Special Ed. Sanctuary

Working in special education, I feel it is important to be prepared to meet the needs of our students. This includes helping them meet their IEP goals, state and district curriculum goals, but also to keep students feeling successful within the classroom. This year, I am working with students with a variety of disabilities. Although some students have the same disability, each student has different needs that need to be supported within the general education setting. Something that I have created this year that has helped my students is my break bucket. This is something that we use within the classroom, and when taking tests (MAP testing, PARCC testing, etc). My break bucket started off with just play-doh and stress balls, has grown into a tool that all of my students can use throughout the day. It has continued to develop as I have been working on ways to help prevent my students from feeling upset or anxious in testing situations. Although I have a general “break bucket” that a

Thanks to those of you who have been reading our posts!  We want to take the time to really encourage others to comment on our posts, and get involved with what we are discussing each week. We want our blog to be a sanctuary where teachers have a place to come to relate with other educators and discuss topics ranging from our beliefs to ways we are teaching a specific topic in our classroom.   We want our blog to be a place where we can learn and grow from one another.  Please let us know what inspired YOU to be a teacher, and share some insight on your own beliefs. Also, if there are specific topics that you want to discuss, let us know! 

I, like many other special education teachers, decided to go into this field because of my own experiences as a child.  In the early 1970’s, while I was in kindergarten, I was diagnosed as dyslexic and hyperactive. This was before anyone had used the diagnosis ADHD.   I was subsequently shipped off to another elementary school where I attended class with the other 9 “special” students in the district.  I spent 1st and 2nd grade in my “special” class.  Let me interject here quickly and add that I am not complaining at all about being in such a small class, I really think that it was beneficial for me.  The problem was, apparently in 3rd grade I was miraculously healed of all afflictions and sent to join the “regular” class back at my home school (remember this was the 1970’s).  I was given no support whatsoever, and as you can imagine, I started out OK but quickly fell further and further behind. School became more and more difficult for me as the years went on.  Finally, in 5th

         Becoming a teacher is something that I have always wanted to do since I can remember. I’m fortunate to have had teachers and parents who made learning and school fun, and I always wanted to pass that on to my students. Although I don’t have a  “pivotal” moment that made me decide to get a special education degree, there were many different experiences that helped me decide that this was something else I wanted to pursue beyond my general education degree. Through working with different ages and different abilities throughout babysitting experiences, summer camps, internships, and later teaching, I knew that special education was something that was extremely important for me and the future students I would work with. I knew that although I wanted to teach, I wanted to be able to find a way to make sure that all of my students would be able to use the information I taught, but more importantly, feel successful. I feel that these two things are the key to spec