Special Education for Beginners | Managing Paraprofessionals, Special Education Strategies, First Year Sped Teachers, Special Ed Overwhelm, Paperwork for Special Education Teachers

Ask Us Anything Series: Part 8- Elements and Organizational Tools for Special Education Classrooms

• Episode 176

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Welcome to the August segment of Ask Us Anything! In these fun episodes of the Special Education for Beginners podcast, Jennifer and her monthly co-host, Paul, answer the questions you ask. This episode is packed with practical wisdom and tips to help you handle the challenges of the special education classroom.

Today's Questions:

  1. Maggie from Michigan: "What elements do I need to make sure I have before setting up my classroom this fall? I'm an over-planner and I don't want to forget anything."
  2. Tina from Illinois: "What are some organizational tools to help stay on top of beginning of the year to-dos?"

Talking Points:Episode Highlights:

  • Navigating Classroom Setup: 
    • Creating a classroom layout that caters to student needs.
    • The importance of having designated student-centered areas, like a sensory or calm-down corner.
    • The value of visual schedules and how to implement them effectively.
  • Maximizing Resources and Funding: Paul shares alternative methods to fund classroom essentials without breaking the bank. From DonorsChoose projects to district grants, 
  • Paraprofessional Collaboration: Jennifer highlights the importance of working closely with paraprofessionals. 
  • Emergency Preparedness: The discussion also touches on having emergency plans in place
  • Organizational Tools: 
    • The importance of having a reliable planner, whether digital or paper.
    • Utilizing checklists for IEP preparation and other critical tasks.
    • Innovative methods for progress monitoring and data collection.
    • Effective communication strategies with parents using apps like ClassDojo or Seesaw.
  • Time Management Tips: Use the Pomodoro Technique as a strategy for managing time effectively in the classroom. 
  • Importance of setting priorities and sticking to them to avoid the overwhelm that often accompanies the start of the school year.

Jennifer and Paul remind listeners that while being a special education teacher is challenging, it’s also rewarding. They encourage educators to take care of themselves, plan effectively, and use the resources available to them.

Resources Mentioned:

Special Education Teacher Checklist
Bullet Journal

Don't Forget!

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Speaker 1:

Hey, special educator, are you overwhelmed by the absurd amount of paperwork on your to-do list? Do you wish you had the skills to build a rock-solid team with your staff? Do you find yourself scouring the internet for how to meet the needs of each student on your caseload? Well, hey there. I'm Jennifer Hopperberg, an award-winning veteran special education teacher and current instructional coach, who has walked in your shoes through each of these challenges and, yes, I have the metaphorical blisters to prove it. I have cried your tears and felt your pain, and now I'm here to support you in the way I wish someone would have been there to support me.

Speaker 1:

Listen in each week as my guests and I dish out practical wisdom to help you handle all the classroom curveballs that are thrown at you and learn how to laugh in spite of the chaos, to celebrate those small yet significant victories that only a special educator can understand. So, to celebrate those small yet significant victories that only a special educator can understand. So, are you ready? Wipe your tears and put on your superhero cape, because together we are going to learn how to survive and thrive in the ever-crazy, completely overwhelming, laugh-so-you-don't-cry profession of being a special education teacher. Well, hey there, and welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm here with Paul for the August episode of the Ask Us Anything segment. How's it going, paul?

Speaker 2:

It's going good, going good. Had a fun weekend.

Speaker 1:

Well, good, what'd you do?

Speaker 2:

There's a board game convention in Indianapolis where it's just like board game makers and designers and play testers all come and we test out new board games and they're always really fun. Some of them are very not good games, but some of them are really really good games and we all get to kind of like sharing it together.

Speaker 1:

It's really fun oh, that sounds pretty cool. There's nothing like that out here in the oklahoma panhandle. We're pretty, pretty remote from everything, so things like that always kind of intrigue me because they just don't happen here. I started back to work on Monday and it was probably the longest week of my life. I just took a couple of different naps, and it was tough.

Speaker 1:

Today we have two topics to discuss and they both apply to starting off a school year, so let's get to them. So Maggie from Michigan asks what elements do I need to make sure I have when I set up my classroom this fall? I'm an over planner and I don't want to forget anything. Well, thank you for your question, Maggie. I love that you are an over planner. I always say that I'm a type A wannabe. I want to be organized.

Speaker 1:

I want to be a planner but, yeah, always make it happen. But I can tell from your question that you are already a step ahead. You know you're trying to set yourself for success. One thing I want to caution about is, you know, take these few weeks before school starts. I know you want to get in there and get things done, but just try to enjoy yourself, you know, and spend time with your friends and family. Don't always think that you have to just go, go, go and get everything done right away. But, Paul, you want to start us off. What are some key elements that you think she needs?

Speaker 2:

Well, first of all is that I mean, like most things that I suggest, it's, normally there's a pre-step before you even get to the actual step of answering the question, and that is typically at the end of the year. I write down, I start a list of things that I want to do different next year. Obviously, as I've changed professions, I don't have that luxury this year as I'm learning things from scratch and I'll be able to do it next year, but I don't have the summer break anymore, so I know it's summer break for teachers. Specifically, I would recommend, while you're still in the mode of getting ready to, um, like getting into this end of the school year, like, start a list, just start a page, just do a bulleted list of the things specifically that you want to change from what you've done before, okay, and then you prioritize those by uh. I use a, a kind of a quadrant uh system. I prioritize them as, like is this something that needs to be done for next year? Um, and that doesn't necessarily mean someone's telling you to do it, it's just like you really need for yourself to do something different.

Speaker 2:

Um, the other spectrum is the, the want to. So, like you have the internal motivation to do the change or to do the thing. Um, and then there's the. The time constraint section is like when does this need to be done in order to do it successfully? Do I need it to be done during the summer? Do I need to be done at order to do it successfully? Do I need it to be done during the summer? Do I need to be done at the early part of the year? Is this something I can work in partially through the school year? And then the final thing is priority. So is it? Is it super important or is it super like kind of minuscule in its impact? And I think that those quadrants help me sort. So I just make a list, and I think that those quadrants help me sort. So I just make a list and I have those four quadrants and I just, in those quadrants I put, um, these items and I kind of almost plot them out on there and figure out okay, well, this is something that um, in order for me to do it, I would need to work on it over the summer and get it prepped and get it ready for me to be able to do it, and then I can know if I don't get to it during the summer. Well then, I just well, I'll try it again next year, especially if it if it's in the want to do, not the need to do column um for special ed teachers specifically, I would highly encourage you to look at some sort of personal tracker for data for meetings, for all that stuff you know, like your own personal tracker for each student so that you know what to do and when, and that's something that you can set up in advance in a couple of different ways.

Speaker 2:

I'm a big fan of spreadsheets, but I know that not everyone is. You can pre-make the template for a spreadsheet and then just copy it and add the student's information in later, or you can even make pre. You know, I think they have them on TPT store. You might even actually have made some. It's just like a small little tracker sheet that you could print off. I'm I tend to go more digital um in my you know things like that, but ultimately, I guess coming around is just have a list at the end of the school year so that you know when you're in the middle of summer brain, you have something to reference back to, to jog memory like okay, this is the things I wanted to do and you have the less stress to be able to maybe put some more like of your creative thought into those things anything and it's just, it's going to happen.

Speaker 1:

You're going to get through that school year and you're going to think I forgot to do this or I needed to do this, or I should have changed it to do it a certain way. And one of the things that I am thinking of is the way that I set up my classroom. I was a teacher for 27 years and I don't know, probably every year I would change the way that that classroom was operating.

Speaker 1:

And so yeah just it kind of bases on what your students need and what students you have. So that's, you just need to have some type of classroom layout and flow in mind, and then you can tweak it as the school year goes or tweak it the next year.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's. If there's a teaching profession that's closely aligned to improv, actor, special ed teacher might be the closest, because this is we do a lot of yes and uh work in our classroom, like, uh, yes, please put the chair down and go back to the original work that you were supposed to be doing. Um, there's a lot of of that kind of thing, um, that special ed teachers have to deal with, and so so I think that, on that note though it's, you need to give yourself some grace, like knowing that summer is to recoup and you should use it to recoup, and if that's, that should be number one on your to do list is to make sure that you're prepared yourself to be that solid object for those kids. What do you need to do to get to that point?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it sounds like Maggie is maybe using that as helping her being structured, being a planner. I think that might be her way of this is what I need to take care of myself, and so I think sometimes those really strong planners, that's what they need and maybe that's where she's, that's the mentality that she's coming from. But, yeah, definitely you know, get your class, figure out what kind of layout your classroom is going to have and make sure that you have those specific student-centered areas. So where are you going to do your direct teacher instruction? Make sure you have somewhere where kids can go to cool off, whether it's a sensory corner or a just a calm down corner, like they call it, or a small library. You need to figure out those different zones in your classroom and make sure that you always have a line of sight on the kids. You can't just let them go to a specific corner and you can't see them. So make sure you're thinking about those things Probably visual schedules, I would make sure and figure out what kind of visual schedules you're going to have, whether it's this, then do this, then get this kind of charts, or you're going to run an actual visual schedule where the kids are, you know, can look and they can move their little icons from here to there.

Speaker 1:

Just kind of be thinking about those things. I know you can't really implement them until you get to know the kids, especially if you're a first year teacher, but um, just kind of be thinking about what those visual supports are going to look like yeah, I think that's good.

Speaker 2:

I think that, um, one of the things that I encourage listeners to do is to try to find alternative ways besides um paying for it by yourself at target.

Speaker 2:

try to find ways to to help fund the creation of your classroom, because it's true that admin don't pay for decorations, they don't pay for furniture, they don't pay for you know those kinds of things, um, at least like the extra things, um, but I'd encourage you that you know, even though, yes, it's more work, it's also more alternative method to fund your, your decorations, but it exists and not to you know it's.

Speaker 2:

It's. It's a tough thing and it's it seems salesy, but there are a lot of resources out there like donors choose, uh, with crowdfunding for teachers specifically, um, that you can get those ideas and and they can be incredibly uh useful for you, uh to fund your ideas. And that's like donors choose. For example, I have funded over 23 uh donors choose projects in six years. So there's and, and most of them were in three to five hundred dollar range and that is ridiculous to it, like for a teacher to have to pay that much. Um, but it wasn't a teacher, it was. It was people who were supporting that teacher, whether it's friends and family or, more often than not, companies who are winning a tax write-off.

Speaker 2:

Maybe you know their motives are a little bit less, uh, philanthropic, but they're still giving to um your classroom and and that impact can can be dramatic. So I would highly recommend I know a lot of people do amazon wish list, which isn't a bad day or a bad idea either but I I'd encourage you, if you haven't and you're a teacher, make a DonorsChoose account. The worst that can happen is that you don't get funded. A couple of quick tips for DonorsChoose really work on how it impacts the kids, how the kids are benefited, and when you write up the DonorsChoose.

Speaker 2:

The second thing is to do it before December, and the reason I say that is that companies are looking to pay for a bunch of stuff in December as tax write-offs. They have, you know, they're given a certain amount of money that they have to give away for tax purposes. They are. They fund thousands of teachers projects in December. So have a project running in December, have multiple projects running in December, you know, whatever it may be, but don't spend your own money.

Speaker 2:

Fine, you know it's an extra step and it's not guaranteed that you'll get it, but if you get it, then your classroom, like when kids come into my classroom, they're like whoa, and it's not a whoa that led to a, you know, going over the budget earlier Whoa man, I've spent so much money, um, but it's something that uh, gives the kids something and I know it's important, like decorations and all that stuff is is an important part of the environment and personally I think it should be part of you know it's.

Speaker 2:

I think that we should be allowed to paint our rooms vibrant, cool colors and have classroom themes and all that stuff, but this is just not something that is valued by the big picture decision makers when it comes to education, and so I would just encourage you on that small scale for yourself, look in the donors, choose it doesn't hurt. Teachers can have it for free. An important note admin cannot do it, so you cannot tell your admin to have it for free. Important note admin cannot do it, so you cannot tell your admin to do it for you. It has to be a teacher. It's specifically designed with those stipulations in mind, but it'll take stress off of you later on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I have not ever done a DonorsChoose but I know teachers who have done it and have been funded and I think those are great. I know in my district and I think it's something to check into, we can't do them without talking to our admin or our district admin. First, because I don't know what happened, but the district was upset that teachers were doing donors choose when the district was willing to provide some of those things that they would have just asked. And so it kind of just depends on what district you have and how much what funding they have, because I feel like my district has a lot of funding and they they would have been, they would have helped that teacher out had they asked. So I think, just make sure and that's probably very rare, but I think definitely talk to your admin and let them know that you're going to do this and make sure that it's OK, because I don't want you to get in trouble.

Speaker 2:

Talk to your admin and let them know that you're going to do this and make sure that it's okay, because I don't want you to get in trouble. Yeah, as part of the uh setting up process, it asks you to ask your admin before continuing um yeah, so that is something that to consider and also a lot, of, a lot of districts have their own uh foundation that's attached.

Speaker 2:

That does do that too. So check into that too, because I've also done that. Where I have. You know, I've written grants for the foundation connected to my previous district and those those are the ones I did for like a big things, that huge things that I wanted to do yeah um and so like.

Speaker 2:

Look into it. Just don't. Don't assume it's easier, just to bite yourself is what I'm saying. Look into having other people fund it and, instead of doing like the the dollar tree version of what you want to do, see if you can get a company to to support you to do the really awesome way that the kids are going to remember for the rest of their lives, kind of a project.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, go, go big or go home yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think on that, on that note on the materials and resources, I think just make sure that you have what you need, um, to get the year started.

Speaker 1:

And then, if there's things that you're wanting to purchase Paul saying, don't purchase it yourself See if there's another method before you can, method before you end up spending your own money. And I do have my daughter. This is her second year and she wants all the things. She wants her classroom to be just perfect, but the kids are going to learn in spite of that and your classroom doesn't have to look Pinterest perfect for you to be a good teacher. So also keep that in mind. And then I think another thing that make sure you have in place is how you're going to work with your paraprofessionals. Make sure that you are including them on some of the decisions that you're making. Pull them in, make them feel like they are part of the team and that they have a say, and give them that training that they need. Lay out your expectations what, how is our classroom going to run? And make sure that they are on board.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, those are great things.

Speaker 1:

And then maybe just make sure that you have your emergency plans in place If you're going to be gone.

Speaker 1:

Make sure that that's an element that you have in place, Kind of you know, what do you do for fire drills, what do you do for tornado drills? All those things you need to have in place for a sub or a para who's going to be covering for your classroom. And I'm sure that there's a lot that Paul and I are forgetting, but I do have a resource in my TPT store that is called the SPED Teacher Checklist and it's just support for new special education teachers and it's just designed specifically for special education teachers who want to ensure that they have all their bases covered as they head into the school year. So, like Maggie, it's just things that would help you cover everything from setting up your classroom, preparing for those IEPs that's not even something we talked about, Paul, but that's a big part of our job Paraprofessionals, using your time effectively. It has a whole bunch of different things, so I will leave the link to that in the show notes if you want to get a hold of that.

Speaker 2:

And for any of the you know, I don't know how common it is for teachers to have ADHD, but a cool tip for when you get into the classroom and you're starting to set up time, time management is crucial. Um, I use something called the Pomodoro effect. Um, it is a ancient uh, uh japanese like strategic strategy for time management. Um, and it is basically setting a timer, you like pre-plan. How long do I think this is going to take? In, uh, 25 to 30 minute increments, and so it's like, okay, this specific thing that I'm doing, this corner, this bulletin board, you know, did it? Whatever it is, plan it out ahead of time with the time you have, go in there and then you work for that full time and the, and then at the five minute mark, you take a break, you take a break, you don't do any work.

Speaker 2:

Okay, the thing that I find that with ADHD people specifically well, with me specifically, who has ADHD, I'll put it that way um is that we never feel like what we're working on is what we should be working on, and so we look at a room full of stuff that gets done and we're just rotating around to the different things that need done, and it leads to us getting halfway done on a lot of things, when we could have snowballed it and gotten that thing done and then got the next thing and probably gotten it all done, and at the very least we would have gotten things completely done and check them off our list and move on.

Speaker 2:

So I encourage you to when you get into the classroom and maybe this is a neurotypical thing too, I don't know, but, um, I just know, for me that's a real struggle. I'm just going from this to this to this and I get a bunch of half done stuff. So that's where the prioritizing the list that I was talking about earlier is important, because you do the things that need to be done that maybe you're not motivated to do, but they need to be done before the start of the year and do those first, and then you don't have to worry about those things and you can start doing some of the things you want to do and start. Some of the things that are are lower priority, but you know you really like to incorporate this year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's a very good tip, because I don't have ADHD and I remember going into that classroom and just sitting and just staring at the room and I couldn't do anything because I didn't know what I needed to do. So I think making that plan of action is very important, whether you have ADHD or not. Okay, so let's move on to our second question, which actually ties in nicely with what we just discussed. Tina from Illinois asked what are some organizational tools to help stay on top of beginning of the year to do's? So we talked about what elements need to be in place. Now we're going to talk about some organizational tools. So, definitely some type of planner, whether it's digital or paper pencil. You need to have something to keep you organized.

Speaker 2:

Definitely, and I actually knowing we were going to do this question, brought my planner right.

Speaker 2:

here is your planner yeah, it's, it's called uh, you may have heard of this I may have talked about before it's called a bullet journal. So the bullet journal is actually a dotted system and for our listeners, it's basically just a grid. Instead of the grids being connected, it's just like a big dot to dot puzzle. That's straight lines, and the idea of this journal is that each page can be anything that you need it to be, and that is why it's so useful and it's called the bullet journal because it's made up of bullet points. Okay, so that's it. So each day is just, and I'd I'd highly encourage you. Like my explanation, especially if you're listening, isn't going to do it justice. There's a, there's several things that you can find some. Some are resources. I think you can even find instructions for how to do it online. Go, look it up. What it does allow you to do is it kind of takes out the need for it to be like oh, each journal entry needs to be a page in length, and so you know all this information and all this stuff. It's basically just a bullet journal that's based on different. I have a kind of a key in my bullet journal that tells what each of them are, so I'm able to just it's just a dot for a task that needs done and then you just X out that dot If the task is complete, you do a forward arrow. If you need to migrate the task, which means you need to move it earlier or I mean later in the week a task or you cross it out If you take it off completely. If you want to do a note, you just do a line across and an event, then you do a circle. So it's just very basic, super, super basic. But what it does is it allows me to jot things down, typically first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening, and it allows me to brain dump anything that I need to do the next day, and so normally I will jot it down the night before what I do the next day. That has been huge for helping me stay organized.

Speaker 2:

The second thing is you can do so. That's the daily log. Then there's the monthly log where you just put the days or the numbers, one through 30 or one through 31. And then you just put like a T for Tuesday, a W for Wednesday, a TH for Thursday, and you just go along and you just make this long line, which is real basic, and then I can put in on those days. You know, say, I have an IEP meeting in August. On the 18th I'll just put IDP meeting for dah, dah, dah. And this is a place that I check in every day. So I see, oh yeah, I have a meeting coming up in 10 days. Oh, I better get that notification out today, or you know all that.

Speaker 2:

It is extremely good to have the visible book in front of me. I carry it around with me everywhere and then if I decide that I want to do a tracker for a data point, maybe I like get to a point, was like, okay, I'm going to do a tracker for today, I'm going to progress, monitor all my kids. Well, I just make the next page, the tracker, and I just put all their initials and then I just write down what their data point is and it's all in a pattern. So I'll know. Okay, so the tracker came after this day. So I know that I got this data on this day or very soon after, and you just, it's a, it's a linear thing and you can create any page to be what you want to be.

Speaker 2:

I've gotten very creative on some pages and then I've also been scaled back because I'm like, well, it's too creative now and it's too complicated, so I'm not going to follow through on it and I'm not going to do this every time. I used to do a weekly version where I would make one for every week and it was just like and I had like seven different colors, one for each of the days, and I was like you know, going all out, and then I was like man, I never have seven colored pens on me all the time. Why did I do this? So I, you know it's it's. It's simplicity is why it works, and I am I am a digital guy. I do not like doing things on my um, like on paper, but this works.

Speaker 1:

That works for you. I have always been opposite. I've always been paper pencil and I have, just in the last year, used my iPad a lot and used the app Notability and I'm using a calendar and it's basically the same thing, because I've never heard of the bullet journal.

Speaker 1:

But I'm just keeping track and I'll date it. But it it's just one big long running record of everything that's in my brain and everything that I need to do. So that's been working for me for a little bit, but we'll see what, what once the school year starts, what I go back to I did buy a physical planner.

Speaker 1:

But so yeah, that's. That's definitely one organizational tool is just to get yourself organized somehow. Make sure you're writing in all your IEP dates when they're due. Like Paul said, I think checklists are another tool. You know, when you are preparing for an IEP, have some type of checklist saying, yes, I've done this, this, this, this, and I have these two or three things left to do before my IEP meeting. Checklists are lifesavers for me.

Speaker 2:

I'm not sure if this is the case in all ips, but we have an additional note section that we would fill out for every meeting that would have a detailed, uh summary of everything that we covered in the meeting. Um, and I flipped a switch on that and started to make it, because I used to have it like it was just blank and I'd have someone take notes of the meeting and then we'd transcribe them into the system or whatnot.

Speaker 2:

I started doing them first and like making an agenda for what I was going to talk about the meeting. It also prompted me to then, oh, I'm going to go ahead and talk to the speech pathologist to see what she's going to talk about the meeting. It also prompted me to then, oh, I'm going to go ahead and talk to the um, the speech pathologist, to see what she's going to say in the meeting and I'll have that in there and then it'll help cue me into there and it'll already be in there, so that instead of one person being tied down taking notes the whole time, it's just a small adjustments. Here and there the parent says something you know, I can just add that myself and, um, it worked so well that the entire sped team was like, what are you doing? Like, how do you, how do you have such great notes? I'm like, well, it's kind of cheating a little bit because I'm the notes are supposed to be for what was said and I'm using it as for what I'm going to say.

Speaker 2:

So, so it's like I am saying what I'm going I already preset. It's like a script basically, but it allows me to have kind of a pre plan of how the meeting is going to go beforehand and think about some of those things, to where I'm like, oh yeah, I'm going to need to have this printed off and ready, because it says this is when I'm supposed to do it and that kind of reminds me, okay, so I need to have this ready and this ready and this ready. Another thing that I would definitely add to that is those little tabs that you can point to specific things in the paperwork. Those are lifesavers for me, just having that preparation of pointing to where all the parents need to sign to make sure that you don't miss a signature.

Speaker 2:

That's a huge thing for organization too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I do the same thing. I probably don't make them as in-depth as you do, but I definitely have my talking points in a bullet form on that notes page so that I know what I need to take notes on and make sure I don't forget something. So I do teach all my teachers to do those. But I like getting you know, talking to somebody in advance and even parents, talking to parents in advance and writing out what their concerns are, what they want to discuss, and having that all on there. It's not, you said, cheating. I don't feel like it's cheating. I feel like it's just you're using a tool that's helping you stay organized and it's effective, and I think that's what we need so many of those little tools as special ed teachers, because we have so much going on.

Speaker 2:

Right and as, as someone with ADHD, that you know, deadlines are very motivating for me and what I find is that if the IEP isn't complete by the time the meeting's over, the pressure's off and I don't do a good job of getting the rest of it finished and polished and sent off to the, the um, the office. And so I started to be like okay, so my goal is to have this thing be iron clad when I go into the meeting and I'll make the tweaks during the meeting and I then print it off for the parent right there and say this is the copy you know. Before I'd be like I'll send it home with them once I make some tweaks, you know, with your student later this week. But that put the pressure off. That took off the idea of like okay, so I'm not, I don't have the pressure of a parent coming and sitting in this room, that I have to be an expert and know exactly what I'm saying.

Speaker 2:

Um, and so I then use that to be like all right, I'm going to have it, you know, done and obviously tweaks need to be made.

Speaker 2:

I just do them during the meeting and then we, we get the paperwork and I send it all off that day. I know there's like a 10 day, um, you know when you can get it into the office and get it to the parent and all that stuff. I just do it that day because I find that once that pressure's off, then it just comes to the back burner and then if I have a couple IEP meetings over a week, then I'm like, oh no, I've got to send in three to the office and then I've got to prep for a new one coming up in a week and then it's like, well, the pressure is, the priority is on the new one, but the old ones are still sitting there and they'll be able to be turned in by this time and it just adds a whole lot more stress. So that's a personal strategy for me. I don't know again if that's a neurotypical or a neuro spicy thing, but I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I totally agree. Get it done that day if you possibly can, and just get it off your plate. Get that checklist finished up and yeah, great tip. Another tool I think we should have as special education teachers is to have some kind of binder folder whatever digital, whatever tool it is you use for your progress monitoring. Make sure that you have a system in place where you're going to track data and you're going to do it consistently. I think that's very important to have.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and if you're doing a specifically like reading fluency, have the have a binder with all the probes in it for the student to read and just having them there and ready. I normally would track it online on my computer, but then I hand them the sheet of paper that they would be reading from Um and having those right there and ready, um can well, for a couple of different reasons, one um to pull up that exact probe on the computer, on their computer, and it's just complicated and it takes time and they start to. You know you lose a lot of time in that Um, but you can pretty well, even if, like, the internet goes down or, uh, you have a lull of time when you just happen to have a couple of students for some random reason, you can go and be like, all right, we're trying to get some editor real fast, and that's what I would. I would do is I'd look for those times, because it it's predictable that there is going to be interruptions in your day, especially in a special ed classroom.

Speaker 2:

So like when you have those opportunities, and says, you know, the principal comes in and says I need to speak to Johnny. Well, you can't go on with the lesson because then they're going to miss out on this. But you can just real quick be like, all right, we're just going to, here's the next practice monitoring thing, we're going to start on it. We're go know, here's the next part of monitoring uh thing, we're gonna start on it. Or go time, go and like for math.

Speaker 2:

What I would do is I'd have the next one I wanted them to take prepped and I'd have it just right there. I had this little like folder slot and I would just, all right time to go, you know, and just look for those little gaps in the day that normally are spent. Um, like to be like oh, I guess, get on your chromebook and do something for a few minutes while we're waiting on johnny to get back from the office or waiting for you know this or that or the other thing, um, and using those times to your advantage yeah, instead of losing academic time, you're you're replacing it with that progress monitoring piece.

Speaker 1:

I think that's a great tip. And then I think the last one that I would have would be some type of classroom app or way to contact parents, whether it's ClassDojo or Seesaw. Have some way that you are consistently communicating with those parents, the good things, the struggles that you're having, plus the progress that they're making. Make sure that you're communicating somehow with parents.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I think that's crucially important. I do think that something that I have done because not always do I get a good response on those apps like Classroom, dojo or Seesaw. I never get 100% buy-in on any particular app, but there are other ways to communicate with parents. A couple of things that were specifically really good ideas is Iprint or pre-printed or pre-filled out? Um, I made a digital template and printed a bunch of envelopes to that kid that I would just send home reports in regularly. And it was just like this thing that I would send home regularly and like, if it was a responsible kid, I'd send it home with the kid, if it was not a responsible kid, I'd just throw a stamp on and throw it in the mail. Um, but those, that was enough. Like it's not, like, oh, I have to find an envelope and then write out the thing and then you know, fill that all out, and then you know stuff it full of my report and all that stuff. Um, no, it was just, I just have the envelope ready. It can be as simple as, like, you did great, today, we did this, and then like, send that home and so that is. That is something that I'd recommend. Having that pre ready.

Speaker 2:

You can also use a lot of the printers. I know that sometimes they give special education teachers their own colored printers as an accommodation. That's not always the case, but I was able to print index cards. But I was able to print index cards. I was able to shrink it down and have index cards and I'd have a template on Google Slides with just notes for the day or like places for me to fill out, and I'd print out these like little things to send home with little progress reports and I'd just it was a note card, it wasn't anything dramatic, I'd just slip it into their backpack or ask them to deliver it, kind of like a little progress postcard, and those worked really well.

Speaker 2:

And then, honestly, I think that the reason why there's not as much buy-in has to do with the fact that parents will often assume that you don't want them to contact you Like I think that that's been the attitude that I've heard parents say is that, um, they just don't want to bother you. You know they don't want to be one of those parents, um, and so make it clear that that's not the case and that'll help with the buy-in. But definitely use your school system because it's established and normally, like district-wide or school-wide systems, have the you know broader features, so use that, but also have your own methods to to get to the parents and to communicate with them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think, as long as you're establishing that up front and even handing out like a meet the teacher kind of form at the beginning of the year, where they know how to contact you and the different ways to contact you, I think that's important to let them to communicate to them that, yes, I want to hear from you and please expect to be hearing from me, because I want to share everything that's happening in our classroom. So, yeah, well, maggie and Tina, those are great questions and, like Paul said, you know, enjoy the rest of your summer, take that break and prepare mentally for the school year. It's, being a special education teacher is tough, and so all of these little tips and tricks that we're giving you is because we've been there, we've lived it. But you're going to have to experience things on your own and you're going to have to learn your own ways, and this year is going to go great, but there's still going to be some tweaks that you're going to want to make, and so, like Paul said, document those and try to figure out what you're going to improve for the next school year.

Speaker 1:

So, if you want that checklist, you can find that in the show notes and use those to help you become even more ready for the school year coming up. And if you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, that's okay, we've all been in the same boat. So thank you again for your questions. If you want to submit your question for Paul and I, there's a link in the show notes for you to do that as well. So thanks, Paul, for another great conversation.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, we'll see you next month.