1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,700 Life Skills and Economics. 2 00:00:03,700 --> 00:00:09,900 Ms. Shelley’s Special Education Junior High Student Experience. 3 00:00:09,900 --> 00:00:11,400 Applied Life Skills. 4 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:13,600 How might I help our special education students 5 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:16,400 become successful in real-life situations? 6 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:20,333 By applying life skills programs to our junior high school. 7 00:00:20,333 --> 00:00:24,099 The problem starts with students having a lack of understanding and skill 8 00:00:24,100 --> 00:00:28,166 when stepping out on their own. Teaching students skills, now, 9 00:00:28,166 --> 00:00:31,432 will help them become successful members in society. 10 00:00:31,433 --> 00:00:35,099 Students who learn life skills early will not only build self-confidence, 11 00:00:35,100 --> 00:00:39,133 but their long-term success in life. 12 00:00:39,133 --> 00:00:41,466 Having great resources for lesson plans 13 00:00:41,466 --> 00:00:44,499 gives a multitude of perspectives and ideas. 14 00:00:44,500 --> 00:00:49,600 As I use these lesson plans and add the ideas to my class lessons, I find I must 15 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,666 modify most of the pre-existing plans to fit the abilities 16 00:00:52,666 --> 00:00:55,099 of my special education students. 17 00:00:55,100 --> 00:00:59,100 For feedback, I’d give questionnaires during the third and sixth week 18 00:00:59,100 --> 00:01:05,500 to receive a perspective on the program from students, teachers, and parents. 19 00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:08,700 I’d then make changes as needed. 20 00:01:08,700 --> 00:01:10,700 My current junior high does not have an understanding 21 00:01:10,700 --> 00:01:16,100 of basic life skills, including economic skills and personal finance. 22 00:01:16,100 --> 00:01:18,166 Building a program to teach the lacking skills 23 00:01:18,166 --> 00:01:22,599 will educate my junior high students in these areas. I used Google Classroom 24 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:25,133 and other resources to support my plan. 25 00:01:25,133 --> 00:01:27,099 Some of the topics include life skills, 26 00:01:27,100 --> 00:01:29,200 social skills, and economic skills. 27 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:30,866 Students gain a better understanding 28 00:01:30,866 --> 00:01:33,799 of real-life situations and how to respond. 29 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,200 We set up a simulation of real-life situations 30 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:42,066 to allow students to obtain experiences and make mistakes, and learn from them. 31 00:01:42,066 --> 00:01:45,966 During the planned simulation, students are allowed to save, spend, 32 00:01:45,966 --> 00:01:48,366 and earn money at their own discretion. 33 00:01:48,366 --> 00:01:50,066 This gives them a safe environment 34 00:01:50,066 --> 00:01:56,266 to lose money and see how it will affect them in the future. 35 00:01:56,266 --> 00:02:00,799 My research allows me to understand why I’m teaching life skills to my students 36 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,433 and how it will affect them in the long-term. 37 00:02:03,433 --> 00:02:09,099 Students gained skills like critical thinking, creative thinking, 38 00:02:09,100 --> 00:02:11,633 decision-making and problem-solving skills, 39 00:02:11,633 --> 00:02:14,433 communication skills in interpersonal relationships, 40 00:02:14,433 --> 00:02:18,933 coping with emotions and stress, self-awareness and empathy. I have taken 41 00:02:18,933 --> 00:02:23,133 five out of 17 students randomly and made a graph to show how the social skills 42 00:02:23,133 --> 00:02:25,633 have had an effect on the students. 43 00:02:25,633 --> 00:02:27,533 I went to the other teachers in the school 44 00:02:27,533 --> 00:02:31,599 and the administrators to see if they had seen changes in the students’ engagement 45 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:36,133 throughout the school. This was over a few weeks. 46 00:02:36,133 --> 00:02:39,533 As you can see, the goals were met or improved. 47 00:02:39,533 --> 00:02:42,799 Behaviors were improved in just a short time. 48 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,733 We will continue this project in the following year to see 49 00:02:45,733 --> 00:02:51,499 if we will add this program permanently. 50 00:02:51,500 --> 00:02:54,533 I started with a planned economic class schedule 51 00:02:54,533 --> 00:02:58,533 and built activities for students’ needs and goals. 52 00:02:58,533 --> 00:03:03,999 The pre-planned program I used was called “My Classroom Economy.” I started 53 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,266 with the junior high program, but quickly realized I needed 54 00:03:07,266 --> 00:03:09,599 more adaptive assignments, 55 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:14,933 and moved my students back to grade 2 to 3 level. 56 00:03:14,933 --> 00:03:19,133 This really helped, and I could see improvements in their success. 57 00:03:19,133 --> 00:03:23,333 When assignments are too difficult, I see an incline in behaviors. 58 00:03:23,333 --> 00:03:28,633 When this happens, I know I need to re-evaluate my plan. 59 00:03:28,633 --> 00:03:31,299 I build activities around this process. 60 00:03:31,300 --> 00:03:34,500 I also use Google Classroom for my classroom assignments. 61 00:03:34,500 --> 00:03:37,633 This makes it to have easy access for the students, 62 00:03:37,633 --> 00:03:39,766 and they clearly understand how to use it. 63 00:03:39,766 --> 00:03:41,399 The students are learning social skills, 64 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:43,566 money management, banking skills, 65 00:03:43,566 --> 00:03:47,799 and every week, I add more to their learning experience. 66 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:49,200 I find many students 67 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:54,066 need extra time with counting money before I moved on. 68 00:03:54,066 --> 00:03:56,899 My current approach is unique in the same sense 69 00:03:56,900 --> 00:04:00,200 that most special education programs of the junior high 70 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:04,866 are not providing progressive life skills, social skills, and economic skills. 71 00:04:04,866 --> 00:04:09,466 I had to think outside the box and find new ways of doing some activities. 72 00:04:09,466 --> 00:04:13,132 The students have gained clear understanding of each tool and now 73 00:04:13,133 --> 00:04:15,566 are applying these throughout their day. 74 00:04:15,566 --> 00:04:18,899 I have seen students reach new goals in math, 75 00:04:18,900 --> 00:04:23,500 and gain a better understanding of money, through just a few weeks. 76 00:04:23,500 --> 00:04:28,133 I use a lot of visual aids to help their learning experience 77 00:04:28,133 --> 00:04:32,766 run smoother for the students. 78 00:04:32,766 --> 00:04:34,832 I have taken a pre-made program and modified 79 00:04:34,833 --> 00:04:39,833 the activities to fit a lower-learning level and different learning style. 80 00:04:39,833 --> 00:04:43,266 I ensure we have visual aids and hands-on activities. 81 00:04:43,266 --> 00:04:44,832 Each student is at a different level, 82 00:04:44,833 --> 00:04:51,166 and I must ensure they receive the same experience throughout the program. 83 00:04:51,166 --> 00:04:54,532 Empowering students through life skills works and is needed. 84 00:04:54,533 --> 00:04:57,366 The students’ mental health is one area we tend to forget about 85 00:04:57,366 --> 00:04:59,532 when focusing on education. 86 00:04:59,533 --> 00:05:03,733 Teaching life skills benefits students, parents, and teachers. 87 00:05:03,733 --> 00:05:06,766 I used this information to guide my project. 88 00:05:06,766 --> 00:05:09,932 It will help me understand the benefits on a mental level. 89 00:05:09,933 --> 00:05:13,566 Social skills have had a big impact on our students. 90 00:05:13,566 --> 00:05:16,166 It has helped students understand their behaviors 91 00:05:16,166 --> 00:05:20,066 and gain a new perspective on other students’ behaviors. 92 00:05:20,066 --> 00:05:23,966 They have learned to have empathy and compassion. 93 00:05:23,966 --> 00:05:29,299 Behavior goals are being met or are going up, percentage-wise. 94 00:05:29,300 --> 00:05:31,866 Some students’ behavior goals were hitting 20%, 95 00:05:31,866 --> 00:05:35,699 and now they are reaching 60 to 70% range. 96 00:05:35,700 --> 00:05:39,600 My current project engagement is going great. I have seen many 97 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,800 of my students’ goals change and evolve as they move 98 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:46,433 through each step of the program. 99 00:05:46,433 --> 00:05:49,366 It has also helped them with core classes 100 00:05:49,366 --> 00:05:51,699 like math and writing. 101 00:05:51,700 --> 00:05:55,666 All teachers take data on student progress for their groups. 102 00:05:55,666 --> 00:05:59,466 The groups are math, reading, writing, and technology. 103 00:05:59,466 --> 00:06:01,932 Students have gained knowledge in all these areas. 104 00:06:01,933 --> 00:06:07,499 Money, math, and check registries have seen a big improvement in all students. 105 00:06:07,500 --> 00:06:10,766 Here you can see an example of my student feedback responses 106 00:06:10,766 --> 00:06:13,399 for the program activity so far. 107 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:16,066 I need to see if they were understanding assignments, 108 00:06:16,066 --> 00:06:21,132 and gauging how difficult the program assignments were. 109 00:06:21,133 --> 00:06:25,866 Students learned many new skills they can apply to their high school workforce program. 110 00:06:25,866 --> 00:06:29,899 The feedback I received from the stakeholders has been very positive. 111 00:06:29,900 --> 00:06:34,700 Administration has noticed a big change in the students’ social skills. 112 00:06:34,700 --> 00:06:37,866 She came in and watched us on Friday. 113 00:06:37,866 --> 00:06:40,466 We had a checkbook registry check-in 114 00:06:40,466 --> 00:06:42,266 with a store purchase day. 115 00:06:42,266 --> 00:06:43,932 The students had to make a clear choice 116 00:06:43,933 --> 00:06:46,533 on how much money they had in their accounts, 117 00:06:46,533 --> 00:06:48,999 and how much they were willing to spend. 118 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:51,566 This gave students real-life experience 119 00:06:51,566 --> 00:06:56,266 on fulfilling a temporary happiness, or waiting and spending their savings 120 00:06:56,266 --> 00:06:59,999 on a big item at the end of the program. 121 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:05,300 My administration was excited to see the student progress on decision-making, 122 00:07:05,300 --> 00:07:10,300 banking, and math. My administration has an understanding of how the program 123 00:07:10,300 --> 00:07:16,100 made changes to our class as a whole. She gave me clear verbal feedback. 124 00:07:16,100 --> 00:07:19,000 Many students did not buy items from the store, 125 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,966 and are choosing to wait to buy the large item at the end of the program. 126 00:07:23,966 --> 00:07:27,266 When looking at goals and student progress, 127 00:07:27,266 --> 00:07:29,599 I found the changes made to the program 128 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,866 made a big difference in their engagement and success. 129 00:07:32,866 --> 00:07:35,399 In our special education program we have kept data 130 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:37,600 on all student progress. 131 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:39,966 I have looked at the math group data 132 00:07:39,966 --> 00:07:44,232 and have seen changes in the checkbook registry percentage and money-counting. 133 00:07:44,233 --> 00:07:48,766 On average, students went from 29% to 65 to 78% 134 00:07:48,766 --> 00:07:54,132 on knowledge without assistance. 135 00:07:54,133 --> 00:07:57,066 Everyone received benefits from the life skills program. 136 00:07:57,066 --> 00:07:59,299 The students’ new skills they learned are being applied 137 00:07:59,300 --> 00:08:01,466 to other areas of their education. 138 00:08:01,466 --> 00:08:02,999 The administrator has benefited 139 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,233 by having wonderful students who understand new social skills 140 00:08:07,233 --> 00:08:10,199 and team collaboration and work ethic. 141 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:11,900 Teachers are less focused on behaviors 142 00:08:11,900 --> 00:08:14,600 and more focused on meeting educational goals. 143 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:17,133 The parents are seeing the effect of less behaviors 144 00:08:17,133 --> 00:08:19,999 and new money management skills at home. 145 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:27,200 Some students have even started a savings account or piggy bank. 146 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:30,700 Some of the skills I have learned are team collaboration, empathy, 147 00:08:30,700 --> 00:08:32,600 and clear communication. 148 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:34,700 I learned how to build a program, 149 00:08:34,700 --> 00:08:38,300 teach the program, and make changes as challenges arise. 150 00:08:38,300 --> 00:08:40,000 I have learned adaptive skills 151 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:44,300 and how to apply my leadership skills to my students’ team collaboration. 152 00:08:44,300 --> 00:08:47,433 Overall, this project has given me a better understanding of my skills 153 00:08:47,433 --> 00:08:49,833 and how I respond to challenges. 154 00:08:49,833 --> 00:08:51,399 I love the confidence I have gained 155 00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:57,066 through the last few weeks. 156 00:08:57,066 --> 00:09:00,666 Here are my references I used throughout the program.