The Top 10 Secrets to the Best IEP

While many districts offer six- to eight-week programs that often run daily, 9 a. For some children, an academic program is not as advantageous as alternatives for the summer — through the school or otherwise — that allow for greater practice of social skills. Some parents elect to accept related services for their children, such as occupational therapy or speech therapy , but choose not to enroll their children in a longer program. Many parents do not consider this option.

The law is clear that schools can provide services in other locations, such as community recreation programs or Boys and Girls Clubs. It makes sense to think flexibly about what your child needs and where the IEP team can provide services. Thinking beyond the program in place or a traditional program can result in effective programming that is economical for the school as well. Private schools that serve children with disabilities from September to June often have summer programs for their students.

They may also accept students just for the summer. Parents should obtain written recommendations, if possible, about summer programming needs. As always, parents know their children best. Does your child need a continuation of routines over the summer, or does she need a break from the pressure of the school year? This will also help you with your long-term planning. I will share more information in future hubs about how I organize all of my modified comprehension materials. I have a tough time delegating tasks to others.

Anyone who has worked with paras knows that their abilities range greatly. Designating repetitive tasks such as setting up visual schedules and Velcro calendars will free you up to get other things accomplished.

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Getting assistance when you're making materials will help the process go a lot more quickly, too. You don't want everything to fall apart when one or more of your paras aren't there. There are days when you are simply shorthanded. Don't stress about getting through all of your planned material when this happens. Keep a short stack of "fall back" activities for your students that you can pull out as needed. When possible, use a movie or short film that has an educational tie-in.

Finally, consider inexpensive holiday-related craft projects. It's impossible to have a lot of backup plans on hand when you don't even have time to make regular lesson plans. When all else fails, consult the Internet. There are numerous free ideas and printables for just about every topic imaginable.

Flexibility is key for any teacher. Hopefully, this was stressed in your teacher preparation program. This is especially true for special education teachers. You never know when general education plans will change or when any of your students will be having really good or really bad days due to any number of factors. Don't be afraid to change your plans around accordingly. Keep your lesson plans on a computer instead of a paper lesson plan book. It's much easier to change your plans this way. There is nothing wrong with bringing some work home with you. My first year I had very little time alone in my classroom and found it almost impossible go through IEP data and plan IEP goals at work, especially during the school day.

Occasionally I found time for these tasks before or after school. I work well at night so sometimes I don't mind working through data or assembling new materials for an hour or two before bed. Whenever you decide to get work done at home, make sure that you're taking time off around it. This may involve working with your family so that you can establish a routine that works well for everyone. Take at least one or two evenings off and one weekend day off from work completely to avoid burn out.

This goes along with the last piece of advice about establishing a routine. There is nothing wrong with staying late at work sometimes. However, you shouldn't stay this late every day of the week. If you find that you can't be disciplined about leaving on time part of the week without a schedule, designate days that you will and will not stay late. Prioritize what you want to get done during your extra time at work and focus solely on those tasks so you can maximize your effectiveness with that time.

I've discussed a couple times in this post how it can be difficult to take time to organize all of your new materials when you're constantly creating new ones and juggling numerous other tasks. Most likely you will have several significant stretches of time during the school year when you can get caught up on a lot of these tasks. I always have a lot of unscheduled time during our conference blocks because I have a small number of students compared to the general education teachers. Usually, I also got a few days during the school year, especially toward the end of the year, when a lot of students are on field trips or at special activities.

Take advantage of these times when you can. If you know that you'll have a stretch of time coming up, have one of your paras label file folders for you to speed up the organization process. I know that this is not an easy task when you're in the midst of any really stressful school year, especially your first one.

But at the end of the year, when you look back through all of the materials that you've laminated and Velcroed and all of the lesson plans and other materials that you've created, you'll be amazed at how much there is. You'll be able to use many of those materials over and over again, saving you a lot of time during future school years. Day to day, you may feel like you're not getting a lot done.

Hopefully, you will see small steps. Celebrate each one of them. You'll be amazed at how much progress all of your students have made by the end of the year. As a teacher, seeing this success is one of the things that has kept me going. Sign in or sign up and post using a HubPages Network account. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites. I have been there and completely understand!

Survival Tips for First Year Special Education Teachers | Owlcation

You're definitely not alone. It's very overwhelming to have absolutely no lesson plans ready for a group of students you don't even know. Start small, and build from there. It will take time to assess their knowledge and skill levels and determine what types of activities will work best for their learning styles. Don't worry about any sort of long-term planning in the beginning. If you have any other questions, let me know.

I am about to graduate college with a degree and a teaching certificate in special education and I am absolutely terrified to go into my first class. I feel like I have good classroom management, but I have no idea how to start lesson planning with students I do not know and different levels of functionality.

Any advice to get rid of these nerves? Lots of great advice for virtually any first-year teacher. I remember the stress was enormous and getting organized seemed like an insurmountable task. These are great tips for other teachers, too! I still do at least some planning from class to class. Sometimes it's just one day at a time. As a special education veteran teacher 28 years , I really enjoyed reading this article!

It's a good reminder and reinforcer for my own behaviors. I am one of those who does not balance work time with home time. I hope to practice some of these suggestions starting with the new year. Really it's a boon, for a new teacher no matter wherever they are with this humble world of innocence, this hub will really help us a lot.

Thank you very much and continue to help us I'm glad that you thought that this article was so helpful! You're right that it's not a common topic for journals or websites. I really wish that more people did address it. Thanks for Random creative for this hub. You have included the needful tips for better teaching. It is very useful for the first year special education teachers, as this topic is not common in journals or websites. I hope that this article is helpful for your daughter.

Best of luck to her. Thanks for writing this hub. My daughter mastered in special education and works with children of autism in an elementary school, so I'm happy to share this with her. You provided a lot of helpful and insightful advice. You gave me an article idea, actually. Your experiences that you relate I know will give a lot of insight to prospective teachers. Hi Gemma, check out my article about this topic. Hi i have an interview at a SEN school for pupils will mild to moderate autism, what type of questions do you think i may be asked?

Minc, my heart goes out to you. The first couple years of planning for special education are really tough, especially when you have students with such varied goals. I promise that it does get easier as you develop more curriculum and get comfortable writing goals that fit with that curriculum. Best of luck to you! It is February and this will be my second week in a special ed class for kids with intellectual disabilities. I know i have just started but I have always doubted if this was the life path for me. Now that I am in the mist of it all I am especially feeling like this is not for me.

How do you handle creating a curriculum that satisfies all of the individual goals for all the kids?

I have 14 kids. Thank you for any help and apologies if I sound like I am whining.

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Georgia, those are all excellent points. There is a huge learning curves for different school districts, especially in different states. I don't know any teachers, no matter how much experience they had, who didn't feel overwhelmed by Alternative Assessment sometimes. I want to add that after teaching in 4 school districts in 3 states that your 1st year teaching special education is your biggest challenge but your first year in each school district especially when you change states feels a lot like when you begin teaching.

Each state has their own terminology, each district has their own way of doing things and the feeling of being overwhelmed is almost as much as it was the 1st year.

Survival Tips for First Year Special Education Teachers

Truthfully even after 15 years especially when dealing with the Alternate Assessment I still feel overwhelmed at times. That's great that you have written about this topic, too. There is not nearly enough information about it for teachers. I agree that it is one of those experiences that will make you fearless about many things that life throws at you. You're right that it's so important to take time out for yourself and not make work and other people your top priority all the time, regardless of how long you've been teaching.

If you can make it through your first year of teaching special education, you can make it through anything in life! My best advice was to take time out for yourself; we all overwork ourselves and I always put others before me! I'll share this in several places where I think first-year teachers will benefit. This is such a helpful hub! I am so glad that I managed to find it! I am almost done with my schooling to become a special educator! I am definitely going to be taking your advice! I'm glad that you found some of these tips to be applicable for other types of teachers.

You're right that the leadership responsibilities for student teachers and regular teachers are really different.

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Thank you for the tips randomcreative. This is very useful even to teachers who are not handling special education. It is true that before we graduate we have to do internship but it is really different if you are the manager of the classroom. Useful and voted up.

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I'm glad that this was helpful for you. I've been through it, and it does get easier. THank you for this post. This is my first year as a Spec. Teacher, and I just had my first really bad behavior. Between dealing with behavior, and collecting data, I was so overwhelmed with the thought, "How am I going to do this all! Very well-written, with plenty of useful advice, to help the teacher to keep her work organized and reduce unnecessary repetitive work. Thank you for the feedback! Any teaching job has its challenges. It's good to have survival skills, especially for the first few years.

It is good for the teacher to be prepared always and have various activities that suits to the child. I just love reading it. I hadn't considered a hub on that topic, but it would definitely be worth writing. I'll add it to my list! This hub is really helpful for teachers.