Mornings are so busy, the last thing most teachers are thinking about is submitting attendance when there are students to say hello to, notes to read, lesson details to finalize, kids to help, etc! So, how can a teacher actually remember to take attendance?
Here are some tried and true ideas from seasoned teachers who shared their strategies on the BSE Facebook page. Check them out and let us know which one ends up working best for you!
Halloween is always so much fun for kids, because, well, candy...and special needs kids are no exception!
Here's a few ways to help individuals with special needs have an enjoyable trick-or-treating experience this year: including multiple AAC supports, a free social story, links to wheelchair cover costumes, teal pumpkin treats, and more!
Hopefully, most people are kind enough to pass out candy to every trick-or-treater who comes to their door with their bag open regardless of whether or not they say trick or treat, but it's also fun to be able to participate in saying "trick or treat".
Here are a few unique ways that non-verbal kids can say trick-or-treat!
When teaching life skill math, make sure that what you are teaching is able to be transferred to life outside of the classroom. Seriously, you don't want to waste your time (and your students' time) on skills that won't be used in the real world!
One of the easiest ways to do this when teaching money is to make sure the materials in your classroom are realistic.
I don't know why, but every "play" cash register I have found has spots for 3 bills. Why? I wish I knew! Pretty sure all normal cash registers have 4 (and maybe some bank specific ones have more). So when working with money in your classroom, buy a cash register drawer (amazon affiliate link) to use instead of a play cash register. It is just about the same price as the play version from Lakeshore learning!
The act of gratitude is important for everyone, and that includes our students with disabilities. It might be hard for our non-verbal students to express what they are thankful for, so I created these differentiated thankful turkeys to help!
With this thankful turkey resource, students will be able to use the symbols to help them think about and choose the things they are thankful for. Then they can paste them on a turkey or on a journal to show what they are thankful for.
Being a special education teacher instructing remotely is far from easy. There are limited aspects of our jobs to see the benefits of teaching virtually over teaching in-person. For my friends who are special educators, you likely are facing double the challenge of having to wear two hats - one as a classroom teacher and the other as a special education case manager.
If there’s a silver lining in all of this, my Case Manager hat would be screaming “TRANSITION SERVICE PLANNING!”. Formerly a process that was case-manager designed and facilitated around school-and community learning opportunities has been flipped upside down where students and their families are expected to take a more active role in-home and community-based activities. Thanks to the shift to remote and blended learning, the top-down transition planning model is now a three-way shared responsibility (teacher, student, and parent/guardian).
Here are some creative alternatives to your traditional transition planning and implementation steps. These alternatives allow you to get the data and information you need to meet policy and planning purposes while providing students with opportunities to strengthen their self-determination skills and social skills. All the while making the parent/guardian experience stress and hassle-free by placing more responsibility on their child. For best results, confer with your IEP team members to solicit feedback and recruit support before attempting these alternatives.
