Tanya Yay! You taught resource one full school-year and now it is time to wrap things up. Read on to learn about an example timeline and tasks that should be complete by the end of the school year in order to have data prepped and ready to go for next year. This simple to do list can ensure all tasks get done.
Start with the end on mind – at the beginning of the year, have your school create a timeline or plan of when the IEP’s, literacy testing, evaluations, report cards, assistive technology applications and resource reports should be due during each term. Deciding as a team at the start of the year can streamline and facilitate things for the year. Teachers will know what to expect – which makes our job so much easier.
To-Do 3 Months Before the End of School
Now is the time to submit assistive technology requests for the next school year. Schools sometimes have a deadline for this process, so be sure to check yours. By this point in the year, we re aware of the strengths and difficulties of the students and which can benefit from using technology to facilitate their learning.
Some reasons why elementary school aged children could use a laptop would be to facilitate story production (Speak-Q, Word-Q etc.)
To-Do 1-2 Months Before the End of the School Year
This is a busy time, so being organized helps. I like to start with end of year evaluations. I administer the ‘end’ of the DIBELS reading assessments to all students. The results help with the IEP updating later on. Any math testing should be done at this point as well. If you are new to assessing literacy, check out this short blog post for tips and tricks.
Once you have all of your data, it is a fabulous time to move on to updating IEPs. Be sure beforehand, that any other tests that are specific to certain goals are done as well. Updating the IEPs will be a breeze with all of the information you have collected.
Once the IEPs are complete, the last item I move on to is writing progress reports for each child on my caseload. Simply write a summary about what the child learned, where you left off, what progress was made and what the child needs to continue to work on. Share these with the parents, teachers and any other person involved in the child’s learning.
CONGRATS on finishing another successful school year!
Be sure to prep for the beginning of the school year by browsing through this beginning of the year checklist.
