Congratulations!!!! You are one step closer to figuring this teaching thing out! Welcome to Step by Step Autism Classroom Design. This is a 4-week self-paced, course that runs a little bit like a workshop where you learn about, then make the items for your classroom. You can access the course at any time. And, you can email me with any questions at [email protected] if you need to.

-S.B. Linton


Once you enroll, join our Pop-up Facebook Group for Step by Step Autism Classroom Design which will be available to answer questions and provide guidance for course members.

Information

This Step by Step Autism Classroom Design course is for new teachers, veteran teachers, teachers new to autism, career changers, program specialists or anyone tasked with starting, evaluating or building a new classroom or program for elementary students with autism in self-contained classrooms...who just want to know how to get started.

Using our signature D.E.S.I.G.N. System, you will gain the skills and confidence to run your classroom.

A good deal of the material is based on the AutismClassroom.com book How to Set Up A Classroom for Students with Autism -Third Edition. The course includes an Introduction module which gives some tips for productivity, goal setting and a brief introduction to autism.

The first module is Classroom Schedules. This module will talk about scheduling as you will cover weekly schedules, daily schedules, staff schedules, and student schedules. You’ll have an opportunity to create the schedules, which will take some time.

Module 3 will be Classroom Set-Up. We’ll talk about setting up the physical structure of the classroom and the many different elements that we need to consider when setting up the classroom. There is also a video about making the most of a small classroom space.

Module 4 is Organization. You will explore center organization and how to put all of the classroom set up elements together.

Module 5, which is Teaching Methods, will discuss various teaching methods. There will be three videos in this module that talk about teaching methods that you can use in the classroom. In some of the videos in this module, you will have an opportunity to create routine lesson plans, activity breakdown charts, and start a group lesson plan. (Knowing that it doesn’t all have to be done at once and that developing lesson plans is a strategy that you’re going to gain over the course of your first year or two.)

Module 6 will teach you about some supports for behavior you can implement before the behaviors happen. Additionally, there is information about different types of curriculums to use in the classroom.

Module 7, Cultivate Communication, is going to focus on visual supports for students so that they can receive messages and express messages for communication. This module is creation heavy. You will be creating a lot of visual supports to use in the classroom. (Having visual supports ready before school starts is one of the main things that my focus group of teachers said they wished was available to them when they first started teaching.)

Module 8 is called Collaboration. This refers to building your classroom team and building that base of support personnel around you. In this module, you will learn about ways to encourage teamwork, ways to collaborate, and ways to clearly get information to others. You will also learn about data collection, which is a way to communicate progress to parents and administration.

After all of that, we have our bonuses! Bonus 1 is the Teacher as a Leader Pack. In the Teacher as a Leader Pack, you will receive professional development that is pre-packaged so that you can present it. There are handouts that you can give out, as well as the PowerPoint presentation. It also includes a Professional Development Workbook for para-professionals. They can use it to gain knowledge about working in an autism classroom. In addition, you will receive an email sequence that you can provide to your team each month. The email sequence will be something that you can modify and change but it gives you a beginning point and some email prompts.

Bonus 2 is a Visual Communication Cards Bundle and this is a set of communication cards that can be printed, laminated and used to interact with students or to have them interact with you.



Bonus 3 is a set of templates! They are templates of pre-written starter forms to help you begin your writing on some of the standard documents that are used in Special Education. Reduce your paperwork fatigue with these partially started forms!!!!



Bonus 4 is a visual directions pop up resource. These are visual supports you can print out as directions and use for reading, math, science and social studies. They fold and will stand on their own.

Bonus 5 is a bundle of fine motor activities. These task cards, once laminated, will be perfect for beginning or struggling writers. This resource is from my TPT store! Included are cards for tracing horizontal lines, tracing vertical lines, tracing curved lines and more!

Bonus 6 is a set of mini books you can download that focus on social behaviors. The following topics for elementary school students are covered: going under the table, dropping to the floor, climbing, hitting and spitting behaviors

Gather These Things


What materials are needed to get the most out of this hands-on, make-the-things-you-need-to-run-your-classroom type of course?

-printer

-copy paper

-access to a computer or laptop (PowerPoint and Word were used for all editable downloads.) 

-laminator or self-laminating sheets

-adhesive strips or dots (ex. Velcro or Velcro alternative)

-scissors

-zippered baggies

-a permanent marker

-clear containers (for each student)

-folders or binders

-clear packing tape

-notebook

Email [email protected] with questions.

Here is your course overview.