TRANSCRIPT - Calendar Systems and Routines - What are they and how do we use them? Ð 9/9/24
 
>>Sarah: So today we're going to be talking about Calendars And Routines: What Are They and What Do We Do With Them. I am freshly out of the itinerant world and when talking with some of my former co-workers about, hey, I'm going to talk about this, what would be most beneficial? What thing that I heard was not only what is a calendar system or what is a routine, but how can we implement them or, better yet, how can we help our team have buy-in. So I'm going to touch briefly on what calendars are, what routines are, and then at the end I'm going to talk a little bit about ways that you can work with your team to maybe get some better buy-in, if that's something that you're struggling with. So with that being said, calendars. What are they? So calendars play an important role in supporting and expanding student communication as well as emotional well-being. So when we think about ourselves as hearing and sighted folks and we're growing up, we are able to learn a lot about communication and how people communicate around us, incidentally. Whether that's hearing our parents talk, whether that's looking at pictures, whether that's seeing a print-rich environment around us. Maybe it's gestures, pointing, maybe it's sign language. We're able to use and learn from both static and dynamic forms of communication, just incidentally throughout our day. But those students that we have -- that have more complex access needs, they are likely going to miss out on the opportunity to repeatedly see and hear others using symbols and objects in that meaningful way. So the calendar system, most importantly, is a systematic way to teach that concepts can be represented by forms. And then to move from a more concrete, so maybe starting with a real object, to that more abstract, like a tactile symbol or Braille form. And then the other piece that calendars are very helpful with is helping students understand how to use these forms, both receptively but also expressively. Sometimes when we go out on consults we hear, well, my student seems to understand what I'm saying or what I'm signing but we're not really seeing them use communication. Some of our students, they need to be directly taught that skill. And so the conversation that takes place during your time at the calendar really helps the student understand that communication not only happens to them but is something that they can expressively share in as well. Robbie Blaha says the calendars help students understand concepts like past and future. Calendars provide a way for our kiddos to anticipate what's coming next but also it gives them a way to revisit the past. Van Dijk talked about calendars and said without them our students are floating in the present. They remember things but they don't necessarily have a way to organize those thoughts and to communicate them so they can reminisce with others. And if you think about it, when we talk to our friends, when we talk to other people, what do we want to talk about? We want to talk about what we did. I went to the dentist today and the first thing that they asked me was, well, what did you do this weekend? So we like to talk about what we're going to do and we like to talk about what we've done. And so calendars is a way that we can engage in meaningful communication with our students in those conversations and help them understand that they can talk about what's going to happen and what has happened. So, having said that, in case you have -- you're new to calendars, what is a calendar? Well, very simply it is a symbol plus a time-frame. And that together equals a calendar. And there's a picture on the screen and it is one of our former Deafblind outreach consultants, and he is doing a calendar conversation with a student. And he is using pictures and he is using what looks to be sign to communicate about this student's weekly calendar. And then at the bottom you see a link for the OHOA module calendars and anything I have linked in my presentation, if you guys look at on the handout you'll find that link. If you are new to calendars and you want more information, I'm going to share information about the calendar book but the OHOA website, the open hands, open access website has a great module on calendars with videos and lots of pictures. So if this is something you're new to or maybe you need training resources for your team, that is a great option. But symbols. So before you start with a calendar, ideally the student should have a communication system. And this communication system is how we can determine then what the symbols are going to be in their calendar system. So, for example, if a student is using real objects to communicate about their day, we wouldn't want to give them pictures like the student is using. Because they're likely not going to have that connection just yet. And then we also want to take into account the student's understanding of time. And that's where that time-frame piece comes in. So, again, if we think about a hearing and a sighted student, they're able to attend to what is happening around them by seeing and hearing people's actions with objects. And just spoken comments. Maybe they hear the IA talking about how it's almost time for lunch and I need to get the lunches ready. I need to line up. This gives them cue of what is coming in their day and helps to develop anticipation about the future. Likewise, the actions, they are involved in the ending of an activity help them develop a sense of past and that things are finished. And so the calendar format is that time-frame that helps our students understand it's a concrete way to help them understand the meaning of those more abstract concepts of past that things are finished and of future, things that are to come. And so we're going to look at how you can determine your student's time-frame or their understanding of time in just a minute. Before we do that, in case you have never seen a calendar system, I'm going to show you a picture of those. So, oh, no. So these are three examples, although it looks like my monthly calendar picture is not showing up. But that's okay because in the handout there are links to all three of these. But a calendar system is highly individualized for each student. And it can range from a really simple format, which is the first picture that we see on the left. That's an anticipation calendar. And we have two baskets. One of those baskets represents what's going to happen right now and the other basket is for when things are finished. We are simply working on now and finished. In the middle we have a picture of a daily calendar. We see a yellow Calendar Box or sometimes people refer to it as a sequence box. In it there are real objects as well as a tactile symbol. The student obviously understands some of the objects in his move to a more abstract. It's a good picture because it shows you our students can be kind of in the middle. They can use a mix of real objects and tactile symbols. But that shows several moments in that student's day. If the monthly calendar picture were showing up, it's a picture of tactile symbols. But set up in a more traditional monthly grid. So the calendar system is meant to be really individualized for each student. And it gives the student information about what's going to happen next or what's going to happen within an entire week or the month. What's nice about a calendar system is we start at the very beginning with the most simple, with the anticipation. But we're able to, as the student gets more skills, we're able to slowly make the calendar system more complex to progress with them. So that we can start to expand those concepts of the future as they understand it. And we can start to show them more events that are going to happen and give them a chance to talk about it. It not only gives the students a very concrete way to understand about time but it also gives them a chance to understand that they can have control over the schedule, especially as they start to get into that daily calendar where there's some choice making. And then it's a great way to support conversations about the things that are happening in their everyday life, in school. They are interacting with those objects that they interact with throughout their day. So it's something that they will likely understand because it's objects and activities that they are familiar with. All right. So you may be thinking, okay, well, that all sounds well and good but how do I know what my student understands about time or what calendar system might be right. And on the screen there is a picture of the book. This book, I always refer to it as the Bible of being a TVI. I never went anywhere without it on my person, because I felt like I often needed it and needed to refer to it. But it is the calendar book by Robbie Blaha and on your handout there is a link. It is available for publishing -- I'm sorry. For purchasing through our website. And the link is in the handout. At the back of the book there is a form to help you and your team determine what time-frame is appropriate for your student and where can we start with designing it. I'm going to show you a picture of that form. And so it takes you through each variation for the anticipation, to the daily to the more advanced, like the monthly. It has guiding questions for you and your team. So basically, as you can see, there are some questions in bold -- or some statements that are in bold. And if your student doesn't have those bold statements, then that's where you stop. And so it's a very helpful tool because it helps you kind of see, okay, my student does have these skills but it also helps you and the team understand what skills you need to be teaching to help your student be ready to move to the next calendar system. What skills do they need to progress in that understanding of time. The other thing that's really nice about it, as we talk about buy-in a little bit more later, is if I'm the TVI and I come in and I say, well, we're going to use the calendar system and they need the anticipation calendar. And here it is. And I drop it off and I leave. If your team's never used a calendar, they're likely not really going to understand. So if we sit down as a team and as a team we're able to determine what skills our student has, then everyone has a little bit more skin in the game, so to speak. And so it was a group decision and not just me as the TVI coming in and saying, hey, this is what we need to use. It helps everyone understand what skills our student has and what skills we're working for and how the calendar can be beneficial. In addition to teaching time concepts, calendars support learning in a lot of other ways. It supports the development and the use of topics. Because as I mentioned earlier, the discussion, the conversation that you're having with your student when you go to your calendar system, it's taking place about things that the student is most interested in and most familiar with. Because it's the daily activities from home and from the classroom. It helps build anticipation. As we talked about before, our students with those complex access needs may miss incidental clues around them and the same can be true for cues about what's going to happen next in their day. But because we're using materials in a very specific routine when we come to the calendar, the student is able to understand what topic or activity the teacher is talking about and this enables them to share in a common topic in a meaningful conversation. It also helps to reduce anxiety, ambiguity, and uncertainty because we have an object to know this is what's coming next. And by reducing that it also then increases participation, feelings of success and coherence. That understanding. So if I come and I sit at the table and I don't know what I'm supposed to do, maybe I can't see what's on the table, maybe I can only see part of it. Maybe it's a new activity and I don't understand, that can be distressing. But when it's set up in a format I'm familiar with and the teacher is having a conversation with me, that helps me anticipate and that will likely help decrease some of those distressed behaviors and feelings. It also helps with reflection. The calendar provides immediate feedback in the student's effort to communicate. So as we sit down and we're having our conversation at the calendar, I'm giving one-on-one time to that student. And when they make an effort, whether that's through formal language, whether that's through a gesture, whether that's a change in affect, I'm right there with one-on-one and I'm able to give them that acknowledgment that I have received their communication attempts. And then, because we come to the calendar multiple times during a day, it's multiple opportunities during the day to have that interesting, organized conversation. So it helps build that vocab and being able to reminisce. And then lastly, it provides closure. And we all want to know how much of something we have left. We all want to know when we are finished. We all want to know when things are over. And so when we have a calendar system set up, that finished container, that marks the end and so that helps teach that concept of something is over. But it also gives that feeling of closure that I have completed it. And I know that I am done. It didn't just disappear. It didn't just go away. Other concepts that it helps to teach is just more vocabulary that's related to time, but it's those time words that can be difficult. Not only are they abstract and kind of ambiguous but they aren't terms that any of us like. None of us like to wait. So it helps teach the vocabulary for wait, maybe not yet or that something is canceled. It helps students understand the concept that something has changed. There's a change in the schedule. How many of our students hear we know their schedule and they're fine until it's time to transition or it's time to change. When we have an organized calendar system in place and the student is used to that routine, it can help support them in those changes but it's helping them to learn the vocabulary that surrounds that. And so it not only gives you the vocabulary to talk to them but it gives them the vocabulary to express to you and to understand. And then as they begin to understand these time concepts, then they can start to understand, you know, that it's distressing and how to process through that. Before I move into routines, if there's one thing that I would like for you to remember about calendars, it is they are not just a schedule. It can be really easy to think of the calendar as a schedule because sort of it is. Especially when you're in that daily zone where you have objects for all the things that are going to do throughout the day or through that section of the day. But when we think about a calendar or we think about a schedule as it's maybe used in like a life skills classroom, we think of it as something we want the student to go to and we want them to go and get it and we want them to be done. And the focus is maybe more on what they're doing next in that independence piece. But a calendar system is meant to be more than that. It is not meant to be a rote routine that they can sit and go through. That they know to get the next thing. It is really meant to be a conversation and a way to experience with those students the events that they are getting ready to do. And what happened as they did it. So really a way to prepare and then a way to review and have that reflection. Okay. Now I'm going to talk a little bit about routines and then we'll talk about how we can implement both of these things with our teams and in the classroom. Actually, no. That's a fib. Before we move to routines, I have one more quote that I want to share with you. This is one of my ultimate favorite quotes and it comes from a book called remarkable conversations. And it is very hard to find these days but luckily I have a copy from when I went through the VI program. This is a quote from Barbara Miles. And she says every child who is Deafblind, at every moment, is already expressing himself. What he needs is someone who will receive his communication skillfully and enter into conversation with him. Out of that conversation will grow relationship and language. So just a reminder that it is more than a schedule. It is really meant to be a conversation and it's through that social aspect that our kiddos are able to learn communication but also about how to have meaningful relationships and language. So super important. Okay. So now we're going to talk about routines. But before we do, I would like to point out there is a picture on the slide of a book. Sensing and learning. The guidebook assessment forms and routines. If you have been in the field for a while you are likely familiar with the kit and last year Millie Smith and Stacy Chambers released an updated publication and if you Google the book, APH has some resources with videos where Stacy and Millie talk about the book and explain what's in it. But if you're not familiar with this book, I would highly, highly, highly recommend it. It is focused more towards routines for students that are sensorimotor learners but the information is great and really can be, as far as how to write routines and how to take data, you could use for a lot of students, especially if it's something that you are new to. And it's very well written. It's a nice read. It makes things very understandable. I'll be referencing some things from their book as we talk about routines. So, routines. What are they? Why are they important? Routines increase predictability while reducing stress and anxiety. They build anticipation for the next step as well as the end of an activity. And they give structure and meaning to actions and events. And you may think, well, that's funny. That's a lot of the same skills and concepts that you just talked about with the calendar. That's true because if you think about it, a calendar system really is just one example of a routine. And we use routines in classrooms all the time. Kids come in and they know they have to do what? They have to hang up their backpack, they have to sit at their desk, do their bell warmup, whatever. As teachers we love routines and there are a lot of routines built into our classroom experiences. But with our students that have those complex access needs, we can really use routines to teach skills and to teach about communication. And on the slide, before I move on, there is a picture, and it's actually going to show up again in another slide. But it is a snack routine that we taught one of my students. There is a purple sequence box with three slots. In the first slot is his yellow plate. In the middle slot are the crackers. In the last slot is a jar of peanut butter. And so we were working with the student on understanding that snack doesn't just appear from the sky. It's something that we make and the steps in making a snack. And we're going to look at some more examples of routines in just a second. So, a routine. They need to have a clear beginning. They need to have a series of steps that occur in the same way in the middle. And then, again, we like closure. We need to have a clear ending. Again, we want to know when things are done. If somebody just put this plate and these crackers and peanut butter on the table, I might not know where I'm supposed to start. I might not know how many crackers I'm going to get. I might not know when I'm done. But when we can organize it in a left to right procedure, it helps our students understand. And, again, it can release that stress of not knowing. The other thing that's important about a routine is it's important that it happens the same way each time an activity occurs. That helps build that predictability. If I take a student to the bathroom and we have a bathroom routine and Susie takes the student to the bathroom and does it in a slightly different order, it's not necessarily a routine because the student isn't able to understand what's going to happen next if we're not using the same language and the same order. And so you may say, okay, again, why is this important? And the example that I like to use is I am a loyal Android user. Many a friend has tried to concert me to the world of Apple because I am the dreaded person in the group text that messes up the colors of the text. I know how to use a phone but when someone hands me an iPhone, I am so confused. The buttons are different. We all know how to use a computer and a phone but when we change that layout slightly, it slows us down and makes us have to think about what we're doing. We lose that efficiency. The same is true for our students. If you think about it, maybe they don't understand the language that you're using just yet. And so that could be confusing. Maybe they don't understand the steps. Maybe we're trying to teach them a new routine and they're not sure what's going to happen next. Events and things that seem routine and ordinary for us, like getting a snack, making a snack and going to the bathroom, that can be really overwhelming for a student who doesn't completely understand what we're asking of them. Or maybe doesn't feel like they have control in that situation. So when we can take those tasks and we can do them the same way in a routine way, in routine steps, it really gives them that predictability and it also gives them consistency. And when we have consistency and we know what to expect, that lowers stress. One thing that we know about learning, as we're learning more a and more about the brain, is our brains can't learn when we're stressed out. But when that stress is lowered and we understand, then we're in a place that we're able to practice and we're able to strengthen those neural networks that we need within our brain to learn and to do a new skill. So they're really important to help support our students with that learning. How then do we create a routine? First thing we want to do is we want to think about what skill we want the student to learn. And then we want to think about things that the student enjoys. And we want to try to link the two together, if we can. Because if we think about it, we're all much happier learners when we're doing things that we enjoy. And so once we picked out the skill and we decided we're going to teach them to do whatever that might be, then we want to think about the steps that it takes to do that skill and make them into the steps of the routine. And the routines should really be a consistent way for your student to practice cognitive, communication, and motor skills. And there is a quote from the book that I really, really enjoy. It's on the bottom of the screen and it says: Routines are not passive rides in which adults do everything. They are learning activities in which a clear expectation for learner participation is present. And so it's kind of like what we talked about before with the calendars. We don't want to just send them to the calendar to get the next thing and to go and do it. We don't want them to just sit at a table and do a routine. It's really about them understanding what they're supposed to do and being able to participate. If I'm hand over hand guiding the student through it or I am maybe it's a toileting routine and I'm doing that to them, they're not really learning. They're just kind of a passive participant. Another thing to think about then, when you think about the skill and the steps of the routine, is depending on your student and where they're at, routines may not always be an independent task that they're going to do. It may be just about the student understanding the steps that are involved and being more of a participant. Or maybe they have the ability to be independent but maybe it's a five-step routine and right now they can only be independent in step one and two. It's okay to go slow and meet the student where they are. The important part is you're building that relationship and you're building that participation and they're learning the steps of the routine and they're learning how to do it. The other thing that can be helpful to keep in mind when you're thinking about the steps of the routine is that you don't want like a 57-step routine. Even if in your mind it takes 57 steps to do that, it's probably way too much for the student to remember. You only want as many steps as you think the student is going to be able to remember. That might look like chunking. That might look like doing part of the beginning or the end of the routine for them. But you really want the student to be able to remember the steps of the routine. 

>>Kaycee: Sarah, this is Kaycee. We got an interesting question in. You mentioned that you do calendars from left to right. Are there times it might be done in the other direction? And the person who asked was thinking about students who arrive from other countries or other cultures who may be used to doing things in a different order. 

>>Sarah: That's a really good point. And I think that comes back to the meeting the student where they are. For example, this is a bit of a rabbit hole. But when we think about language. Sometimes our students maybe use a gesture and we know that gesture means "more." But we meet them where they are with that gesture before we try and shape it into something more formal. So I definitely could see if a student came in and they understand. But, yeah, they understand going from right to left or they understand -- and maybe you want to shape it and you want to change it. But if that's what they understand and you just will know here we are. We're going to work from left to right. You're likely going to throw them off and that's going to be a point of distress. It is important the team understands the student. I'm actually going to go to the next slide for a moment because along those same lines, it's really important if you can document the steps of the routine. And so if for that student the student needed to start on the right and go to the left, that would definitely be something that you could document on your routine sheet so that everybody that worked with that student knew that's what you were doing so that you didn't have a sub or somebody who maybe only comes in on Fridays, that did it wrong and threw off the student. Yeah. That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. So I did change the slide. On the slide is just an example of a toileting routine. And you can find, if you need example routine sheets, you can e-mail us here at the project and we can share them with you. There's no right or wrong way. Whatever makes the most sense for you and your team is fine. But documentling the steps really helps because everybody can refer back. This is just a sample that has three columns. The first column is activities. Checking schedule, walking to bathroom, getting the diaper. The middle step is -- I'm sorry. The middle column is the concepts of the routine but it's what we expect the student to do. What's interesting about this one is within the square there are multiple options. So, for example, the first activity is check schedule. In the steps we point to diaper and the second step is hand under hand pick up the diaper. Where that can be helpful is maybe on a good day the student is able to get the diaper but maybe the student has seizures and if they're having a rough day, maybe they're going to need some more support or they have experienced some distress and may have some behaviors. When we have the steps scaffolds, it helps them know where to go and not just doing it to them mode, that sometimes happens. And then the last column is the phrasing to use. Again, when we have those emergent communicators that are still working to understand formal language, it's really important that we're all using the same vocabulary. If I say, are you ready to go to the potty? And the teacher says, we're going to go to the bathroom. And the O&M comes in and says let's go to the restroom. That's three different words for the same place and the student might not understand so it's really important that we're all using the same symbols and we're all using the same vocabulary. So, again, we reduce that stress and make it clear and easy for them to understand. Oh, and the other tip that I have around routines and documenting them is put them everywhere. I always am a big fan of a Google Drive. Have it electronically in a Google Drive. Have it in a binder, so if you have that person who likes paper. But we also like to post them in the area the student was doing the routine so that if it's a new routine or new person doing the routine, you can look there and remember, oh, yeah, that's what I'm supposed to do next to help with that consistency. The other tip is if you can record the student doing the routine, the person who is implementing it and the most familiar and the most confident, then you can put a QR code on the bottom and if somebody comes in new to work with the student -- or it's a new routine so people are still learning. Real fast they can watch it before they pull the student to do the routine and make sure of that consistency. It's also nice because you can see the progress. Likely the student is going to understand and be ready if for you to change it up and add more steps or make it more difficult. And it's fun to see the student progress. Okay. So hopefully I have sold you on calendars and routines and how wonderful they are. They are my favorite thing to talk about, if you can not tell, as I'm talking really fast because I'm really excited. If you have more questions, my e-mail is on the handout. You can reach out to me or any other member of the team and we would love, love, love to talk with you all about it. But I would like to talk a little bit more now with the last part of my time about how to implement them and how to get buy-in with your team. I have hopefully sold you on the need for them. So how do we start? If you're the TVI or if you're the TDHH or COMS, you're likely itinerant and not in the classroom all the time and so it's probably not going to be you who does the routines all the time with the student. Maybe teaches the routine or helps get it implemented but you're likely not there all day every day. First we need to find time in the day when there is somebody available to work with that student one-on-one. Maybe they have an intervener or para devoted to them. Obviously we don't want to pick a time when nobody can do the routine with the student. The next thing to remember is it could be helpful, especially if you're coming into the classroom that's not your own, if you can find routines that can fit into existing activities that they're already doing in the classroom so it's not just one more thing that has to be done. Like I said before, they probably have a hang up your backpack routine that all of the students do when they come into the classroom. Is that the most important skill you want your student to learn? No, probably not but it's something that happens every day and there's a lot of cool things you can do with your student during that time that makes it a meaningful routine. You need to model and you're probably going to have to model some more. A lot of times we get staff members that have never had a student with complex access needs and they're not sure what to do. So they really, really, really, really need us to show them, show them, and then show them again. And then lastly, use your sensory team. We're not an island. We're not alone and it's not our sole responsibility so when we get the team to come together, that's just more people that can support you in the modeling, but that's also more people that can support you in creating the routines and helping you with all of those things. We want to coach our partners so that they can also do the routines. And we want to be able to role release. But the important thing about role releasing is we do want to stay involved and observe the routines and we want to make sure that that consistency piece isn't lost once we take a step back. But also, again, the student will hopefully start to learn the steps of the routine and then will be ready for us to make the routine more complex or add in more skills. So I mentioned the sensory team. Before I talk about this slide, I do want to make a plug for TSBVI. We have an intervener training coming up in October. It is designed for the sensory team, if you have a student who is Deafblind, for the TVI, for the TDHH, for the COMS, for the intervener, for family. Anybody working with the student. And when you come, we talk a lot about calendars, about routines, and about planning. And we have time for you to work together with your team. So if this is something that you are interested in, I think Kaycee was going to put the link in the chat. But, again, you can e-mail us and we will gladly share more information with you about that. But, yes, use your sensory team. And we have a handy dandy form. It's actually not from us but we have stolen it and we hand it out. There's the handy dandy form called the team management plan and it can be really helpful in getting your team organized at the beginning of the year. And we talk about core team members, which would be like the TVI, the TDHH, and then those extended team members, which are maybe those team members that don't see the student all the time or don't have direct service time. And we look at who they are, how often they see the student. And then who is going to be responsible for assisting the teacher with developing lesson plans. They look at communication, the ECC. But the other piece that can be helpful is thinking about routines. Who is going to help write the routines and who is going to help implement the routines. Because, again, it's not just one person. And, if you do have a teacher who is resistant, which we'll talk a little bit more in a minute, when there's more than one person that can speak to the importance of calendars and routines, that can help as well. One of the things that we did, when I was still an itinerant with my sensory team, is we created an Excel sheet and it was kind of like a wish list. We had routines that we had already created for the student, implemented, and then we had routines and skills that we wanted to get to. But in the Excel sheet we kept it in the Google Drive so anybody could look at it, no matter where you were. It helped with efficiency of planning because it was a live document that you could refer to, even if you weren't having a meeting. We kept track of the routine, who was going to write the routine, and then who was going to implement it and when they were going to implement it. That helped because maybe it was a routine created by the OT and she wanted me as the VI to come and make sure that the student had visual access and whatnot. Then I was able to see what days of the week and what time she plans to come and do her time and work on the routine. And so work smarter, not harder. If you can not only share the responsibilities of writing the routines, but you can be organized and tracking how you're implementing them, it really helps the team work together to get those things established within the classroom. Okay. So what if I agree that calendars and routines are fantastic. And what if my team is mostly on board. But I'm really struggling with buy-in. I have a few scenarios for you and some things that you can try to do. But the thing that I want to lead off with is to keep in mind that we all know. The classroom teachers have a lot. They have a lot going on. They're often short staffed. So when you're just one more person coming in with one more thing for them to do, it can just feel like they don't have the time for that. And they probably, honestly don't. But when they can start to see results, then they are likely going to be more inclined to participate or to, like, be willing to give you a para to role release to or, you know, what have you. Very likely you and the sensory team are going to have to carry the load initially to help get that buy-in established. And that's okay. Do we always have time as itinerants? No. Our case loads are ginormous too but if we can take that time initially and work together as a team to divide and conquer, you're probably going to get buy-in from that classroom staff faster and more efficiently because you're preteaching those skills and it's less that they have to come along and support. So, having said that, what if your teacher just doesn't want more new or different activities to do within their day? Well, again -- I mentioned this before. Try to work with the existing schedule, especially at the beginning. If you can find those times in the day when they're already doing something, the student probably goes to the restroom multiple times a day. They probably have several times a day when they're eating, whether it's breakfast, snack, lunch. If you can work routines into those times when those activities are going to happen no matter what, you're not adding to their day. And even -- this one was hard for me. Don't change activities, even if you don't like them. Sometimes the activity that the teacher wanted to start with or the time of day they felt was best for a routine was not what I would have picked. Or the way they wanted the student to do it is not exactly how I would have structured it. But it's okay. That's okay. Start where they are, obviously, as long as it's safe. And then as you, again, get those skills going and they're accepting, then you can work on adding in the things that are maybe more important to you. Sometimes we have to take a step back and meet them where they are and knowing it will get us further in the long run. The second column talks about what if my student's class is more about caretaking? We see this sometimes too. The student is very safe. Everybody loves the student. Loves the student. Cutest kid in the classroom. They want to help him. They want to help them with their snack. It's not about -- but they're helping. It's a lot of caretaking. We want to stress student participation. This kind of goes back to that independent piece. Sometimes when our students are at a place where they're going to be independent in their routine, that's where that caretaking takes over. Even if our student can't be independent, they can learn to anticipate and participate. Maybe they are completely able to take their diaper off but they can lift their hips. Again, self-care tasks that happen every day. Those are great places to start with a routine. And then there's probably some staff in there that would maybe welcome the chance to do a little bit more. So if you can find those paras and get their buy-in, then you can start move the caretaking piece to implementing those routines. What about the watchers? This happened to me a lot. I felt like I would get the watchers. I would design a routine. I would start using it in the classroom. Staff thought the routine was great. But they weren't doing it when I wasn't there. When I was there, they're watching and they're plotting. They weren't doing it. They were the watchers. Where do you start with that? Well, sometimes they just don't understand what you're trying to teach or why. So having that conversation as you're doing the routine and as they're watching so they can understand the purpose. Maybe they have questions. Maybe, as they're watching, they see ways that they think that they could help you improve the routine. Again, having that conversation and getting them to come a little closer with their watching and maybe start to participate. And then as the student starts to demonstrate success, maybe they would be willing to do the routine when you're not there. Maybe that starts with them doing it with you when you are there but a lot of times the watchers, you can turn them into doers. You have to draw them in. And then the last one I'm going to talk about is probably the biggest one, I think, that we face. And that's the idea we have to work on academics. Routines aren't academics and that's just not true either. And I referenced the learning book, they have a lot of information in their book about what the law says about addressing those developmental needs. The actively learning website has a lot of great information on that as well. But I challenge you to maybe think about what academics really means and can look like. And so any skill that is not academic and is part of the routines of everyday living, that's considered functional. That comes from IDEA. And then functional skills are the skills that help us make our students better consumers of the help that's provided to them. Again, going back to that independence piece. If we can help our students to just be able to participate more in the help we're giving them, we're still teaching them very important skills. It's really important that we have high expectations for functional performance for all of our students. Even those students who do require a lot more levels of assistance throughout their day. We can't necessarily measure functionality just by independence. Those skills that we teach in the routine, they're still very important and our students deserve to be taught them. So what if we thought about academics looking more like teaching skills that allow our students to understand what's going on around them so they're not just passive participants in random events throughout their day. But instead they are active and they are engaged. It's really important that we take a look at that academic time and we make sure that it is functional and that it's meaningful for all of our students. And a lot of times that is starting off with those functional skills through routines. There are two documents that are linked in your handout. I'm going to show you what they look like just real fast. But if you do have a student where routines are maybe more important right now, we're still working on teaching them those concepts. We're still working on teaching them that language. They're not ready yet to access those really high, you know, grade-level academic concepts. There are still ways that we can target academics to make it look for functional. The first one is the infused skills assessment. This one takes those functional skills that our students need before they're going to be able to understand and participate in those academic concepts. But they do tie it to the academics. So you can see over on the side it talks about, in this case it talks about communication. But then it ties it to writing. And so for some of our teachers that are more -- or maybe they're getting pressured from their admin to tie it to TEKS and to tie it to those academic areas, the infused skills assessment can be really helpful as a team looking at it and figuring out how to tie that to those more quote, unquote academic pieces. And the other one is the vertical alignment document. Your teachers are most likely very familiar with this but they have updated it now to where it goes all the way to skills, birth, infant, toddler, and 3-year-old. You may have students where you can do that alignment all the way down to those more basic functional skills but you're tying it technically to a TEKS and academic area. I was worried. I told Kaycee I'm going to talk really fast or run out of time. I feel like I could say a million more things and I'm still running out of time. I will share -- you have the references to the things I referred to in my handout. With that, that is my e-mail address. It is in your handout. I feel like I talked really fast about really important things. So please, please, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. We on the team would be more than happy to talk more about what calendars and routines look like or how they can work for you and your team. You just need to reach out and we're happy to answer questions. I'm going to stop sharing my screen. Hopefully. 

>>Kaycee: Fabulous. Thank you, Sarah. And I put in the chat, for those of you who are not in Texas, if you were wondering about the acronym TEKS, those are our state standards here in the State of Texas. But even if you're not in Texas, that vertical alignment document, like Sarah mentioned, goes all the way to birth now. It came out last year or maybe the year before. It goes all the way down to birth. So you can take any standard for any kid in any grade level and align it all the way down to birth. Even if you're not in Texas and your standards are different, it could at least be a good guide for you to start thinking that way and thinking about how do we teach this academic skill at a lower developmental level. All the way down. Check that out. If you haven't looked at it lately, it's very different and it's really awesome. So that is there.