up bulletin paper and if you want to get fancy just put borders around the edges!

Chore/Class job of the week focus – You can find these sets here:

Entry-level job of the week focus that we pair with YouTube videos and  comprehension worksheets which you can find here:

BOARD GAMES

Why am I showing you a stack of games? Because I’m telling you its ok to play games at school! I used to feel like a bad teacher because when I explained to outsiders some of the “lessons” I have in class, it sounded like I wasn’t really teaching because people tend to think teaching is a focus on academics.

One of the most important and basic skills I believe my students need to learn and benefit most from are communication skills, following directions, and turn-taking. Without communication skills, behaviors increase, engagement decreases, and productivity decreases. These are the types of lessons I like to start the year out with, because, without the basic concepts, academics are harder to teach and retain. These are also my go-to Friday activities when we aren’t off campus, Friday’s should be fun, a little more laid back, and something to look forward to after a long week, and “playing” board games are perfect for that!

ADAPTED RESOURCES

Adapted resources that I use for independent work, IEP goal work, rotations, and group lessons! I don’t have the room to do a beautiful wall of organized task boxes as I did in the vocation lab (see www.spedadulting.com/voclab) but I’ve put out related items in sections together with labels so they are easy to find & put back.

Right now our resources are labeled for COVID safety (and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep these labels moving forward).  On this shelf, students can pick from a variety of task boxes that are filled with sorting and job skill assembling tasks, and a variety of task cards and take a basket to clothes pins to mark their answers if they prefer (or they can use a dry erase marker to circle).

Browse over 150 life skills & vocational task cards here

I’ve got several more crates of file folders stored away (because it’s nice to rotate out activities and not overwhelm students/staff with too many choices). I organize each crate by level (eg. Picture to Picture matching, Word to Picture Matching, Sorting…etc)

Browse life skills & vocational file folders here

I used a hanging folder organizer to allow choices of worksheets for students to choose from. I organize each folder by subject (chores & jobs, vocabulary, reading comprehension, budgeting, color by number….etc). Rather than handing students worksheets (and then they whine about having to do a worksheet), I am able to get them to buy into doing a worksheet by allowing them to pick from a variety. Students have a checklist of subjects/goals they are working on, and once they’ve picked one subject, they have to pick a different one next time!

Browse life skills & vocational adapted worksheets here

Find all of the items I use for organizing my adapted materials under Classroom Organization on www.amazon.com/shop/spedadulting (affiliate link)

CLOCKS

Telling time is an important skill for our young adults, and one of the first things my mentor told me to do during my first year of teaching was to have both an analog clock & large digital clock available for my students to practice reading daily.  Not only is this an important independent living skill, but also a vocational skill that we pair with filling out our timesheets. 

Learning to tell time on an analog clock can be tough, so I’ve made it a bit easier by providing visuals around my analog clock.  I’ve got several age-respectful decor sets available in my TPT store here: https://bit.ly/AMEdecor

Find great digital clock recommendations under CLASSROOM on www.amazon.com/shop/spedadulting (affiliate link)

VISUALS & CHOICES

These two things are HUGE components to getting my students to participate in school work.  If I hand most of my students a worksheet, I get whining, complaints, behaviors start…etc.  When I provide my students with choices, they get to pick what they want to do, in the format they want to do it in (digital, worksheet, task cards…etc) and it’s a happy ending for all! 

If I know a student is prone to picking the same thing each time, I will provide them with a checklist of each choice, and they will check off the first choice they picked, then the next time they choose something, they have to pick something different until we reset the check list.  This may not work for every student – maybe you have students that truly only thrive with digital activities, so if that’s how you can get them to buy into learning, then that’s the route to go with them!  It will be different for each student how you go about providing choices, but the most important thing is that you are providing options for them to make their own decision.

For classroom jobs, each morning during our morning meeting, I will rotate picking students to go first to pick a job they want to do at the end of the day (then write their name under the visual on the board).  Same as above, once a student picks a specific job, they can’t pick the same one again the next day.  I’ve done this where I have them pick a job and do that job all week, or I’ve also done it where I have them pick each day.

I always get asked if it is age appropriate to work on calendar skills…. YES IT ABSOLUTELY IS and I work on it every day!  Knowing how to read a calendar, what day it is, what the weather is and so on, are all important components to starting your day off right, not missing a big event, or knowing what days you work…etc are important independent living and vocational skills!

Calendar set, Analog Clock schedule labels and Labels can be found in my TPT store – I’ve got several age-respectful decor sets available: https://bit.ly/AMEdecor

I hung my visuals up with double-sided magnets on my whiteboard, but there’s also removable double-sided mounting tape that is great, both are linked under CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION www.amazon.com/shop/spedadulting (affiliate link)

IEP Goal Bins & Data Collection

IEP Goal bins & Data Collection!  This organization & method has kept me sane with keeping up with all of my students’ varying levels & IEP goals.  I bought these baskets from @dollartree and they are perfect for carrying a good amount of student work back and forth.  I have one for each student  (if you have any students that have the same goals/levels, combine into the same bin to work in small groups).

Everything I need is in one place – their data collection binder (I use QR codes that connect to Microsoft Forms), worksheets, task cards, file folders…etc that pertain to their goals, and manipulative needed (eg. Calculator or token board).  This also makes it easier for subs or new staff to work with different students.

I have highlighted parts of my schedule dedicated to IEP Goals/Data collection.  I normally have this time slot once a day, but every so often, my students are in and out of the class so much from services, on or off-campus jobs…etc, that I am able to squeeze it in twice a day because some students are missing out on that time during one of the scheduled time slots.

MORNING ROUTINE

I wanted to share our morning routine with you because it is such a huge part of my daily lesson plans, jammed packed full of activities.  BUT, it’s so jam packed, it needs it own blog post.  Head on over to my post on Morning Routine to find out more!

CLASSROOM OVERVIEW

Here’s an overview of my classroom – as you can see I have group tables.  Here’s why I have my students at group tables… It promotes socialization & makes for a great opportunity to practice personal space within a small space.  When you go out into the community to an even (such as a wedding, restaurant, workplace training…etc), you rarely ever get your own table/desk to sit at, you are often sitting with a group of people (whether you know them or not).

Sitting with a group of people can be a hard and uncomfortable task for many of our students, so before they graduate, it is a huge goal of mine to make them feel comfortable in this type of setting.  Having group tables also makes life so much easier when doing lessons or rotations.  I can group students into similar levels at each table, and have a para or myself work with several students at once.  I do have a few desks in the back available for students that want to sit at their own desk and are working on sitting with a group during structured activities throughout the day.

Thank you SO MUCH for joining me on this classroom tour, I hope that you were able to learn something new or find a new idea to implement in the fall!

Thanks for reading!

You may be interested in this blog post: