Mrs. D's Corner

teaching from the heart, not the books.

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10+ Spelling Activities That Feel like Play

Spelling activities in any classroom should feel more like play and less like busy work. Do you agree? Imagine this scenario: The kids get out a pencil. They’re handed half a sheet of paper. The teacher says, “Number your paper from 1-10.” Insert wait time. Now the teacher says, “The first word is “dog”. The dog wagged his tail. “Dog.”” Ahh, the weekly spelling list. The dreaded paper and pencil spelling test. The vanilla, un-differentiated, stagnant paper and pencil spelling test. Come on, you know what I’m talking about. Why do we still test kids like this? It has it’s… Read More

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10 Things College Doesn’t Prepare Teachers For

Special education teacher programs are intense and teach prospective educators so much about teaching in the classroom. However, just like in any profession, the on the job training (i.e., actually teaching in a classroom full of kids) is often more valuable than anything that a teacher studied in school. For teachers, the learning curve can make or break your classroom. I asked veteran teachers to share some of the things that colleges don’t teach special education teachers. Their answers are insightful and provide an excellent reference point for student teachers and/or those who are entering their own classroom for the… Read More

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At Home Lamination Hacks for Teachers

Having a laminator at home is kind of like a right of passage for teachers these days. They are inexpensive and allow us to work from the comfort of our own homes (plus it’s super simple to use!). These lamination hacks for teachers will give you the opportunity to laminate larger items at home and more! Because I know you’re so stinkin’ excited like me, let’s get started with the 5 lamination hacks I want to share with you. Before you can laminate at home, you need a laminator. Now I am partial to the Scotch brand of laminators and… Read More

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Visual Schedules in the Special Education Classroom

Visual schedules help students see what’s coming next in their day. Flip visual schedules give students the visual of checking off a part of their day. Visual schedules are a great way to help students manage their school day and having a print-and-go visual schedule template makes teacher life easier and saves us a bunch of time. Before you can utilize a visual schedule in the classroom for your students (or at home), you need a visual schedule! [ Find all visual schedule resources here. ] You can grab the free flip visual schedule base template in the Resource Library… Read More

Field trips for special education blog post at mrs ds corner

Field Trip Ideas for Special Education Classes

Field trips for special education students take a lot of planning, but they are so worth the effort. We have a lot of options, however, finding field trip locations that work (ie. are accessible, open during school hours, accommodating, inexpensive) can throw our plans for a loop. We asked veteran special education teachers what some of their favorite field trips have been with their students, and here are the top 10 field trip ideas suggested by special education teachers for special education teachers. Top 10 Field Trips for Special Ed 1. Trampoline Park Head to the trampoline park to work… Read More

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Para Classroom Jobs and Expectations

Having paraprofessionals in the classroom is a huge help. We truly could not keep our classrooms running without support staff. The trick is figuring out how to work with our aides effectively as a team. College courses and the majority of professional development provided by school districts never does professionally train us on how to utilize or manage paras in the classroom, yet it is a part of our job expectations. It’s always helpful to sit down with your paras at the beginning of the school year and discuss how you see them participating in the classroom, and also to… Read More

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Helping Regular Ed Teachers Understand a Child’s IEP | IEP Snapshot Brochure

IEP snapshot brochures help build a positive rapport between special education and general education teachers. It’s the tiny things that sometimes hold the biggest value! If there’s anything I have learned from my experience in my years of special education, it’s that a big percentage of the time general education teachers take the newly copied IEP they are legally supposed to read and put it in a drawer. Never to be seen again. Now I get it. They’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s a HUGE document with lots of legal jargon. And most regular education teachers… Read More

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How to Manage + Work Well with Support Staff

Not only is managing support staff important for teachers, but it’s also essential for the relationships they have with your students. Learning how to work well with support staff is not something that’s discussed a lot in teacher preparation classes, so new teachers often struggle to know what their role is in the relationship.  Some relationships take time, understanding, and a lot of communication. Working well with support staff is one of them. Here are the things veteran teachers recommend to help foster supportive, professional relationships with the support staff and paraprofessionals in your classroom: Ask for their input. Making… Read More

items Teachers love and Can’t Live Without

Things Teachers Can’t Live Without

Whether you are a veteran teacher or entering the classroom for the first time, you know that there are items that teachers cannot live without! Favorite markers, that perfect pair of scissors, that brain break trick that’s saved you a hundred times, there are just some things that you cannot teach without. A few years ago I shared my 25 must haves for special ed teachers, but I was curious. So I decided to ask the veteran teachers in Mrs. D’s VIPs Facebook Group, what items they can’t live without and why. Is your must-have item on the list? The… Read More

Summer Rituals from Veteran Teachers to Prepare for the New School Year

Summer Rituals from Veteran Teachers to Prepare for the New School Year

Those who say that teachers have the summer off clearly have never taught. No matter how many days we have off during the summer, there are never enough to feel completely ready for the new school year.  A few weeks ago, I asked veteran teachers in Mrs. D’s VIPs Facebook group what they do during the weeks off to prepare for the first day of school… ya know, like back to school rituals. Their summertime back to school rituals may surprise you! Join the group and weigh in on the conversation here. The VIP veteran teachers had some great advice for summertime… Read More

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Mental Health: Tips for Helping a Friend + Tips for Self Care

According to the World Health Organization, mental health is defined as “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. As someone who lives with anxiety, I want to share some tips that have worked for me when it comes to asking my friends and family for help. And I’ve asked my husband to share a few tips on how to help your spouse if he or she has a… Read More

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Does Errorless Learning Really Work? | Errorless Teaching

Errorless Learning sets students up for success and is a great option for students who need immediate positive feedback. But what is Errorless Learning and what students will benefit from this type of teaching technique? Today I am going to teach you all about Errorless Learning, answer your most important questions, share examples of Errorless Learning activities, and give you a few freebies that you can implement tomorrow. Are you ready?! What is Errorless Learning? Errorless learning is a skill learning activity in which the student can not get the answer incorrect. Prompts are given to the child to ensure… Read More

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Data Collection Shortcuts That Save Teachers Time

Teachers are always crunched for time, that’s no secret. And we have a lot of paperwork, that’s another not so secret secret. So any little tips or tricks we can pick up along the way to help us save a few minutes are like gold in our book. Today I am going to share with you some data collection shortcuts. You’ll no longer need to write out “hand over hand” when conducting data collection trials. 😉 General use data shortcuts: I- independent SC – self corrected VP – verbal prompt IV – indirect verbal DV – direct verbal G –… Read More

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How to Avoid Teacher Burnout | Tips from Veteran Teachers

Teaching is a very rewarding profession. We do it because we love it. But that doesn’t mean the long hours, paperwork, and endless meetings don’t burn us out. Without proper self care and support, teachers can easily become overloaded, overworked… and eventually burnout. Psychology Today describes burnout as “a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.” Have you ever felt burnout as a teacher? If so, you aren’t alone… whether it’s year 1, year 5, 10 or 28. Here are some tips from veteran teachers in Mrs…. Read More

4 technology skills to teach special needs students

4 Technology Skills to Teach Kids with Special Needs

It’s no secret that technology is a huge part of any classroom these days. Computers, laptop carts, smart boards, tablets… our kids have access to so much information at the tips of their fingers. But in my experience, some of our students can work an iPad better than I can… to play games or watch YouTube… not to follow instruction, enter passwords, or do anything past that. As a teacher, it is important that we are teaching our students these important technology skills. Today I am going to share with you 4 of the top technology skills that our students… Read More

Guided reading groups and lesson planning for a self contained classroom.

Guided Reading Lessons + Rotation in Self Contained SPED – Part 2

Planning for guided reading groups in a self contained classroom can be very overwhelming, especially if you have multiple levels of reading groups. It’s overwhelming, but it is NOT impossible. If you haven’t read Part 1 of this blog post series, you’ll definitely want to start there. You can read Guided Reading Lessons + Rotation in Self Contained SPED – Part 1 here. That blog post will give you a very in-depth explanation of how I run Guided Reading in a self-contained classroom. If you’d like to watch the video version of all the ins and outs of how I… Read More

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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

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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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