https://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/reward-systems/
This will be my 8th year of teaching and within that time, I have never used a reward system. The site I’m at however, has been implementing Positive Behaviour Intervention Support for about a year and a half. This approach uses both incidental and explicit teaching of expected behaviour, which ideally, decreases the negative behaviour […]
Communication Group: Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) use within the schoolhttps://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/communication-group-augmentative-and-alternative-communication-aac-use-within-the-school/
This year, I have inadvertently become co-chair of the newly established Communication Group, alongside my colleague Julie. We have been working closely with leadership, talking about how we can further encourage staff to model AAC communication to their students, what’s working, what could be improved and the logistics around the creation and distribution of resources. […]
Emergent Literacyhttps://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/emergent-literacy/
In this post, Emergent Literacy-Thinking about Writing Instruction, I was considering whether I was using best practice after observing the behaviour of one of my students, undertaking some online professional development on emergent writing and completing some assessment. Interestingly, the training I completed suggested that students did NOT have to know each letter of the […]
5 Highlights of 2018https://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/5-highlights-of-2018/
Can I just say that I actually really love this time of year? I like that the end of the teaching year forces me to stop, consider, reflect. Taken from this post, the following, in no particular order is my five highlights of 2018: One: Successfully teaching a class of students with much higher needs than […]
ProloQuo2go: Classroom Visithttps://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/proloquo2go-classroom-visit/
Since last year, one of the site priorities has been the implementation of an Augmentative and Alternative (AAC) system used across the school. We’ve had a strong focus on ProloQuo2go, with training from Jane Farrall and having low-tech (laminated core word page) available for staff to wear. This year, a focus group has been created and a […]
Modbury STEM PLC ~Thinking Technologically~May 23rdhttps://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/modbury-stem-plc-thinking-technologicallymay-23rd/
Overview As part of the STEM 500 project I spent Wednesday at Tea Tree Gully library with three lovely ladies from the Modbury partnership; Deanne from my site and Liz and Val from Ardtornish Primary School. Deanne and I both teach at Modbury Special School. Our students have an intellectual disability, the majority are on […]
Receptions Using ProloQuo2gohttps://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/receptions-using-proloquo2go/
It’s the end of Week 9 and I’ve been amazed at the progress that my Reception students have made using ProloQuo2go. One of these students is verbal, although this only began in December 2017, so his words aren’t always clear. The others I would consider pre-verbal as they are beginning to make vocalisations. Reading through […]
That “STEM Stuff”https://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/that-stem-stuff/
We are lucky enough at my site to have a Resource SSO, C. She creates Boardmaker visuals, assists with ideas for schedules and also makes activities that are relevant to the Australian Curriculum. At the end of last year, she was ordering resources through Woolworth’s Earn and Learn program. (This was a program where the school community […]
The First Week of 2018https://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/the-first-week-of-2018/
It’s the end of Week 1 with my new class, 5 of whom are new Receptions. My focus has been on establishing relationships with children and their families. I’ve written a letter introducing myself and my team, explained processes, answered questions and sent SeeSaw invitations home. I mentioned my availability and also gave parents my […]
Digital Technologies in Special Educationhttps://edufolios.org/kzagotsis/digital-technologies-in-special-education/
Planning and Co-Creating One of the targets I’d set myself after coming back from Educhange in September was to create a Digital Technologies differentiated unit plan for Term 4. I’d expanded on my limited knowledge of coding, robotics etc and the question I had-if it was possible to teach these skills to students with intellectual disabilities-had […]
