What can you do in the first few weeks of school to help create a more smoothly operating classroom for teaching special needs students? I often talk about the importance of implementing strategies and systems to ensure your classroom runs efficiently and implementing some very basic strategies in the first weeks of school can help set you, your staff, and your students up for success.

The first few weeks of school are crucial for getting students used to your classroom and how things work. In this episode, I share why you should focus on building relationships with students and staff, the importance of using visuals, how to prioritize tasks for each day, and why you should reflect at the end of the school day.

03:41 - How to build relationships with your students in the first few weeks of school

08:50 - Ways you can build relationships with your staff even with limited time alone with them

10:36 - Why you should be using more visuals than you actually need

12:08 - The importance of making a prioritized list of tasks for each day

16:12 - Why reflecting on what is working and what is not working is crucial in the first few weeks

Show Notes: http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode175

Resources:

• Paraprofessional Schedules and Team Building Kit
• Free Classroom Reflection Form
• Join the Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Teachers struggle a LOT with building and leading their classroom teams. I want to structure this month’s podcasts around helping you do both because even if you’re just out of school and surrounded by paraprofessionals with three times as much experience, you need to take the lead. So today, I start with a discussion of the nuts and bolts of building the structure with a classroom staff so they can work as a team.

01:48​ - Why leadership isn’t some big, scary thing

03:55 - An overview of the first part of the structure you’ll need: the classroom zoning plan

06:20 - What a zoning plan doesn’t include and the key to making it work

08:00 - The purpose of the lesson plan and setting up the vision for your classroom

10:50 - What to keep in mind as you build the classroom structure with your staff

Show Notes: http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode131

Resources:

• Join the Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Today, I’m focusing on setting up the classroom schedule for the IEP. To me, the schedule is the most important and pivotal element of classroom design. It drives the other pieces of the classroom, tells me what the physical space will look like, and is based on the teaching implementation plan. Once the TIP is completed, it’s easier to see what activities are going into the schedule, and once the schedule is complete, the other pieces start falling into place. So, in this episode, I talk about the characteristics of a strong schedule.

02:49​ - High levels of engagement with instruction and interaction

06:07 - Tying each activity to specific goals and objections for each student

07:11 - Quickly moving daily pace and engaging students

10:34 - Integrating each student’s goals and objections and your curriculum

Show Notes: http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode81

Resources:

• Join the Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Continuing our five-part series on Building Effective Classroom Teams, this episode focuses on how you, as a team member, are responsible for establishing and nurturing the classroom culture with both the students and the staff. Your tone, your behavior, and your approach can make the difference between a classroom that people tolerate working in each day and one that includes a team of adults working together for the good of the students.

Now, this is easier said than done, right? In this episode, I will give you some ideas of how to set the tone for the classroom and what you want it to be, along with some personal experiences that taught me some good lessons about finding positives.

Show Notes: https://autismclassroomresources.com/podcasts/ep-2-building-the-classroom-culture/

Resources:

• Join the Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

July’s here! It’s an interesting month for us teachers. Everyone tends to slow down this time of year, go on vacation, and relax and chill. But those of us in the teaching world take some time out of our summer to gear up for the new school year. So, to move you forward in that direction, I want to give you some idea of materials I’d prioritize as you sit by the pool and think about how you want to set up your classroom.

01:30​ - How I used to spend my summers prepping for the classroom

05:12 - Ways to set up your visual schedules

06:33 - Making the use of visual schedules much easier (attention, newer teachers!)

08:43 - What kind of picture schedule should you use?

12:29 - Ways to create materials for independent task work

14:09 - Why work tasks are important and the kinds of tasks you want to include

Show Notes: http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode126

Resources:

• Join the Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you follow me on social media, you can probably tell that I love independent work systems! Social media has made sharing tasks among each other much easier compared to the days before the arrival of Pinterest and Instagram. But it also means you have access to tons of misinformation, and there's a lot of it out there when it comes to independent work systems.

What is an independent work system, though? Today, I'm kicking off a new series of episodes about independent work systems by clearing up those misconceptions, defining what the system is, and discussing what it's truly designed to be.

5:32 - Defining what an independent work system is and the four questions it must answer

8:55 - Why these systems are effective tools for students

9:31 - The critical element that's often left out of independent work systems

10:58 - What the work structure in the system is designed to do for the student

11:42 - A must-have element for a student to complete the work system and the only thing it's designed to teach

Show Notes: http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode113

Resources:

• Independent Work Systems Webinar
• Join the Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So far, I’ve spent the last few episodes talking about creating a collaborative IEP. So now that that’s done, you have to actually implement the IEP. Start thinking about how to organize your learning environment and incorporate the IEPs for all of your students to meet their individual needs. It takes a well-structured, well-organized classroom design. In this episode, I'm discussing your teaching implementation plan (TIP) for the IEP.

04:10 - What the TIP is and its objective

07:37 - How the TIP serves as a road map for your instruction

09:14 - How using the TIP makes your life easier

Show Notes: http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode80

Resources:

• Join the Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Creating effective special education teaching materials is more important than you may think, especially for our learners with autism. Students with autism oftentimes focus on details of pictures or learning materials that you may not even notice. Being aware and intentional of the teaching materials you are using is so important in helping them learn the concepts you are trying to teach. 

There are certain things to keep in mind in order to create effective special education teaching materials. In this episode, I am sharing six tips for how to develop effective special education teaching materials for your learners with autism.

01:35 - Why you should be using examples that are very different from each other when introducing new concepts

02:08 - The importance of keeping your examples clear and straightforward

02:50 - Why avoiding distracting backgrounds is helpful for students

03:26 - How to avoid material overlap

04:04 - What to avoid when creating materials so students can’t just guess the correct answer

04:49 - When to start working on the generalization of a concept

Show Notes: http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode183

Resources:

• 3 Tips for Presenting Materials in Discrete Trials: With a Freebie
• Join the Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In this episode, I'm talking about the basic principles of behavior. These principles may be a review for some, but I think even behavior pros will find at least a kernel that they can use to help their team understand how behavior works (and how it doesn't).

Sometimes it's unfathomable to those of us who do this all the time why others in the classroom or school just don't seem to get these ideas.  To us, they may be basic principles that feel like water and air.  But to others, they are the opposite of what they learned about behavior from their parenting, previous classroom teams, previous administrators or just previous experience with students.  So I think they bear repeating a bit to make sure we are all on the same track.

Show Notes: https://autismclassroomresources.com/episode6

Resources:

• Free Addressing Challenging Behavior Webinar
• Join the Autism Classroom Resources Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

If you're enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When we are considering Extended School Year (ESY) services for our students, collecting and reviewing data is crucial. There are many state and federal regulations about who qualifies for ESY, and data is a key component in determining who needs this additional support and if it's beneficial for the students receiving the services.

Whether you have already determined which students are eligible for ESY and are looking to understand data collection procedures throughout ESY or are still in the process of determining eligibility, ensuring that data is collected properly and that the data moves with the student will help in decision-making moving forward. To help you better understand what goes into data collection procedures for ESY, I am breaking down what ESY is, the importance of consistent data collection, and what tools are helpful for data collection.

01:41 - What Extended School Year (ESY) is

03:17 - The importance of taking data throughout the school year

05:25 - How to take weekly data during ESY

07:46 - Why it is necessary to pass along data from ESY to the student's teacher

Show Notes: http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode218

Resources:

• IEP Goals & Objectives Tracking - Data Collection Sheets for Special Ed
• FREE Special Education Training Series: Data - Taking Sample Data
• FREE Setting Up Systems of Data Webinar
• Join the Autism Classroom Resources Free Resource Library
• Get more information about the Special Educator Academy
• Join the Free Facebook Group

Ifyou'ree enjoying this podcast, could you please take a quick moment to leave your review on Apple Podcasts? It would mean the world to me and will help spread the word to other special educators. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️