Are you a teacher struggling to teach open and closed syllables to your students? Do your students seem confused and frustrated with their vowel sounds? No worries! In this post, I am diving into simple and effective strategies to teach open and closed syllables with ease. I know that teaching
Do you have a student who is really struggling with mastering their IEP goal for multisyllabic words? Some skills can be so tricky to get. Many students look at two syllable words and just completely shut down because they don’t know where to start. By explicitly teaching the rules of
IEP goal tracking can be such a headache! In college, maybe you learned how to set measurable IEP goals, but did you learn how to create effective systems for iep goal progress monitoring? Well, I didn’t learn that in college. Having great systems for IEP goal progress monitoring is
It’s time to think about paraprofessional appreciation gift ideas! I am sure every special education teacher can agree that paraprofessionals are absolutely life savers. I have found that there is no way to sustainably run a special education classroom without those amazing support staff. Paraprofessionals support students’ academic, social,
Are you looking for examples of lesson plans in special education? Creating lesson plans for special education students doesn’t have to be a daunting task. From visual aids and hands-on activities, to cooperative learning and problem-solving exercises, there are many ways to engage learners in unique lesson plans specifically tailored
Creating data sheets for IEP goals can be a challenging task, but it is essential for tracking your student’s progress and ensuring they are meeting their academic and behavioral goals. This guide will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to create effective data sheets that will help you measure
Do you remember your student teaching experience? If you were lucky, you had a few field experiences before your last semester. I’m sure we all remember that mix of nervousness and excitement on the first day when we walked into the classroom we would be teaching for the next few
Creating effective IEP goals for behavior can be challenging. To ensure that your IEP is effective, you will need to include goals that are measurable, achievable, based on sound evidence and data-driven, and tailored to the needs of the individual student. Our five strategies will help you develop attainable IEP
Tools for progress monitoring are a necessary component of any special education classroom. Every special ed teacher knows how critical it is to have systems for progress monitoring. Imagine trying to bake a cake for your sweet Nana’s birthday. The only problem is that you have no recipe. That’s okay,
I used to regularly cry at work as a learning support teacher. I never cried in front of my students, and I think I only cried in front of my administration one time. But sadly, crying at work was a regular thing. Now let me just say that I
Are your students struggling in math? Do you need to spice up your math block? In my cotaught 2nd grade class, we need to be super intentional to teach prerequisite skills and also maximize our time. We need to get the most out of our spiral review math routines. Today,
Do you have a student with a decoding IEP goal and no idea what to do? Girl, I have been there. I don’t think I ever heard of decoding before I became a teacher. Obviously, I learned how to do it but I definitely didn’t know what it was. I
What do teachers really want for this holiday season? If you are searching for the best teacher gift ever, it can be hard to know where to start! Our teachers work so hard to support our children’s needs every single day. While gifts are not expected, they are definitely appreciated.
This parent teacher conference form has taken the stress out of conference season. I used to dread preparing for over thirty parent meetings. In my first job, I just joined the conference that was scheduled by the classroom teacher. Since I was working with five grade levels, I had to
Are you reading to get started with an innovative IEP goal tracking sheet? Let me guess, you are exhausted from lesson planning, faculty meetings, team planning meetings, professional development, IEP meetings, department meetings, MDE meetings, parent conferences, legal training, extra curricular activities and supervision meetings. Plus, you just got a
Do you want to know why I use math review games in my classroom? Imagine it’s the beginning of the school year and you are staring at a list of 25 names with letters indicating B for Beyond level, O for On level, and A for approaching level. That’s all
Did you ever have an assignment in college where you had to write a detailed lesson plan? Let’s be honest, I am sure you had this assignment in almost every single one of your education classes. I’ll bet each lesson plan was anywhere from two to five pages with detailed
I don’t do clip charts. It’s shocking I know. I have worked with so many teachers who swear by their clip charts for classroom behavior management. If it works great in your classroom, that is awesome. You go girl! However, I see some major problems in clip charts in
Behavior IEP goals are basically like spiders. Hear me out here. Spiders are scary. As soon as you see one, the reaction is immediate. You know that spiders are supposed to be good because they get rid of other bugs that you also don’t want crawling up your arm. But,
Confession time – I barely have a classroom library as a resource room teacher. Okay, give me a second here to explain. It is not that I think reading isn’t important. Obviously, giving students access to a variety of books is a very big deal in an elementary school. Let
Are you wondering how to stay organized as a special education teacher? Progress monitoring in special education can seem super overwhelming at first. There is so much to do and so many documents to keep in order. Finding a system to organize your progress monitoring for IEP goals is essential
What is progress monitoring in special education? Why is it important? Why are special education teachers always complaining about paperwork and data sheets? Let me just start off by saying that I am not exactly the running type. It is not that I can’t run, it’s just that if I
Are you struggling to find end of the year craft ideas for 2nd grade? After giving literally one million assessments that all need to be given one-on-one and are all coincidentally due in the same week, is it any wonder that we teachers are completely exhausted? Oh wait, I forgot
Did you know there are 6 different syllable types? Before I started teaching learning support, I had NO IDEA about teaching students to read through syllable types. The English language is so complicated with so many rules and rule-breakers. If you have ever wondered what are closed syllables, let’s break
In special education, paperwork and progress monitoring data collection can be a nightmare. There is so much to balance, especially with large caseloads. Organization is key! A few years into being a learning support teacher, we needed to start graphing our data digitally. Voila! These graphs were created! Here is
Do you ever get the Sunday scaries? You know, that horrible feeing that you need to cut your weekend short because you don’t have lesson plans ready, behavior charts need to be printed, and you have no idea what progress monitoring needs to be completed. It is the WORST! Do
