Sunday, July 31, 2016

SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies!!!


Welcome back SPED community! Ready for some freebies!?! If you missed it last week, I launched a new weekly linky explicitly for Special Education freebies! You may be familiar with "Freebie Friday" that we all love from "Teaching Blog Addict," and "Manic Monday" hosted by Charity Preston of "Classroom Freebies," but I decided it was time for a resource linky specific to special education teachers! Last week, we had 40 freebies linked up. Check it out here

Every Sunday I'll host a link up here on my blog for "SPEDtacular" freebies! Bloggers and TPT sellers can link up their freebies each week from their blogs or stores. Those that don't have a blog or store can visit each week to download free resources for their classrooms! 
Link Up Rules

1. All resources must be FREE! It can be free for the day, but please delete your link once you mark it back to paid.
2. Your freebie may link to your blog or store.
3. Freebie does not have to be related specifically to SPED, but should be practical for SPED.
4. If you are linking up from your blog, using this image in your post and linking back to my blog is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to share this image on your social media so your other SPED friends don't miss out! :)


*I recommend using an image of your freebie & not your button when linking up. 

Alright, GO! 
Link up your free resources below and/or download the free resources you can use in your classroom! The link up tool will close on Saturday each week, but freebies will remain accessible! Come back every Sunday to link up or download new freebies!




Friday, July 29, 2016

14 BTS FREEBIES & GIVEAWAY!!

 Back to School is just around the corner! It's time to get serious and start focusing on all of those classroom ideas we had on our list! 

I've got 14 FREE set-up resources and posters to help you get started! Just click on the link you are interested in and download! :)


IEP scheduleopen house sign incheckout sheetline up chartstudent infoAccommodationsSupply wishlistdesk nametagsImage HTML map generator

IEP Schedule (Editable)
Open House Sign In Sheet
Check Out List
Line Up Chart
Student Info Sheet
Accommodations Flipbook
BTS Supply Wishlist
Hello Desk Nametags

3-d shape postersipad rulessubway postersmoney posterssafe spotgroupsImage HTML map generator

3-Dimensional Posters
Money Posters
iPad Rules
Subway Posters
Groups Poster
Safe Spot Poster

Want even more free goodies!?! Enter below for a chance to win $50 worth of resources from my store....your choice!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You might also find this useful if you missed it last year!!! It is a collaborative resource I put together last summer with 24 other special Ed bloggers! It's loaded with tips and freebies from each of us!! Check it out here.

And don't forget this Sunday I'll be hosting "SPEDtacular Freebies" again! Be sure to stop by and link up a freebie of your own or to download some freebies! Last week we had 40 freebies linked up!!! :) If you missed it, you can still grab them here

Cheers to a great 2016-2017 school year!!!

Thursday, July 28, 2016

SPED Interactive Notebooks are Here!!! {A Year-long Reading Curriculum}




Finally!!! An Interactive Notebook designed specifically for special education classrooms and just in time for BTS!!!! And, a year-long reading curriculum my friends, designed to build fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension!!! Yes, a year-long, with 36 weeks of daily activities!

I'm so excited to finally launch this and be able to share it with you for the upcoming school year! This is a collaborative resource I've worked on for over a year with Susan from "School Bells N' Whistles." So it is a true "Labor of Love!"

Each Monday, students are introduced to 5 new vocabulary words and a new reading passage. Passages are low readability and seasonal. Here's a peek at Week 2, and how the program works.
Students read the passage every day for 5 days as research shows that repeated readings increase and build fluency! They can time themselves or one another (kids love using the timers) and try to beat their time each day. Kids also love this challenge. Each time they read the story, they can color in a book. They also get to make a "Pocket Full of Words" to make daily practicing fun and easy.




On Tuesday, students complete WH questions about their story.
On Wednesday, they get to make a fun flipbook that focuses on comprehension and targets main idea, setting, characters, details, and vocabulary.







Thursday is sentence writing. Students have the option of writing the correct words in the boxes or cutting and pasting the words. 
Friday is a quiz that can easily be used for a weekly grade. The quizzes give students practice with multiple choice, true/false, and short answer items, and also targets skills such as antonyms, synonyms, and rhyming words.
I've tried Interactive Notebooks in my class before, but the cutting was just too daunting for my students! I love that my students will be able to manage the cutting with this set, as the cutting is very minimal and requires only simple straight cuts!

I love the ending results of IN's, and being able to showcase their year-long work in one book. It also makes such a great keepsake and allows everything to remain organized and easy to refer back to for review. They're really nice to show at conferences too or even IEP meetings!

If you're not a fan of IN's, this set can easily be used without them too! You could simply staple each week together, or possibly even spiral bind them.

You can check it out here, and be sure to download the preview to get a free weekly sample to try out in your classroom! You'll get everything you see above!

It's also currently discounted, so snag it up while you can and have your reading lesson plans all planned out for you when you head back to school soon!!

I plan to use my "Spelling for a Year" along with this set as it compliments this set nicely and includes a weekly phonics sheet designed for IN's that you could easily incorporate!

What reading program are you currently using in your classroom??

Sunday, July 24, 2016

SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies {New Weekly Linky}



Hello SPED community! Ready for some freebies!?! I'm launching a new weekly linky explicitly for SPED teachers! You may be familiar with "Freebie Friday" that we all love from "Teaching Blog Addict," and "Manic Monday" hosted by Charity Preston of "Classroom Freebies," but I think it's time for a resource linky specific to special education teachers! What'd you say!? 

Every Sunday I'll host a link up here on my blog for "SPEDtacular" freebies! Bloggers and TPT sellers can link up their freebies each week from their blogs or stores. Those that don't have a blog or store can visit each week to download free resources for their classrooms! 


Link Up Rules

1. All resources must be FREE!
2. Your freebie may link to your blog or store.
3. Freebie does not have to be related specifically to SPED, but should be practical for SPED.
4. If you are linking up from your blog, using this image in your post and linking back to my blog is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to share this image on your social media so your other SPED friends don't miss out! :)

*I recommend using an image of your freebie & not your button when linking up. 

Let's get started! 
Link up your free resources below and/or download the free resources you can use in your classroom! The link up tool will close on Saturday each week, but freebies will remain accessible! Come back every Sunday to link up or download new freebies!



Thursday, July 21, 2016

Thirty-One GIVEAWAY!!!



I'm back from my amazing Alaskan vacation, so that calls for an amazing "Thirty-one" Giveaway!! 


Some of my blogging buddies and I are giving you a chance to win this Thirty-One bag!
I have this very same bag, only in polka dots, and I absolutely LOVE it! I know you will love it too!

In addition, you'll also receive a towel, sunscreen, flipflops, and a cup!

A $70 VALUE!

Better Yet! It's open worldwide!

Enter below! Giveaway ends on 7/28/16.
a Rafflecopter giveaway




Saturday, July 9, 2016

Special Education Lesson Plans


I always have sped teachers asking, "Can you share your lesson plans?" "What do your lesson plans look like?" So I thought I'd share mine with you today. 

I love my lesson plan template! Don't get me wrong...it took much trial and error, as isn't that the story of teaching, but this template has worked perfectly for me and my staff over the last couple of years! 

The Daily Overview
This is the first page of my weekly lesson plans. I think the daily overview is important! It gives you a quick glimpse of what's happening and gives anyone viewing the plans an overview of what everyone is doing at all times every day. It allows my aides to see exactly where they are expected to be. Even more importantly, if you put in a request for assistance for a 1:1 aide or such, or a student on campus needs more support, you will most likely be asked for documentation of how your aides are currently being used. This is your documentation! Being able to account for every minute of your aide's day is important in many ways. 


Here is a copy of what my weekly lesson plans look like as a whole, and then I will elaborate on each section. 











Now to elaborate on each section.
I always like to start the day with an independent activity. This gives me a chance to do attendance and wrap up anything else! My students come in each morning, remove their homework, agenda, and take-home daily logs from their backpacks. They place these 3 items in the appropriate trays, hang their backpacks up on their assigned hook, grab their morning work folder from their bin, and go to their assigned seat. My aides and I assist with their morning work as needed and check their morning work. 

Then we begin our Morning Meeting with a "Daily Fun Fact." I have the Fun Fact displayed on the Smartboard each morning they arrive. My students LOVE our Daily Fun Fact, but they have to complete their morning work first, so this entices them to get it done! 



 Daily Fun Facts 

After our Daily Fun Fact, is Morning Meeting where we review calendar, weather, money, time, place value, etc. But first, and just started this year, we do "crossing the mid-line" exercises. You can learn more here

Next, we break off into our math rotations.


This is my center rotation chart from last year. As you can see, I have four groups, four rotations, and groups are color coded and coordinate with their center activities. Since there are only 3 of us (adults) and four centers, my fourth center is always an independent center. During math centers, the independent center is computers/iPads and for my reading centers, the independent center is independent reading. My non-readers still love looking at the picture books. You can find more details about how my centers run, here

My lesson plans show what each aide and myself are doing with each group and what materials we need. I place these materials in color-coded baskets that correspond with the colors on the plans and that also corresponds with the color assigned to each group. 


This is the lesson plan for my center.

This is the lesson plan for my two aides. Aide 1 works the "At Your Seat" center, which is IEP Tubs. You can read more about my IEP Tubs here. Aide 2 works the "Number Work Center."


At 10:55 Math centers end and the whole class goes on computer. Luckily I have enough computers for each student. If you do not, maybe you have iPads and can distribute iPads to student that you don't have a computer for. I must mention to alleviate any confusion...I co-team with the Resource Room teacher for centers. So the students that have an asterick* by their name are his students and leave at this time. That leaves me with 5 students. 

At 11:30, we go to lunch. I don't like missing lunch with my students, but I also need a lunch too. So I overlap our lunches, which allows me to spend 1/2 of their lunch with them. So to get a bigger picture, it looks like this:

Students' lunch- 11:30-12:00
Aide 1- 11:15-11:45
My lunch- 11:45-12:15
Aide 2- 12:15-12:45

This gives me the opportunity to just visit with them and to observe them during this unstructured time. I don't like missing anything. I want to see how their eating, if they're opening their own packages, if they're chewing with their mouths closed, etc. Some of my students may have eating goals, so I want to be able to monitor those goals. Overlapping the lunches allows me to do that.




After lunch, one of my aides does a read aloud with my students, and one GoNoodle song, not reflected in plans. Then, we begin reading rotations. My lesson plan layout is pretty much the same as the math rotations. However, due to two resource room students moving away, I eliminated the yellow group from this block.

After reading rotations (resource students leave), we have whole group instruction again, and specials. Whole group is when we do life skills activities and where I incorporate science, social studies, health, and crafts. We always begin with a fluency fitness warm-up from "Tickled Pink in Primary." Her fluency fitness resources are amazing and my kids LOVE them!

At 2:05, my students do their classroom jobs and stack their chair, IF they don't have any missing work from the day! If they don't have any missing work, it is free choice and social time for them! When students misbehave and/or refuse to do their work during the day, I never negotiate with them, I simply say, "No problem," and go obviously drop it in the missing work tub. I would say 7/10 times, they decide to do it.

After social time, they go to specials. Once they return from specials, we line up for the bus.

Of course this schedule my change year to year depending upon times of specials and lunch times, but this is the jist of my lesson plan layout and how our day runs. I am lucky to have had specials at the end of the day the last two years. I really like specials being at the end for my students. If you're wondering, I am now teaching students in grades 3-5, rather than 1-5, so I split it in the middle and send my students to fourth grade specials. My students that are capable of attending specials without an aide, go with their grade level. 


And that's my lesson plans! 
I hope you'll be able to use some of these ideas to simplify your lesson planning. :) 

UPDATE: Due to an overwhelming interest in an editable copy of my template, I have added the link here.




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Tuesday, July 5, 2016

The ULTIMATE BEHAVIOR Toolbox




The Ultimate Behavior Toolbox has finally been released and I'm so excited!!! Scheduled for the end of June and just a few days late, but I promise it will be worth the wait! 

If you're struggling with behaviors in your classroom, The Ultimate Behavior Toolbox is here to the rescue! Whether you're a general Ed teacher, special Ed teacher, or a brand new teacher, this kit will assist you in dealing with frustrating, agonizing behaviors that have you at your wits end! And if you're a new teacher that just simply doesn't know where to begin; this toolbox has everything you need to set up a successful behavioral management system in your classroom!

These informational pages will guide you every step of the way; from how to collect data and conduct a reinforcer assessment, to how to develop a behavior plan and a crisis management plan.

Simplified data collection tools with detailed directions and samples! You will love my self-graphing sheets! Phenomenal! And look, some of them are even editable!

Struggle writing behavior plans?? Don't even write them half the time when you know you should? No fear! I will walk you through the process and simplify behavior plans with you!

If you've read my other behavior posts before, you know that I am a BIG fan of self-monitoring!!! Self-monitoring is powerful! Not to mention, it saves you a ton a work! Whenever possible, my students keep my data! Now yours can do it too!

Set up an effective clipchart system in your classroom with my easy step-by-step instructions...AND take home sheets in 3 different formats! 

Other essential forms that include a behavior summary for other staff members to sign off on and a cheat sheet for calculating intensity, frequency, and duration. 

Whole group token board, menu token boards, and more! Also includes my Token Board Bundle of 26 token boards from my store. 

I use the "Cool, not cool" program in my classroom, adapted from Ron Leaf of Autism Partnership. It's very effective and I've included the cards in the toolbox!

Teaching and shaping a behavior requires many tools, including patience and consistency. It does not happen overnight. It can sometimes take weeks or even a year or two to teach students with more sever disorders.

This ultimate toolbox includes every single form, tip, and trick that I use in my classroom! I have been very successful at shaping and changing behaviors in my classroom and I am happy to finally consolidate all of these successful resources to share with you!

And look at all of the editable forms!! Easily customize the forms in Adobe to meet your students' needs!

Take a look here!