If your district is anything like mine, you’ve been fielding a lot more crisis in school. That means dealing with a big increase in behaviors. This is impacting classroom learning…whether you are in person or virtual teaching. Students are struggling with all of the uncertainty that the world threw at us in 2020. Teachers are having to find new and innovative way to deal with their emotional struggles. 

     Students with special needs struggle alongside their typically developing peers. For many general education teachers, this is the first time they have encountered some of the extreme behaviors students exhibit when they are unable to regulate themselves. Many special education teachers are familiar with these behaviors, but are overwhelmed with the volume of students struggling now. 

Is Incorporating SEL in classrooms important?

     SEL is a process that everyone goes through during which we learn to identify and manage our emotions, learn to make and keep healthy relationships, learn to make and keep goals for ourselves, and develop an understanding for who we are and how that impacts how we behave. But what does that really mean? 

     When I think of Social Emotional Learning, I think about all of my students along a continuum of emotional and social skills. Those students who need the most support in this area usually start with just identifying and slowly learning to regulate their emotions. As these skills grow, the students learn how to relate to their peers, as well as adults in their lives, and learn to create healthy relationships with others. Part of this is learning how to communicate effectively, and learning about themselves and how they fit into the world.

How much more important a lesson could we teach students than how to form healthy relationships and figure out where they fit in the world?

     I can hear teachers now saying things like “How do I have time to teach THAT in my already packed day?” or “Ok, yeah it’s important. But that is definitely something that we didn’t teach in schools years ago. Isn’t that something the parents should be teaching?”

And in answer to those teachers…. You are completely right! There is not a true focus to teach these skills in school…. You aren’t going to find these skills delineated in any state standards…and no, this wasn’t explicitly taught years ago..

But, we teach a lot of things now that weren’t taught previously…like the history of racism. Just because it wasn’t taught in the past, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taught now. 

Years ago, when students came to school who didn’t fit the behavior mold, who acted out, who didn’t know how to fit into the culture or communicate were either kicked out of school or ostracized.

     The fact is, we have to teach these skills if we are going to help all of our students become successful in school and out. SEL in classrooms is essential, no matter the age or subject/ I’m not saying that it is easy, or that teachers have an abundant amount of time to work on SEL skills, but the alternative isn’t acceptable anymore. 

      I know how frustrating it is to have a student rip apart my classroom; destroy things that I bought with my own money for my students to get to use; hit, kick, and punch me. I know what it is like to go to my car, drive home in silence, and sit in my driveway and ugly cry. 

     There is too much trauma in students lives. There are too many messed up things that these students have seen or been exposed to. They bring all that to school with them and take it out on us….because we are their safe place. We are where they go and act out….usually as a cry for help. Whether it is because of trauma they have experienced, or anxiety they feel about life in general, when they act out, it affects us. It affects our classrooms. The students around them are affected. 

     The solution to all of this isn’t suspension or expulsion…. It isn’t ostracizing these kids…. The only solution that works is teaching them the skills that they need (and currently lack) to deal with the situations they are faced with. SEL in classrooms is the way to solve this problem for so many students. We can’t erase the trauma. We can’t change anything at home in reality…all we as educators can do is create a safe place for these students where they can learn the social and emotional skills they need to be able to face their demons. 

SEL is teaching our students how to face their demons and win.

     It is giving our students the skills they need to be successful, functional adults when they leave the school setting. SEL in classrooms may be optional according to school boards and standards. It isn’t optional if we truly want our students to be successful.

     I encourage you to talk to your school counselor or school mental health person about what resources are available in your school for SEL

     Click the picture to check out how I have incorporated SEL into my classroom for years. 

     I’ve been using my Feelings Journal for many years as a tool to help students practice pieces of SEL. I’ve also taught many lessons over the years about many different emotional or social skills. The lessons vary just as much as the needs our students exhibit. One thing is true across grade and skill levels…. Explicitly teaching a skill has a much greater impact than hinting at the skill. Expecting students to pick up appropriate behaviors by observation just doesn’t work for many students. Our most needy students have way too many things they are trying to figure out and keep under control to be effective observers. So, if you want students to exhibit a behavior, explicitly teach it, practice it, and reinforce it. That is the basis for all teaching…whether it is academics or SEL. 

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     When I first started teaching, I looked at all the other teachers in awe. They were so organized! They know what was coming up, where everything was. They seemed to never miss deadlines or lose track of papers or data.

     Now, as an experienced teacher I realize, they were completely faking it! There is no possible way to never miss a deadline or never lose a paper. There are ways that we can make that a rare occurrence at least.

     It wasn’t until my second year in special education that I started getting organized with my caseload management. I started with binders….huge binders….everywhere. All my work samples went in these binders, copies of IEP snapshots and anything else you can think of. When it came progress report or IEP time, sure I had LOTS of information. It was a nightmare to get through. 

I’m not sure when I started developing my caseload manager in Excel. Over the years I have built an Excel workbook which holds all of my information for my entire caseload for the year. It includes all my important dates, my progress monitoring, creates progress reports, snapshots, accommodation trackers, meeting reminders and so much more for me. It is the hub of everything that I do when I look at my caseload. Obviously, I can’t walk you through creating something that huge. But I will help you get organized so that you can create one of your own if you are interested. Click here if you want to take a look at my Caseload Manager.

What will I need to set up a caseload manager?

     When you are getting ready to set up your caseload manager, you’re going to want a copy or access to the active IEP for your entire caseload. Some of the things you will want is the annual review date, triennial or reevaluation date, eligibility categories, and what all the services and service providers for the student. 

     I suggest that you make your caseload manager digital. It’s much easier to work from home when you can access it on your computer, But the choice is up to you. I like mine digital also because it becomes a living document I update information as I go and  don’t have to reprint lists every time something changes. 

How can I make a caseload manager?

     After you have compiled all of your information sources, make a list of your students, their annual and reeval dates, eligibilities, services and service providers. I did my caseload manager in Excel so that I could link the sheets. Once I type in a piece of information, I never have to type it again. Saving that little bit of time makes me happy. Plus it honestly really bothers me to repeat the same task over and over again. I just don’t think that teachers have time for those shenanigans. With links in Excel, you can connect sheets so that student names auto populate to other sheets. If not, you can retype names in to a new sheet. On the new sheet, I suggest you note the accommodations so that you can have an easy to go through list to tell teachers what accommodations students do or don’t have.

     On another sheet, I do the same thing with goals. By listing out the student’s goals, I have an easy list to look through to figure out what goals I need to be progress monitoring. At the beginning of the semester, I go through the list and gather the materials I’ll need to progress monitor weekly. Again, if you know how to put links into Excel, it can create IEP snapshots for you. I went back and forth so many times on the format for those snapshots in my Caseload Manager, but I finally like the way they came out! My teachers really appreciate getting them at the beginning of the year, or after changes have been made. 

Where can I store my progress monitoring data?

      Create a space to save your progress monitoring data. My caseload manager graphs the data for me when I put it in. That makes it easy to copy and paste the graph into emails to parents or teachers. I also print those graphs to put in with my progress reports.

     The last thing when setting up a caseload manager is to go through your calendar and put in a warning 3 weeks out for every due date. That gives time to get meetings scheduled and notices out in plenty of time. 

     Once you get your caseload manager up and running, it is an easy system to keep up with. It keeps you on track. Again, if all that sounds like more work than you want to put in right now, click here to take a look at my Caseload Manager that is all set up and ready to go for you!

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     IEPs, and paperwork, goals, and present levels, evaluations, and reports….special education teachers are buried in all the things they have to do. Let’s talk about how to progress monitor IEP goals to make life easier.

      Last week we talked about Teaching IEP Goals. Now we will find easy ways to collect data on that great teaching you’ve done!

       One time-consuming activity is finding ways to collect data on goals that we have written. When we don’t collect that data over the course of the quarter, it really bites us at progress report time. So, this time around, let’s get in good shape to progress monitor the IEP goals and be ready next time progress reports roll around.

How do I start collecting data?

Start by breaking goals into 3 categories: Daily living skills, Executive functioning/behavior, and Academic.

How do I collect data for daily living skills?

     For daily living skills, I use a tracker to write the goal. Use plus or minus symbols to track the instances. For example, if the goal is to wash hands after using the restroom without prompting, I put a minus on the sheet if I needed to prompt the student. If they are successful, write a plus. Do this same process for feeding goals, or any toileting goals. Click the picture for a link to my free data tracker, so make sure you download that to get started in data tracking. 

How do I collect data on behavior?

     For behavior or executive functioning skills, my progress monitoring for IEP goals is very similar. I tend to track these over the course of the week, and will give my general education teachers sheets to track data, in addition to the ones I use in my classroom. For example, if the goal is for the student to write their homework in their planner when prompted in whole-group, the teacher could check when she walks around and if the student needs additional prompts, she would put a minus sign for the day. I like to collect general ed teacher data weekly so that they know that I’m looking at it and expecting to see some results over time. (For more about getting general education teachers involved in IEPs and data collection, check out How to Get Gen Ed Teachers Involved in IEPs.)

My behavior tracking is the same, the teacher (or I) might mark a plus sign when a student uses a break card, or raises their hand without calling out. At the end of the week, I would figure out the success rate and put that in my goal tracker. I’ll talk next week about how I use my goal tracker, but I will say that it has saved my butt several times when I’ve been called into last minute meetings with parents wanting to know why their child is failing Algebra or what-have-you. 

How do I collect academic data?

     For academic goals, obviously data collection looks different based on the skill and grade level. For letter, sight word, or number identification, I use my progress monitoring sheets and materials. My data collection always looks the same over time. This helps me to keep things organized. Also students become comfortable with the assessment format. This helps me know the percent correct is a good reflection of the student’s abilities. For examples of what I use for academic IEP goal progress monitoring, click the photo.

     Whatever way you choose to collect academic data, collect the assessment pieces before you begin. Then you have them ready as you go through the year. Getting them copied or prepared ahead of time, prevents scrambling to find things. Also the students will be more comfortable with the format. I’ve found that changing up the look of assessments can really distract students and can impact their performance.

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    Being a special education teacher is no joke. All the paperwork alone is enough to bury the best of teachers…and unfortunately sometimes the paperwork seems to just take over teachers lives….but on the rare occasions that we do get to actually teach, so many of us are inundated with demands to teach grade level skills. But that is part of the reason that many of our students with special needs are falling further and further behind their grade level peers. We need to teach IEP goals, but how?

     If you are anything like me, you deal with daily pressure to basically make magic happen for our students with special needs. This pressure gets heavier the higher you go in grades….it starts with teaching students to read, but also teach them the more advanced skills they need to pass their grade level benchmarks….and don’t forget to the teach the students about test taking strategies! But, we have goals in IEPs that we need to address too…. It can be so hard to find time to teach IEP goals!

     I’m going to go ahead and say the thing that shouldn’t be said….when we are prioritizing our time….what is more important? Meeting grade level benchmarks or filling in the gaps in foundational learning addressed in the IEP? My absolutely no-question response to this is…Filling in the foundational learning gaps! Fixing the foundational gaps in learning is the only way to actually close the learning gaps between our students, and the students who are on grade level. The fact is, we have to teach the students how to read and understand basic math so that they can begin to understand more advanced concepts, and eventually really learn the grade level concepts. 

     But, this does not fix the time constraints, and the fact is, we want our students to be able to move on with their peers to the next grade… AH! the pressure just makes my head hurt!

So, what do we do?

     When you get to see your students, the first 5-15 minutes needs to be set aside to work on IEP goals…. this could include practicing fluency facts, working on letter sounds, or phonics skills, or maybe even teaching executive functioning skills if that is one of your goals. During that time, giving the student direct instruction that is very short, and to the point is really helpful….then giving just a little bit of practice is needed to solidify the learning. 

     After IEP goal time, you will need to work on grade level learning. Before you jump into this, try to find some way to connect the IEP goal work to the grade level learning. In math, this can be pretty easy. Math fact fluency connects directly with word problems, or place value connects easily with learning about money or regrouping. Finding those connections helps students to understand and value the goal work that you do with them, as well as continue to practice the goal skill while they generalize it to the grade level work that they are doing. 

Why we must prioritize teaching IEP goals

     By prioritizing the IEP goals, we are limiting the amount of time that we can practice the grade level skills…but let’s be honest, how much are the students really going to truly understand the grade level work, if they don’t have the foundational skills they need to build to that level? Yes, the students can make it work, but is that really as beneficial in the long term as getting to really and truly understand the materials being presented? We must prioritize teaching IEP goals if we are going to close learning gaps and help our students be successful.

How wonderful would it be if we could have all the time we need to really close the learning gaps, and help students learn the grade level skills they need?

Someday, I truly hope that special education teachers receive the recognition they deserve for the work that they do…. While we wait for that day to happen, we will have to keep prioritizing our time and figuring out the best way to get as much done as we can. The first step is prioritizing teaching IEP Goals…the rest will follow. 

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The post How to Teach IEP Goals appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

     How many times have you set a goal for yourself, then a week later you’ve forgotten the goal or given up on it entirely? One word: exercise…. I have lost track of how many times I have sworn that I was going to exercise every day for a month. Then everything gets in the way of those really good intentions. I’ve never been a fan of diets. I’m certain I would be saying the same thing about that…. But I’ve finally figured out why I’ve broken my own plans so many times…. While I’m great at making a goal, making a plan to actually make the goal happen is where I fall short. All the wonderful goals aren’t going to happen if we don’t put a realistic plan in place to meet the goal. 

Step 1: Set a goal that is something that you want, and will benefit you.

      Look at your teaching and classroom. What is the most annoying thing that you deal with every day? What is something, that if you were able to fix it, would make your life a lot easier? When I look back, the thing that has gotten in my way the most is my lack of focus when I am working. I have tended to sit down and flit from one thing to another during my entire work period… and not get anything accomplished. That is incredibly  frustrating, and I ended up spending time at home doing work at home. The lockdowns and all the extra work from that made me realize how poorly I have been using my time to get things done.

     Moving into next year, and especially next quarter, I will be more focused when I am working. So, what I really want is more time with my family and less frustration with all the things on my to do list. To get what I want, I’m going to make sure that when I’m working on something, I remain focused on that one item until it is completed before I move on.

Step 2: Figure out exactly what it looks like, when we implement the goal.

     My goal is to remain focused when I do my work, which should look like me choosing one task to complete at a time, and sticking to that task until it is completed. For example, I might need to work on getting my progress reports done before the end of the week, so I want to break up the progress reports into 4 days, and each day I need to complete a set number of progress reports.

     On each day, I will sit down with the grades and input for those students who are set for that day, and only work on the progress reports for those students until they are all done. I won’t work on a student’s progress report from another day, until this list is complete. 

Step 3: Make a plan to make meeting your goal as easy as possible.

     Now that I know what I want to do and exactly what it looks like, I need to make a plan for how I will make doing this as easy as possible. That way I won’t make excuses and not do it. Back to my example, if I want to be focused on one task at a time, I need to be prepared when I sit down to do that task. When I sit down to do my progress reports, I need to have all of my materials that I need all together and ready to go. That way I won’t need to get up to get something…and get distracted by other things that I need to do. So, I need to be prepared when I sit down to work. I also need to know exactly what this work session needs to accomplish. When we look at our to do list (you know that list of goals we set each day that drives us crazy), it is full of so many things that need to be done, which I then try really hard to do all at once….

     Instead, I need to sit down with a must-do and may dos list. First I will work on the must-do tasks and get them done one at a time before I jump into the may-dos. All of this will help me to sit down, know exactly what I need to do, be prepared to do the things on my list, and prevent me from walking around my room doing random tasks instead of my must-dos. The whole point in this is to make keeping your goal, your promise to yourself, as easy as possible.

     When setting a goal, try to think ahead to all the obstacles that you’ll face so that you can move them out of the way to make meeting your goal easy. 

Step 4: Write your goal down!

     Put your goal and your plan into your calendar, or on your bulletin board…just somewhere you will see it every day and be reminded of the small steps you’ll want to take to get what you want from following your plan. I know a lot of people believe in vision boards… I like them, it’s fun to sit and daydream, but when I walk away from it, I forget all about it. I do much better with sticking with it when I just have to follow small steps to eventually get where I want to be.

     On that note, if you haven’t read it, I really suggest you read Atomic Habits. I read it last summer, and it made a big impact on the way I did my goal setting, as well as how I think about making positive changes in my life and classroom. So, if you haven’t read it, I do suggest you pick it up!

     Setting goals doesn’t have to be a useless thing that we do every new year. If we match those goals with a doable plan, those goals can be really valuable. So, get out there and meet those goals!

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Teachers try to fill the gaps so that the students are able to meet the benchmarks at the grade or subject level they are currently on.

The problem is that, due to time, teaching expectations, resources, or training, true deficits aren’t addressed or fixed. 

Starting as early as kindergarten, students may begin to struggle. Teachers work hard to expose the students to all the things they need to be successful, but the students are already behind and need help to catch up. As the curriculum progresses, gaps in student learning become more pronounced and impactful of future learning. 

By third grade, what started as small skill deficits, has blossomed into a student who is unable to read and comprehend on grade level or complete math facts or word problems. 

So what do we do?

First- let’s give some respect to the early years teachers, who are so often overlooked for resources because they aren’t a testing grade. They are teaching way more than how to walk in a line or work in centers. They are trying to lay the basic foundation for all future learning, so let’s start advocating for them to get the resources they need to lay a solid foundation for our students. 

But what about the students in your class right now? What do you do when you know a student is struggling? I think the next step is learning to appreciate the learning differences your students have. I talk about this in my podcast, Episode 10…where I also share a Freebie, so I want to urge you to check it out!

The next step in helping our struggling learners is identifying the root cause of the struggle. By identifying the root cause of the struggle, teachers can really start to make a plan about how best to address the issue.

I want to urge you to look deeper than the skill struggle the student us having in your classroom today. If you can find the prerequisite skill deficits, you can address these issues. This will impact many more areas than the specific skill you are focusing on in your grade level.

So, now that you’re probably saying….great Jessica, not that I know what is the issue, and it’s not covered in my curriculum by the way….what do I do now??? 

Don’t worry, we will start working through that issue next week! In the meantime, for more information on what to do when you know a student is struggling, and some examples I’ve shared, tune in to the Reaching Struggling Learners podcast Episode 14. 

Be sure to fill out the form to be added to the Everyday Teaching Adventures Newsletter. I’ll send out a short weekly info snippet to keep you informed…no spamming! Nobody has time for that!​

The post When You Know a Student is Struggling appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

Being a special education teacher is a huge job. Special education teachers impact so many struggling learners. They work tirelessly to create resources, work with student to attain learning goals, support gen ed teachers in teaching behavioral and academic skills, help students in the gen ed settings, coordinate schedules, communicate with teachers, service providers, administrators, and parents… all the things needed to track an IEP Caseload… Their to do list is never ending….and I haven’t even touched on what was the single most stressful aspect or this job for me….the paperwork… there should be a massive crack of thunder when I say that word…or at least it feels that way for me.

For many, paperwork is the most stressful part of being a special education teacher.

Whenever I talk with special ed teachers, and when I was one, the biggest stressor is paperwork. Whether it’s tracking IEP dates, scheduling, writing IEPs, writing reports, tracking data, graphing or reporting data, or the 8 million other things we do to get the paperwork done, it is so much! The weight is just overwhelming and exhausting!

So, how can we reduce this IEP Caseload paper monster? How can we get it under control so we have more time to focus on students?

Ok, here are some steps you can take.

Step 1

Start with looking at all your IEPs due dates and triennial or reeval due dates. 

Make a list of the meetings due each month. MY TRICK- I write down the IEPs due the month prior so that I know to schedule them then. For example, all my IEPs due in October, I write for September so that I know to get them scheduled and all that.

Step 2

Next step-If you can schedule them out….DO IT! It gives you an opportunity to have an introductory conversation, and to tentatively schedule a time-it really helps parents to know that their child is a priority and valued. This way, no matter how many students are on your IEP caseload, the parents know you are focused on their student’s needs. 

Step 3

Now, look at each student-make an IEP Snapshot (or cheat sheet) to share with gen ed teachers. As much as I’d love to say gen ed teachers read the whole IEP when we provide it to them….we know that’s not going to happen. So make a sheet with accommodations, modifications, goals, services, and IEP due dates-or the meeting date if you have already scheduled it. 

Click on the picture to the left to see what I have used to make my IEP Snapshots for years. 

Step 4

After you complete your snapshot, make a list of all the paperwork or steps you need to complete for your IEPs. Use this to make a checklist on your student roster. I like to list my IEP caseload down the left hand side of a sheet, and along the top I list every step to the process, including invitations, reminders, writing goals, everything to filing it at the end. This helps to ensure that you don’t miss a step accidentally along the way. 

What other little pieces can you do ahead of time so that you save 5-10 minutes once the IEP season is in full swing?

In that mindset, I’ve been using my caseload tracker for years to keep my IEP monster under control. I put dates, services, goals, accommodations, all that stuff in at once, and it auto populates my snapshot for teachers, roster for my lists, meeting reminders, accommodation trackers, and…I input my progress monitoring in and it graphs it for me. My biggest thing is saving time not typing the same thing multiple times, so it has been a life saver for me. 

If you would like to hear more about how I streamline the process, check out the Reaching Struggling Learners Podcast.
Be sure to check out Episode 12, where I will be sharing some more tips and tricks to streamline the paperwork so that you can get back to working with the kids!

Be sure to fill out the form to be added to the Everyday Teaching Adventures Newsletter. I’ll send out a short weekly info snippet to keep you informed…no spamming! Nobody has time for that!

The post How to Track an IEP Caseload Without Losing Your Mind appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, you are well aware of what Coronavirus is and how it is starting to impact families and kids.

In my house we have been social distancing for about a week now and I have to say my children are driving me insane. 

 But the state of the world got me thinking about the students who have dealt with trauma in the past and are right now experiencing further trauma.

Trauma is a reality for a lot of students

For myself and my family this time has been a time of stress but also unity. Time to spend time together to play with my two-year-old in my five-year-old and spend some time outside together. 

I realize though for a lot of my students this is not a time of togetherness and for many families this is a  a time of anger, pain, and hunger.  Because of that, I started reading a book that I received over the summer…. but teachers know who has time to read? Well turns out…. I do…. when we’re on social distancing…. quarantine… lockdown whatever this is.

Learning about resiliency and trauma

I started reading a book by Kristin Souers and Pete Hall called Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom. I received this book at training in July 2019.  But haven’t opened it until quarantine time because you know….. teachers don’t have time to read or do anything other than teach during the school year. But I thought that now might be a good time for me to strengthen my abilities to work with my students who have experienced trauma in the past and work with them on their resiliency. 

Well I thought that this book was going to be about specific strategies…. you know cuz it says strategies for creating the trauma-sensitive classroom. Honestly it’s more about making connections, tips and tricks, about connecting with students who have experienced trauma and giving them a safe place to build their resiliency. It’s about taking a step back and getting a deep understanding for what trauma is.

It turns out I really didn’t have a true understanding for what trauma and resiliency really are. I didn’t know really what it was and how it changes how people think, feel, act, and connect to others.

I’ve come to realize that a lot of my students, which I knew have been dealing with trauma… and I’ve had pretty good relationships with my students, but I realize that this coronavirus pandemic is impacting them in ways that that we will not be able to even begin to understand until it is well over. We may not know the impact until we are back in school and trying to make our way through the school year and probably next year. 

A little help to support students through trauma.

In light of this I’ve decided to take my Feelings Journal that I described in a previous blog post and expand on it in a digital format to help teachers who are dealing with students who have experienced trauma and help them try to make connections. Teachers can work with those students even though we are dealing with these unprecedented times. This will be coming soon, as I navigate how best to provide this product in a digital format that helps students dealing with trauma and building their resiliency. 

If you are interested in taking a look at how I support my student’s emotional needs in my classroom, check out: How 5 Minutes a Day Saved My Sanity

For more information about how I use the information I learned from this book to help my students, check out my podcast: Reaching Struggling Learners. I will be dropping new episodes every other week (until I get a handle on this podcasting thing) then hope to provide weekly insight into the classroom. 

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I’m dyslexic.

I was diagnosed when I was 6 years old. My mom was so relieved to have a reason that I couldn’t read.

For me, Dyslexia was never a bad thing. It was and is just a part of who I am. Dyslexia was a gift for me.

As I grew older, a lot of my friends were diagnosed with Dyslexia. They all talked about it like it was the end of their story. My friends complained about the things they couldn’t or would never be able to do. They excused their bad grades because they could never do more. 

I always thought it was cool how I could make objects move and change to my will by looking at them. I’ve always throughthat my ability to see both sides to every argument and object was an advantage. My friends didn’t think that way. They saw Dyslexia as a curse, something shameful. 

I see Dyslexia as a gift.

No, that’s not entirely it. Dyselxia, for me, is more like a muscle. It’s a muscle I can flex and relax as I need.

Even as an adult with Dyslexia, I often look at an object and mentally turn it and change it. It’s a simple exercise that makes stopping the letters and numbers from moving much easier. My Dyslexia is a muscle that, when I exercise it regularly, is something I can have control over.

As I start this journey to be a helpful teacher coach, I wanted to  start with Dyslexia, and I was not disappointed.

The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald Davis

First, cudos to the author for printing in large font, which is super reader friendly. The book won points from me right off the bat for that. The book itself is an easy read, with short chapters and little technical langauge. More importantly to me, it have lots of examples to explain the ideas. Imagery is my friend, and I never had a doubt about what he was saying.

Second, after only a few pages, I felt like the author was describing me….I told my husband about 20 times that he needs to read the book if he wasnt to understand me. He hasn’t yet…possibly because the prospect frightens him…)

I didn’t bother trying the alignment techniques because I’ve discovered my own ways to do them. But I can see how the strategies could help others dyslexics.

I don’t agree with everything in the book. I think, based on my experiences, that he over-generalizes symptoms, But, the heart of the book, I feel, is a dyslexic just trying to be understood. He knows he is different. I know I’m different. But, the difference isn’t bad. The difference is just what makes us….us.

I think Dyslexia is a gift. It’s part of who I am. I’m dyslexic and proud of it.

If you want to read the book, I have linked it…just click on the picture. I’m NOT an Amazon Affiliate, just a teacher wanting to learn more and improve education. 

Also, I have created a freebie to help you find the strengths in your students. Click HERE to be taken to my store to download it today!

Learn more about how to accommodate learning differences in your classroom today!

If you are interested in how I would use what I have learned in the classroom, click here to listen to the Reaching Struggling Learners Podcast.

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I want to help students, and I think the best way to do that is to help teachers…… but what is the best way to do that?

How many times have you (I’m assuming you are a teacher if you are reading this) had a “coach” come in your classroom and make you so mad you could throw something at them? I have….a lot. I have had “coaches” make me angry enough to scream, defeated enough to question why I got into teaching in the first place, and one almost got me to quit teaching forever. 

Just the thought of a teacher coach coming into my classroom makes me a little gassy…. could be the beans and salsa I had for dinner, but I’m pretty sure it’s the coach. 

I don’t want to be a coach like that.

I want to become a helpful coach. I want teachers to smile when they see me coming down the hall….not the fake smile because they are afraid I’ll “tattle” on them, but a genuine “I’m glad you’re here” smile. 

So, I have thought about all the horrible coaches I have had. I have had some experiences….

The one complaint that I had about all of them was they didn’t know what they were talking about. Am I right? 

How many times has an “expert” walked into your room and made suggestions you knew had no chance of working?

I’m pretty open-minded, but even I had to question the coach that wanted my kindergarteners to be given the “responsibility” to walk down the hall without a teacher…..Oh by the way, I was basically teaching an Emotional-Behavioral classroom at the time…..Yeah no, I’ll supervise my kids, thanks. 

Clearly, she didn’t know what she was talking about. She didn’t know the law (you know, supervise the kids). She didn’t know classroom management, and she certainly didn’t know strategies to help me teach my kids. I wanted to work with someone who had varied experiences in the classroom (like me), but who knew a lot about teaching and could think about new possibilities. 

Isn’t that’s what coaches are about….possibilities?

Having varied experiences is key, I think to a quality coach, but also having a varied knowledge base so that they can pull from lots of different sources to help a teacher deal with a challenging situation. If a coach only has a few tricks up her sleeves, is she really a coach?

So, I have decided that if I want to be a helpful teacher coach, I need to drastically expand my knowledge about strategies, education in general, and especially special education law (since that applies to everyone no matter what they teach). 

So, I am going to embark on a new adventure. I would love to have you join me!

Becoming a Helpful Teacher Coach

My goal is to read one book a week about education. I’m going to focus on reading disabilities and strategies to start out. Every other week I will drop a blog post reviewing the book, and sharing some insight I gained. I also plan to post a podcast on Reaching Struggling Learners that links what I learned from the book to how I would use the information in my own classroom. 

Over the next year, I want to become knowledgeable about all things education so that I can truly be a helpful teacher coach, whether that eventually becomes my official job or not. I want to help students. I want to help teachers. 

Several years ago my aunt told me no knowledge is wasted, but I think it is….if it is left unused. I am going to work on gaining the knowledge so that I can use it to help teachers. 

Want to see where my journey takes me next? Check out the next installment in my journey: My Journey: Dyslexia is a Gift

Click the image below to join me in my Reaching Struggling Learners podcast. 

The post My Journey to Become a Helpful Teacher Coach appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.