I'm going to guess if you just got hired as a new special education teacher you are having all of the emotions! Excitement, anxiety, anticipation.. and wracking your brain with 'I'm hired.. now what?'
Planning a special education classroom whether it's ED, life skills, functional skills or Autism can be overwhelming to think about and even harder to begin the planning process. Here are a few tips as a self-contained teacher who was in those same shoes:
1.) Connect with Others: It's important that even as a special education teacher, you need to find and connect with others. Even if you are the lone program or special educator in the building, I encourage you to meet with your administrators and see who you can connect with in your building or district. There may be another special educator in another building that can be your mentor. My first-year mentor saved me hours of finding things on the share drives, creating materials and understanding the ins and outs of where I was working. They can give you insight into district systems, supports and services you can obtain. I would also see if you can connect with your paras or instructional assistants who will be working in your classroom. They not only can give you great background information on the classroom, but it's a great way to connect and begin to build that relationship. 'Work smarter, not harder' is the key to setting up a classroom and doing it effectively.
If you can't find anyone to connect with in your new district, revert to social media! My teacher instagram account started all because I felt I was living on 'sped island' by myself. I wanted to connect with others who had similar classroom setups and experiences. There are so many out there that want to share their knowledge and systems. Take advantage of it.
2.) Review the IEPs: Review. Those. IEPs. It's overwhelming, I know. But the more you review and look over them, the more familiar you will be with them. So when it comes to creating a schedule, aligning services, or creating materials for BIPs things will come a little more natural. Lay out the IEPs and look at the present levels for each student, align the minutes and services, see what social skills groups you need to create, figure out if students attend general education class for any time, start brainstorming how you can run stations/groups. Laying out the big picture support needs on a sheet can help you to visualize and view what classroom system and environment would be most conducive to your population and needs of your students.
3.) Establish Systems: One of the most important parts of establishing a classroom is ensuring you have good systems in place. Whether that's classroom setup, scheduling systems, behavior management, data collection, instructional assistant guidance or communication you have to have systems established for the school year. Odds are, if you are working in an ED classroom, you are going to need a system that is behavior focused to collect data. I used a behavior chart and leveled system to encourage and support positive behaviors.
You can purchase the behavior charts from my TPT store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Editable-Behavior-Charts-5125540
You can read another blog I wrote about my behavior management and data collection system here: https://www.theedqueenbehaviorblog.com/post/behavior-charts-data
After reviewing those IEPs, thinking of a classrooms setup and system of lessons and stations can come easier to you. Odds are you may be teaching multi-grade level. Balancing the exposure and teaching of grade-level curriculum as well as supporting all levels and needs of students can be challenging. Depending on the needs of your students can determine the classroom setup. I found in the past, stations in my classroom were the most feasible when teaching multi-grade level instruction (and I'm talking teaching up to 4 grade levels at a time). Be ok with thinking differently and out of the box with lesson and station design. Out of my 7 years in self-contained, there was only one year I was able to teach a traditional whole group instruction. Other than that, most years were run on stations due to accompanying so many grade levels and needs. Be ok with diverging from the norm and remember your students need specialized instruction that may look different from a traditional classroom.
4.) Connect with Families: It's also important to have a parent/school communication system set up and ready to go for the beginning of the school year! Depending on the classroom numbers and needs, I sent home my daily behavior charts each day with positive things students completed or did. This was an easy way for me to keep in close contact with families who expected more and deeper information in regards to parent and school communication. This was also a way for me to communicate behaviors home to parents that didn't warrant a phone call every day. If I called home for every behavior each day, I would spend hours each night calling and connecting with parents!
Keep the communication as positive as you can, even when calling about a negative behavior or tough day for their child. Put into perspective.. 'this is someone's child I am calling about.' Anytime I needed to call about a big behavioral incident I delivered the information in a factual way, that didn't reserve blame on the child or the parents. Deliver information in a way that parents understand the scenario, know what positives their child did engage in that day and what restorative practice or skill based social skills they need to engage in to prevent the behavior. It's important the line of communication is open, however it is not overwhelming and negative for parents. Survey your parents, establish a system, find what works best for their communication style and expectations!
5.) Read Blogs: Read all the blogs! Just because you are a first year teacher, doesn't mean you need to reinvent every system or come up with each facet of your classroom on your own. Use the ideas, purchase the resources, lean into what other educators have already created and go with it. I found myself taking ideas from autism classrooms or life skills classrooms and refitting them to my student's skills and needs. Task box system? I recreated it with sight word tasks and low academic demands. Independent station with a worksheet? I recreated it with Boom cards and a sensory station. Walking into an empty classroom with nothing on the walls can be daunting. And there is not a 'user's manual' for running a special education classroom. At the beginning of my teaching career I found myself hyper-focused on standards, objectives and cramming in content. When I finally found it in myself to relax and think of the big picture concept, 'how can I make this classroom successful for THESE students?' I found I gravitated towards ideas and concepts that fit the needs of my current students, not what I had envisioned to be the ideal classroom. So read the blogs, utilize the systems and find what is best for your students!
6.) Be ok with Trial and Error: It's your first year of teaching, you're not going to be successful at everything on the first time. And as much as we want to believe our college degree has prepared us for the ins and outs of running a classroom, it hasn't. Be ok with knowing the systems you put in place year one, will probably not be the same systems you put in place by year five. Why? Because the students will change year after year and the systems will need to adjust to the student's needs. I remember my first year of teaching (I had 5 students), each student worked in their own area and my instructional assistant and I rotated towards them. They just need to practice being at school before they could even initiate anything like stations. Year four we were busting at the seams with 12-16 kids in our program and having to run stations for multi-grade level. With each year, each set of students and each specific needs, the systems and strategies changed. Be ok with trial and error. Be ok with change. Be ok with the time it takes to develop successful systems. Lean into the new challenges knowing they will make you a better educator in the end.
If you're reading this as a newly hired special education self-contained teacher, take a deep breath. Be ok with the learning moments and celebrate the successes and triumphs this first year of teaching will bring you!