Supporting Students with Mini-Schedules in Special Education Classrooms

Have you tried mini-schedules (AKA activity schedules) in your classroom yet? They are an AMAZING way to break down activities/ schedules and support students.

Mini-schedules are basically mini-task analyses for specific activities in the schedule. When you think about your entire daily schedule (i.g. breakfast, morning meeting, reading groups, math, etc.), you can break down each of those times with mini-schedules! 

There are many reasons to implement mini-schedules and numerous ways to use and create them. They can be used to support students with a variety of needs and in a variety of settings!

FREE Websites to use for Interactive Manipulatives

We know that many of our students benefit from using hands-on manipulatives when completing tasks and learning new material... This makes teaching online and the thought of returning to schools with restrictions around items in our classroom/ shared supplies super tricky...

During online / distance learning, I started using interactive manipulatives online with my students! They might not be the traditional "hands-on" materials, but they really helped to support my students! Keep reading to see ideas for using online interactive materials and free websites!

Structured Independent Work at Home During Distance Learning

I've always loved teaching students to work independently in the classroom! I've shared about how a student's ability to work (and play) independently will also benefit families at home.  If you want to know more about why I think independent work is so important, check out this post!

Many of my students are only working on technology during remote / distance learning, so I was determined to create a system for students to work independently using technology. If you want to support students with working independently on technology at home, then I have some tips & ideas for you!

Batch Working to Save Teachers Hours Planning & Prepping

If you want to spend less time working and be more productive & efficient with the time you have, then batch working is for you!

Batch working has been used by entrepreneurs and business professionals for years! I first learned about batching from this Jenna Kutcher podcast episode. I was instantly intrigued and started listening to other podcasts and reading books about batch working and productivity. My intention was to use batching for TpT/ business related tasks... but then I realized how amazing it was in the classroom! I started implementing simple batching strategies and shaved hours off the time I spent planning & prepping before and after school each week!

Online / Distance Learning in my Special Education Classroom

I get a lot of questions about what online / distance learning looks like for my classroom. It can be tough to answer because everything is SO differentiated based on each students' needs.

Our families and school teams worked together to create contingency learning plans for each student (these were basically really long Prior Written Notices). These plans outline how work will be provided (printed or online), how much work the student will be provided each day, how often the student will have contact with teachers, what supports for the student will look like, etc.

Since I obviously can't speak about specific students / plans, I'm going to show 2 basic  examples of how I'm doing online / distance learning and answer some of my FAQs.