The First 30 Days:  A Special Educator’s Back-to-School Survival Guide Back-to-school in special education can feel like juggling IEP meetings, behavior plans, scheduling nightmares, and paperwork… while balancing on a moving school bus. But here’s the truth: the first month doesn’t have to leave you running on coffee fumes by September 15th. With the right plan, you can set up your year for success — without burning out before fall even begins. This survival guide gives you a week-by-week checklist , quick win routines , and a “what can wait” reality check so you can focus on what matters most: your students. Week 1: Build the Foundation Main goal: Get organized and get to know your students. Checklist: Review all student IEPs — focus on accommodations, modifications, and service minutes. An IEP at a Glance would be helpful for this! Create a master caseload tracker (grab my editable Special Education Teacher Binder to save hours). Introduce yourself to ...

Back-to-School Survival Guide for Special Education Teachers: Tools, Tips, and Must-Have Resources Back-to-school season is here! For special education teachers, it’s a whirlwind of IEPs, schedules, student needs, and a classroom that somehow has to run smoothly on day one. The key to starting strong isn’t just hard work - it’s having the right tools and systems in place. In this guide, I’m sharing my ultimate back-to-school toolkit for special education teachers. These are the resources I personally rely on to save time, stay organized, and start the year confident. Plus, I’ll share classroom essentials from Amazon that make teaching easier and help you create a functional, stress-free space. Whether you’re a first-year teacher or a seasoned pro, these tips and resources will set you up for your smoothest school year yet. 1. Start with a Back-to-School To-Do List When everything feels urgent, it’s hard to know where to start. The best thing you can do is focus on what actually...

  Beginning-of-the-Year To-Do List for Special Education Teachers:  What You  Actually  Need to Start Strong The beginning of the school year hits differently when you’re a Special Education teacher. While everyone else is sharpening pencils and arranging flexible seating, you’re juggling IEPs, compliance deadlines, behavior plans, and a hundred tiny details no one sees—but that make all the difference for your students. Sound familiar? Whether you’re brand new to the role or a seasoned SPED pro, the beginning of the year can feel like sprinting a marathon. That’s why I’ve created a clear, actionable  Beginning-of-the-Year To-Do List for Special Education Teachers —so you can stop spinning your wheels and start the year with purpose and confidence. And yes—it’s  totally free . 👇 Grab your free checklist here: 🔗  Beginning of the Year SPED To-Do Checklist (FREE on TPT) Why You Need a Specialized To-Do List as a SPED Teacher Special Education teachers ...

The Best FREE Progress Monitoring Assessments in Reading for Students with Learning Disabilities A curated list of powerful, no-cost tools to help educators track and support reading growth in students with learning disabilities and challenges, including Dyslexia. When it comes to teaching reading to students with learning disabilities, targeted interventions are essential - but targeting just one area of reading isn’t enough . Research consistently shows that an intervention focused solely on a single component (like phonics or fluency) is far less effective than one that addresses all five pillars of reading. So, what does this mean for how we teach reading? It means our approach must be comprehensive . To ensure meaningful growth, interventions and progress monitoring alike must cover all five core areas of reading : Phonemic Awareness Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension This is especially critical for students with reading disabilities. When we monitor only one or two componen...

Create Effective IEP Goals Using DIBELS: A Step-by-Step Guide for Special Education Teachers Learn how to craft measurable IEP goals using DIBELS data. Discover examples, tips, and resources to support your special education students in achieving reading fluency and comprehension. Writing effective IEP goals can feel daunting, but using a reliable tool like DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) can simplify the process and ensure your students’ needs are met. DIBELS provides valuable data to monitor progress and helps create specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals tailored to each student. This blog will guide you through writing IEP goals using DIBELS and offer practical examples to inspire your own. Step 1: Review DIBELS Data Administer the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills-8th Edition (DIBELS). DIBELS is a standardized tool for assessing the acquisition of early literacy skills from Kindergarten through 6th Grad...

How to Write SMART IEP Goals: A Quick & Easy 8-Step Formula for Special Educators Let’s be honest—Special Education teachers love working with students. Helping them learn, grow, and reach their goals is the most rewarding part of the job. But the paperwork? Not so much. If you've ever volunteered to cover recess duty, sharpen pencils, or—let’s be real—even taken a bathroom break just to avoid writing IEP goals, you're not alone. Writing IEPs can feel overwhelming and tedious, even for seasoned educators. But here’s the truth: it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right tools and structure, IEP goal writing becomes straightforward—and dare I say—manageable! That’s why I created my go-to strategy: the SMART IEP Goal Formula. It’s simple, effective, and it actually makes writing goals feel doable (yes, really). Ready to change how you feel about IEP goals? Let’s dive into this step-by-step formula that breaks everything down. STEP 1: Identify the Goal Areas Start with...