acardenas.weebly.comSocial Communication Services with Mrs. Cardenas - Blog

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." ~Albert Einstein Social Communication Services with Mrs. Cardenas Blog Lessons Resources Links About FAQ New Beginnings 8/1/2013 30 Comments I have now been in my new position as a Social and Emotional Learning Specialist with AISD for a month. I have learned so much in such a short time and I am truly inspired by my amazing team! Social and emotional learning has been my passion for many years and I am honored to be a part of an initiative that is impacting so many children! I have been thinking a lot about my blog and website as it was such a huge part of my previous position as a Social Communication Special Education teacher. I love sharing ideas that others can use in their classrooms and want to continue to have that dialogue with educators and parents from all over the country. My posts probably won’t be as frequent as they once were, but I am making a commitment to continue to post on this site. Who knows what it will evolve into, but I am just excited to share things I learn along the way on this new journey. I hope everyone can find some inspiration and know that the social and emotional work we do with children is invaluable and gives them the necessary skills to be successful in life and society. "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -Benjamin Franklin 30 Comments Wrapping Things Up! 5/24/2013 1 Comment Hi everyone! Wow, we are in the single digits of how many days left til summer! In social group, we have been writing our social stories for the kids to have over the summer. These books have a lot of information about Boone. Each group is deciding what they want their book to say on each page. Next week, I will be taking the students to meet their new teachers for next year. We will take a picture with their new teacher for their social stories. The social stories will come home on the last day of school. In Lunch Bunch, we have been practicing all the social skills we have learned this year through cooperative play and teamwork. Groups are playing table games or Wii Bowling. It is so fun seeing them interact positively with each other! I’m seeing such amazing social progress in them! I am a proud If you have any questions about anything, my door is always open! Come visit, call me or email me. This goes for the summer too! ~Angela Cardenas 1 Comment It’s Already May?! 5/8/2013 1 Comment Hi everyone! I know I’m a broken record always saying that time is flying, but it seriously is!! I can’t believe we are already in the last month of school! We have been busy in the SCORES room learning about Superflex’s new Power Plan and the new team of Thinkables that work with Superflex to help defeat the Unthinkables. Hopefully you saw these pages come home in the blue folder and had a chance to discuss them with your child. This week and next, we are working on creating a book of the 4-5 Thinkables that we personally feel that we need to "activate" more in our lives. Click here and scroll down to Thinkable Dream Team to see an example of the book we are making. Your child will be bringing their books home next week. When you see your child using these great strategies, be sure to positively reinforce this skill (ie. "It looks like you have Sunny Sun in your brain! That’s awesome! What great social thinking!"). When you see that they are needing to activate these strategies, using the Thinkable’s name is a good trigger to remind the student of what they have learned about the Thinkable (ie. "It looks like you are getting upset and Glassman is getting into your brain. Remember Rainbow Girl can help you!"). Supporting their social communication learning at home will help them to generalize skills in the various settings of their lives. This is the time of year that we start planning for next year. We take great care and thought for the placement of your child’s next class/teacher. Just like every year, we will be making summer social stories for the kids to have over the summer to read about Boone. I will take the students to meet their new teachers and take a picture. Please remember that this is a service that only SCORES kids have so I ask that you keep the information about your child’s next year teacher to yourself. Everyone else will find out their teachers in August. Last summer, I offered tutoring services. It went so well and I enjoyed seeing my students over the summer so much that I am going to offer this service again! My rate is $30 an hour. I can come to your house, you can come to mine or we can meet at a public library. My schedule is fairly flexible. I can tutor Reading, Math, Writing or anything else you think your child needs to work on. I can also work on social skills instruction if you would like them to get extra practice over the summer. If you are interested in this tutoring service over the summer, please let me know some times that work for you. I would like to know by the end of this month so that I can make sure to pack up some of my teaching materials to bring home for the summer. You are welcome to let anyone else you know that may be interested as well. I think that’s all for now! Please email or call me with any questions or concerns. Have a great May! -Angela Cardenas 1 Comment April Activities 4/15/2013 1 Comment Wow, the spring is flying by! We already only have 7 weeks of school left before summer! I hope everyone had a lot of fun at our Spring Carnival on Friday! We had a blast! Last week in social group, we started a new management system called Class Dojo. Click here and scroll down to Class Dojo to learn how we are using this system in the SCORES room. Next week, we will be STAAR testing again. Third and fourth grades will be taking Reading and Math. Fifth grade will be taking the Science test. If you have students in these grade levels, encourage them to be practicing their test anxiety strategies we learned about a couple weeks ago. In social group this week, we are working on Superflex’s Very Cool 5 Step Power Plan. I will blog about this next week. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know! -Angela Cardenas 1 Comment Back from Spring Break! 3/22/2013 41 Comments I hope everyone had a great Spring Break! The weather was amazing, wasn’t it?! I enjoyed time with family and we got to take Teo to his first carnival in Rockport, Texas where my parents live. Great fun! Andrea Ramirez, my student teacher, is in her "total teach" right now, where she is responsible for all lessons. I am still observing and working with students, but she is in charge of the bulk of the teaching. She is doing a great job!! This week in social group, we have been working on different concepts based on the grade levels: Kindergarten - Second grade social groups have been working on thoughts creating feelings. Click here and scroll down to "What is a Thought? (A Thought is a Lot!)" to learn more. Third - Fifth grade social groups have been working on test anxiety. With STAAR coming up, this is a very relevant topic to cover for these kiddos. Click here and scroll down to "Tyler Tames the Testing Tiger" to learn more. In Lunch Bunch, students participated in Conversation Tree. Most of the students have done this activity before so they were excited when they found out they were doing it again. Our topic was "spring brea" and students were able to tell stories and share their fun adventures from their week off from school! The kids had a great time. To learn more about this activity, click here and scroll down to "Conversation Tree". As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I’m here to help! -Angela Cardenas 41 Comments Wrapping Up February! 3/1/2013 0 Comments Wow, February really flew by, didn’t it?! I really enjoyed attending parent teacher conferences over the past few weeks. If I wasn’t able to attend your child’s conference and you would like to meet with me, please email or call anytime! We have been...