Teaching Functional Academics: Strategies for Generalization and Independence with Michela Laverty

📍 Welcome to the FAST 15 podcast, your go-to source for game-changing tips, advice, and motivational tools for special educators. Proudly sponsored by Specially Designed Education Services (SDES), the publishers of The Functional Academics program. Transform your special education classroom in just 15 minutes!

Introduction and Welcome
Host: Barb Beck https://sdesworks.com/about-us/
Guest: Michela Laverty, Professional Development Trainer at SDES

In this episode, Barb and Michela delve into the critical topic of generalizing skills outside the classroom, exploring Michela's experiences and strategies for making the Functional Academics Program more personalized.

Discussion with Michela Laverty on Curriculum and Teaching Methods

• Michela shares her initial experience with the Functional Academics Program and the need to personalize the curriculum.
• Emphasis on the importance of understanding and teaching skills in various ways, moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach.

Differentiating Instruction and Generalizing Skills

• Michela highlights the significance of differentiated instruction and practical examples of teaching the "Dollar-Up Method."
• Exploring methods such as whole group instruction, small group activities, and real-world applications to enhance comprehension.

Leveraging Community Resources

• Michela shares insights on leveraging community connections to acquire materials, emphasizing the importance of being open and building relationships.
• Practical tips for acquiring materials on a budget, from printable money resources to community donations.

Making Functional Academics as Functional as Possible

• The importance of aligning curriculum with the students in front of you, adapting to their unique needs.
• Encouragement to seek help from interested individuals by leveraging their support for specific projects or needs.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

• Michela encourages educators to stay open-minded, get resourceful, and not be afraid to ask for support.
• Emphasizes the dynamic nature of functional academics, requiring alignment with the current needs and abilities of students.

📍 A big thank you to Michela Laverty for her valuable insights. Tune in for more episodes, and remember, SDES is here to support you on your journey in special education.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Fast 15 podcast, offering game changing tips, advice and motivational tools for special educators designed to transform your special education classroom in a quick, 15 minute format. Our podcast includes authentic stories from amazing educators like you and is proudly sponsored by the publishers of the Functional Academics Program, specially designed education services. Join us as we endeavor to transform the landscape of special education. Hello listeners, I'm Barb Beck, your host of the Fast 15 podcast, and today we are very happy to ask Michaela Loverty, one of the amazing professional development trainers here at SDES. She dropped in to have a discussion with us specifically about generalization of skills outside of the classroom. Michaela Loverty is a passionate special educator dedicated to promoting inclusion and facilitating transition services. With a master's degree in curriculum and instruction and nine years of teaching in the classroom in Washington state, michaela has consistently worked to increase inclusive opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. She believes that acceptance and inclusion of people with disabilities should begin at home and in the classroom. She is committed to supporting districts and families in achieving this goal.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Let's spend this episode together, learning a little bit more about Michaela's perspective. All right, hello, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you? It's so good to have you on our episode of the Fast 15. I was talking to you and Suzanne Fitzgerald and we were talking about curriculum and how wow we do. We have a lot of resources for teachers and it's really well laid out, especially in the functional academics program. I need to branch out and make it my own as well. What's your experience with that? Not just yours, but the teachers and the situations that you're out training people because you are training in the functional academics program.

Speaker 2: 2:07

Yeah, for sure I can go back to when I first got the curriculum and went to the training and I got these goodies because no one teaches you how to run a life skills program in college and no one. There's no PD that I could go to I could know what to plan for. I was like, what do I do with these kids and how would I plan ahead and how should I structure my day? What do I do? The functional academics program really gave me that outline and a vision of where my kids needed to go and I joked because I came from a Gen Ed background. I was going to teach Gen Ed. That's what I was going to do. I said, oh, these are my common core state standards. It's really the standards that I'm building my program upon.

Speaker 2: 2:43

The curriculum we give you lesson plans to how to progress, monitor all these skills. There's a ton of IEP goals. We have all these things, but I'm not going to teach the dollar out method one way. I'm not going to teach banking words one way. I need to care more about the comprehension. How am I going to build that comprehension when I was going to college back in the day so long ago? The world changes Sure does. Differentiated instruction was like the buzzword back when I was in school.

Speaker 2: 3:09

How am I going to differentiate and teach this skill? A bunch of different ways. That's where I really had to think about how to generalize and build independent skills and dig deeper for my kids and how do I make it accessible for them. That's where I was going. I think疫 development was very strong in, even as far as the science.

Speaker 1: 3:29

We do get in the program a lot of flashcards and resources, but I know, if I've heard Suzanne Fitzgerald talk about one thing, it's that this is just to get you started, this is just to get you on the road, and so what are some of the things that you've done? Can you give some examples of the program and where you've taken it? Because you've taken it to some pretty creative places.

Speaker 2: 3:50

Yeah, I'm not a typical life skills teacher. I think because my mom was a Gen Ed teacher and she taught gifted students and because I thought I was teaching Gen Ed, I did a whole year of student teaching in Gen Ed. So I tackle teaching kids with diverse needs differently. So I'm using flashcards, I'm using digital task cards, I'm using a lot of hands-on activities and I'm really. So we're practicing the dollar rep method or we're practicing a comprehension of words, a bunch of different ways, and I really start with generalizing those skills in a couple of different formats. So I do whole group instruction and that's something that's not traditionally used in a self-contained classroom. Very often that's true.

Speaker 2: 4:29

And I get it. It's hard. How do I get all these kids at different skill levels to sit in one place and listen to?

Speaker 1: 4:34

me it's rough.

Speaker 2: 4:35

You better put it on the show. And that's what we are, number one we are put. We're actresses, that's right. We have to engage them and it's easy to take a lesson and say, okay, my severe and profound students aren't going to get this, so they shouldn't be around for it, or this lesson's too high for the or too low for this kid, and in reality, give me a lesson and I can make it accessible where any kid in the room is going to get something out of it.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Meet them where they're at and engage them with everyone else.

Speaker 2: 5:01

And that's not the only way we're going to teach kids. There's a time and place. So for the functional academics program we do direct instruction, where I'm taking my data and I'm taking it consistently, and then I'm going to go through and now practice whole group, small group, one on one. I'm going to do my three big components when I'm training. So three things that I really focus on when I'm differentiated instruction is I focus on. Change your method. So how am I teaching this? Change your medium. What am I using to teach this skill? And then change your setting.

Speaker 2: 5:33

Because my biggest pet peeve, these kids sit in the same place every day and do the same thing for so many hours, yeah, and when we go to practice it in the real world, they freeze because they haven't truly generalized that skill. So setting looks a bunch of different ways. What means changing desks in your classroom, changing who you're working with, changing from your classroom doing some work in the library? Maybe the setting can be really flexible. But those are the three things Change your method, change your medium, change your setting. If I'm using an example, can I give you an example?

Speaker 1: 6:03

Please do.

Speaker 2: 6:04

Yeah, we use a dollar up method as an example because it's the easiest. We like money. Yes, we do Change your method. Hands on.

Speaker 2: 6:10

Instruction is super important and when we're doing direct instruction with the functional academics program, we have the paper bills. We're going back and forth and we're doing discrete trials and that's great, but the dollars look differently and money looks differently. Now we have debit cards, we have virtual money. We need to really understand it in a bunch of different ways. So I will use the paper money, I will use real money if I have access to it. I'm thoughtful because these kids are quick and will take a dollar if they can. And then I use digital money. So I have pictures on Google's sides and then they can manipulate and have an interactive kind of thing with counting money. That way, I have used numbers to mean money and we really practice it a bunch of different ways.

Speaker 2: 6:55

So that, no-transcript, they are changing the medium. It means different things, changing the method. We practice one-on-one. I'll have whole group instruction where I have the money on the whiteboard and we do the lesson together as a group. Or we will go out in the community and we will do scavenger hunts and they have to find an item and then give me the dollar up. In that real-world setting we will go and buy something at lunch. If that student has the bandwidth or we have the money to do that, we will go, do a community hunting and actually put it into action and make a purchase. So we're practicing the dollar up method but we're also practicing making a purchase in the community. You're getting two and one Right and you really can do those skills a lot of different ways if you just allow yourself the open-mindedness to change your routine.

Speaker 1: 7:41

In all those different contexts you can be switching it up to where? Now watch me model it for you. Okay, now we're going to do it as a group together, and then we're going to have just one person go do the thing.

Speaker 1: 7:55

If it's making a purchase in the community or something like that. There's so many different things that you can do, but if you have, I love your model Because it helps you to put structure to every one of those things, to help you generalize the skill and to make it interesting and more meaningful in different contexts.

Speaker 2: 8:13

That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Hey listeners. Before we dive back into our conversation, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt thanks to the incredible team at specially designed education services for being the backbone of our podcast. Sds is on a mission to make a difference in the lives of students with moderate to severe disabilities, including autism. Their commitment to providing a top notch curriculum, training and consultation is truly commendable. They're the force behind functional academics, a curriculum that has made waves in special education classrooms nationwide. Whether you're a teacher looking for innovative resources or a school district seeking impactful training, sds has got you covered. To all the special educators out there, sds is here to support you every step along the way. A big shout out to specially designed education services making a difference, one classroom at a time.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Now let's jump back into our conversation. How about materials? How do you navigate that when you're maybe limited on resources? A lot of our teachers just don't have a lot that they have to work with. Then how do you continue to build? Maybe they can't even get really outside of the four walls of their school, but do you have some ideas around how to work with that limited material?

Speaker 2: 9:40

You have to really be open. If you're a life skills teacher especially, you have to be down to talk to people and start making connections If you want to build a program of your dreams. Right, and I've done. I didn't have my first year of teaching. I had no money on my own and then we had a really small budget. Being able to leverage relationships I had with people in the community, both the school community and the general community, has really helped me Really kickstart my material library.

Speaker 2: 10:06

First of all, when you're looking at materials, you are going to find people on Instagram, on Pinterest, that have done all these crazy stuff, and you have to go first refer, reflect and decide what am I actually going to use? That's step one. I love the idea of a Pinterest classroom. It's not going to be implementable for me because that's not the type of person I am. You have to figure that part out first. What materials will I actually use? Then you have to look at the staff that you have in the students. What materials do my students use or will they use, because there's a lot of really cool things out there my kids won't use. Or I had one kid in my classroom that wasn't safe to have because they would take them or whatever. So what is feasible to have in my room? First of all, money. We get the principal money from functional academics, so I just use those and that lasted me so nice, that's all created for you.

Speaker 2: 10:54

It lasted me forever and in the beginning, my first couple of years of teaching, I didn't have a lot of extra goody bags, but I did know the ASB teacher, and the ASB teacher has been teaching for a long time and she had all these extra tills that she used to use back in the day that were just sitting in storage. So I had the I think it's like a till or the drawer where there's space for the money. So I just started talking to people and if you don't talk to people, if you don't share what you're trying to build, if you don't talk about your kids, they're not going to be, they're not going to know about it and people want to help you, it's true, community members through those connections and then also buy nothing on Facebook.

Speaker 1: 11:30

Oh, there's just so many different resources that we can tap into.

Speaker 2: 11:35

I've gotten a lot of donations. I've had HelloFresh recipe cards I use. I have a lesson that I use those for that really digs into finding information and generalizing skills and I put on Facebook that I needed anyone who uses HelloFresh don't give them away. Send me the cards, because those are the best piece of environmental print I've ever seen in my life. So I saved those and I sent a mass email to my district my, not in my district, that's extra my school and I didn't send them very often but I said hey guys, this year I'm really collecting these hella fresh cards. If you have them, please save them. I had 300 Over and probably took me two months and I collected 300 and then I had those binders that I could use and now I have a library of materials.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Yeah, that's fantastic. One of the things that I really want to focus on with you is how, in each episode, we really want to anchor to making it functional get functional with all of the different things that we Want to teach our students in our life skills classrooms, in our functional academics curricula. How do we make sure that we're always keeping it functional, envisioning what they will be doing and needing in their life as. Independently as possible in the, in the community or wherever they're going to be.

Speaker 2: 12:49

So you're gonna want to look at that kid in the context of their support system, right, their life and their ability level, and think, okay, what is feasible for this student to do? And the word what do we want it? Where are they gonna be around, where are we gonna engage with? When I'm looking at materials, and I'm the queen of making sure it's functional first, functional for my emotional ability level, but also functional for the kid, right? So when I could go on a rabbit hole of creating something, because I can, but I need something that's useful.

Speaker 2: 13:17

So the price tags at Safeway, those are things that are already exist, that they go and replace and throw them away anyways. So I'm using as if they're real, or real used in the community. I'm gonna, instead of making my own price tags, I'm gonna go say, hey, girl at the Safeway, hey, it's a free manager, I teach life skills, I work with these kids. The best part is when you bring one with you, because they can't say no and then they'll donate them and then you have these resources that you can then use. So if any great idea out in the real world, that's what you want to start with. If you can create something that looks like it. That's the next best thing, but that's gonna require more work for you, yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Get resourceful Yep.

Speaker 2: 13:56

Don't be afraid to ask relational, get resourceful.

Speaker 1: 13:58

Yeah, don't be afraid to ask Anything else you can tell us or encourage us about making our, our functional academics as as functional as possible and as generalized as we can for the community.

Speaker 2: 14:13

Yeah, when you're looking at kit again, if it's working one year it might not work at the next year because your kids are gonna be different. So part of being functional really means aligning and relating to the kids that you have in front of you right there. So that's a big part. The other thing is a lot of people want to help you. They'll hear what you do and they are. You're an angel. Oh my gosh. You so good at what you should do. And that's my biggest pet peeve.

Speaker 2: 14:37

People tell me what I should do all the time and I said, oh my gosh, thank you so much for I'm so glad that you really what we're doing. I would be. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I would love it if you helped me network and get these free safeway price tags. So I turn around whenever people say that to me, I leverage their interest in what I'm doing and I say I turn it on them and I say I would love to do that eventually, but right now I'm working on, yeah, this project. So if you can donate these canned goods or these empty boxes of cereal so I have an actual, true environmental print, that'd be great, yeah that's good, good stuff.

Speaker 1: 15:14

Thank you, laverty. Thank you so much for joining us today and for your Suggestions, your encouragement. It's wonderful to talk to you, as always, and we're gonna catch you on the next episode I'll I'll be back, hopefully soon. Take care. A heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors, specially designed Education services, publishers of the functional academics program. Please take a moment to learn more about the only true, comprehensive functional academics program that enables students with moderate to severe Disabilities to improve their ability to live independently and show meaningful growth, both academically and personally, while creating accountability with data-driven, evidence-based results. Visit SDS works comm to learn more.