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What’s in My Teacher Bag
I am a special education teacher and I teach eighth-grade inclusion. Which means I co-teach five classes with three different teachers. Because of this, I am very rarely in my classroom and have to travel with a lot of belongings. I thought I would share with you a glimpse into what I keep in my teacher bag and why I travel with it! My Planner I am obsessed with my Erin Condren teacher planner. I use it to keep my life organized. Since I am not the content area teacher, I don’t keep a curriculum plan in my planner because each teacher I co-teach with has it in theirs. What…
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Positive Reinforcements for Middle School Students
Often, I have a difficult student that results in me and my team creating a behavior plan for that student. More often than not we work towards using positive incentives for students to earn with the behavior chart rather than consequences or taking things away. But, with middle school students, sometimes it is hard to find age-appropriate rewards. Get the Parents Involved I try to get the parents involved with the behavior plans. Sometimes the most appropriate rewards for the students involve things that are more appropriate to happen at home. I have had students whose parents determined that the best reward was some screen time after dinner or a…
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August 2018 Book Reviews
Real Murders by Charlaine Harris Alright, I am not going to lie to you, I read this book because I love the Hallmark series with Candace Cameron Bure. The story is about a woman who lives in a small town and is a part of a club where they research and discuss murder cases from history. In this novel, the members of her club begin to be targetted, and all of the crimes match historical murders. The main character, Aurora Teagarden, is a charming and quirky single woman who maintains a strong relationship with her mother who lives in the same town. If you are a fan of the movies, Aurora…
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Tips for a New Inclusion Teacher
Teaching inclusion can be overwhelming for someone who is new to the job, or maybe you are just in a new co-teaching relationship. There are so many things to worry about, from the needs of your students, to your co-teaching relationship, to working with parents. Here are some tips for someone who is new to inclusion. Treat all of the students the same It is easy to go into the classroom and focus on only the students on your caseload. It is your job to help these students and ensure that they are receiving all of their necessary accommodations and modifications. But, you need to remember that for optimal co-teaching,…
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Tips for a Successful IEP Meeting
Start with something positive An IEP meeting can be stressful for parents. You are determining whether or not their child has a disability, or you have already decided on this and you are meeting to make sure that they are still making progress. This can be upsetting and uncomfortable for parents as a lot of the information that is going to be shared may not be positive. Always start your IEP meeting by telling the parents the good things that you think about their child and how much you enjoy working with them. This sets a positive tone at the beginning and lets the parent know that you are on the…
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How to Turn a Blog into a Side Hustle!
Starting a blog was something I didn’t put much thought into… at first. I used an already existing Gmail account and just activated a Blogger account. I put together a few posts, tried to set up Google ads, sat back, and waited… and waited… and waited… It was quickly evident that this half-baked attempt to start a blog was not going to be the key to my financial freedom. So at this point, I was faced with a decision… do I throw in the towel? Or so I invest some money, a lot of time, and figure out how to do it the right way. Fortunately, I chose the latter.…
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My July 2018 Book Reviews
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman I had to take a day to digest this book before I wrote a review. This book was unique. The story is about a thirty-ish girl names Eleanor. Eleanor works as an office assistant for a digital company, and she is fond of routines, order, and vodka. It is difficult to tell if Eleanor is someone who has Autism Spectrum Disorder, or if there is something else going on. This book was a lovely book about learning to let yourself love others and learning to allow people to enter your life. It was a great read. I give this book 4.5 out…
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Courses Every Blogger Needs to Take!
Blogging is difficult. It requires a huge time commitment, dedication, and a LOT of patience. When I first started my blog, I had no idea what I was doing. I had been selling on Teacherpayteachers.com and felt like starting a blog was the next step. For the rest of the story, check out My Blogging Journey. I changed my whole technique of starting a blog when I found the courses on Create and Go’s website. Pinterest Traffic Avalanche The first course that I took from them was Pinterest Traffic Avalanche. This class taught me everything that I know about Pinterest, other than what I knew from using it for recipes and…
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How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog!
The biggest struggle with running a blog is getting people to read it! It seems so basic, but if you are not driving readers to your blog, how do you expect anyone to find it!? I’ve done a ton of research, I’ve taken courses, I’ve read blogs, and I’ve tried everything under the sun. After all of this, I’ve come to one conclusion. The best way to get people to your blog is through… Pinterest! Why Pinterest? You may think that sounds nuts; that website that people use to find recipes is going to drive people to my travel blog, or my teaching blog? Yes! It really is. Pinterest is the…
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How to Guide A Successful Paraprofessional
Paraprofessionals As special education teachers, it tends to be our responsibility to guide a paraprofessional. Even if it is not officially our job responsibility, our paras are working with our students, and we want to make sure that they know what they are supposed to be doing so we tend to take this on. Who are they? If you are unfamiliar, a paraprofessional is someone who works in your school, but usually is not a licensed teacher. In my experience, a lot of paras are working towards their license, or are newly licensed and are trying to get their foot in the door. I have also worked with some paras…
