Teaching voice levels in the classroom is an important part of kindergarten classroom management! Check out these tips and resources!

Add some color and inspiration with classroom posters. Here are 27 free classroom posters sets for and grade level! These instant download poster sets cover inspirational quotes,

behavior plan, BIP, classroom management, behavior, classroom ideas, behavior kit, behavior support, managing behaviors, difficult behaviors,

Tattling is a common issue in elementary classrooms and it can be difficult to stop. Tattling can quickly become a classroom management nightmare. Teachers can use this easy classroom management tool to stop tattling in the classroom today! On one hand, tattling can be a good thing to keep teachers informed of what’s happening in […]

Are you teaching ESY (Extended School Year) this year? I am teaching ESY this year, and I have a few tips for creating a simple ESY routine.

Teach elementary students how to identify the central idea/main topic/main idea and relevant/supporting details with picture books

Classroom Management Tools Writing Tools Glow and Grow Notes Alphabet Tools Hi there! I'm Amy! I am a former kindergarten and special education teacher. Many Kindergarten teachers feel overwhelmed by classroom management and trying to create or find the effective resources they need to help students to feel successful. My engaging, low-prep tools help teachers […]

Understanding characters can be tricky! Learn my favorite strategies for helping students master character traits and changes.

If you were to walk into my classroom, there is a very good chance that music will be playing. Whether that be as background noise or as a classroom management tool, I cannot go without music in my classroom! Click HERE for all of my school appropriate playlists! Our kids now are stimulated 24/7 by all of the technology at their fingertips. They are watching Netflix, while Snapchatting, while playing a video game all at the same time! They go from an overstimulated environment at home, to school where they are expected to be quiet the majority of their day…

These tips and resources will help you keep all students safe when dealing with explosive behavior in kindergarten.

Newcomer students receive some support from an ELD (English Language Development) teacher in most elementary schools. The majority of their time is spent in their grade level classroom. Here are some strategies for supporting a newcomer student both in their grade level classroom and areas to focus on during targeted language development lessons. Create a

If you have an extra-chatty class, check out this post with tips for how to get your students to stop talking in just one week!

Grab these last day or school crowns to create simple hats to celebrate the last day of kindergarten with your students!

Happy weekend freebie lovers! I wanted to share my homework newsletter with ya'll. I have two EDITABLE versions available- one with vocabulary, and one without. Click on the pictures to grab what you need! Enjoy your weekend friends!

Parent-Teacher Conference Organizational tools to help prepare for conferences with simplicity and a stress free system at any grade level!

Listen to this Special Ed Podcast with 15 great ideas for Functional Centers for students with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism in High School. Read more and subscribe today!

This sweetie's desk had been consistently stuffed with notebooks, folders, crumpled papers, broken pencils, index cards looking for their friends..... So, last Friday we introduced a pull-out drawer, made from a leftover box top in the school's copy room. To suit the small opening of her desk, we folded over each side of the box top, stapled it, and covered the very top edges with masking tape. We even took the extra precaution of making sure each staple was fully closed so no sharp edges would potentially scratch her skin as she pulled out the "drawer." This morning the top of her desk was pretty jumbled, but her pull-out drawer still looked organized.

Leaving Center Games at Your Tables for the Early Finishers! Hello everyone, Fern from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas here again to share a little tip or two to help make your job easier. Today I want to share how leaving center games at each groups' tables helped me with those students that finish their work early and might need a challenge or two before the next transition. The picture above is one of my freebies from TPT, so you can download it too. I like making multiple copies of the center, placing them on colored file folders and then leaving them in the center of the group table. If, like above, you have a red group, a blue group and a purple group, etc. using your groups' colors for the file folder center makes it easier for the students to know where to return the center and easier for you to file them away, and take them out again when you want to spiral that skill. By keeping the games at the table, there is no movement, no interruption of the teacher's small group time, no "Where do I go?" What do I do?" When the student is done working, they know to pick a center, usually one of five skills, from the center of the table. I do spend a few weeks at the beginning of the year teaching the expectations of the THOSE center games. 1. All work MUST be done before you select a file folder. 2. Two people may work together if they are both done and use a low whisper. 3. Everything must be cleaned up and placed back into the file folder center before the next transition. I love having all these hands-on center games in my classroom. During parent conferences, I love to show the parents of my higher level children what I'm doing to differentiate and motivate my earlier finishers. Right there...right on the table, sometimes having the parents ask the child if they've finished all the ones currently on the table....perfect, instant, immediate feedback for both the parent and the teacher! If you are new to teaching, or maybe just to reading our Owl-Ways blog, and you need to acquire some center games, click here to see all my freebies at TeacherspayTeachers. Click here if you would like to visit my blog to download many more center games and teaching resources! Follow me to be notified of when I publish new resources and freebies!

These three classroom management tips get me ready for a brand new school year. As each new group of students arrives, I like to bring back what works in my

In this post, I'll talk about why teaching schema is important, give some ideas and tips for teaching about schema to your young readers, and discuss when we

Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom can be a challenge. Do you sometimes feel like you're "losing it"? Do you not really know how to meet the needs of these kids when you have so many kids who have IEP's, 504 Plans, or are in the RTI process? Don't despair, there is help!

Track student behavior the quick, efficient way: use a checklist. Free, editable trackers can be used to document and graph behaviors.

In you special needs class, do you have any behavior issues? Any kids that are over-responsive or just the opposite, under-responsive? YOU.NEED.HEAVY.WORK. I cannot stress enough how much of a DRASTIC change we saw in some of our special thinkers when we began implementing this work system into their daily routine. Here's some info on

Over the last year, my school and team have taught me so much about differentiating. In 5th grade, I so struggled with this and when I differentiated I was moving mountains. But really – I felt like I deserved a gold medal. It was exhausting and overwhelming and rarely happened. This year my 1st grade...

This post contains the animated short film "Glued." Download the accompanying handout leveled for upper elementary students to teach theme.

Students come to us on all different levels, which can be a challenge- 3 great ideas on how to teach a mutli-level class.

"Simplify, slow down, be kind, And don't forget to have art in your life - music, paintings, theater, dance, and sunsets."...

Special Education teachers are the masters of data collection! At times, collecting data can be overwhelming, especially when you sometimes have to outsource the collecting to other teachers, specialists, or teaching assistants. Tracking accommodations is necessary to make sure an IEP is being followed and can be helpful in determining which accommodations should be added to or removed from the IEP. Believe it or not, collecting data on accommodations and modifications does not have to consume your life! Share Information Be sure to share vital information with all teachers and assistants that work with your students. I have an accommodations organizer that I organize all of the information of my class. The information is in one place which is helpful for sharing information with assistants, special area teachers, and substitutes. When I first began teaching, I did not bother sharing such information with special area teachers until it was brought to my attention that a student of mine did not complete a test in physical education class. That student had trouble reading and was supposed to have his tests read. The PE teacher was unaware of his accommodations and therefore did not deliver them. I use a special form that reminds me of who needs to be informed of accommodations and modifications at the beginning of the school year and after an IEP annual review. Train Your Team If you have paraprofessionals in your classroom working with students, it is important to train them in how to deliver and how to track accommodations and modifications. Some interventions are more detailed than others. Observe your team while they are working with students and provide feedback as needed. The time you put in to properly train your team to record data the same way you would is so well spent! Use Checklists When I first started teaching, I used to write notes on a post-it that included which accommodations and modifications were used on assignments along with their effectiveness. It was very time consuming and often times, I forgot to add some things. Finally, I came up with a few checklists and forms to help the process. Level of Support One of the forms I use tracks the level of support a student needs from an adult. I use this one to determine the need for a 1:1 teaching assistant. It is useful before adding a TA and to collect data to see if continuing the intervention is a necessity. The adult that works with the student at that time fills it out while working with the student. Accommodations and Modifications Tracker I use this form two ways, depending on what I am collecting data for. As an IEP meeting approaches, I like to review the need for the interventions on the IEP. I can track the types of interventions are needed for different types of assignments and activities. More importantly, I can track the effectiveness of such interventions. I can also cut this tracker apart to staple it onto work samples. The work samples can be to show the Committee on Special Education the student's growth or regression. I also like to send work home with students with the form filled out from time to time so parents can see what kind of help the student needs in order to complete assignments at school. Frequency Tracker Another way I like to track the use of accommodations and modifications needed in school is with a frequency tracker I created. This gives me a quick visual of which interventions are being used and which are not. I focus on this during the weeks before a meeting so I can determine which accommodations and modifications need to remain, be added, or be removed from an IEP. Data collection is so important but it doesn't have to take over your entire life. Once you create a few checklists that fit your classroom or purchase one of the many checklists and charts from my TpT store, you will save yourself a ton of time and will have more data than you've ever had before!

One important step in setting up a calm down corner is naming it! This post will help you choose an effective calm down corner name.

Replacement Behavior for Hitting- tips to change behavior for students with Autism and in LIFE Skills. Includes FREE Printable guide.

Most teachers struggle with time to create activities they need for their daily curriculum. At First Grade Love, you will find resources that will engage your students in fun learning and you'll get the hours back in your day.

This was taken from Dr. Averil Coxhead's work on Vocabulary at the following link: Vocabulary Tiers and Samples Common Core Vocabulary, Tier I, II and III Words COMMON CORE TIER VOCABULARY INFORMATION Common Core State Standards: Focus on Tier 2 & Tier 3 Academic Vocabulary Tier 1 Basic words that commonly appear in spoken language. Because they are heard frequently in numerous contexts and with nonverbal communication, Tier 1 words rarely require explicit instruction.Examples of Tier 1 words are clock, baby, happy and walk. Tier 2 High frequency words used by mature language users across several content areas. Because of their lack of redundancy in oral language, Tier 2 words present challenges to students who primarily meet them in print. Examples of Tier 2 words are obvious, complex, establish and verify. Tier 3 Words that are not frequently used except in specific content areas or domains. Tier 3 words are central to building knowledge and conceptual understanding within the various academic domains and should be integral to instruction of content. Medical, legal, biology and mathematics terms are all examples of these words. The following lists were created by Dr. Averil Coxhead Senior Lecturer School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington [email protected] High Mileage Word List High Mileage Word Families

When you walk into an interview for a teaching job, you want to feel confident in your skills but also your ability to show them off! In some careers, a resume’ listing experience might be enough, but in teaching, I think it’s a huge boon to go into an interview with a portfolio that really shows the details of that “elementary teacher” position you’ve had (or student teaching). It’s been awhile since I added my On The Hunt for a Teaching Job series, but I know seeing others’ portfolios really helped me (especially as a new teacher!) so I want to share mine. For my portfolio, I picked up a professional binder. Yes, it’s expensive, but you want the cover to say, “I’m credible and you need to look at me!” I used a pre-made Word template to make a cover page and added a photo of me with my class as well as my contact information. In the pocket, I include a resume, and the inside has a matching cover page that works sort of like an informal cover letter. I started with my favorite teaching quote, and used it as a springboard to describe my passion for teaching. I didn’t rehash my resume’ here- but instead wanted to get them interested in me. (Note: Please feel free to use something similar, but please DON’T copy exactly what I wrote. You want it to be unique to YOU!) Another option is to make a brochure. This is really great to leave after an interview, especially if it has a picture so they remember which face goes with which name! Inside, I use dividers to make it clear where I can find certain things. Notice that I said “I can find,” not “the administrator can find.” Administrators may never ask to see your portfolio or have time to do much with it, but if you happen to be in for an interview, a portfolio can be SO helpful! You can see my dividers here, now that I have a few years of experience: Here, you can see my dividers before my last update, when I hadn’t taught in my own classroom. In the past, I just stuck in pages of things I’d done. Most were printed out worksheets, assessments, parent notes, etc. And that was okay, but this time around I decided to show a little more. One HUGE benefit of blogging is that I take lots more pictures of the things going on in my classroom. So, for instance, when I wanted to show my creative lessons, ta – da! I wanted to showcase classroom management, and again, I already had the photos. It’s a great way to not just tell what I would do, but show it. I want principals to be able to imagine me and my classroom in their school! I still kept examples of work and other things behind each section, but these pages made it look really polished. Even if you’re not going to post them on a blog, I’d recommend finding a cheap point-and-shoot camera (or even a smartphone, if you have one) to take photos of your classroom and projects you do. It really helps when a principal wants to imagine you not in a suit, sitting in the office, but in classroom working with students. What’s really great about these pages is that you can print another copy (or go to FedEx Office for more color copies if you just have way too much money) and leave a mini-portfolio at schools without having to leave your nice binder. I used these mini-portfolios when I dropped off resume’s in person, too! When you consider what to include, make sure you think about the basics (classroom management, reading, math, engaging instruction, differentiation, assessment and data, organization), but don’t forget to include a section with your credentials and any honors/ certificates/ professional development/ licenses you may have! (Page protectors will keep you from having to hole punch those important papers.) Think about what makes you unique as a teacher. When they say, “What are your strengths?,” what will you show them? Don’t be afraid to make it unique and bright! For some other professions, you might not want to add color or any element of cute, but I think as long as it looks professional, colorful works really well for standing out. If you’re new here, be sure you check out the rest of this series and my new teacher tips! Next in the On The Hunt series: How to Stand Out (Even Before a Teaching Interview) Thanks for visiting!

Dealing with oppositional defiant disorder at home or in the classroom? We've got 18 ODD discipline tips to help with problem behaviors in a positive way!

Classroom hacks that actually work in a special education classroom setting. Tried and true methods from actual teachers. Read to learn more.

Who likes waiting? Not this girl! And I can guarantee our students don’t like waiting either. If you teach students with special needs you know that asking a student to wait can cause a full on melt down in the middle of a seemingly normal Tuesday. And guess what, our classrooms get interrupted for questions, ... Read More about Teaching Wait: The Wait Basket

Are you looking for a lesson that teaches empathy, compassion and kindness? Check out this amazing activity to instill these traits.

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