Living the Speducator Dream

 A Love Letter to DonorsChoose (Unsponsored!) I have created 9 projects through DonorsChoose, and ALL 9 were fully funded! The truth is that students with disabilities require special tools. Though my principal allots $200 per year for instructional supplies and resources, this money goes quickly. When I started in my current position 4 years ago, I had big visions for what I wanted students to have access to, including sensory and academic tools. Those 9 projects were funded between September 2022 and September 2023. (Not long after the final project was funded, I learned that my district does not approve of teachers submitting projects through DonorsChoose, so I stopped creating projects.) However, I'd like to share some of what I learned from the process. If your district allows use of DonorsChoose, PLEASE take advantage. What a fantastic resource! *One quick note is that all supplies  must stay at the school, even after the teacher leaves. But in my mind, this is ok! Stude...

  Special Education Case Manager  Data Collection Systems "Special Education case manager" is synonymous with detail-oriented, paperwork, and organization systems. I'm sure there are some Type Bs among us, but in Special Ed, there are always SO MANY things to juggle. Many of them are paper-based or on a spreadsheet. Here I hope to share some of the data collection systems that I have developed over the last 19 years. While I'm always tweaking the systems, for the most part, they're pretty effective (and efficient!). IEP Goal Data Collection Academic Data For academic data, I use a Google sheets document. The master tab includes a caseload list with exceptionality, teacher, and related services. Then there are 3 other tabs for testing accommodations (district-wide, statewide, and WIDA), and each student has his/her own tab with their IEP goals. This document is shared among all paras, and this is where we record student data. We aim to collect one data point for ea...

 Importance of Special Educators Building Relationships with  General Education Teachers Being a special educator can be isolating - especially if you are the only one in your building! Often, professional development or staff meeting topics don't apply to us. We are told to "join that group," even though it won't benefit us professionally. It's hard to feel like we're not on an island. For introverts like me, it can be difficult to meet people at work - especially in a new job/position/school. Also, I feel like I am on the go from the time I get there in the morning until the (late afternoon) when I leave. I often work through lunch, eating over my keyboard. Is that the right thing to do? Of course not! But there is always so much to do! As I reflect on the friends I have made across the years and across elementary, middle, and high school settings, though, I think about why it is so important to leave our comfort zones for personal and professional relations...

  Transition Planning for High School Students with IEPs In the state of Washington, students must have a transition plan driving their IEP beginning no later than age 16 (or when determined by the IEP team, or when the student enters high school), through age 21. This is also the federal requirement. In Virginia, where I taught a few years ago, however, the age of transition planning is no later than 14. The big idea is that transition planning is not a process that only involves the school-based team. There should be family input, student input, and an interagency linkage. Across all of the states where I have lived and worked, there are many different agencies to which schools link families. 

 Math Interventions for Elementary Students in  Gen Ed and Resource Settings One of my favorite things about being a special educator is finding ways for students to access content. That could be making text more accessible for comprehension by building background knowledge or modifying the level of the text. In writing, it could be going step by step, modeling each part of writing a paragraph.  In math, m ulti-modal learning is where I've found the most success. This may be with hands-on manipulatives, graphic organizers, or visual supports. Below are some of my favorites that have been most effective with my elementary-age resource students. Manipulatives/Hands-On Instruction Counters - This could be anything: bears, squares, circles. Anything that kids can count. I've even used little trucks before for a student who was interested in vehicles. This helps students develop 1:1 correspondence. I have written IEP goals before for younger students where a number 0-10 was w...

Teaching Social Skills in a Small Group Setting Teaching the Social Skill Earlier in my career, I was guilty of Social IEP goal data collection being a "gotcha." There always seemed to be more minuses than plusses. I have realized over time that my mistake was not being intentional with the way the skills were TAUGHT. I don't know how I thought students would perform a skill that they weren't taught. Also, it always seemed I caught students NOT performing the skill, rather than noticing when they did not engage in the target behavior. Now, I try to be intentional about HOW to teach the skill and then collecting data following instruction. No more gotcha! Like with all IEP goals, how the skill is taught depends on the student. For example, in a self-contained classroom, I may give a scenario (hypothetical, or it may have really happened) and then show photos of possible solutions in a field of 2 or 3. The student would use the visual supports to select an appropriate ...