I’m as shocked as everyone else that schools in my area have closed for the year. I know that families are feeling stressed about how to proceed with teaching at home. Schools WILL push out materials, but you may find yourself needing something to supplement it, especially if your student has an IEP. However, my […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
How to Choose the Right Peer Models for Your Social Skills Class
I write often about my program’s cadet teachers (peer models). When teaching normative social skills to adolescents, tapping into the resource of other teens is powerful. While younger children may enjoy and seek the approval of teachers, teens (yes, including those with intellectual disabilities, ASD, or behavior disorders) prefer acceptance and approval from people their […]
Adulting 101 Bootcamp
Working with secondary students who have intellectual disabilities comes with an enormous amount of pressure. I feel a strong sense of urgency. There is an immediate need to help them prepare for life after high school. Even a freshman has only four years to learn as much as possible about how to function as an […]
Rethinking How We Teach Social Skills: The Project-Driven Classroom
I’ve had so many ideas swirling around for blog posts for the past several months that I’ve had trouble deciding where to start. I have been co-teaching in general education classes and helping students at my school grow and develop a personal life skills class and club. The process of seeing teens with and without […]
New Book–Less Enraged, Still Engaged–is ON SALE! Free Lessons!
We’re off to the races! The new book, Less Enraged, Still Engaged: Another Year of Social Skills Lessons for Adolescents with Emotional/Behavioral Disturbance or Autism Spectrum Disorders is live on Teachers Pay Teachers. There are FOUR TOTALLY FREE NEW LESSONS available at the listing link; just click on the preview selection on the listing. We’ve also […]
New Social Skills Course Ideas and Career Exploration Resources!
Jenny and I have been reimagining our Social Skills class for next semester. After talking to students about what they’d like to learn, an overwhelmingly-mentioned topic was career exploration. We’ll continue to follow the basic structure outlined on the website and in the E2E book, but plan to set aside time each block day (when […]
NEW, Free Lesson Plan Posted!
I’m getting back into the swing of things and gearing up for the start of the new school year in August. I’ve written a new lesson that teaches kids/teens how to stay on topic in conversations, and it’s posted on enraged2engaged.com on the resources page (“Roundtable Repartee”). Please sign up to get e-mail notifications about […]
#5: Greasing the Wheels (Sucking Up to Your Colleagues)
***This is the fifth blog post in a continuing series detailing the launch of a new district EBD center housed inside a traditional high school. I know you may find this difficult to believe, but my colleagues are feeling some trepidation about the 17 children with severe behavior problems coming to their school in August. I know. […]
#4 The (Supervision) Matrix “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. “
***This is the fourth blog post in a continuing series detailing the launch of a new district EBD center housed inside a traditional high school. Yep. I just quoted The Matrix. Because–Lord knows–engaging in this line of work will, most surely, open your eyes to all sorts of alternate realities. We may be at school, but it’s a […]
“Who Gives a Final in Social Skills?!?”
Pfft. That one’s easy to answer: every single teacher who works in a school that requires all credit courses to culminate in a final exam. That’s who. School districts aren’t too keen on ideas like “the real benchmark of a student’s success will come not in the classroom, but in the corridors outside of it.” […]
