BACK 2 SCHOOL BLOWOUT---#2

As promised, monitoring sheet are on the agenda for today.  What special education teacher is complete without her monitoring sheets?  This is a tedious process for me year after year.  I think that for each of my 8 years teaching I have found new way to collect data.  Last year I found something that worked for me.

Here are a few steps to follow to create your own data sheets:

ACADEMIC GOALS:
I like to use easyCBM for monitoring math, reading, and fluency goals.  http://www.easycbm.com/index.php
This program gives you the ability to test, score, and generate a report online.
Sometimes, though, my goals do not match what is on easyCBM.  If this is the case, I use http://www.interventioncentral.org/.  This allows me some flexibility in making my own probes.

BEHAVIOR GOALS:
This is the tedious process I am talking about!  I finally decided to use a calendar like one seen here.

I use the calendar monitoring sheet with student's with behavior goals, but are not EBD.  I have a different process for those students (a little more involved).

Here is a visual of my behavior monitoring:  (I hope it will be of help while I try to explain my process to you)  :)   Please note: This is a pretend child and pretend pluses and minuses...all of the real ones are filed away in due process folders! :)  I just put enough data on here to try to make my idea make sense to you!

1.  I put the student's name at the top.
2.  I write out the student's benchmarks (1, 2, 3, 4) at the top.
3.  Along the side I write each class I monitor the student in (Morning Work, Writing, Reading, Math).  Then I use the good ole +/- system to note whether the student was displaying the behavior indicated in the benchmark.
4.  I use the notes sections and the back of the calendar for anecdotal notes.
5.  At the end of every week, I count the number of pluses out of the total number of available pluses to get a percentage.

EBD MONITORING:

For students labeled with Emotional/Behavior Disorders, I create a daily points program.  Each morning I meet with these students and we have a social group time.  During this time, we practice social skills, anger management, making friends, etc.  We also decide what reinforcer the student is work toward for the day and how many points it will take to earn the reinforcer.   The student places the desired reinforcer on my desk and can carry a picture of the object if wanted throughout the day as a reminder.  Below are links to my daily points sheets and summary sheet.  The summary sheet just gives me a good place to put my percentages.  I can look at the percentages quickly and look for ups and downs and patterns over time.

Daily Points Sheet
Daily Points Weekly Summary Sheet

In summary, I use an EXCEL sheet to make graphs of my data.  Graphs make the information easier to read for parents and teachers!  This is so easy to use.  The dates for this  school year are already plugged in on one axis.  You just type in the percentage for the week.  A running average is kept and data points are plotted on the graph!  A teacher from my previous school district developed this spreadsheet! Kudos to her!

So this is just a picture of it from my computer.  I could not get the EXCEL file to post on here.  (IF you know how...I would appreciate the directions).  :)   Until then, if you would like a copy of this, leave me a comment with your email and I will send it to you.  

I hope you found some inspiration here and that you find monitoring a little easier this year!  It doesn't have to be difficult and we all know it's not pretty, but it is SPEC ED!!!  Whew!!

Here's to a great new year and to hoping we don't all drown in paperwork!! :)

Kim