Jen, an autism classroom teacher, shares three tools she relies on: visual timers that show time passing, language boards and AAC devices for communication, and color-coded schedules that guide students through the day. She works with six AAC-using students and uses a Word Power 60 TouchChat board on a Promethean screen for whole-group access.
In every job, there are tools that help make the job easier, and teaching is no different. So today I'm going to tell you my top 3 things that help make the day go smoother in my classroom. I am Jen, and I am a K-12 self-contained autism teacher and one of the bloggers here at The Autism Helper. We are at the end of the year, and I am starting to do inventory and put things away, and I am thinking about some things that I need to reorder, and that got me thinking What are your things that you just can't live without in the classroom? Here are mine. The first one is so simple, it's a timer, and I have a million different timers I use throughout the day. Sometimes we have timers on us and we just don't even think about it. For example, every iPad has a timer built in, same for an iPhone, same for an Android phone, so that is definitely a choice. I wear an Apple Watch, and so that definitely has a timer on it as well. These are just stopwatches. These are easy to use, easy to carry, but my all-time favorite is this one right here. I love this one because it gives students a visual of the amount of time that they have remaining. You twist this to the time, let's say that we're giving the student 10 minutes, and then this red piece slowly comes over to the zero showing how much time is left. Sometimes we forget that students don't have a concept of time, so when we say 5 minutes, 10 minutes, even 30 seconds or a minute, students can't understand that length of time. So we have to show them, and so a visual timer is perfect for that. Also, it takes all the argument out of transition. If you agree on 5 minutes, you set it for 5 minutes, you walk away, it goes off, time to transition. Next up is language support. I don't care if you use AAC, if you use core language boards, or sign language, your students need language support if you are in an autism classroom. I love these Core Language Boards because I can print as many as I need and I can take them wherever I want. I laminate them, they're so durable, and they come in a million different sizes. So even my students who are working on like visual accuracy and being able to point, I can make these nice and big. I can even cut these out, um, I can put them in solid locations. I actually have this one above my sensory bin because I think it's perfect because we can talk about, let's open the sensory bin, can I have more, I'm finished, I want that, turn it, yes, no. This is just great for those beginning language learners, especially if that student needs language support and they maybe don't have an AAC device. This is an AAC device I have for my classroom and it's a spare and I use it all of the time. My classroom is set up to support language and that is something that I'm very proud of. I work directly with my SLP to come up with ways to support language in the classroom, one thing we've done is put this huge core language board on the wall. This came from our Satillo rep. This is Word Power 60 for TouchChat, and I just love having this here, and it is right next to my big group table, so when I'm teaching group lessons, I can sit right here and be able to reference it behind me. I often sit in this blue chair right here. Again, over here on my Promethean board, I actually saved this home screen and it's a picture and I put it up on my Promethean board so it's my home page. So when I am working as a group or doing whole group lessons and sitting in the blue chair, I have access to a Promethean board behind me with the same exact screen that most of my users use in my classroom. In my classroom of my 8 students, 6 are AAC users. This is just a picture, so if I touch on it, it doesn't actually say the word, but it's better than nothing, and that is really important when I am teaching a whole group lesson. If I don't have an individual AAC that I can pull from and model from, I still want to be able to show students where things are, and so I will regularly point to this board. All the visuals are next. I cannot get through my day without visuals. This is an example of a visual schedule. My students are color-coded, so I have a student that is orange, a student that is green. I've put back together the orange student's schedule, but not the green schedule, so you can see this is the schedule that they're following throughout the day. And if they need support, we can definitely do a reminder of what they're working for. Every student chooses something to work for, for each task. Now, I do not have students work for things like sensory needs, or food. But I definitely have students work for special items like treasure box or iPad time or, um, you know, being able to do a special craft or activity. That is something special, and so that is what they work for throughout the day. I wear visuals on my lanyard, and I have massive visual storage behind me. It honestly is what gets myself and my paraprofessionals throughout the school day. Without visuals, my students don't know directions, they don't know where they're supposed to go, what they're supposed to do, and a visual schedule or visual directions definitely help them. I have mine separated by green, which are things that make us go, things like reinforcers. Yellow are reminders to slow down, and red are non-negotiable things that you have to do. We have to do reading and we have to do math, so those are over here. So there you go, those are 3 of my things: timers, visual supports, um, and I kind of lumped a lot in there, I'm not gonna lie, and our language supports, and I also lumped a lot in there, but that's okay because those are things that definitely help me with my job and help me be successful in the classroom. I am so curious, what helps you get through your school day other than a giant cup of coffee? Let me know in the comments, I can't wait to hear from you.
