How Does Your Engine Run

I have been using the curriculum, "How Does Your Engine Run", for several years to assist in teaching our students to identify where their body is running (high, low or just right) and what are some activities they can do to prepare their body for learning.  I love how easy the curriculum guides the students and how quickly they catch on to the terminology and understanding what their bodies need.  To support the curriculum I made a PowerPoint presentation to show our junior high students during a class.  I have now been using this 1:1 with students and with our smaller Engine Groups.  I am having difficulty uploading the PowerPoint to this post, so please email me and I can send it to you.  I apologize for the inconvenience! I have also included the link for the curriculum.  I highly recommend this for students with autism and sensory integration disorders!

How Does Your Engine Run Program

Handwriting made fun

I purchased a Crayola Dry Erase wipe off board and it has proven to be a total blast in our OT sessions!  I am sliding the Handwriting Without Tears worksheets in and have the students practice their writing on the wipe off board before slipping out the worksheet and trying it in pencil.  The kids love it, I'm saving paper and it's very motivating!!

Looking for help!

I'm reaching out for some tips today.  I have a visually impaired girl who will be going to the junior high next year.  We need to work on hygiene issues to improve her independence with taking care of herself.  Any ideas?  We need to work on facial care, hair, clothing selection, bathing, menstruation, etc.  She does not have a female at home to help her although dad is willing to do whatever is needed to help her.  Thoughts anyone?

A BLOG!

I have just started a graduate course on using technology in the classroom.  I am very excited about the idea of learning more about technology and how it can be useful to me and my students.  BUT...I am so nervous!  I have never heard of a blog before.  Much less how to use it.  So my 14 year old son sat down with me to help me get started (thanks Austin!).

I have a lot of ideas on how to use a blog, but to start I am hoping to use it as a networking site for all OT's, parents and teachers to come together and share ideas on how to best serve our students.  I have so many questions and many things to share with others and this will be a fun way to do this!

I am an OT in our school district.  I serve students K-9 with a wide range of diagnosis; autism, learning disabilities, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, moderate to severe cognitive disabilities, etc.  I absolutely love my job and feel very blessed with the staff, students and families I work with.

Today I did a craft activity at the junior high with my students in the SMI classroom.  I am pretty excited about our project and thought for those of you that incorporate craft into your time you may want to try!  We made tissue paper bowls and I have included the website link on my directory of resources.  Check it out!  We had a ton of fun today.