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>> I'm Amy Caldwell, and I work
at Teams Crossing Elementary,

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which is an Orange County Public School, and
I teach pre-k ESC, so I teach ten students

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that have autism and they're
between three and five years old.

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So the students that I teach that are on the
autism spectrum they all come with IEP's,

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which is an individual education plan, and so
it helps us formulate their goals and the kind

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of academic activities that we need to do

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with them throughout the
year to make them successful.

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So there's four domains that we work with.

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The first one is curriculum and learning
environment, and the next one is social

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and emotional behavior, and
then we have communication

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and then also independent functioning.

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So we work through those four domains to
help prepare them for the next grade level.

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So in my case, I have some students
that are three years old that'll stay

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with me the next year, and some students
that are four years old and so I'm preparing

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to transition them to kindergarten.

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So the goal for us is that they'll be
in the least restrictive environment,

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so hopefully they would go to
the general education classroom

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for kindergarten in that circle.

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So in the pre-k classroom, there are a lot

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of interactive learning activities
that we do, a lot of hands-on.

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So when I'm planning for the day I make sure
that there's a lot of movement within our day

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to make sure that the students are
not sitting in one place for too long.

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They need to move a lot, especially
in the beginning of the year.

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Typically, they can only sit for 2 to 3 minutes,

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and by the end of the year
they can sit for closer to 15.

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So we're constantly trying to
build that throughout the year.

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So when I'm planning for the day, I take

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into account how long the students can
be actively engaged in each activity.

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So we start with different centers in the
morning that are more student directed,

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and then we move into a circle time
activity that's teacher directed,

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and then we usually have some
teacher directed center activities

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where we're working on their IEP goals.

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The students also get speech therapy during
the day, and we do that as a whole group.

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The speech therapist come in and work on
their IEP goals and communication with them.

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And some students have occupational therapy,
and we also work with a Special Olympics program

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to bring some of that into the classroom
as well, so the students have a chance

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to learn how to do things like that as well.