Search Results

I hope you are all enjoying, enjoyed, or will enjoy really soon, your spring break! I cannot believe it's already April {mostly}. I wanted to share with you how I use a money system in my classroom. I have used this system all 4 years that I've been teaching. It was something that I learned from my cooperating teacher during student teaching and with a few tweaks each year, it works great! I do teach special education, but regular educators, don't despair! I've included some ways that you can use a money system too! I hope you are all enjoying, enjoyed, or will enjoy really soon, your spring break! I cannot believe it's already April {mostly}. I wanted to share with you how I use a money system in my classroom. I have used this system all 4 years that I've been teaching. It was something that I learned from my cooperating teacher during student teaching and with a few tweaks each year, it works great! I do teach special education, but regular educators, don't despair! I've included some ways that you can use a money system too! First, you need to know that this system is tied in with my tracker system. Basically, students use a behavior tracker that focuses on 4 target behaviors and is filled out by the teacher, para or peer tutor that works with the student each class period. You can read more details about my tracker system here. How do they earn the money? After a student gets his tracker filled out, the teacher/para/peer tutor pays the student $1 for each point earned (for a maximum of $4 per class period). What can they use the money for? Free Time: Students then spend the last 10 minutes of each class engaged in "free" time. Students can choose a game or activity if they earned it. This 10 minutes is a perfect time to practice peer interaction, social skills, good sportsmanship, and independent leisure skills. This also gives us staff a time to toilet, give snacks, and take a quick potty break ourselves. Most free time activities cost money, depending on their level of demand. Here is a picture of my free time choice board and free time menu. This is where the majority of students earned class money goes. Free time repeats throughout the day at the end of each class period. This may seem like a lot of down time, but as I stated before, there is a lot going on in the 10 minute block. Also, it gives my regular education peer tutors a chance to circle and get to know all the students, as they are assigned to work with only 1-2 per quarter. Class Store: At the end of the day before getting on the bus, free time is replaced with our classroom store. Students that earned it count the rest of their money and can purchase an item from the class store. I limit it to one item per day. They can choose from pencils to candy to toys to bathroom passes. They keep the rest of their money ( if they have any) for the next day and on Friday, we clean out any remaining money and start the next week off broke. What if you teach regular education or don't use trackers? You could easily tie a money system into your already established classroom rules and/or behavior management system. For example, if you use a clip chart, at the end of each subject/class period or at the end of the day, students who are on the highest level of the clip chart earn the most money, subtracting $1 for each level. Or if you use group points in your classroom, the group with the most points at the end of the day each earn a certain dollar amount, subtracting $1 for the runner up and so on. You could even use a money system as random positive behavior reinforcement. For example, pull money out when you are praising students who are on task or following the classroom rules. Or tie it in with Class Dojo and award $1 for each point throughout the day, etc. Students could be even paid a set amount for completing a daily or weekly job. I've seen tons of classroom economy ideas on Pinterest. How do they lose money? I have yet to implement a response cost aspect it this system, in which students can lose money for undesirable behavior, as it hasn't been necessary. However, using a response cost can be a very effective tool for students that need the next level of intervention. Students do have to use their money to pay for new school supplies {read about my pencil plan here} or to go to the restroom during class. A few other ideas for implementation: My first year I had students that had moderate disabilities and spend a great part of the day in general education. I assigned a weekly banker whose as responsible for exchanging $1 bills for larger bills. This was a great money management skill and it kept our wallets from bursting at the seams with $1 bills. You could dive deeper into money management by teaching students to track their credits and debits to their wallets with a simple account ledger. This would be especially helpful if the student understood the benefit of saving money. Instead of using bills, use coins! This is great practice for younger students to identify coins and their value and to learn to count coins. There are so many ways to use class money in your classroom! It's such an amazing way to naturally teach money management, budgeting and economics. The most important thing is that when giving money, just like with any reinforcement system, that you pair it with specific feedback. Students need to know what they are doing well to earn the money! Do you use a money system in your classroom? Do you have questions? Please leave a comment!

Teaching special education is tough. Teaching special education in a disorganized classroom is tougher. Here are my favorite tips and hacks for storage and organization in my classroom. 1. Store your picture icons and PECS in a small parts storage cabinet from Home Depot or Lowes. 2. Don't have enough room for shoe box TEACCH tasks or work boxes? Use large fabric drawers and pencil pouches. 3. Keep track of whose who's and what's what. Store student's extra clothes and personal items in large ziploc bags labeled with their name. 4. Save space. Get rid of puzzle boxes and store puzzle pieces in pencil pouches. 5. Keep card games neat and organized by placing them in soap holders. Even better, grab these awesome containers from the Dollar Tree. 6. Some students come with a lot of gear. Keep all of your individual student's "stuff" together in a three drawer bin next to their desk. 7. Allow easy access to file folder activities by storing them in cardboard magazine file holders. Go even further by sorting them according to difficulty level. Bonus points if you color code! 8. Keep math manipulatives accessible by dividing them into small food storage containers. Students just grab a container when they need one! What are your favorite storage and organization hacks for your classroom? I'd love to hear about them!

Teachers, I know that in August, that 1/3 of your supply order consists of pencils. You stock up when Staples and Office Max have their back to school sales. You even have parents send 2 boxes of pencils with the rest of the required school supplies. But by October, there are no pencils in sight, except for one with no eraser, 2 that are inch long nubs, and a couple of broken colored pencils that got put in the pencil jar. My first year of teaching, I went through, I kid you not, over 100 pencils in the first few months of school. And I had TEN students! That's insanity! I had none left. And I was not about to keep buying pencils like this for the rest of the school year. So I came up with my "Pencil Plan" and it is still working to this day. The Pencil Plan I provide each of my student's with one pencil, one dry erase marker, and one felt eraser. My student's keep their supplies in a pencil pouch that is Velcro-ed to the back of their chair. Students are welcome to trade in their pencil for a new one if it's too small or the eraser is gone. They can trade in their marker when it dies. But if they lose their pencil, they have to pay me from their class money. Dun, dun, dun! I charge $10 whole dollars.{Side note- they can earn up to $32 in a day but rarely have more than $5 left by the end of the day.} Oh, it's the worst thing in the world when a student misses out on a fun free time activity because they had to spend all of their money on a tool to complete their work with! And then we have to have the little chat about being a responsible student. It's very rare that a student ever has to pay for more than 2 pencils in the whole school year. Don't worry, there's a positive, preventative part of the plan as well. {I'm not that mean.} At the end of the week, one of my classroom jobs is to check student's pencil pouches for all required supplies. Students who have all of their supplies get a bonus $10 in their wallet! Since we also clean out wallets on Fridays, this bonus money is the only money that gets to carry over to the next week. With this in place, I have NEVER come close to running out of pencils again! Even when my students go out to their regular education classes, they come back with their pencil. It's an amazing system and I highly recommend it. What if you don't use classroom money? Well, use whatever behavior management system you use in your classroom. Tokens, beads, points, etc. Make it work for you. The important thing is that it's something that the students don't want to lose AND that there is reinforcement for student's being responsible for their supplies. Hope you never have to run to the store to buy pencils again!

Hi friends! I am excited to tell you all about our writing friendly letters unit. I've talked before about how I believe that teaching academics is important at any age, regardless of ability level. However, I also strongly believe that what we teach should be functional and that our students should be able to use it in everyday life. Writing is an important skill for our students to have. Most of them won't be writing essays, and that's not necessarily a functional skill for most, but our students with disabilities can definitely learn to write a friendly letter or an email. Books to Read During Your Friendly Letter Writing Unit I started this unit off with a few great books to get my students interested. It's so important to use mentor texts during writing instruction to help model what the skill looks like. Here are a few of my favorites. This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on the qualifying links at no additional cost to you. Use Effective Teaching Strategies When Teaching Friendly Letter Writing When I teach a new skill, I always follow the effective teaching cycle, or the gradual release model: I do, we do, you do. I begin by modeling the skill- I write my students a letter and they read it. When I do this, I model my thinking aloud and I label the parts of the letter- heading, greeting, body, closing, signature. After demonstrating this several times, I fade my prompts and visuals and we begin to write the letter together. It's important to remember to fade your prompts and visuals slowly, depending on the level of your students, to ensure that students are successful and thoroughly understand the skill. Also, remember that the ultimate goal is independence. If you are using a visual aide, begin to fade the visual to assist the student in becoming more independent. Use Visual Supports for Friendly Letter Writing I use these templates to help my students understand the 5 parts that are included in a letter, the heading, the greeting, the body, the closure, and the signature. I laminated them and cut out the labels so that we can label the parts of our letter when we write it on a separate piece of paper. Next, I also use the blank color-coded version of this template to write my letter. I allow my students to go through the process of writing the letter by picking the greeting, questions, etc. that they would like to use. They use these friendly letter sentence starters so they do not have to generate their own sentences yet. This is similar to my previous post about using errorless teaching for writing instruction. I slowly fade this out. First, students generate their own greeting, but choose from the available options for the remainder of their letter, and so on. Finally, when students get to a more independent level in their letter writing, we will start working on writing emails. This is great because they can get a much faster response from someone! Teaching friendly letter writing has been such a fun unit and my students are able to see the immediate use of the skill in real life. Check out my Writing Pinterest board for more fun ideas about incorporating letter writing into your classroom. And grab these friendly letter templates in the free resource library [Language Arts Resources].

I am soooooo soooooo sooooo excited to share this with you! {Yes, really, that excited!} I have seen a lot of adapted, interactive books making their way onto my Pinterest feed and, while I love the idea behind them, to be honest, that's a lot of printing and laminating and Velcro. And I just don't have the time or the money for it right now. Thus, "Click It Books" came about. No prep AND no print! Easy, peasy, lemon pie! Download these on to your computer or iPad {or iPod or iPhone or Android whatever} and open them up in your basic PDF reader, like iBooks or Adobe Reader. And voila, you have an interactive, adapted book for students! That's it! No printing, no laminating, no sticky Velcro scissors. Here are a few pages from my Warning & Safety Signs Click It Book. Students read the page and click on the correct sign. If they get it right, they see this page. If they get it wrong, they see this page and get a chance to try again. There are three options to choose from. "Read It" just shows the definition and picture of the sign. Students read the page and go to the next page. Then there is the option to choose the sign from an array of 3 or 4. Each option has a review page for students to go back and review the signs they missed for repetitive practice. New Click It Books will be posted in my store each week. {There's a FREE Winter Counting one there now!} Check out my video to see them in action on my Instagram page, @missluluspecialed. If you have any special requests for topics, I'd love to hear them! Leave a comment and let me know what you would like to see!

I teach middle school students with significant disabilities. Every year, we spend a good part of the year learning the parts of a sentence and learning to write complete sentences. I feel like this is a skill that the majority of my students MUST know! It seems like I always have a group of students that really struggling with sentence writing. A few years ago, I was having a really hard time teaching sentence writing and getting it to stick. I finally said to myself, "For this group of students, does it matter if they can tell me what a noun or verb is?" And myself answered, "No. It doesn't matter if they can identify the parts. What matters is that they can write a complete sentence that makes sense." So I changed my teaching method and started working on fill in the blank sentences. The __ jumps. And this is what I still got. The pencil jumps. {Umm, nope. Not what I had in mind.} And then it hit me. These kiddos need errorless learning opportunities first {duh!}. So I came up with Errorless Sentence Helpers. Students are generating their own sentences with no possible errors. Any word they choose is correct. It started to click! Then, once they learned the skill making no mistakes, we went to Phase 2: Discrimination. At this phase, students have to start to distinguish from what makes sense and what doesn't. Some students remained at this Phase 2, but some students were able to master that and move on. In Phase 3, I fade tout he pictures and the students will generate their own words to complete the sentence. I love this because students are practicing over and over with no mistakes. That means that they are building confidence in their writing skills, they are developing positive experiences with writing, and they are not practicing errors. It has made a huge difference for my beginning writers! A few tips for errorless teaching- 1. When you are using errorless teaching, make sure that you don't fade your prompting until the student has had a significant amount of errorless practice and you think that they will be prepared to give the correct response with faded prompts. 2. Begin by modeling. Talk through your thinking. Then, provide a few trials where the students do the task with you. Do this each time you fade your prompts. Modeling is SO important for any type of writing instruction. 3. Be sure that the students are clear about what is expected. When you introduce Phase 2 and they have to distinguish between which pictures make sense, make sure they know that is the expectation. 4. Provide lots of successful repetitions! Our students need lots of practice to master a skill and that's okay. I have lots of different sets of Errorless Sentence Helpers available in my TpT store. Each set includes all 3 phases. If you want to try them out, check out these free samples. Questions about Errorless Sentence Helpers? Leave me a comment below!

As special educators, I am sure you are all too familiar with the push for standards-based IEPS and curriculum. You probably find yourself asking, "You want me to do what?!" at most faculty meetings. But no fear, it's doable, AND it can be functional! And with a little practice, you will feel like this. I believe that education and how we teach should be based on a learning progression and should, therefore, have an order. I am a strong advocate for standards-based education because I think it helps us to accomplish this. You don't learn to parallel park before you know how to put the car in reverse. We don't teach double digit addition with regrouping when a student doesn't understand the concept of more and less. We also don't stick kids in a money and time program in 2nd grade through age 22 because they need to know functional math. The standards, whether Common Core, alternative standards or state standards, are what guide us on the road map of what we are teaching. In Utah, we use the Essential Elements standards. These standards are what is assessed on the alternative assessment, Dynamic Learning Maps. We are required to write at least one IEP goal that aligns in each subject area, ELA and math. Many other states have adopted the Essential Elements, and others still have their own version of alternative standards that align with their alternative assessment for students with significant disabilities. You can check out the Dynamic Learning Maps Essential Elements here. Stan•dard (noun) A statement of what students should know and be able to demonstrate. Synonyms: learning target, objective, outcome, learning goal Is everything we teach functional? No. Teaching academics are important at every age. But ultimately, we need to focus on what our students will use in their future. It can take a lot of time for our students with significant cognitive disabilities to master essential skills. And then, these stills will need to be maintained, generalized, and applied in the student's life. So how can we make sure that we are teaching the required standards and making sure that we are teaching our students the essential skills that they need to know? Check out these posts to get started: Getting Started with Functional Skills Making Literacy Instruction Meaningful Make sure you're following me on Instagram, where I post tips and ideas for tying your standards into the functional curriculum that your students need. I'd love to hear what your biggest struggles are. How do you tie in your academic standards to functional skills? What are your state/district requirements? Comment here or send me a message to continue the conversation!

During the summer as I was plotting & planning how to run my classroom this year, I thought, wouldn't it be GREAT if I could get ALL (well, most) of my students to spend a good chunk of their day working independently?! I teach students with significant disabilities and while yes, many of them will always need some sort of supervision and support, the majority of them can function pretty independently in society if we start teaching them now. It's not realistic for students to have adult support in the classroom 100% of the time. That's not how life works when they age out of the school system. That's not even how school works in general. So I am using independent work rotations this year. I am so excited to share with you how I am working to accomplish independence in my classroom. Set Up: SCHEDULING: Students receive teacher directed instruction for 1/2 of the class period and then they switch to independent work for the other 1/2. I am able to work with 2 groups each class period, which allows me to work with ALL of my students in one day. I have not been able to do this previous years. Students have an individual schedule for each class period. Schedules look similar but are customized to meet student needs. (I do not hang schedules because it just isn't functional in my classroom. Instead, I have a pocket inside each binder with schedules.) The student locates the correct class period's schedule and when the class period is over, they place it in the finished pocket in the back of the binder. PREP: Each student has a binder, split into class periods with tabbed dividers. There is a tab for each hour's data and a tab for each hour's work. I have a crate with colored files for each hour. My students are sorted by level into a color. I place independent worksheets into the files according to level. One of my aides preps binders each week by placing worksheets from the correct hour and color level into student binders. I place a weekly independent work requirement sheet in the beginning of each hour's WORK tab. This sheet specifies how many worksheets the student must complete and leaves a place for scores to be recorded. I also have a turn in basket where student's turn in their work when finished. HOW IT WORKS: 1. Students grab their binders, open to the work tab, and check their work requirements. 2. Students bring independent work. The task depends on their ability level. Some students are completing simple TEACCH tasks, some students are doing matching and sorting binder work, and some students are doing worksheets. 3. 1-2 paras/ peer tutors are floating around the room, reinforcing on task behavior and assisting when needed. 4. Students check their work and turn it into the basket. 5. Para/ peer tutors quickly check the work that's been turned in and hand out raffle tickets to students who have done their work accurately and completely. 6. Students engage in an independent activity (file folder, puzzle, etc.) if they have extra time. 7. Students check their schedules and rotate to their instructional groups. So far, I have loved this system! My students are working independently, I get a chance to work with everyone, and my staff are learning to fade their prompting and promote independence throughout the day. How do you do independent work in your classroom? How do you keep it organized for different student levels?

I love summer- the warm weather, the time off, the vacations, the back to school sales....I can't resist the school supply section when I walk into the store. Every year, I stock up on my essentials for my classroom. Here are the top 10 things I cannot live without. This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on the qualifying links at no additional cost to you. Velcro I use Velcro for everything. Seriously, everything. Do yourself (and your scissors) a favor and buy the hook & loop dots. If you are using lots of Velcro, I do recommend having a designated pair of scissors. I also have a system for my velcro- the soft/loop dot goes on the item and the hard/hook dot goes on the piece that's removable. Soft on the surface, hard on the card! I stay consistent with this so that icons can be interchangeable on different schedules or folders or binders. Lamination Also used for everything, especially in a special education classroom. You never know where things will end up. I figure if I am going to take the time to prep something, I am going to laminate it and use it again and again. My school's laminator doesn't always seal very well and I get charged by the foot for it. It's cheaper for me to buy pouches. I have tried lots of brands, but my go-to is this pack from Amazon. White 1" binders I prefer white, but they can be colorful if you prefer. I use 1" binders for my student's data. Each student gets a binder that holds all of their data sheets and program materials. I also use a white binder for my group data binders. I stick a binder spine from my classroom decor sets on the side and it makes my heart happy! Clipboards I prefer clipboards for behavior data or for data that is collected throughout the day. It's easier to carry around a clipboard and quickly record data across the day than when it's in a binder. I also use clipboards for my first/then schedules and for token boards, and each of my paraprofessionals has a colored clipboard with their schedule and weekly focus check-in. 3M mounting tape This is my go-to for hanging things. My classroom has brick walls and it's a pain to hang things up. I hate having to pull out a glue gun and try not to burn myself. This stuff is amazing. I use it to hang everything, from posters to picture frames to bulletin boards (really, it works for everything). It's a little expensive but SO worth it, and you only need a little bit for it to stick. Cardstock Again, if I'm going to take the time to make it and prep it, I want it to last more than one use. I generally print items on cardstock that will be manipulated and moved around often, like visual schedule icons. This is my favorite cardstock. Binder pencil pouches I put a pencil pouch in each data binder for materials that are needed for student programs. Then I put a pencil pouch on the back of each student's chair (with velcro!). That's where they keep their everyday supplies, like pencils and dry erase markers. Poly folders with prongs I use poly folders for my daily communication with parents. They last a lot longer than the plain paper folders. I also use them for my students to take to their general education classes. They also are a lot harder to rip and fit nicely in a folder pocket chart. Printable labels I don't know about you but I'm big on labeling #allthethings. I print labels at the beginning of the year with my student's names on them and all of their supplies get labeled. That way when there are dry erase markers or clipboards laying around the room, I know where they belong. And when students say they lost their supplies, we can easily locate them in someone else's pouch. I've found that they are way more responsible for their supplies when they are labeled. Sheet protectors Instead of laminating worksheets, I prefer to use sheet protectors. They are easy to erase if you use a dry erase marker and a lot cheaper than lamination pouches. You will want to make sure you buy the clear, glossy kind- some of the non-glare kind have a texture that makes it harder to erase the dry erase ink. Ok, that's 10, but here is a final bonus! Clocks We work a lot on telling time and time management in my classroom and I HATE those bright yellow Judy clocks. They are so unrealistic and people rarely put the hour hand in the correct spot when the time is anywhere past the hour. It makes it even harder for my students to generalize. So at the beginning of the year, I always buy a couple of cheap clocks. Ikea used to carry them for $2. Walmart has one for around $4. They have a little dial on the back so you can change the time to practice and the hands move like they would if there were batteries in it. Plus if they get broken, it's no big deal because they are so cheap. That's my go-to list of back-to-school essentials for my special education classroom. What about you? Is there anything you can't live without that I didn't list?

Welcome to the final week of my series, How to Work with Paraprofessionals. You can read the first two posts here and here. This week we are going to talk about training and other tips for ensuring a positive, cooperative, team relationship with your paras. Training: I cover a majority of my training at staff meetings, which I talked about last week. Each meeting, I choose a topic that I feel we either need further training or a quick refresher on. At the beginning of the year, I cover three major areas- Behavior Basics, Effective Teaching, & Data Collection and Assessment. These three areas cover the majority of skills that paras need for teaching and working with students in the classroom in general. This gives them the tools they need to be successful. Every para, regardless of who they work with, needs to know how to handle minor behavior, the principles of basic instruction and corrections, and how to record data. I provide this training at staff meetings because it saves time for me to train everyone at once. I can provide specific examples and non examples and as they get to know the students, I can give them examples that relate directly to the students they work with. The remainder of the training I give during the school day individually. I provide training the same way that I would teach a skill. First, I model it. I have the para just watch me. I want them to have an example of what it should look like. Then, I have them run while I observe and assist as needed. Finally, I let them go and they run it independently. After everyone is trained, I spend a couple days rotating around the classroom, answering questions, and giving feedback (my groups play games or do activities with peer tutors). The whole training process takes several weeks, but I find that the time put into it is well worth the outcome. I want to ensure that programs are run with fidelity and data is collected accurately. There have been years that I have slacked on my training and I find myself frustrated by the end of November. I have to remind myself that my aides are only able to do what they know how to do. If I expect something, I need to make it clear and be sure they understand. Taking the time at the beginning of the year will eliminate frustration and burnout for you and your paras later in the year. Other Tips: A few final tips for you that I have learned from first hand experience. Treat your paras as equals, especially in front of your students. In my classroom, I refer to everyone as a teacher. This helps to teach students that they must listen to para instructions as well. Limit socializing and personal chat during the school day. I love my paras and I care about them and their personal lives. But I rarely initiate personal conversation during the school day. When students are at school, our focus is on them, not gossiping about our lives. It's important to model and encourage professional behavior. Encourage and allow paraprofessionals to be a part of the school. Invite them to faculty events and introduce them to other teachers. It's easy to feel segregated in special ed, especially as a paraprofessional. Keep them busy! Have things for staff to work on if students are absent. Create a system that allows for staff to work on thing without having to ask you what to do. I shared a great checklist for this last week. Show them how much you appreciate them! We could not do this job without the assistance of paraprofessionals. They are a valuable part of your team and your classroom. Make sure they know it. Grab this Training Tips Booklet and make sure to download the other freebies that were posted over the last few weeks. I hope you were able to find some valuable information and I wish you a successful school year!

I've had several people ask me about the custom planner I had printed this year, so I thought I'd do a quick blog post about it. I've seen some great planners for lots of money online and there are also some cute ones on TpT but I didn't want to spend money on something that I wouldn't use consistently. This year I created a planner that I can use for school, grad school and TpT. I love that everything is in one place! I made my template in Word and PowerPoint and then used FedEx's online printing center to have it printed. It takes some time to mess with the settings and get the pages the way you want. I recommend using several different files instead of one big one. It's easier to make sure the pages end where you want them to and you can specify which documents you want printed in color. My weekly planner, lesson plans, blog planner, and TpT planner were all separate files. I added tabs and a clear cover for my planner as well. One thing I would have done differently is had the tabbed pages laminated. They have already bent and I don't think they will last very long. I got the free blog planner from 7 on a Shoe String. I found a 20% off coupon by searching online (ALWAYS DO THIS!) and the total cost for my 150 page planner was less than $30. FedEx called me to come into the local store when they had everything printed to make sure it was in the correct order before they bound it. You may want to request this if you order online. I'm so happy with how it turned out and I love that it will work perfectly for my needs since I designed it! What do you use for a planner? Do you prefer a paper planner or do you use your phone/computer?

Welcome to Week 2 of the Special Educator's Guide to Working with Paraprofessionals. Let's talk about scheduling & ongoing communication. Ongoing Communication This is SO SO SO important. I wish I had 12 sets of eyes and could be in 3 places at once. But since I can't, I rely on my paras to communicate with me on how students are doing. I hold monthly staff meetings that I require my paras to attend. I do these after school and I give them the schedule at the beginning of the year so they can plan accordingly. Usually our meetings are less than an hour. If you are limited to a certain number of hours with your paras, try holding meetings on weeks that there is a day off school (not on the day off). That way, they won't go over their allotted weekly hours since they are not working on the day off. If that's not possible, you could also adjust their schedule so they come in an hour late or leave an hour early one day that week. This would allow an extra hour for them to stay for a staff meeting. If that's not possible, I'm not against putting in a movie or having students play a game for an hour so you can hold a meeting. I cannot tell you how important and helpful it is to be able to sit down and address concerns with all of your staff at once. At monthly staff meetings, I talk about changes in the classroom or in specific programs. We always spend a good half of the meeting talking about specific student behavior and how to deal with it. Remember, your paras don't have the training that you do and they probably have a lot of questions that don't get asked on a daily basis. Ask your paras to come prepared with questions (if they concern the majority of the staff. If not, talk to them at a separate time). Sometimes we get busy and don't spend the time we should training and addressing issues during the day. It always surprises me how many things I think that I covered well that I clearly didn't because there are so many questions. This open communication helps me a ton AND it builds our relationship as a team. I want my paras to feel valued and like their opinion matters. After all, they are an essential part of my classroom and I need them! I also try to observe my paras teaching and running programs throughout the school year. I don't always do this as a "formal" observation, rather, I float around the room and pop in on lessons when I have extra time. I think it's important that I make time to be available for my paras, to see what they are doing, and to provide feedback. They need to hear what they are doing well and this gives them time to ask me questions when I can see exactly what they are doing. I am able to provide better feedback and support when I know exactly what the problem is. Scheduling I am allocated a certain number of paraprofessional hours per week based on my caseload. When I write my para schedule, I start by spreading these hours out across each day. Here are the main things I consider when creating a schedule. 1. Lunch & Breaks: My district does not require that paras get lunch breaks but who wants to work all day without a break? I schedule a lunch break for my full day staff. I don't schedule in other breaks because with the way my classroom runs, there is time at the end of each class period for bathroom breaks, etc. but you may want to consider scheduling in breaks throughout the day. 2.High need times of the day: I always schedule extra paras for the class period that is designated as my prep. This way, I am able to send (almost) all of my students out into other classes with staff and I can actually have a prep. Other high need times include lunch and end of the day clean up. These are times of the day where I find myself short staffed and where things get extra chaotic. I also always make sure I have enough staff scheduled to come before school to help me get students off the bus. 3. Balance in and out of the classroom: My paras all go to classes and lunch with the students. I do my best to balance their time outside of the classroom and inside of the classroom. I feel like it isn't fair for one person to be in gen ed classes all day and another to stay in my classroom. 4. Paras strengths: I carefully consider where to place each person and what to have them teach. My paras are all so great, but just like me and you, they have strengths and weaknesses. Some are more positive and patient and work better with my low students where others are more strict and consistent and do better with students with behavior. Some really understand how to scaffold instruction and do well in general education classes, while some do better following a scripted lesson. I do my best to schedule everyone in areas where they can be more independent and feel better about what they are doing. 5. Para desired schedule: Of course, I also consider their desired schedules and availability when scheduling. I prefer having staff work consistent hours each day rather than alternating days/ hours but I do work around their desires as much as possible. Other tips: I create three schedules- my whole class schedule, my para hourly layout, and a para detailed schedule. The whole class schedule tells me where everyone is and what they are doing. My hourly schedule helps me to create the whole class schedule and lets me know who is working when. And the para detailed schedules break down what each para is teaching, who they are working with and any extra duties for each class period that they work. Detailed schedules are always the last ones finalized, several weeks into school when I am able to see what is and is not getting done and what needs to be assigned to certain people. I also color code the staff in my room. They are the same color in each schedule so it's easy to glance at and see where they need to be. Scheduling is most definitely one of the most difficult parts of this job. Here are some examples of my para schedules and a few freebies here and here. Hopefully they help! You can read more tips here from Week 1 and Week 3. May the odds be ever in your favor.

I'm so excited to participate in the first ever #SpedChatSaturday, hosted by Ashley @ Lattes, Lesson Plans, & IEPs. This week's topic is Back-to-School. Are you ready? I am ready to be back to work, but I'm not prepared for school to start. I'm doing my best to enjoy my last few weeks and not get overwhelmed thinking about school! My to-do list is never ending, but here are a few priorities. Make sure to grab my free to do list at the end of this post! 1. The first thing I do every year before I can really start getting ready for school is make a schedule. I create a whole class schedule that shows me where everyone is (students & paras) and what they are doing. Then from there I can work on individual student schedules, detailed para schedules, toileting schedules, related service schedules, etc. It goes on and on! Here is my whole class schedule from last year. 2. I started this last year and it was so helpful! After my schedule is done and I know which programs I will be teaching, I create a yearly curriculum map. It basically tells me what I am teaching, when I am teaching it, and the standard that I am following. Here is my math curriculum map from last year. 3. Collaboration with general education teachers is huge for special education and starting before school helps establish positive, open communication from the beginning. Before school starts, I stop by and chat with each of the teachers that have my students in their classes. I give them a list of tips and accommodation ideas and let them know that I am available to help make accommodations or modifications to assignments if needed. 4. My classroom is very organized. My desk is not. It's my catch all. I always try to get it organized and cleaned up before school starts. It just helps me feel ready each year! 5. I spend tons of time and money on TpT and creating my own products. I've downloaded and created tons of things the last several months that I have not printed yet, so one of my goals before school starts is to get all my files organized and at least printed. Then I have things for my paras to prep when they have downtime. 1. I use a simple IEP checklist when scheduling IEP meetings and my IEP at a Glance form to have a quick cheat sheet for student services. Grab the checklist for free below and check out the IEP at a Glance form in my store (please excuse the hideous cover...it's on my list for a makeover!) 2. Love using this small parts organizer from Home Depot to organize my picture icons for PECS or schedules. This is my favorite thing in my classroom! 3. My project this summer has been to organize all of my center activities and task cards in labeled file folders. I just stapled the sides so small parts don't get lost. Cheap & easy! 4. I love using these plastic drawers for lesson materials. I store teacher books, student books, or worksheets needed for certain class periods in their own drawer and then I can just pull the drawer out and take it to wherever I am teaching. This year, I created my own customized planner for my day at school, my grad school classes and my TpT business. When I was in college I used a planner religiously. Since then, I have moved away from it but find myself leaving random notes and to do lists everywhere. I wanted to buy a planner, but I also wanted something that I would use, so I decided to create my own. I had it printed and bound at FedEx for less than $30 (100+ pages). It has a weekly schedule and to do list for both work and school, as well as my planning section for TpT. I also have a goal to use my prep time much better this year. I'm lucky to have a class period where all of my students are out of my classroom but it seems like I always have interruptions during this time- either other teachers coming into talk, behavior problems that I have to intervene in, or my need for a coffee run. This year, I plan on going into school an hour early so that I can spend that time in my quiet classroom, all by myself, getting lots done! If you have read any of my previous posts or follow me on Instagram, you know that I have a new baby with special needs. I have decided to work part time this year so that I am available for his medical needs. I promise that this year and every year, I will put my family before my job. I love teaching and I love my students, but I love my son more. And as much as my students need me, my family and my baby have to come first. I know that it will be hard for me to manage my time between school and home. But I promise that I will remember that I chose to work part time because it was what I needed to do and I will make my family my priority. Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to grab some back to school freebies here, here & here and check out the rest of the link ups by clicking on the picture below.

As a special educator, it's likely that you have at least one paraprofessional that you work closely with. I absolutely love my paraprofessionals and I could not do my job without them. Even so, I didn't learn how to manage adults when I went to college to become a teacher. Having another adult in our classrooms can be difficult, especially if you don't have a good working relationship. Over and over I hear special educators questioning how to train and work with their paras. In this post, we will look at hiring and establishing expectations. In the second post, we will tackle scheduling and ongoing communication. We will wrap up with a final post on training. Hiring Paraprofessionals: I am lucky to be in control of who I hire and fire. My district puts this directly into the hands of the teachers, and my administration has never wanted to be involved in hiring. It's difficult to share your space with another person, especially if you have no say in who that person is. If you do not directly hire paraprofessionals, my advice would be to try to have some input. Speak to your principal and ask if you can be included in interviews. If you're invited to be involved in interviews, come prepared. Make sure you bring specific questions. You are the one who will work directly with this person every day, and you know what their responsibilities are. You can shed a lot of light on areas that your principal may not have considered. If you are in control of who you hire, be sure to conduct a thorough interview. Give a detailed description of the job duties and requirements. I have interviewed people who really had no clue what to expect, and it is important to give them a good idea of what the job will consist of. Also, be realistic. I make sure that I give plenty of information when I interview. If there are intense behaviors in your classroom, tell your job candidates (make sure you maintain confidentiality). It's best not to end up hiring someone who doesn't know the reality of the job. Here are a few of my go-to interview questions. 1. What do you see as your role as a paraprofessional? This answer may give you a lot of insight as to whether they are on the same page as you. 2. What do you believe is the purpose of special education? This may seem like one of those dig deep questions, but it gives me the best idea of how this person will treat the students. It's great that we all have different beliefs, but I need to know that you will work hard to push independence and have high expectations for the students. 3. Scenario questions. I give specific scenarios- one with intense aggressive behavior, one about an emotional meltdown, and one about being in another teacher's classroom helping a student. Establishing Paraprofessional Expectations: I always start the school year off with a Back to School staff meeting. I do this the day before school starts. I provide my paras with a handbook that I update each year. In it, I include my attendance policy, classroom expectations, dress code, confidentiality information, staff meeting schedule, and basic training guides. If your district provides something like this, then make sure you share it with your team. If not, you can take a look at my policies & expectations here, or you can find lots of options on TpT. I realize that your classroom does not run the same as mine, so use this as a guideline when making your own handbook, and always check with your district HR department for specific district policies. Also, check your state department of education website. Utah has a paraeducator handbook here. Our back-to-school staff meeting agenda generally goes like this: 1. Introductions 2. Para Handbook a. Confidentiality b. Review and sign attendance policy c. Briefly review dress code & other policies 3. Behavior Plans (for specific students) 4. Behavior Basics a. Praise- specific vs. general; praise around b. Ignoring- consistency, when you can’t ignore, extinction c. Manipulation d. Reinforcement & Reinforcers- tangible, token and social e. Behavior Momentum 5. General info and questions a. First few days of school (what to expect and what their responsibilities will be) b. Schedules c. General ed classes (what their role is) d. Peer tutors f. Questions for me? 6. Para contact info and schedules a. Faculty Dues b. Fill out contact form- turn in before leaving c. Give copy of para schedule I include behavior training at this first staff meeting because I feel like it is essential before walking into a classroom full of students. I hope to prevent bad habits from occurring if I'm clear from the beginning about how to interact with the students and how to manage minor behavior. I also briefly discuss students with Behavior Plans because of the necessity that their plans are followed to a T. Of course, I provide more training on this if the para is working directly with the student. Having a back-to-school meeting has helped me not only establish expectations but has started the year off with open communication and encourages your paras to come to you with issues. I can't tell you how helpful it is to set up a team environment from the beginning! We couldn't do this job without our paras! I'd love to hear your comments! Do you hire your own paras? What do you do to establish expectations and develop positive working relationships??? Looking for more great tips? Follow me on Pinterest.

If you follow me on Instagram, you see a lot about my life as a mom. It's been an incredible journey, and this is how it began. JANUARY 2015: 3 months pregnant, I came across an amazing opportunity to return school and get my master's degree for free. I started working on my grad school application. I fully intended on going back to school in the evenings and working full time during the day with a new baby, knowing that it would be crazy but so knowing it was my chance to get my masters before life got in the way. FEBRUARY 2015: At our 20-week ultrasound, we received news that no expecting parents want to receive. Our baby was diagnosed with Spina Bifida, and potentially Trisomy 18. We were unsure of the prognosis and had several doctor's appointments with specialists. My emotions went crazy and my husband and I were going day by day, learning about what was to come. It was a very stressful and chaotic time, and when I look back on it all, I don't know how we did it, honestly. MARCH- APRIL 2015: I got a long-term sub, quickly scheduled the remaining IEPs I had for the year, and left for San Francisco to see if we qualified for fetal surgery. After 3 days of testing and meeting with a million doctors, we decided to go through with the surgery. At 25 weeks and 6 days, I had fetal surgery to repair baby's open spinal cord while he was still inside me. Basically, this is a C section but they sew the baby back up inside you and he keeps growing. I still can't wrap my mind around it. While I was in California recovering, my husband purchased and moved us into a new home. I came home after a month and I was on bed rest until I delivered. MAY 2015: Meanwhile, I took the GRE and was accepted into the master's program. One of the biggest risks of fetal surgery is preterm delivery, so I planned to temporarily re-locate to Salt Lake City so I could deliver at a hospital that had the specialists we needed. However, I didn't make it that far. At 32 weeks, I had a placental abruption, and baby needed to come out. There was no time to transfer to another hospital, so we stayed at our local hospital and had an emergency c-section. Evan was born and life-flighted to Salt Lake. We were in the NICU for a month and are finally home. I obviously didn't return for the rest of the school year and had a long-term sub take over my classroom from mid-March through the end of the year in May. Because of the intensive medical needs that Evan had, especially during the first year, I decided that my best option is going to be to work part time. I split my classroom with another teacher. I was so nervous to give up control of half of my classroom. I know some of you can relate with me here. As educators, we tend to be overly obsessive and feel the need for things to be exactly our way and perfect. I knew that this is the best thing for my family. I couldn't work full time and go to school full time and be there for my son and his doctors appointments. It was an experience that helped me grow so much as a teacher. I learned to increase my communication skills and adult interaction skills for this to be a positive experience (for both me and the other teacher). My students had the opportunity to learn from two great teachers and two sets of eyes and minds to give them opportunities that I couldn't on my own. We were able to build a really great special education program. I also had more time to work on TpT and make new resources and start this blog. After the first year, I went back to work full time and my son has grown into an amazingly smart and determined little boy. I have grown so much as a teacher now that I have the experience of being a parent of a child with a disability. It has been an amazing experience, and I look back on it now and am so grateful that we were able to go through this journey.

Hi friends! I am linking up with the amazing Delightfully Dedicated for her summer series link up. This week is all about behavior. Oh, how I have a love hate relationship with behavior. I love the challenge it presents, most of the time. And I love how these kiddos can always keep me on my toes. But some days are tough! Let's start with whole class behavior management. I use a tracker system in my classroom. Here's why I like it. 1. It's age appropriate. I teach middle school. Stamps and stickers and clip charts just aren't something other middle school teachers use, and I believe that my students should be treated like their general education peers as much as possible. 2. It's easy to use. I train my paras and my peer tutors (who are middle schoolers) how the tracker system works and they can do it with the students. 3. It's effective for most of my students. Each student uses a tracker and the system is classwide and works the same, but it can be individualized for their specific behavior needs. 4. It helps my students to self monitor their behavior and is an automatic reminder for my staff to build in positive, specific feedback. Here's how it works. Remember, I teach in a middle school, so my day is scheduled by class periods. 1. I choose 4 target behaviors that the student needs to improve. This is where the individualization comes in. Everyone can have different target behaviors. I generally start by using my classroom rules and then tweak as I get to know the students better. This can be anything from raising their hand to talk to keeping hands to self to turning in assignments on time. 2. At the end of the class period students ask the teacher, para, or peer tutor that they worked with for the class period to fill out their tracker. The person filling it out gives them a YES or NO for each target behavior and gives them specific feedback about why they get what they did (MOST IMPORTANT PART). 3. Students get 1 point and $1 for each YES. 4. If students earn all 4 points, they may chose an activity for free time. (Each student's tracker has a "I am working for" board on it so they have a visual reminder of what they can get if they earn their points.) Most of my free time choices cost money or they can save their money to go to the class store at the end of the day. Of course, some of my students just can't wait until the end of the class period and need more immediate reinforcement. Here are some things I have done for students who needed a little more. This student would shut down for the rest of the day as soon as he got a NO on his tracker. So instead, he uses this game board and moves a character every 3 minutes that he is on task & following directions. The color that he ends on at the end of the class period determines free time options (red= least preferred, green= highly preferred). I use warning charts like this if the student doesn't understand Yes and No, or if they need extra warnings throughout the class period. This student had to complete 4 tasks before he could fill out his tracker. Each task completed= 1 Veggie Tales character. This student needed some extra incentives to have good days. He earned a special prize of his choice after 5 perfect behavior days. Just like with everything else we teach, don't forget to teach behavior expectations AND behavior systems explicitly! Don't just throw in something new and expect your students to understand. Model it! Use examples & non examples! Tweak it if it isn't working! Hope this extra long post was helpful!

There is a group of amazing bloggers who are hosting a TpT Seller Challenge right now. Of course I'm late in finishing week 1 (it's already week 3 of the challenge) but I finally finished one product makeover and I'm excited to share! This is one of my best selling products and one of the first things I posted on TpT. It desperately needed a new cover page. I also added a "See It In Action" page, with tips & tricks for use in the classroom. Lastly, I added a blank graph without a goal section, in case teachers want to track progress in a non-goal area. I print off a bunch of copies on the blank graphs and use them for all kinds of things in my classroom, like sight words or counting money or behavior. I love this graph. At the beginning of the year, I edit it to include student's IEP goals and I put them in my student's data binders. I'm a visual person and I like to have my data visually represented., however, I don't have time to sit on Excel all day and create graphs. My paraprofessionals & peer tutors graph data every time they take it using this form. When I can look at a graph, it quickly shows me whether I need to examine data closer to make instructional changes or whether an objective has been mastered. This graph makes my life SO much easier! Click on the image below to head on over to my store and grab it today for 1/2 off!

Hello friends! I am so glad you're here. Let me share a little bit about who is behind Miss Lulu. My name is Laura. I am married to an amazing guy and we have one son, Evan. At my 20 week ultrasound, we learned that Evan has Spina Bifida and when I was 26 weeks pregnant, I had fetal surgery to repair his open spine. I have taught life skills (severe disabilities) for 9 years at a middle school in Utah. I have a dual degree in elementary education and special education with a severe emphasis, and a master's degree in Special Education with a concentration in Transition from School to Adulthood. Because of my background in regular education, I have always been a very academics-driven teacher but I believe in teaching academics in a functional way. I'm all about helping teachers find the balance between academics and functional skills in the classroom. I have been selling on TpT since 2012 and I'm hooked, both as a buyer and seller. I love being able to share resources that have helped me and have been successful in my classroom. You can find me here: Shop special education resources and classroom decor on Teachers Pay Teachers. Let's be friends! See more about my personal life, my views on inclusion and accessibility, and my favorite things over on Instagram and Facebook. Or check out my favorite finds on Pinterest. I hope you find some encouragement, tips, and laughs here to help you in your classroom! Feel free to reach out through email or social media anytime! Thanks for visiting!