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.
The month of March is National Women's History Month. What a great time to teach about some influential women in history. I've compiled some of my favorite resources to use with your special education class to get you started.
Introduce the month by using this free national day journal activity that introduces the month of March as Women's History month. There are four different levels to help you reach all of your learners.
Add some more fun to your calendar routine with your special education class by talking about the national day. National Day discussion journals are the perfect activity to add into your morning meeting! Why might you want to include the national day during your morning calendar routine? There are a ton of reasons including:
Here's what the classroom poster and 4 levels look like and how you can use these in your special education classroom with multiple levels of learners:
