Special Education Archives - Check in with Mrs G

Special Education Classroom Supply List: 10 Must Haves

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Are you setting Up your Special Education Classroom?

When you first walk into your sped classroom, there are things people just don’t tell you. For example, you may not have an actual classroom. You may be in a closet, or a converted staff lounge, like I was. Or, you may be “gifted” an entire classroom of mostly broken materials from the 80’s left by the former teacher (thanks dude!). While there maybe some gems in the pile (especially if you run a social skills group), it is a task. When I finally got my first classroom cleaned out and organized, I was asked by my administrator, “What do you need?”. I had no idea. None. I couldn’t even guess. But now I have my special education classroom supply list, a few things that I would NEVER teach without.

Special Education Classroom Supply List

Visual Timers: I love visual timers for behavior modification, creating smooth transitions, and helping students learn how to pace themselves academically.
Velcro of all shapes and sizes: What don’t I use Velcro for?! File folders, attaching visual cues to walls, labeling bins, personalizing spaces for students, and rotating visual schedules are all made easier with Velcro.
Personal Laminator & Laminator Pouches : Setting up your classroom for the first time is a huge undertaking. You will buy, print, and make SO MANY things. So, the ones that I hope to use for many many years I laminate with my personal laminator. The pouches are significantly thicker than the kind at schools. It is a little more work up front but it makes my resources last forever!
Task Card Storage Box: These photo storage boxes are the PERFECT size for task cards and flash cards. I have one for math, one for ELA and one for my social skills games.
Magazine Files: I use these over and over for keeping student workbooks, book bins and journals organized. A nice Velcro label makes them versatile.
Plastic Tubs for IEP bins: I create an IEP bin for each of my students. These bins have the materials needed to take data on their individual goals. It keeps my progress monitoring organized and timely!
Privacy Screens: Each seat in my room has a privacy screen assigned to it. I teach my students to access their screens when needed. This helps my students get their work done and recognize their own learning styles.
Baby Wipes: Because… kids.
Note Cards: You will find teachers, parents staff members and students that you cannot live without. They will make your days so much more enjoyable and help you in ways you never imagined! I like to take a few minutes and write them quick notes of appreciation.
Sticky Chart Paper: In small group settings I am a huge fan of having the students collaborate on making anchor charts. Bringing concepts to life as a group increases student engagement and retention. These chart papers are amazing because they stick anywhere! This is especially helpful when you have many different groups throughout the day. However, I will say that they are more expensive then they should be. So, if you use them often see if your school will buy them.

Welcome to Wonderful World of Teaching Special Education!

For all of its trials my heart will forever be in the world of special education. Mostly, with the kids and with those other teachers who are cut from the same cloth. In other words, you are here and I am glad! It is so incredibly worth it. You can read more about how I teach Social Skills Groups, Manage my Special Education Classroom, and Build Relationships with my students using a check in check out model!

FREE Resources

Here are three FREE Resources to help you in your special education classroom:

Check In Check Out

Writing Intervention for Elementary

Vocational Reading for High School Life Skills

by admin

Establish a Language for your Social Skills Group

I have taught many, many social skills groups at ALL the levels. Starting with adults at a non-profit in my pre-teaching days, and continuing through to my current elementary students. Some would say it is my thing. I simply cannot resist a good social skills lesson.

High School Social Skills

My favorite social skills groups are the high school students. They are past the, “why do I need to learn this” phase of elementary school. They are beyond the “I am too cool to learn this” phase of middle school (shutter). By high school, students onto the “can we talk about real things” phase.

For high school Social Skills groups you need three things:

1. Trust: The students have to know that they are free to ask and tell without consequence or judgement. If this one isn’t there, just send them home. Nothing productive can happen.

2. Structure: This can be as loose or as rigid as the group needs but a structure of some kind has to exist. Students need to know how and when they will have a chance to participate.

3. Behavior Expectations: Will your group call out? Raise their hands? Can they ask anything at anytime or do they need to stick to the topic?

If you can nail down these three things up front, your group will be much more successful. Take as much time as you need to establish each one. It is worth it!

Social Skills Lesson Resources

In order to make progress with my groups, I discovered we needed one more piece to the puzzle. We needed a common language. A social skills dictionary with vocabulary that told us who we were, why we were meeting, and where we were trying to go. Words like advocate, conflict, emotion, participate and role model became the cornerstones of our conversations.

During those early, pre-classroom teacher years, with a group of high school kiddos, I scratched out a list of the words that we needed to define upfront. Originally on post-its and eventually in a doc. That list has evolved over the years into this Social Skills Dictionary. You can try a free sample of it by clicking here! The dictionary scaffolds students understanding of each of these words by providing context. Students are not only asked to define the word, use it in a sentence, illustrate it, and identify its part of speech, but also to use the dialog provided to act it out. Understanding and using these words will be a powerful tool for students who need to advocate for their own needs long after they leave my social skills group.

The journal is meant to take 30 days to complete on average. Although, with some groups I have had, it was longer. On the good days, the vocabulary turned into meaningful conversations and connections were made.

I hope you will find these tools helpful as you support your students in becoming adults (you can read about my Check In Check Out tools here!). If you find yourself scratching out your own list of words I would love if you shared them with me!

by admin

Do you Teach Writing Fluency?

Early on in my teaching, I was torn when it came to teaching writing fluency. In particular, in determining whether writing fluency as an IEP goal was appropriate.

After all, being able to write words quickly tells us nothing about the quality of sentences. For some students writing fluency is completely useless. Because the second you bring a timer out, you have lost many students to anxiety. It is painful to watch the stress fall over their faces while they watch the seconds tick away. I feel for those kids. I was that kid.

My first year of teaching special education, I would have advocated to change the writing goals for all of my students. But, like so many times in my teaching career, my students knew best. They taught me. I listened.

Some of my students who are the most severely impacted in their writing abilities excel in writing fluency. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling plague them. As one student told me, “It is not creative if I have to stop every one second and think of exactly how to spell something!”

It was one of those moments as a teacher where you pause because you know you have heard the truth. For some of my students, fluency is their greatest area of success in writing. It gives them permission to freely and quickly spill their ideas onto paper and be celebrated for doing so.

I Teach Writing Fluency

So, in my room we do monthly testing in writing fluency. I don’t do it for the kids who struggle or even for the kids who excel. I do it because that is how their lives will be, isn’t it?

Students will move on from my room to other classes where they will take timed tests. They will have timelines for projects. Deadlines at work. So, we practice writing fluency. We talk about building our skill set around doing things quickly. We talk about the difference in done well and done quickly. And, my students understand the difference in done perfectly and not done at all. It is a balance. For some, it is a challenge. It is a task that I will help them face like any other task that will come their way.

Resources for Teaching Writing Fluency

Writing fluency and I have settled our differences. In my classroom we practice writing fluently with a timer. We talk about what stress is and how it makes us feel. The students track their own progress and count every single word. On Fridays, (we don’t use the data) and we try to distract each other during our two minutes of writing. It is built into the culture of our classroom. We make it a game. I have writing prompts with and without pictures. They enjoy the freedom of fun writing prompts. I get data, they build their muscles. It is a win. So while I teach writing in some capacity everyday (read about it here!), I also teach writing fluency.