leaving an inclusion environment for a more supportive and knowledgeable learning environment. As parents with children on the spectrum or just parents of children with exceptionalities/differences we have always said that inclusion is best. For years, I pushed and pushed for the best inclusion setting I could get for my son. I believe with a…
Tag: behavior
Did you move your elf on the shelf?
only a few more nights! for me…. I never moved the elf in the house! I never had an elf in the house! Why I don’t elf on the shelf…. I have enough commitments– this time of year is one of my favorites because of how it is traditionally centered around family and kids. …
Back to School: establish an effective team for your special needs child
As we prepare for back to school in August. We need to start thinking about how we want this school year to go in comparison to the previous or the multiple years prior. Each year, whether in public or private school, students have a new teacher and often an entire new team of teachers. The…
Moms, does it get any easier?
Does it get any easier raising and fighting for a child that has special needs? From my veteran fighting moms….please tell me it does! In my recent experience this school year, shifting from public to private, I would say that it is not easier; it is different. Ways it changed: no more IEP meetings no…
Stressful September
Well, I am so very excited that September is on it’s last day! I rarely write on Ruthfulness about topics that don’t relate directly to education, access and advocating for autism and early intervention. But, we are one year in! Happy Anniversary to Ruthfulness. It has been a year since I started publicly sharing my…
Stop Classroom Behavior Charts
I already dislike behavior charts that rank or rate children based on a color wheel and was planning to write this post all week. Then Friday evening I hear my (typical) daughter playing with her toys in the bathtub. She is playing and then I hear her say, “You have to be nice or…
Back to School: What to do when the Going Gets Tough
We are going on week two for school, really only day three come Monday and teachers have to hit the ground running teaching students how to follow rules, procedures and schedules then add the curriculum content and all the mandatory pre-testing, benchmark testing and assessing required. I teach high school and am completely outnumbered and…
Tips to Transition Back to School
Heading back to school this month?! Florida schools are. When school starts, I feel that there is a lot of stress surrounding the event. When you are starting a new school or even moving up a grade to a new teacher kids can be nervous, excited, scared or disinterested. I started thinking about this topic…
Collaboration with private therapy and public education
Children with autism in my school district are often placed in ASD units within a self contained classroom or on the other end they have their services taken from them sometimes their entire IEP and parents have to fight for a 504 plan. There seems to be very little in between in the public school….
holy behavior plan, batman
Yesterday, I amended my son’s IEP and behavior plan. It was another 2 hour meeting. My last meeting was 2.5 hours and was to determine eligibility (the longest IEP…) At our last meeting, the behavior plan was so terrible that we had to agree to meet again to change it. A draft copy of the…