dhe first month as an inclusion teacher can feel a little like being dropped into a moving car and being told, “Okay, drive!”

You’re learning students’ names, figuring out schedules, attending meetings, navigating different classrooms, trying to understand IEPs, and attempting to remember where you put the pencil sharpener you bought three days ago.

And somewhere in there, you’re also supposed to actually teach.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not doing anything wrong. The first month is less about having everything perfectly organized and more about learning your students, building relationships, and figuring out what systems you actually need.

You do not need to have everything figured out by the end of September.

Instead, focus on these priorities.

1. Learn Your Students

Your first priority should be getting to know the students you support. Yes, you need to know their IEP accommodations and goals. But you also need to know who they are as people.

Pay attention to things like:

• What subjects do they enjoy?
• What subjects do they avoid?
• Who do they work well with?
• What frustrates them?
• What helps them calm down?
• Do they prefer working independently or with support?
• What motivates them?
• What are they really good at?
• What do they think they’re bad at?
• What do they wish their teachers understood about them?

You don’t need to conduct a formal interview with every student. A quick conversation in the hallway, asking about their favorite class, or noticing what they get excited about can tell you a lot. And honestly, those little conversations often give you information that you won’t find anywhere in an IEP.

Don’t forget to look for strengths.

It can be easy to focus on deficits when you’re reading through evaluations and IEPs. Make a conscious effort to notice what students can do. Those strengths will be incredibly useful as you figure out how to support them academically and behaviorally.

2. Get Really Familiar With Your Students’ IEPs

Once you know your students a little better, spend some time digging into their IEPs. You don’t need to memorize every word; instead, make sure you know the information that directly impacts what happens in the classroom.

Pay particular attention to:

• Accommodations
• Modifications
• Goals
• Service minutes
• Areas of disability
• Testing accommodations
• Behavior supports
• Assistive technology
• Any important parent or student concerns

I also recommend creating a quick-reference system for yourself. You might have a spreadsheet, binder, digital document, or whatever system works for you. The goal is to have important information available without having to reread an entire IEP every time you need to remember an accommodation. Just be mindful of student privacy and make sure anything you create is stored securely according to your school’s policies.

3. Learn How Each General Education Teacher Runs Their Classroom

This is one of the most important parts of being an inclusion teacher. You’re not just supporting students, but you’re working with another teacher, and every teacher is going to have a slightly different classroom.

One teacher may want you circulating around the room, while another may want you working with a small group. And another teacher might initially have no idea what they want you to do.

That’s okay.

Use the first month to figure out everyone’s expectations.

Ask questions like:

• What does inclusion support look like in your classroom?
• How do you usually want me to help?
• Would you like me to work with a small group?
• Are there lessons you’d like me to co-teach?
• How should we communicate about upcoming assignments?
• What’s the best way for us to plan together?
• What should I do when I notice a student struggling?

Don’t assume that every classroom will work the same way, because it won’t. And that’s actually one of the things that makes inclusion teaching so interesting.

4. Establish Communication Systems With Your Co-Teachers

You do not want to spend the entire year playing: “Did you know there’s a test tomorrow?”

Develop a simple communication system early, it doesn’t need to be complicated.

You could use:

• A shared Google Doc
• Email
• Google Chat
• A shared planning document
• A weekly check-in
• A quick conversation during prep

The specific system matters less than actually having one.

Talk with your co-teachers about how you’ll communicate:

• Upcoming assessments
• Major assignments
• Student concerns
• Missing work
• Accommodations
• Behavior concerns
• Changes to lessons
• Parent communication

And remember: communication is a two-way street.

5. Figure Out Where You Actually Need to Be

If you’re supporting multiple classrooms like I am, your schedule can get complicated very quickly. You may have students in several different classes, different grade levels, meetings, planning time, and possibly other responsibilities I am fortunate that I only have one grade, but multiple subjects.

During the first month, pay attention to where your time is actually going. Ask yourself:

Where am I most needed?

You may discover that one class needs much more support than you expected. You may also discover that a class you thought would need a lot of help is doing just fine. That’s valuable information. Your schedule doesn’t have to stay exactly the same all year. As you learn more about your students and classrooms, you can adjust where your support is most useful.

6. Start Building Relationships With Students

This deserves its own section because relationships are not just the “nice” part of special education. They’re part of the work. Students are much more likely to accept support from an adult they trust. And middle school students can be particularly good at letting you know when they do not want your help.

You don’t need to become every student’s favorite teacher.

You just need to show them that you’re someone who:

• Listens
• Follows through
• Doesn’t embarrass them
• Notices when they’re struggling
• Celebrates their successes
• Treats them with respect

Sometimes relationship-building looks like helping with an assignment; sometimes it looks like asking about the soccer game. Sometimes it’s remembering that a student has a band concert that night.

Those small moments add up.

7. Watch Before You Change Everything

This is probably one of the hardest pieces of advice for new teachers: You don’t have to fix everything immediately. You will notice things. Maybe you think a classroom system is inefficient. Maybe you don’t understand why a particular behavior is being handled a certain way.

Or, maybe you have an amazing organizational system that you are absolutely convinced would solve everyone’s problems.

Take a breath.

Observe first.

The first month is a great time to ask:

What’s working?

What’s not working?

Why is it being done this way?

What information am I missing?

Sometimes there is a very good reason for a system that doesn’t make sense to you yet. and sometimes…there isn’t. But give yourself time to figure out which is which.

8. Start Collecting Data

You don’t need a massive data-collection system on Day 1, but you should start paying attention to patterns.

Which students consistently struggle with:

• Starting assignments?
• Following multi-step directions?
• Staying focused?
• Reading independently?
• Written responses?
• Organization?
• Transitions?
• Completing homework?

Look for patterns rather than isolated incidents. One missing assignment doesn’t necessarily tell you much. Five missing assignments from the same class might. The first month gives you a baseline. That information will be incredibly useful later when you’re discussing student progress, adjusting supports, or preparing for IEP meetings.

9. Create a Simple System for Tracking Accommodations

One of the easiest things to lose track of as an inclusion teacher is accommodations. You have multiple students, they’re in multiple classrooms, and they may have completely different accommodations.

Create a system that makes it easy to remember what students need.

For example, you might track:

Student	Class	Key Accommodations	Notes
Student A	ELA	Extended time, directions read aloud	Needs frequent check-ins
Student B	Math	Calculator, small group	Benefits from visual examples
Student C	Science	Chunk assignments, preferential seating	Independent when given a checklist

Again, keep student information secure and follow your school’s privacy requirements.

Your system should make your job easier—not create another giant spreadsheet that you have to maintain for the rest of your natural life.

10. Figure Out What Your Students Actually Need

Here’s the thing about accommodations:

Just because an accommodation is listed on an IEP doesn’t mean you’ll immediately know exactly what it looks like in practice. For example, “extended time” sounds straightforward. But how much time? When should the student use it? Does the student actually know they can use it? Does the assignment need to be shortened? Or, Does the student need help getting started before extended time is useful?

The first month is your opportunity to see what supports are actually helping students access the curriculum.

You may find that some students need very little prompting, others may need much more explicit support.

And that’s okay.

Your goal isn’t to make every student dependent on you, your goal is to provide the support they need to become as independent as possible.

11. Find Your People

Please don’t try to do this job completely by yourself. Find the people in your building who can help you.

That might include:

• Other special education teachers
• General education teachers
• Related service providers
• Your special education department chair
• Your case management team
• Counselors
• Administrators
• Paraprofessionals
• Experienced inclusion teachers

Ask questions, share ideas, and find out what systems other teachers use.

And, perhaps most importantly, find the teacher who will listen when you walk into the workroom and say:

“Okay, I need to tell you what just happened.”

Every teacher needs that person.

12. Don’t Spend the Entire Month Creating Systems

This one is important. As special education teachers, we can become very excited about systems.

Folders!

Checklists!

Color coding!

Spreadsheets!

Labels!

A beautiful binder that will absolutely solve all of our problems!

Until we realize we spent three hours organizing a binder instead of doing the thing the binder was supposed to help us do.

Your systems should serve you.

They shouldn’t become another job.

During your first month, create only the systems you actually need.

You can always add more later.

To be completely honest, this is where I struggle. I spend so much time trying to come up with a data tracking system and then it’s so complicated that I never use it!

What You Don’t Need to Accomplish in Your First Month

Let’s talk about the pressure for a minute.

You do not need to:

• Have every system perfectly organized
• Know every student’s entire history
• Have relationships with every student completely figured out
• Be an expert at co-teaching
• Have every accommodation memorized
• Create Pinterest-worthy classroom systems
• Fix every student’s academic or behavioral needs
• Have your entire year planned
• Feel completely confident

You’re still learning. The first month is about gathering information.

You’re figuring out your students, your colleagues, your schedule, and what will work for you.

That’s the point.

You’re supposed to spend that month figuring it out.

Also, check out:

Your First Week Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect

7 Classroom Systems to Set up Before Labor Day