Emily Vaughn

April 15 Update:

● Collaborated with the head of the sped department before sending out form (class would be for
2022-2023 year). Paperwork for the new class will need to be done in November of 2021. Limiting
students to only within the SPED department, with at least a third/fourth grade reading level and
80 range IQ, --this is per the department head (so far these are our thoughts).
○ Note: there is an alternative school nested within our own, but they have their own art
program that is separate. This class would be for sped students that meet the
qualifications.
○ Spoke with counselor and principal about class, they are on board
● Sent survey out to SPED department https://forms.gle/rXDPBEFi1ZUnBcMJ6
○ Data: Not a ton of responses yet. Some of the responses were helpful, a lot were in
agreement with what was proposed so they didn’t offer any suggestions. *Still waiting on
more people to respond to survey*
● Reached out to our local National Teacher of the Year, Tabatha Rosproy, to get more play based
information. She isn’t currently teaching because of the national teacher things, but she works
with special education preschool children and has done a lot with sensory bins, imagination, etc.
Play at its heart is the same no matter what age.
○ She suggested the instagram account @theworkspaceforchildren and the book, The
Playful Classroom by Jed Dearybury
● Curriculum planning for a potential unit focusing on exploration and its many underlying themes.
(Rough notes below)
 ● I may change my mind about the big idea for the unit. I feel that exploration is too broad. Playing
with the idea of “spaces.”
○ Themes: home, private/public space, mental space, outerspace
■ Artists that work with the theme of home: https://art.art/blog/10-artists-on-home
● Play based activities Podcast--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyX-yApPOcc
○ Play, build, invent
○ Have a goal and structure, allow students to play and manipulate materials
(collaboratively and individually)
■ Next year, the students won’t have the option to be remote learners. My school is
working on creating an online school presence separate from “normal” in person
learning (so teachers won’t have to do double duty next year). Since this class
won’t be on the schedule until the following year, who knows what covid
restrictions will be/won’t be in place at that time. They also just lifted the mask
mandate in our county, but that doesn’t apply to the schools. We are still masked,
distancing, and teaching in person and remote simultaneously.

Things to work on:

● Analyze data in order to finish curriculum planning for a potential unit
● Paperwork for new class
○ Get signatures etc. so it can be approved (the finalization of this will take place in
November, but for the purpose of this class, I want to get the paperwork roughed in at
least so I don’t have to scramble in the fall)