Mrs. D's Corner

teaching from the heart, not the books.

Guided Reading Lessons + Rotation in Self Contained SPED - Part 1 header

Guided Reading Lessons + Rotation in Self Contained SPED – Part 1

When you teach in a self-contained classroom, you have a huge array of student ability levels and disabilities. This makes lesson planning for 4-5- even 6 different reading groups with varying strengths and weaknesses a little more challenging. It’s not impossible, and it makes you a better teacher, but it is still challenging. The most students I have had in my self contained classroom is 7 students, but within those 7 individual students were 7 different ability levels across 4 grade levels. #holybuckets So today I am going to share my Guided Reading rotation schedule, along with all of the… Read More

Sentence Building in special education classrooms blog header

Sentence Building Activities for Special Ed

Do you have students in your special education classroom who struggle with writing sentences? Or maybe they struggle with putting words together to form a sentence? Today I would like to introduce you to Sentence Building. This resource was created out of a desperate need for my own self-contained classroom. Students in my classroom, verbal and nonverbal, were struggling with sentences… writing them, putting them together… the whole nine yards… but they had IEP goals to meet and I had zero curriculum to help them achieve their annual goals. So I created it for them, providing models and guidance to… Read More

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Printable, Interactive Sight Word Books for Special Ed

Sight words are commonly used words that are an essential part of any educational curriculum. These high frequency words are part of everyday life, so it is important to teach our students these words on sight so they don’t have to sound them out each time they are encountered. These sight word books were created out of a desperate need for my own self-contained classroom. Students in my classroom, verbal and nonverbal, were struggling with identifying, reading, and learning sight words… but they had IEP goals to meet and I had zero curriculum to help them achieve their annual goals…. Read More

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Jobs You Can Have With a Teaching Degree (Outside of the Traditional Classroom)

When you go to college, they never really tell you how hard it can be to find a teaching position (in some states), and the politics of teaching aren’t discovered until you have your own classroom. And with the educational pendulum so far to one side, lack of support, parent demands, the never-ending-paperwork, little to no curriculum, large class sizes… let’s be real, it’s no secret that many teachers are leaving the profession altogether. But the kids are why we do what we do. The kids are our why. The kids make all of the hardships worth it. That will… Read More

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How to Deal with the Negative Nancy Teacher Down the Hall

Teaching is tough. T.O.U.G.H. Honestly, we all have moments where we need to vent out our frustrations. It is therapeutic to let it out, especially to people who understand (fellow coworkers and friends). It happens to all of us and it is completely normal to feel frustrated, overwhelmed, and alone as a teacher. But there is a very big difference between having a rough day and needing to vent, and being a Negative Nancy all. the. time. about all. the. things. Here are some tips from veteran teachers in Mrs. D’s VIP Facebook group to help you cope if you… Read More

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Themes for Every Day of the Week | Classroom Themes

Teaching is so much fun, even more so when you have a classroom theme! And I don’t just mean your entire class theme is nautical or Dr. Seuss or rainbow, I mean each day of the week has a theme. #saywhat! YES! If this idea is new to you, I definitely recommend trying it out. Start with just one day of the week, I think Friday is the best because… well it’s Friday and works as a HUGE motivator for students! Your whole entire day does not need to be themed, just a part of your schedule. For example, when… Read More

positive teacher lounge blog post header

15 Things to Talk About in the Teacher’s Lounge

Oh the teacher’s lounge… it can be such a great place, yet such a black hole of gossip. So much good and collaboration can take place in a teacher’s lounge, but more and more I just hear and see it used for a place of gossip and badmouthing. I get it. You have rough days, we all do. And as teachers, we naturally enjoy collaborating with others. So when we have a rough day, we want to tell someone about our rough day to get it off our chest before we go home… because we certainly never take our work… Read More

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Communication Stickers | Simple, Sticky Way to Communicate with Parents

One of the biggest struggles as a teacher is communication. Not that we are bad at it, it’s just that we have so little time. A simple task that takes a mere minute per student adds up when you have a class of 12… or 30. Those are precious transition minutes that my students need direction. And it’s not just about lack of time. Let me be honest… I teach a self-contained class of students with special needs… and we don’t always have time to get to science lessons (outside of ELA or Math instruction). I know, I know! Thankfully… Read More

things every special education teacher wishes other teachers knew blog header

Things Special Ed Teacher Wish Other Teachers Knew

Dear general education teachers, there are some things that we special education teachers would like you to know. Let’s start by saying that we love working with you and we love that you are part of our student’s team. The more hands on deck, the better. The more brains, the better. But there are some things we would like to clarify. OUR STUDENTS Our students are not that different from your students. Our students are capable. They are smart. They understand so much more than you think they do. And to piggyback on that, our students are capable of high level… Read More

data collection and progress monitoring I took data now what blog post header

Progress Monitoring: I Took Data, Now What?!

Being a teacher of students with special needs, and having taught in so many different school settings and states, I feel like I’m really good at tracking data. Truthfully, I’m a data nerd – I LOVE collecting data and student progress. Because of this, I’m constantly assessing IEP goal and objective progress. On a weekly and daily basis, I take data in a lot different ways. If you haven’t read the Data Collection for Special Education Teachers blog post, you’ll want to start there. One of the most important data collection sheets is my weekly progress monitoring page. I get asked… Read More

Bookshelf Share February books for kids

February Bookshelf Share

February is the month of love… but also Black History Month, Dental Health Awareness Month, and the sweet little groundhog decides if we get an early Spring or not. And that’s just the beginning. Phew! But fear not. I am here to share with you a bookshelf for each major topic for the month of February. Let’s take a look! You can use these books to talk about Black History Month, different US Presidents, the 100th Day of School, snow and winter, Chinese New Year, being kind, and being a good friend. In addition to children’s books you can purchase… Read More

holidays around the world for special education students blog header

Holidays Around the World for Special Ed

Holidays Around the World is a popular topic during the month of December. It’s engaging, cross-curricular and culturally inclusive. So it’s time to take your students on a trip around the world. Enable all of your students to participate in the unit while you travel to 21 different countries and celebrate a different holiday tradition at each stop with this set of leveled, adapted readers. Where are we traveling to? In this trip around the world, your students will travel to: • US / Canada Christmas• Kwanzaa• Hanukkah• Australia• England• Mexico• Germany• Sweden• France• Italy• Netherlands• Russia• Ramadan• South Africa•… Read More

This Math Assessment bundle includes all of the parts needed to assess your students on the early elementary skills needed in grades K-3.

Assessment in SPED – Math for K to 3

As special education teachers, we often are not provided with appropriate resources to assess our students current levels of learning. Or the resource we are given doesn’t meet the needs of all of the learning styles in our classroom. We always make it work, we’re superheros! But it’s time to use our superhero strengths for something else. This Math Assessment bundle includes all of the parts needed to assess your students on the early elementary skills needed in grades K-3, with all the data sheets needed to collect baseline data and show progress on the mastery of the skills. You may… Read More

halloween treat ideas that aren't candy header

Halloween Treats for Kids That Aren’t Candy

Halloween is a holiday that all kids love because of all the candy, but we have to think outside of the norm when it comes to halloween treat ideas. Many of our students have allergies, don’t celebrate the holiday, or are limited with how much sugar or candy they are permitted to have. Not to mention, all this sugar isn’t good for young, growing bodies or teeth. Here are a few treat ideas for kids that you can hand out at school for the Halloween holiday, or within your community for trick or treat night or trunk or treat. Learn… Read More

core vocabulary in a special education classroom - blog header

Core Vocabulary in the SPED Classroom

Core Vocabulary. It’s such an important aspect of any classroom, especially in a special needs classroom. Communication is a natural part of life, and it’s how living things communicate wants and needs. But what if you’re unable to communicate verbally? Imagine you’re 4 years old, and you have no other outlet to tell your parents how much your belly hurts… or that you don’t like green beans, that you want french fries… or the reason you had a tough day at preschool. Sure, our students and children do find ways to communicate with us using body language and facial expressions…. Read More

Core vocabulary - practicing the basics with put in tasks

Core Vocabulary: Practicing the Basics

Core vocabulary is a key element in any person’s day. For some of our students with special needs, we need to model and practice how to communicate and ask for what we want and/or. If you’re unsure of what Core Vocabulary is or where to start, I recommend learning more in this blog post first. In this blog post, we’re going to learn all about how to use a put-in task as an AAC device communication lesson. One that is simple and very inexpensive. Before we get in to what the activity is or can be, let’s learn about the… Read More

IEP Meeting tips and tricks for new and veteran teachers to rock that IEP meeting. Blog post at Mrs. D's Corner.

IEP Meeting Tips and Tricks

IEP meetings can be daunting. Especially to parents. And even to veteran teachers. From nerves and anxiety, to tears of happiness for progress made and unity of the team. As the special education teacher, there are some things that we can do to be top notch prepared for anything… and ready to rock our next IEP meeting. The list is broken down into 4 sections: before the meeting, bring to the meeting, during (or at) the meeting, and after the meeting. Let’s get started! Have a peer edit the IEP. Everyone makes mistakes and it’s better to catch them pre-meeting…. Read More

IEP Binder for Special Ed Teachers blog header. Mrs. D's Corner.

IEP Organization for Any Special Needs Teacher

Being a caseload manager and special education teacher is a wonderful experience that, unfortunately, includes tons of special education jargon and paperwork that can sometimes become overwhelming. Not only do we need to keep the legal documents organized, but we have timelines to abide by and follow. This IEP binder is your key to tidying up your daily caseload, organizing key special education information, and focusing more on your students, rather than the paperwork. { Grab your IEP Caseload Management Binder here. } All of the IEP Caseload Binders contain the same content, but the themes are different. That means… Read More

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