Can you actually accommodate for science for a student whose reading level is far below grade level and still make the curriculum accessible? You can and if you want to remain sane in your classroom, you should. Frustrated students who cannot access the curriculum become eventual behavior problems either (a) because they want to save […]
Special Education
Why Special Educators and General Educators Need Each Other
Let’s address the gigantic elephant in the room. We don’t talk enough and, quite frankly, a lot of times it seems that we just don’t get along. You just want to teach and I just want to follow my IEPs. We do have something in common, though. We both want all of our students to learn […]
9 Simple Ways to Prevent Burnout in Special Ed Teachers
I recently wrote an entry on my other blog about how I intended to embrace laziness this year, amongst other things, because I feel that I work so hard that I often run myself into the ground. I work hard in my personal life, as the parent of a child with autism, but I work […]
Just Say NO! How To Do It the Right Way
As special educators, we often feel obligated to do more than our job requires. The job description becomes blurrier and blurrier with time as we get more job responsibilities tacked on with time–you know you can do that Educational Testing, write that report, and work with kids in small groups, all while following an inclusion […]
How to Implement Successful Differentiation Strategies
As a special education teacher, I see differentiation going on all the time, but that doesn’t mean that teachers always know that they’re doing it or what differentiation means. I hope that with this infographic, teachers not only will see how to implement successful differentiation strategies, but understand what the word means. So, for all […]
Money Talks: Classroom Incentives That Work
Let’s go ahead and get real right here and now. You probably have a handful of kids in your classroom who are intrinsically motivated. We can lament all day long about yesterday’s kids and how we used to just do our homework because the teacher said so and complain about the fact that kids these […]
Using Food to Teach Fractions: Math You Can Eat
Like most students I teach, my students all got taught multiplying fractions the classic way. You multiply the numerator by the numerator and the denominator by the denominator. You either learn the method or you don’t (just like any other procedural method you learn in math). Many kids take to concrete methods of learning better […]
What's the Difference? IEP vs 504 Plan
As a special education teacher, it seems that this topic comes up a lot. Inquiring minds want to know…when deciding what’s best for your child, which plan do you go with? Does it matter whether your child has an Individualized Educational Program (IEP) or a 504 Plan? And what do those words really even mean? […]