Learn every step of classroom setup, must have resources, and materials needed to setup your self-contained classroom. Peek inside my classroom!

Learn every step of classroom setup, must have resources, and materials needed to setup your self-contained classroom. Peek inside my classroom!

One of the most common questions almost every teacher wonders about one another is "How do they organize their classroom?!" (Or is this just me?!) I thought I'd show you all a few of the ways I organize materials in my (very tiny) classroom! One of my first "organized spots" that I have is an easy grab and go area for some of my most used file folders or adapted books. Each bin is separated by "subject" so we have one for colors, shapes, counting, ABC's, and various reading skills (word families, rhyming, etc.). This just makes it a little easier on my paraprofessionals to find something quick by skill level if they need to! The bins are from Target dollar spot and no, I don't have any fancy labels yet. #teachertruth This is my most used organized area in my classroom. I've shown pictures of this spot before and always get questions about it and honestly - I'm obsessed with it. It's literally just six rolling carts that I organize by academic area (things like money, time, skip counting, touchmath, abcs, phonics, etc!). It is a serious lifesaver. No searching around for certain flashcards or activities - my paras and I can all find things with ease! In front of the carts are two private work areas to work on IEP goals, so it makes it quick and easy to grab what you need when you pull a student. On top, I store worksheets that are goal specific for students who are using worksheets. I also have two bins with data binders inside for each student's IEP data tracking. Everything in one place! This idea for storage I got from Gabrielle over at Teaching Special Thinkers (you can grab the labels for FREE in her TpT shop!). The tubs are from Target and each one holds two months (one label is on each side of the bin). Inside I store my seasonal worksheets, file folders, adapted books, and craft materials. Some of the bins are seriously bursting at the seams. This system makes my life so much easier at the start of a new month! I just put last month's away and grab everything out of the new bin! Inside I use hanging folders to keep everything organized and so it isn't flying around everywhere. This area of my classroom I store work materials like glue, markers, crayons, dry erase markers etc. We use shared supplies just to make things easier and it's great! These tubs are just from Dollar Tree and have lasted me like 3 or 4 years now! The last thing I do in my classroom is sort my classroom materials for the monthly Unique Learning Systems in a bin with hanging folders by day. In the front of the bin, I place a calendar with my month's activities on it so I can keep track of what I'm supposed to do each day with my group. I take the time at the beginning of the month to get everything printed and organized and it is ready to go each day! Hopefully you can take away a few of these ideas for your own classrooms! What are some ways you make your life a little easier with organization?!

Wondering how to fit everything into your schedule in a self contained special needs classroom? I'm sharing my self contained class schedule and specifics on what each part of our school day looks like. Blog post at Mrs. D's Corner.

Wondering how to fit everything into your schedule in a self contained special needs classroom? I'm sharing my self contained class schedule and specifics on what each part of our school day looks like. Blog post at Mrs. D's Corner.

Are you setting up your self-contained classroom and are wondering what to use as visual boundaries? Read more to learn about...

Learn every step of classroom setup, must have resources, and materials needed to setup your self-contained classroom. Peek inside my classroom!

There are so many working parts in a self contained or Autism Unit. Read MORE on what you can do to survive and thrive in a self contained classroom!

How to Set Up Classroom Routines in SpEd- Strategies for Daily Rules and Routines in a self-contained classroom with 7 essential procedures for Special Ed!

Scheduling is my LEAST favorite part of teaching. It is so hard to fit everything in to a school day but it is nearly impossible to fit everything in to a special education day! Here are four ways to rock out the schedule in your self-contained class: 1. Get Involved in the Master Schedule Before you can make a master schedule for your classroom you have to get your master schedule from your school. In my school, we usually get this at the end of the school year so I have all summer to digest it and mess around with some different ideas for how to plan my days. My principal is awesome and lets me have all of my specials in the afternoon so I can teach in the morning when the kids are fresh! If you’ve never worked with your administrator on the master schedule, it is worth checking in and asking if he or she is willing to get your input on what would work best for your special learners. It never hurts to try! Some things to consider: -What time of day do I want to get the most teaching in? -When can I make the most of my planning time? -Are there teachers that I want to have common planning time with? This is especially helpful if you integrate your students sometimes. I like having a general education teacher with a similar master schedule to mine because sometimes I have students who are being slowly integrated into general ed. 2. Specials: Back to back or break them up? Typically I have two specials per day. Last year I had one special in the morning and one special in the afternoon. I thought this would be ideal because I thought it would break up the day nicely. I thought wrong. I could never get any good teaching in! As soon as we’d get into something it would be time to line up for specials again. This year I had both specials in the afternoon and it was much better. Now I have my students with me all morning and I can get so much accomplished. If we get squirrelly or stir crazy I can do a brain break or switch up the activities. It is better to have a big chunk of time and have the freedom to break it up if you need to. 3. Make a List and Be Realistic When I started my program, I had all of these amazing ideas and dreams of what I would do with my class. Pinterest and teaching blogs are NO HELP when it comes to this! So many cute ideas and so little time. Daily 5, writing, poetry, music, social skills, cooking, crafts, calendar, morning meeting, sensory, brain breaks, recess, volunteering, rest time, DEAR time, progress monitoring, interventions....the list goes on and on. Oh AND all of the regular instruction that goes along with my scripted programs. WHAT!? Even if we went to school 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, we still wouldn’t be able to get all of those things done. To plan your daily schedules, make a list of all of the things that you want to do with your class and then prioritize them. Obviously, the things you “have to do” should be at the top of the list (sigh). Write down approximately how much time you will need to do each thing and how many days a week or how often you need to do it. For example: Morning meeting- 5 days a week for 20 minutes Cooking- 1 day a month for 60 minutes Daily 5- 5 days a week for 90 minutes Writing Workshop- 2 days a week for 60 minutes It’s amazing how quickly you realize that you can’t do it all when you actually look at how much time “it all” will take. I found that when I was more realistic about our schedule I actually had more time for the fun stuff because I was not trying to bite off more than I could chew. As you can see I have a “theme related” block on Fridays which I am always changing up. I save that time for crafts, cooking and special activities (all those Pinterest boards!) 4. Designate a Therapy Time “I want to do this activity but Joey is at speech!” “I was going to start our story but Michael has OT!” Can I get a biiiiig special ed AMEN? The last nightmare in scheduling is scheduling therapy and pullouts. In my district our speech therapists are part of our faculty but our other therapists (OT, PT, etc.) work for agencies and travel to different schools in different districts. Some of my students have so many pullouts that I feel like they are never in class. Having a designated therapy time has been a saving grace to my classroom. The 30 minutes after lunch is our therapy time and rest time in our classroom. Now I know you're thinking REST TIME? Who has time to rest?! My kids don’t actually nap at this time. They read books, do puzzles, go on the computer, do flashcards. Depending on the class and the time of year this becomes recess, playtime, story time, etc. If you teach older grades, this could be considered quiet reading time, sensory time, intervention time, etc. You certainly won’t get all of the therapies for every child out of the way during that 30 minutes, but you can at least guarantee that a lot of therapies will take place. Some days ALL of my kids get pulled out and I get 30 minutes of bonus planning time! Parents also like to know that when the majority of pullouts are taking place their children aren’t missing math or reading instruction. But I don’t have 30 minutes to spare!?! Some people will feel that they can’t find even 30 minutes a day for a “therapy block” and I totally understand that. If you can’t justify a therapy time, choose an activity that you don’t mind having a lot of kids missing for (read aloud, calendar, journals) and try to schedule it at the same time every day. Happy scheduling! Hop on over to Laughing & Little Learners to see how Julie handles scheduling!

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

As the ONLY special education teacher in my building, I ALWAYS wanted to get a peek inside other classrooms. Get a peek inside 10 classroom tours!

For our learners who need to work on foundational learning skills, such as simple matching, I have always love creating hands on task boxes put-in tasks and color sorting tasks. My classroom closet always looked like it could be featured on an episode of hoarders. I kept every shoe box, coffee container, baby jar, and

Setting up a schedule in a self-contained classroom is one of the hardest parts of our job. I remember my first year of teaching thinking, “why did no one teach me how to do this in college?” After years and years of tweaking my daily schedule, I finally settled on the same master schedule every […]

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