Many kids and young adults struggle with executive functioning challenges. Some are easy to spot, such as when a student can’t focus on a lesson or comes to class without their entire binder. Other EF challenges are less obvious, though. A learner might take two times as long on homework because they don’t understand strategies […]
Top Websites Every Special Educator Should Know
Special educators need a pretty large toolbox of strategies and resources to support our learners. So often, our students can have significantly diverse needs and levels. On any given day, special education teachers might need to take student reading data, modify a math assessment, teach science with hands-on experiments, collaborate with regular educators, meet with […]
12 Reasons Why Special Educators are Really Superheroes
As special educators, we might not be able to read minds or fly, but we certainly are superheroes in action. Whether we are teaching a lesson or running an IEP meeting, special education teachers go above and beyond to help those in need and do what is right. Here are 12 reasons why special educators […]
An Open Letter to Administrators of Special Educators
Dear administrators, Let me start off by saying that I write this letter on behalf of special educators. While it’s true that I might not speak for every single special ed teacher, after spending 10 years in the classroom, I like to think I speak for many. First off, we truly appreciate all that you […]
10 Ways to Build Relationships with Kids
Relationship building is the single most important way you can impact a child’s life. So often, kids actually can’t learn from someone they can’t connect with. I’m also convinced that building a strong relationship with a kid or young adult diminishes a huge number of behavior challenges. Many times I worked with students who were […]
Making a “Getting to Know You” Fortune Teller
The start of the school year is the most critical time to help build positive relationships in your classroom. That’s why I’m always seeking new and fun ways to incorporate “getting to know you” activities for the back to school season. This is the best time to help all students feel part of the classroom […]
Clipboard Progress Monitoring
Progress monitoring is often a lot of work for educators. In this video, I explain how how to use clipboards in your classroom to help you manage student data and progress monitoring. I love this tip because it’s a simple solution for how to take quick and easy student data on the go! After watching […]
12 Things Special Educators Need
Being a special educator is an amazing title that comes with lots of prep work and responsibility! There are just some resources that a special educator really needs to have in their classroom to help keep them organized, data-driven, and their students on track. Whether you are prepping your classroom for the back to school […]
Back to School Giveaway
To celebrate the back to school season, I’m giving away a $10 TpT gift card. TpT is a great place to load up on so many of your back to school needs. Go ahead and enter below. Then head to my TpT store and check off everything on your back to school shopping list. Here […]
Top 10 Middle School Keys to Success
I absolutely love teaching middle school. Sometimes, though, when people hear that I teach middle school, they seem to feel bad for me. Like middle school is some type of unknown vortex for kids. Maybe that’s why I love it so much. It’s a time of creativity, instability, and the unknown. It’s a time when […]
