Special Education Teaching: Discover the vital role and rewards in Australian special education teaching. Legislation and challenges.

This post may contain affiliate links. That means that if you click the links and make a purchase I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. I do not recommend any companies that I do not persoanlly use and love. Please read our disclaimer for more info. Teaching inclusion can be overwhelming for someone who is new to the job, or maybe you are just in a new co-teaching relationship. There are so many things to worry about, from the needs of your students, to your co-teaching relationship, to working with parents. Here are some tips for someone who is new to inclusion. Treat all of the students the same It is easy to go into the classroom and focus on only the students on your caseload. It is your job to help these students and ensure that they are receiving all of their necessary accommodations and modifications. But, you need to remember that for optimal co-teaching, you need to remember that as a co-teacher in the classroom, all of those students are yours. Treating all of the students as though they are yours, makes your special education students more comfortable asking you for help and working with you. The older students get, the less likely that they are to want to seem like they’re receiving extra attention. When I am circulating the room, I make sure to help all of the students so that my kids are not embarrassed when I am helping them. Also, treating all of the students as though they are yours makes classroom management easier. When students see you as the special education teacher or the helper teacher, they don’t always show you the same amount of respect as they show the general education teacher. If you and your co-teacher act in a way that demonstrates that you are both in charge, the students are not going to walk all over you. Keep open lines of communication Co-teaching is impossible without a lot of communication. You need to make sure that you’re always on the same page as your co-teacher. Make sure that you agree with them in how you are going to teach a concept. Make sure that you agree with them in how you are going to assess the students. Don’t leave your concerns unheard because you are nervous to upset or offend your co-teacher. You have a valuable perspective that maybe they just need to hear. Communication is also important for parent-teacher relationships. If you are keeping an open line of communication with parents/guardians, the parents are going to feel more apt to trust you when they are questioning something. How often are students running home and telling parents a different side of the story? If the parents have heard your side of the story first, they will be prepared to talk to their kids when they come home from school. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind Your school district hired you for a reason. Although, co-teaching can be difficult when there are disagreements. Sometimes, it can feel like it would be easier to just differ to the content area teacher because they are the expert in that subject. But, your opinion is valuable. You are the specialist in teaching strategies, and modifying the curriculum to meet the needs of your students. If you approach a disagreement from a place of respect, you can hopefully have a calm conversation and maybe agree to a compromise. Don’t go in expecting a fight, because if you do there is a greater chance that is what you are going to get. Don’t let the paperwork get ahead of you When people ask me what I do, sometimes I just answer with, “paperwork.” Sometimes it feels like I am drowning in papers. I am constantly surrounded by testing reports, IEPs, work samples, quizzes or tests I am grading, professional development handouts, you name it! Make sure that you take the time to develop a paperwork organization system, and that you stick with it. I try to carve out time every week where I file away everything that I have sitting around. If you go too long it is just going to get more and more overwhelming and you’ll want to put it off even more. If you have time scheduled into your week that you put paperwork away, it won’t get away from you. Also, check out: Guiding Paraprofessionals When Co-Teaching Gets Tough The Ultimate Guide to Co-Teaching eBook! Check it Out! We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered By ConvertKit FREE co-teaching checklist Subscribe to receive a free co-teaching checklist! Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription and download the checklist. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. First Name Email Address We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. Get the Checklist! We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

I've had such a love-hate relationship with data notebooks over the years. I've always worked in "Baldrige" schools that have required every teacher to have a data wall and every student to have a data notebook. My first few years in the classroom, this would be something that I spent my first week of school

Many teachers find planning and teaching numeracy a little stressful. Put the JOY back into teaching Numeracy with these clever hands-on ideas!

Primary school teacher CV with top-rated CV templates, examples and step-by-step advice on core sections of a CV, paired with answers to common questions.

So you’ve taught your students to write sentences. Now what? In the beginning of my career, we worked HARD on writing sentences. When it came time to take the next step into writing paragraphs, I found this was even harder for my students. We were able to write 2-3 sentences about a topic or picture, ... Read More about How to Scaffold Paragraph Writing for Special Education

I've enjoyed teaching Geography to Preps (Kinder) for many years and thought I'd share some ideas I use teaching Geographic features of special places from the Foundation Year Curriculum. What is a feature? A feature is something that is distinctive to a person, place or thing. For example: your eyes are a feature of your face, a desk is a feature of a classroom, a runway is a feature of an airport. As with all teaching, start with what the students know. Get students to draw their face, then label and record their features. Explore the features of the classroom (chairs, tables, windows), the features of their library (books, tables, seats) and the features of other places such as supermarkets (trolleys, checkouts, food). Practice observing, recording and labelling these features over and over again and the students will start to understand the term 'features' plus they will get some practice observing, recording and labelling (a process that is used in nearly every subject from Science to Maths). What is a special place? A special place is a place that is special to a person or group of people because they might have special memories there or it might hold religious or cultural significance (this term 'significance' is used over and over again throughout the HASS curriculum from Prep to Year 6 so you may as well start to use it with the students and get them familiar with it!). Bring in a photograph of your favourite place and discuss why it is special to you. Make a comparison between an 'everyday place' like the supermarket and your 'special place'. Discuss culturally significant places such as Uluru or religious places such as churches. What makes these places special to some people or groups of people? Brainstorm the answers with students so you eventually have a list of what makes a place special. You can keep referring back to this anchor chart when you ask students '... what makes this place special?'. By the way, I am terrible at making anchor charts by hand so have created this free download for you, should you want to use it in your classroom! Encourage students to bring in photographs of their special places and create a wall display in your classroom. This also fits in nicely to the History curriculum with regards to events that are special to families (such as holidays). Now what? Now the fun part! Now you can take students exploring! Ask students where a special place might be in the school (they will undoubtedly say the playground) and run it through the test of 'what makes a place special?' before you decide to go there. Pair students up and give each pair a piece of paper and a clipboard. Tell the students that Person A must describe the features of the special place and Person B must draw them on a map. After a while students can swap roles. This encourages 'think, pair, share', keeps students focused (hurray for 'allowed talking time'!) and stops students from going off track. Of course, you'll want to pair your high and low students together but both will get an opportunity to write/draw and give oral descriptions. Once you have finished your observation of your special place, return to the classroom and pull up each example the students have created. Let each pair discuss the features they found. The added oral element will encourage students to be accountable for their work and will help build their conceptual understanding of the key vocabulary used. Where to next? Prepositional language!

Learn how to write a teacher resume with actionable advice, expert school job tips, and 4 top teacher resume examples the principal’s ever seen.

Learning how to keep students engaged is a skill that experienced teachers have nailed. Here are my tried and tested methods for keeping your students interested in your teaching.

Setting goals can help students take charge of their own learning and move them towards being more independent learners. It's also something which fits in nicely with back to school or new year activities - giving students a chance to make a fresh start. So, how can we help them set effective goals?

Notes From the Portable is a blog about teaching, reflecting on connections to Common Core Standards and 21st-Century Skills.

Australian Federation Teaching Resources, ideas, links and information for Year 6 HASS teachers. Start here if you're teaching Federation this year!

Sometimes as teachers/parents we need specific skills to look for as they fall onto a continuum. This rubric helps you to do just that. This...