Rima Khoukaz

• I worked in an Intensive Learning Center servicing a class of 10 students on the Autism Spectrum with a wide range of cultural and social background and intellectual and communication abilities. Some of the students were non-verbal and needed an AAC device to express their needs and feelings.
• I worked with and trained a group of 5 paraprofessionals on insuring the safety of the students while pushing into their perspective general Ed classes, recess/lunch time and supporting them academically while working in reading, math, and writing centers.
• I created adult schedules giving a timely instruction to the paraprofessionals in terms of which students they will be responsible for and how to support them and in what context.
• I have coached and devised reading, writing and math instructions for the paraprofessionals to support them in working with the students during reading, writing and math centers.
• I modified lessons and curriculums to accommodate the needs and IEP goals of diverse learners in the classroom.
• I collaborated with a team of special education providers in order to create individualized plans optimizing student academic performance, social emotional well-being, behavioral issues and motor skills.
• I managed to improve the academic performance of 3 students and to increase their time in general Ed by attending reading, writing, and math contents.
• I scheduled conferences with parents to discuss students' progress and classroom behavior.
• I fostered student curiosity and interest through creative hands-on activities.
• I met with students, parents and administrators to address and resolve students' behavioral and academic issues.
• I developed and implemented classroom routines to address varying student behavioral needs through the use of visuals and social stories.

Resource Teacher and Special Education Teacher:

• I have supported teachers of all grade levels (Kindergarten through 8th grade) in assessing the individual needs of their students to determine effective educational interventions and to provide differentiation within the classroom.
• I have also provided Tier II and Tier III intervention in literacy and math to Title I students, students with IEPs and to pupils who were at least one year below grade level in reading and math. I used to pull them out of the classroom and work with them in groups or individually at the Learning Center.
• I used explicit instruction in phonics through the use of the Wilson Fundation program and Rewards program along with phonics games and online interactive activities in order to improve their decoding skills.
• I used the Next Step to Guided Reading Program by Jan Richardson, the Reciprocal Teaching method and the Close Reading methods in order to improve their reading comprehension and high critical thinking skills.
• I have used the Learning Ally and Epic.com platforms to assign audio books to students who are dyslexic and students with ADHD who struggle with decoding words and staying focused. I love using Learning Ally and Epic.com because they highlight the text as a synthesized voice reads the passage out loud to the students. Furthermore, Learning Ally allows the students to control the speed at which the synthesized voice reads the text. They can also change the text size, the font color and the spaces between the words.
• I have introduced my students to rewordify.com which is a website that clarifies a difficult passage by paraphrasing it using simpler vocabulary terms.
• I often use interactive educational websites and youtube channels such as Word Wall, Lexia, and Sight Words Youtube songs (Jack Hartman and Nimalz Kidz).
• When teaching math, I have used two different math Curriculums: Singapore Math program and Big Ideas which illustrate hypothetical math computational concepts by using visuals, animated illustrations, interactive games, and real life examples.
• I have always incorporated educational songs, visuals, math youtube tutorials (Math Antics and Khan Academy), graphic organizers, and math board games to help the students grasp abstract math concepts.

Middle School Math Pre-algebra Class:

• I have taught a small class of 8th grade students who were 2 to 3 years below grade level in math. These students struggled with basic math computational skills and had not mastered their math multiplication/division facts. Furthermore, some of them had an IEP and a 504 plan. I used the Math Big Ideas pre-algebra curriculum and complemented my instructions with math reference sheets reviewing and summarizing 5th and 6th grade math skills such as adding and subtracting rational numbers along with math practice worksheets in order to help my students strengthen their math computational skills.
• I have enrolled my students into Khan Academy which provides them with individualized instruction on the skills they are struggling with through tutorials and online math practice activities. I have incorporated into my lessons animated educational tutorials and interactive games on solving equations and inequalities, on ratios and proportions in order to make these math concepts more concrete.
• I posted on google classroom my math lesson notes, the math reference sheets, homework and sometimes math tutorials to enable the students with ADHD and executive function disorder to complement their class notes and review the concepts that were explained in class.
• When I gave them a quiz or a chapter test, I always did a review of the math skills they are going to be assessed on by creating a study guide and a review quiz which usually contains very similar problems to the actual quiz. I allow them to use their math notes and their quiz review sheets while taking the test.
• Some of these students experience anxiety when having a quiz or a test. I usually provide these students with extra time and allow them to take the test at different sittings and in a separate room based on their IEP and 504 plans.

RTI (Response to Intervention) Case Manager:

• I have worked with the RTI team in order to address the needs of students who were struggling academically and/or having social/emotional behavior problems. As a team we met with the teachers and the parents of the students and sometimes with the student in question in order to listen to their concerns and then together create a plan of action to help the student have a more successful academic year. The plan would include goals, strategies and accommodations tailored to assist the student to improve academically and/or to change the problem behavior.
• I have worked closely with Child Find at BVSD in order to refer some of our students for an evaluation and determine if they have a disability. For each student that is referred to Child Find, I would provide the BVSD special education team with a report of all of the interventions I have provided the student with and with all of my progress monitoring and assessment data. Over the 10 years I have been working at Sacred Heart of Jesus school, BVSD has evaluated around 20 of our students.

BVSD Substitute Teacher:

I taught Kindergarten through fourth grade classes and substituted for special education teachers in resource rooms at various schools throughout Boulder, Lafayette, Louisville and Superior.

Substitute KE/SAC:

I worked as a substitute for Kindergarten Enrichment and School Age Care at various schools throughout the Boulder Valley School district.

• Taught kindergarten, fourth and fifth grade special education students in a collaborative team teaching classroom setting and Kindergarten through second grade students in a self-contained classroom setting.
• Developed extensive classroom management skills and maintained exceptional interpersonal relationships with co-workers.
• Applied behavior modification techniques as a motivator for improving conduct and encouraging participation.
• Developed and maintained healthy and positive professional relationships with co-teachers.
• Applied curriculum based standards for ELA, Math, Social Studies and Sciences.
• Supported a balanced literacy reading program through the implementation of writing and reading workshops.
• Taught guided reading lessons in 4th and 5th grade Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) classes to model questioning, clarification, and problem solving techniques.
• Taught guided reading lessons in a kindergarten CTT and (K-2) self-contained classroom settings to foster the sense of print concept and model reading behavior to the students.
• Taught Wilson Fundation and incorporated research based educational games and nursery rhyme songs to improve the phonics skills and the phonemic awareness of the students.
• Taught Every Day Math through the use of manipulative and interactive group work.
• Led integrated social studies and science writing units in 4th and 5th grade CTT classes that allowed students to bridge the gap between real world issues and course material through library and Internet research, interviews, and creative writing exercises.
• Led integrated social studies and sciences writing units in a kindergarten CTT and (K-2) self-contained class settings that enabled students to express their sense of community and awareness of the physical sensory world they are living in through hands on experiments and interactive projects, drawings and labeling.
• Enhanced students’ academic and social growth by using varied teaching strategies and techniques.
• Included whole group, individual, small group and teacher modeling to provide a solid academic foundation and positive attitude toward education.
• Employed Kinesthetic, visual, and auditory approach through the use of diverse manipulative, literature, movies, fine arts, songs and theater production to encourage participation and allow students to take ownership of their learning.
• Integrated technology through the development of units that included computer literacy skills and adapted activities to meet the needs of individual learners.
• Assessed student performance through anecdotal records, student-teacher conferencing, peer evaluation, checklists, test results and student portfolio.
• Attended and participated in Special Education Staff Conferences and IEP annual Review Meetings.
• Conducted the formulation of Individual Education Plans, and generated quarterly report cards.