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What to Do When You Have a Substitute Teacher
Being out of school can be stressful, I, like many others, have gone into school when I probably should have stayed home because it was just going to be more work to be absent. Here are some tips to make things easier for you and for your substitute teacher. Have an afternoon routine. If you have a daily routine where you leave your classroom ready for the next day, it will be easier for unexpected absences. Often the biggest issue with an unexpected illness is that you did not make the copies that you need to make the day before. You thought you would have plenty of time before school…
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What to Do When You’re About to Lose Your Cool
We’ve all had those days. The days where you are so frustrated at your class that you feel like you’re about to hit your breaking point. Don’t let this get to you, it does not make you a bad teacher or person. We are all human and sometimes we get frustrated with the situations that we are in. Working with students can be exhausting! Maybe you’re running off little sleep, and little Susie WON’T STOP TALKING during your lesson. Maybe you don’t feel good and your class just isn’t listening! There are so many situations that can bring out the worst in us and you can’t let it get you…
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February 2019 Book Reviews
December 2018 Book Reviews
My October 2018 Book Reviews
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Things to Include In Your Classroom Website
So you want to start a classroom website? Here are a few things that you should consider before you begin, and what information you should consider including. Tip to Consider: How Often Will You Update? It is easy to go into creating a classroom website and think that you are going to update it every day. But, you know yourself better than anyone else does. Truly, do you think you will be able to maintain that standard? For some people, it is easy. Just add it to your daily routine and BAM! But for others, it is just impractical. When you are planning out your website, keep your updating timeline…
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Special Education Guide: What is an FBA?
What is it? FBA stands for a Functional Behavioral Analysis. It is a fancy way of saying we take a LOT of data to figure out what is motivating a student’s behavior. An FBA can be done when the student is exhibiting dangerous behaviors, but it does not have to be. If a student is consistently falling asleep in class, or doing another task avoidance behavior you can do an FBA for that. You can use it to determine if there are specific situations or tasks that are prompting the behavior. When do we use it? We perform an FBA when we have a student that has behavior challenges. The…
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4 Classroom Management Tips for Middle School
Teaching middle school is tough, heck being in middle school is tough! Everything about middle school makes people groan when I tell them what I do for a living. But, even though I never pictured myself as a middle school teacher (I was convinced I would be Ms. Honey from Matilda), I LOVE my job. I love the age and the kids and even the girl drama makes me chuckle from time to time. But it is a tough age for classroom management. The students are no longer at the age where they want to please you, and all they care about is what their peers think. Here are 4…
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Writing Great IEP Goals!
As a special education teacher, it can be exhausting writing and rewriting IEP goals for all of the students on your caseload. But, this is an important part of our job. Read on for tips on how to write great IEP goals. Use Current Performance When you are writing an IEP goal it is really easy to just take one that you have written in the past and reuse it for the new student. While all special education teachers refer to what they’ve done in the past to help them, make sure that what you’re doing also makes sense for this student. Often I get students with IEP goals that…
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Benefits of the Inclusion Model
A lot of school districts, for a variety of reasons, are beginning to adopt an inclusion model for special education. For more about inclusion, check out A Beginners Guide to Inclusion. Inclusion can present a variety of difficulties for the staff members involved. Having to constantly adjust curriculum to the wide varieties of needs and abilities in your classroom is a challenge. But, when done right, inclusion is definitely worth the work. Rigorous Curriculum When you include students with disabilities in the general education classroom, they are still being exposed to all of the grade level curriculum that their peers are. The students are exposed to positive peer role models who…
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Organizing Your Classroom: What to Save and What to Throw Away
So as a special education teacher, I feel like I am constantly surrounded by paperwork and junk. I have piles and piles of paperwork waiting to be filed, manipulatives that I’ve never used, and enough pens and pencils to supply a small army. This year I am trying to be better about de-cluttering my house and my office. Maybe I’ll share an article about de-cluttering my house another time. Here are some tips for what to save and what to part ways with. Save: Testing Information For this category, it is important to know your state laws and your district’s procedures. But personally, I save my testing protocols for 7…
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Ways to Differentiate Homework
Homework is a hot topic in my district right now. Parents complain because we give too much, or not enough, or its too hard. Homework can be difficult for students who struggle. They think that they understand what is going on when they are in class, but when they get home, they have no idea what they’re doing. Don’t Give Homework Just to Give Homework Make sure that all of the homework that you give is meaningful. Think to yourself, what is the educational purpose of this homework. And if you’re not happy with your answer, maybe that isn’t something you should be giving for homework. I am not arguing…
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Get Control Back in Your Classroom!
We all have those days where no matter what we do or say, the students just don’t cooperate. Sometimes those days get so bad that we sit back and wonder if we’re really cut out for this job! I know that I have had those days, more towards the beginning of my teaching career but they still happen. When you have that classroom that is just defeating you, here are some tips to regain control of your classroom. Stay Calm Letting the students get you worked up and get the best of you is not going to help anyone. This is the hardest of all of my tips, but it…
