>> brandi: i’m brandi tirey and i’m afourth grade teacher at la mesa elementary in plainsview, texas and this is how i doattendance every day. each card has a student’s name on it in my class and on the other sideit says la mesa leader. in fourth grade at la mesa we stress a lot about leadership andso it’s just a way for them to reinforce being a leader every day when they come in.so when a child comes in the door they come over and find their name, they simply turnit over to where it says la mesa leader, and then it’s an easy check for me and for thechild who has the attendance job every day to look over here and say, “oh, this childis absent todayâ€. it’s an easy check and it makes attendance last that long. at theend of every day, that same child who has
that job turns it over so that the names arefacing forward so that it’s ready to go for the next day. i do it this way because the students whoare my inclusion students, it’s a very good check for them to reinforce what their namelooks like every day. they have to come in, they have to find their name and they haveto learn the task of turning it over. they too will have that job one day of checkingattendance so it’s a way for them to practice doing it every day when they’re coming inthe door. it also sets a routine for those kids because those kids really need a routineand i try to keep their routine the same every day for them so this is an easy way for themto make sure that they’re here, they mark
it off their list every morning that they’vechecked their attendance and then they know that they can go sit down. (teacher talking to students in the hall,“good morning. good morning, colby." "hey friend, how are you?†"are you here today?â€) (teacher says good morning to each studentas they enter the classroom) the second step that every child that comesinto my room does is to tell me what they’re going to have for lunch. our lunch choicesthis year have expanded to where every day a child will have two entrã©e choices; a sandwichchoice and a salad choice and on thursday they can choose hamburger or cheeseburger.so, with twenty-two kids coming into the class,
and with them trying to yell out, “i wantthis, i want thatâ€, it’s mass chaos. for inclusion students its overload and it’stoo much for them. so, an easy way for us to do lunch and get it done very quickly isif they come in, i have it colored coded, one entrã©e is highlighted with blue so theyknow if they want that entrã©e they simply move their name over to the blue tray. ifthey want the entrã©e that is highlighted in orange all they have to do is move it toorange. if they choose they want sandwich or salad they can put their choices there,or if they bring their lunch or anything like that. again, for an inclusion student it reinforcesfinding their name, what it looks like, and then we have a job that is lunch count person.that person will come over and say, “ms.
tirey, we have so many blue trays today, wehave so many orange trays todayâ€. then, that student will take the lunch count tothe cafeteria. students that are in here for inclusion also have this job every so manyweeks so it’s a good way, an easy pictorial way, for them to see what i’m talking aboutbecause i can say to that student, and i may have to guide it a little bit more than iwould with the other students, but i can say, “how many blue trays are there today?â€,and they can simply count the names to give me a count for the blue trays. so, it makesit both easy and fast for both regular and inclusion students. lunch count. brendan, need you in my life.
>> student: 5 salad, 2 sandwich, and 5 fromhome. >>brandi: this is our daily schedule. it isjust simply on some note cards that have been laminated and taped to my white board so thati can easily change it and manipulate it if during the year, which it’s inevitable,that we need to change something due to inclusion classes or resource classes or something becauseof other teachers. so it’s all moveable so i can change it. i do it from top to bottomso that the students that are here in inclusion, it’s easy for them to read. it also hasan icon that represents what it is; math has numbers and an addition and subtraction sign,language arts has writing, and recess is a swing set, easily identifiable icons thatgo with the part of the day that we are going
to do. then, i kind of personalize it by eachday, or the night before, i write out exactly what those students are going to be doingin this every day. so, it’s a good check for regular ed students and my inclusion studentsto be able to see what exactly they’re going to be doing throughout the day. my inclusionstudents do normally have a personal schedule, because sometimes within here they may bedoing math but they may be going to a resource room at one point of the day and inclusionin here for another part of the day. so, their schedule looks really similar to this so thatmaybe a different order for them but they will at least have the same kind of scheduleand easy to read. this is my class job chart and on it is thename of the job, and then the name of the
student. it’s all removable so that i canchange the name of the student each week. they do their job for one week and then theyrotate to another job. this gives the child the chance to do every job in the class severaltimes throughout the year. i have a job for every student in my classroom because i don’twant them to not have a chance to have a job and for some inclusion students it’s veryimportant that they have a task to do every day. and so, when it’s on your scheduleand it says do your job, then they have a place to come and know exactly what it is.i use icons; most of them were printed off boardmaker, some were printed off the internet,just to go with, like the greeter, we have handshaking. just so that it’s a good iconfor them to figure out what they’re supposed
to do with that job. if they have troublebeing able to read ‘greeter’ they can look at the picture and know what they aresupposed to do. all of the inclusion kids are also put into this and if it’s a jobthat’s a little difficult then i pair them up with another student that can help themand assist them in the job to get it done.