Remote learning came fast and with a ton of resources. I am thankful to have many lessons and activities from The Autism Helper to keep me organized and a little less stressed. I was able to look through the resources and materials I had and change them into an online learning platform. My district trained all of us, very quickly, on Canvas and this is what we used for our online classrooms. Hands-on materials will always be the best! However, with remote learning ending (for now) I have 3 of my favorite remote learning resources that I want to bring back to my real classroom. I cannot wait to get back in the classroom and see my students! I am also excited to get back in and bring back a few new strategies.

Boom cards 

Boom cards came out quick!! Luckily, The Autism Helper has you covered with any Boom card you could want! Check out some of them here. 

My favorite parts of Boom cards are:

• Boom cards work great on any device.
• Decks are easy to assign and adding the link to my Canvas classroom took less than a few minutes!
• The decks keep data when they are assigned to a student.
• Boom cards will be a great activity to use as another independent work rotation, small group activity, a reinforcer during discrete trial training, or during a transition not to waste any instructional time.
  
  If you haven’t done so already, talk with your administration and see if you can get your class signed up for a subscription. The prices are completely reasonable.

Zoom

Zoom meetings were a big unknown for me before remote learning started. Very quickly it became the main way I would lead circles, hold a team meeting, and connect with students and their families. Zoom is going to be a great resource when we get back to school. I am excited to enhance the communication form from phone calls to live video meetings. Zoom meetings give me a chance to build rapport with families, especially in this time when we need to remain socially distanced. Have you been a part of an IEP meeting? They can be overwhelming and intimidating! There are many people that take part in IEP meetings – most of the time we have 6 adults on the team! I plan to use this video forum with families who may not be able to attend an in person meeting.  This will allow them to clearly see which team member is talking, screen share the draft copy of the IEP as we go, and show which parts of the paperwork need signatures and need to be returned. Happy zooming!

PEAK Online

PEAK Online offers so many lessons as videos. During remote learning, I was able to match the lessons that they have to my district’s alternate curriculum, STAR (Strategies for Teaching Based on Autism Research). When we get back in the classroom, I plan on using these video lessons during small groups. These videos are a great way for my paraprofessionals to run and take data on STAR programs! They match up nicely to the alternate curriculum I am using and will also offer more opportunities to practice generalization around the classroom. If remote learning were to happen again, these lessons can also be done during live Zoom lessons as well. Win- win!

Be Ready

If you didn’t get a chance to read what my ESY bags contained, check it out here. After using these over the month of June, I was able to take notes and figure out what I would want to send home if remote learning is to happen again. Before the end of the school year, we met as teams over Zoom to create a list of what we would want to print and prep for our students if this happens again. This is our school’s list of must haves. Happy creating!

• Can with clothespins for put in or put on tasks
• Animal Bingo
• All About Animals
• ABLLS-R-Aligned-B5-B7
• Farmer, Farmer, What Do You See? Adapted Book Series
• Adjective Adapted Book Series
• All Easy Matching Workbooks
• Visual Questions for Children with Autism
• Color Adapted Book Series
• Small mirror
• Pipe cleaners
• Straws
• Paper plates
• Scissors
• Dry erase crayons
• Laminated pieces of white paper
• Glue sticks
• Core Board
• Zones of Regulation visual
• First / Then visual
• Play dough
• Bubble recipe
• Crayons
• Plain note cards
• Counters (chips, blocks, or other)
• Chalk
• Pipe Cleaners
• Pencil / Sharpener
• Popsicle sticks