Hello Room 125 families!
Long time no see. I hope you all have had a fantastic break and are enjoying the last weekend before school! I have done a lot of reflection over this break, and have spent quite a bit of time thinking about how lucky I am to work with such amazing children and families. It takes such a strong community and parent-teacher relationship to really educate a child, especially when the child has special needs. I can not thank you enough for the hard work you put in day in and day out to assure that your child is learning all that they can. Thank you for continuing to collaborate with me and other teachers to create a meaningful school experience for your child. You all mean so much to me, and I am grateful to be on your child’s team.
What Happened During Break?
I would love to know what you have been up to for break. An e-mail or note in the homework notebook with even just a sentence or two will better help us support your child in communicating about their break. If you took any pictures over the past two weeks and are able to send one or two in, your child can use these to tell their friends about their break, whether it’s by talking about the picture, or even just sharing the picture (if you have these digitally and e-mail me, we can print in our classroom). I am curious about what fun things they got to do, but their friends will be too! Sending a picture or giving me an idea will help me support your child when others ask about their break, and help make sure they’re not left out of conversations and sharing with their class.
Over break I performed with my dance company and moved to Boulder. I spent a lot of time working with the horse I pretend is mine and exploring the trails around my new house. The past few days I have spent a lot of time in the climbing gym. I also spent a lot of time reading and hanging out with friends.
Transition to School
After two weeks off with less structure and perhaps more leisure, going back to school is going to be quite the transition for all of us. As we know, transitions such as these can impact children with autism even more heavily than others. Please spend plenty of time talking about school. Look at the “Edison Pictures” tab on this website. Show your child their lunchbox or backpack or anything else associated with school. Make production about getting ready the next few days (e.g. “Let’s go to the store and buy snacks for school,” “Do you want to help me wash your clothes for school,” “what shirt do you want to where to school tomorrow,” show the calendar and circle the first day of school, lay out clothes and backpack in front of them to show they’re ready for school, etc). Make a big deal about how school is soon to help prepare your child for the upcoming transition. If you need more specific ideas for how we generally prepare your specific child for transitions, feel free to e-mail me. I will check my e-mail today. I’ll be gone most of the day tomorrow, but will try to check in the morning and night when I am home.
Home Support
During conferences, IEP meetings, or just conversation, I have talked with several of you about behavior, communication, and/or academic needs at home. We have talked about ways to find more in-home support for you and your child. After two weeks at home, you may have a greater idea about what sort of supports may benefit you at home. I would like to share a resource for this in which I am very excited! As you know, I dance with a company called the Ascendance Project. Another dancer in this company is also a special education teacher. She recently moved from teaching in school to starting an educational coaching business to provide support to families and children with special needs in their home and elsewere. I talked to her a bit about my classroom, and she said she would be more than willing to head to Denver to provide free consultations to anyone who is interested. This could be a great opportunity to get an idea of what sorts of supports you could utilize at home, without any initial charge. If nothing else, she may be able to get you started for finding supports and resources for your child and family at home. It is also nice that I have a relationship with Cassie, so she is not quite a stranger. I grabbed some business cards that I’ll send home, but if you’re interested you can contact her here: 303-854-8624; cassiedrewcoaching@gmail.com, or find out more info here: www.cassiedrew.com.
This Week
The first week back is going to be focused on remembering routines, rules, and structures at school. Our new paraprofessional, Ms Valerie, will also be starting this week! We are very excited to welcome a new team member. Her first week will consist of some shadowing and some teaching/support. By week two week hope to be back in the swing of having a full team again!
Please let me know if you have questions about any of this or anything else leading into the new year.
Looking forward to seeing you all Monday! Have a great weekend!
-Ms Wales
whatsuproom125 