Autistic Student Success Starts with Classroom Set Up

As a K-2 autism teacher, the needs of my classroom are always changing. One thing that I can do to ensure student success is have a great classroom setup. I want to show you how I set up my classroom with this quick mini tour. Right by the door, I have visuals for all common classroom routines. Here I have some for arriving to the classroom, going to the bathroom. This is filled with anything I might need, including core language boards, right where I need them. Speaking of visuals, I have visual schedule pieces right here organized. Green are reinforcers, yellow are reminders, and red are non-negotiables or things that we have to get done throughout the school day. I have several work areas that you'll see. We built these out of 2x4s and wainscoting. Really easy with just a couple of brackets, and these are so sturdy. We bolt them to the wall so they don't go anywhere. There's plenty of Eagle so students can get in and out, and this creates a quiet zone where students can work one-on-one with an adult. The binders up top that are black are for data, the bins are direct instruction bins that correlate directly to IEP goals, and then down below here we have supplies as well as all of our level daily curriculums. This is our turn-in area. Students each have a cubby where they turn items in and also where we keep construction paper. Over on this cart, this is what we use for centers. I set centers up every day. You don't need a lot of space to run centers, and I love this cart because it easily moves wherever we need to go. The top bin is for fine motor, the middle bin is for ELA, and the bottom bin is for our math centers. One change that I've made in my classroom this year is that I wanted my students to start learning how to copy from the board. In order to do that, I needed a table that was close to the Promethean board. So, you can see my carpet is just up front, and that is where we sit for morning meeting and we come together as a group. I've got my big rocking chair over there, that's where we read stories aloud, we do all of our social skills, and then as we're working, we can sit at this table and students can start learning to pay attention from the board, to the table and back. That was not something that was possible previously, but as student needs have grown and changed, that is a skill that we're working towards and I'm super excited about it. I run small groups from this table, and one thing that I love about this placement is that I can see students who are playing in the sensory bin here and students who are playing in the light bin over here, so it really gives me a maximized view of my classroom to ensure student safety and supervision at all times while running a small group. I think tracking goals in the classroom is super important, but it's also important that it's student-led. So I love to involve my students whenever I can to help collect data and help them reflect on how they are progressing towards meeting a goal. One way I do this is by bulletin boards. Now if you know me, you know I don't love bulletin boards, but I do think they serve a purpose in this area. So right back here we have just general social skill, emotional, social-emotional well-being goals, such as, if I'm frustrated, I can take deep breaths. Those sort of goals that our students are working on. And so every day we reflect, how well did we do? Are we still working towards that? Did we find mastery today? What can we do different? So those are some ways that we track those goals, but we also track academic goals. My assistants refer to this little corner of the classroom as Koenig's Corner. This is where I put all of my stuff. I have my data binders in the back. Pack. I have my lesson plans, any books that I might need to reference, my computer, my files, my IEPs, but I also have this table right next to my desk and this is where I take data. I'll do fluency data, I will do formal assessments here, but this table means that it's time to get down to business. And so this is a spot that I regularly pull kids to take assessment data or my assistants will pull students to take fluency data. On the back wall behind me, it says, "The sky is the limit," and I truly believe that for my students. And so on the clipboards are individual academic goals that students have chosen to work on. And mind you, my students might just be learning to match. That's okay, then we're gonna talk about matching colors or matching 3D objects. I've got students who are working on receptive letter ID, receptive number ID, and then we use daubers to indicate mastery. It doesn't have to be complicated for it to be impactful. Sometimes in the special ed classroom we have to reimagine how we look at things, and this is a great example of that. In these colored bins, we have our leveled daily curriculum binders. We also have a Handwriting Without Tears journal. We have our supplies that are leveled out, so if we need adapted scissors or any special materials, they will be in that child's supply box, and again, they're color-coded. Then down below, we have our choice bins that are also color-coded that students may choose after independent work. This is our independent work shelf. It's color-coded once again, so the red student will pick the red bin for the task cards and then the red bin below for adaptive books that are already leveled and just for them, and then they will pick from the third shelf, and that is a fun hands-on manipulative learning task. If you want an in-depth look at things like student data, students tracking their own data, easy matching workbooks, how I run my centers, what I pull for center instruction, you are in luck because I'm going to be breaking down everything that I showed you today and be doing an in-depth look over the next couple months so you can get a real feel of what happens day to day in my classroom. I can't wait to share that with you. Hope to see you soon.