So, when we last talked about universal screeners, we talked about how the information that we get from the beginning of the year data should be taken with some reservation. After all summer slide is a thing, and the kids are more capable than what that test shows. 

     Screener data does give us some good ideas on things that we can review at the beginning of the school year to help get the kids back up to pace quickly.

     The data also gives us a good starting point for making goals for our students this year.

What is the most basic skill your student is weak in? That is your starting point for making goals.

     After you’ve had a chance to really look at the data, and your students, you’ll want to really dig down into the skills that your struggling students have. Figure out what is the most basic skill set that they are weak in.  That skill is the one that you’ll want to work on and progress monitor. Making goals is pretty easy when you know where to start.

     Identifying the skill you are going to work on is half the battle. The next steps are figuring out where the student is right now in that skill set.

     For example, is your student able to read 40 words in a minute, and to be on grade level they need to read 95?

     You could look at that and make your goal: Given an instructional level text, the student will be able to read 60 words in one minute at the end of the first 9 weeks.

Making goals isn’t just about getting kids on grade level.

     Will the student be on grade level at the end of the first 9 weeks?

      Nope, probably not, but if you give a student texts that they can mostly read and start working on fluency, the student will boost their reading fluency a whole lot faster than if you give them texts that are too hard and frustrate them into fighting reading.

     Making goals isn’t just about getting the student on grade level as quickly as possible. It is about giving the student an opportunity to feel success by meeting a goal in an area they struggle in.

      Just like with adults, successfully completing a goal is almost addicting for students. Once the student has met one goal, they are willing to work even harder to meet the next one. We are in this for the long game. Which is getting the student the skills they need for long term success. Yes, we want the student on grade level as soon as possible, but making goals that are impossible isn’t going to make that happen. 

Click here for a guide to making goals quickly and easily.

     Making goals doesn’t have to be hard work.

     Choose a specific skill set the student needs to work on, based on the screener data. Then think carefully about what the student will be able to accomplish in a short time frame. 

     After you’ve made your goals, be sure to monitor your student’s progress so that you can celebrate success together!

Check out the podcast below for more information!

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The post Making Goals from Screener Data appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

     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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The post Set up a Caseload Management System appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

     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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The post How to Progress Monitor IEP Goals 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!

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

Not only do I have my energetic 4 year old to keep busy (for how I keep him engaged in science activities, check out: Science With an Energetic 4 Year Old), I have also been a teacher for 11 years. Clip-Its are awesome because they keep even my 4 year old busy and learning simultaneously.

I have taught general and special education at the elementary level, and one thing I have learned is that ALL students need multi-sensory learning. This is especially true for those students who are struggling. The more we can get kids active, the more they learn.

How do we get kids moving AND learning?

Multi-sensory learning gets kids moving and learning. One very effective way I have incorporated multi-sensory learning is through Clip-Its. Don’t know what those are? I didn’t several years ago either!

Most clip-its have a picture or question stem, and the student chooses one correct answer. They are FABULOUS for working on skills with students who need to be moving…aka our kinesthetic learners. Once I started using Clip-Its regularly, my OT angel told me that she was seeing MAJOR progress….double win right?

I use lots of different types of “clips” to help my students remain interested in the activity….also due to my awesomeness (actually…it was cheapness…the kids kept losing the clothespins and I hated replacing them) my kids were getting practice with fine-motor skills, and finger strength.

But, while working with my students, I realized that being able to find multiple correct answers to one question is a valuable skill. So, I started creating Multi-Clip-Its. Before long I realized that not only did having multiple answers help my students generalize their learning…..they also improved their attention spans, AND these cards were WAY less work for me. That was the trifecta of teacher happiness for this busy teacher!

After some work, I am now ready to share my Multi-Clips with you. Click the picture below for a multi-clips FREEBIE…because who doesn’t love a freebie??? Try them out with your kids and drop a comment below to let me know how it goes!

Like what you see and want more? Click the picture below for a link to my Multi-Clips Growing Bundle. It contains ALL my phonics Multi-Clips I have in my store now…but the best part? It’s a growing bundle, so as I add more clips, you will get them for free!

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The post Why Clip-Its are Awesome appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

Isn’t that what we are all looking for?

     Progress monitoring doesn’t have to be nearly as hard as it has been made out to be! Progress monitoring SHOULD be easy!

     There is a huge emphasis on “doing” progress monitoring, but teachers are left to their own devices to figure out how. For information about how to get started with progress monitoring, check out my blog post: 5 Steps to Begin Effective Progress Monitoring. It’s cool, I’ll still be here when you get back

     Alright, so you know how to begin, but WHAT DO I DO???? I need a “Progress Monitoring Made Easy for Dummies” guide! Well, if this is you, you’re in the right spot! 

     I have been “doing progress monitoring” for 11 years, and I have it down pretty well by now. I’m not perfect, but I’m more than glad to show you how you can do it without wasting a lot of time and energy.

Streamline your process to make progress monitoring easy.

     I cannot say this enough….if you want your progress monitoring to be easy, you HAVE to set yourself up for success! Do not wait until you have all of your students and goals in front of you then start ripping your hair out trying to figure out how to progress monitor all of it!

     Here is how I started the year streamlined, and made my life so much easier!   

     First, check out your grade level standards and talk to teachers in your grade level. You will quickly see patterns to what the students struggle with. If you are younger grades, guaranteed the kids will be struggling with beginning reading skills, and beginning math skills. If you are working with older students, vocabulary and fluency will be huge for math and reading. 

     With these thoughts in our minds, start gathering materials that you could use to progress monitor your students on the areas you are pretty sure will be weaknesses. For example, collect letter and number cards that you could use to “flash” to students to assess them during your progress checks. Years ago, I made my own set of letter flash cards with the corresponding data tracking sheets to easily track letters and letter sounds.You can check them out here to see what I did.

The key to progress monitoring made easy is versatility

      By this, I mean, any materials that you collect should be versatile enough to be used to assess any goal that you create for that subject area. If you checked out my letter and letter sound product above, you saw that I could use those materials to progress monitor ANY goal regarding identifying letters OR letter sounds. 

     Over the years, I have progress monitored many MANY goals. Instead of creating assessments which were created to only monitor one goal, I created items which could be used across many goals. I reduced my workload tremendously through this process.. Have a goal regarding fluency? I pull out my trusty fluency progress monitoring files and I can pull out the reading level I need. Graph that data! Then I put my fluency assessment back for the next student who needs it. That next student may be in my class this year, or three years from now. It won’t matter because fluency is fluency. 

     ****Special note here**** I do NOT change my goals to fit my assessments, I have worked long and hard to make my assessments versatile enough to use for many goals. When I come across a funky goal that doesn’t fit easily, I re-evaluate how I could make my progress monitoring assessments better fit a wider range of goals.  

I truly believe that the worst thing we can do, while progress monitoring, is make assessments geared specifically for one goal.

     Teachers simply do not have this kind of time on their hands! I know I don’t! I have WAY too many IEPs to write, progress reports to send home, behavior contracts to check, and evaluations to schedule/write/report to parents. I do NOT have time to create specialized assessments for every goal on my caseload! 

     I’ll admit, my first year of teaching, man I tried! I tried so hard to make assessments for every different goal. I worked so hard to find items I could use to monitor that fit the goal perfectly and as many hours as I put in, I never got everything done. That was before I had a husband….and kids….and needed more than 3 hours of sleep in a night. Now, I’ve got way too much on my plate to spend all of my waking hours doing school work, ESPECIALLY creating assessments! Anybody with me?

     So, I created some resources, which are linked below for you to look at to see how I did it. These resources and assessments I have used for years to make my progress monitoring an easy process. Check them out to see how I did it and still do it!

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The post Progress Monitoring Made Easy appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

If this is you, you have come to the right spot! You are well on your way to being a progress monitoring guru at this point! (Maybe you don’t feel like it yet, but trust me, you are doing great!)

The next step in the progress monitoring adventure is….take a deep breath and don’t cry…..data.

Hate Data?

I used to, but not anymore! Now, well, honestly, it isn’t my favorite thing to do, but it definitely IS in my top 10 for teachers tasks….want to know how it got there? Read the post Meet My Friend Data, then head back here for some next steps.

All caught up? Yeah, Data and I had a rocky start, but every day we learn to better help the kids….anyway…..Data and progress monitoring go hand-in-hand….which is part of why administrators often-times think they are the same thing.

Not entirely clear on what progress monitoring is, or how to get started? I have defined it for you in What is Progress Monitoring? and given specific steps to get started in: 5 Steps to Begin Effective Progress Monitoring.

So, here we are: 3 or 4 weeks deep into this mess and somebody (let’s be honest, it was that annoying RTI coach wasn’t it?) wants to see your data for progress monitoring…and you pull out all those papers you’ve been carefully writing scores and information on…..and that somebody looked at you like you were crazy….oh…that didn’t happen to you?….ummm…well…yeah that happened to me….once….and I vowed it would never happen again. (SUPER embarrassing by the way)

I am not the most organized teacher…or organized at all…but you would never know it by looking at my data!

Now, after 10 years in this business, I have my data collection sheets ready to go, but more importantly….

About 9 years ago, I started playing around with Excel to track my progress monitoring data. I figured out how to make graphs and write formulas, and one of my best tools was developed out of that….Haha! I say developed like it was a beautiful, gentle process….nope. I made countless spreadsheets, and messed up on the numbers and formatting sooo many times. For at least a year, I cursed Excel, but my husband told me to get over myself and helped me figure it out….He was my boyfriend at the time…now, that would never work….he has spoiled me too much…..Yet, in the end, all that work paid off. I now have a spreadsheet system I use to progress monitor (meaning graph data) for my kids… It works wonderfully to streamline the process for me.

I input in the information, and it is graphed for me. I even got all fancy and made a progress report page. That way I could report progress data to admin or parents on specific goals. This has been a huge time-saver for me!

Don’t want to spend hours (years in my case) like I did creating this from scratch? Take a look at it below. The comments speak for themselves.

If you are feeling creative, and want to make something similar, I suggest you start playing around in Excel to see what the program can do. There are lots of tutorials out there, though I will admit that I did find them confusing and had to adapt what I saw presented to what I wanted.

Whichever path you choose….having my progress monitoring data graphed automatically has been a HUGE time saver for me, especially when sharing the progress with parents and admin.

Not sure Excel works for you?

I have also made these data tracking forms to help with keeping a handle on all of the goal tracking data for students with special needs in one easy-to-use-technology-free format.

My biggest suggestion: Put in your data weekly so that it is always pretty current. That way you never get caught off guard (like I did) with the “What does the data look like?” question.

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The post Data Tracking Like a Boss appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

Progress Monitoring does not have to be a dirty term! I have spent 11 years progress monitoring, so I am going to share the 5 steps I have learned to get started effectively progress monitoring my students. Prepare yourself….the steps may shock you…..

• Listen! 
•      Watch!
•     Try it Out!
•     Assessment!
•     Make a Goal!

     You got it! The first step in Progress Monitoring is NOT assessing the student! We, as teachers, are professionals. We know when a student is struggling, and we do not need a formal assessment to figure that out. You are a great teacher who loves their kids (or I am willing to assume you are, since you are reading this post right now), and you have everything you need to get the party started in Progress Monitoring!

Yes, I consider progress monitoring a party. I love progress monitoring, but more on that in later posts….

Step 1: Listen!

Listening to our students speak or read is the first, and possibly most important, step in determining areas of strength and weakness. Students who struggle to hear sounds, will probably have trouble identifying the letter associated with that sound when it comes to phonics time. If they have a hard time distinguishing between question words (who versus what or when for example) will probably struggle with comprehension. Students who emphasize syllables incorrectly, will probably struggle to sound out words with the correct emphasis. A student’s speech is the first step in becoming literate. Students who are not maturing with their speech and language acquisition, will most likely struggle when learning to read.
    *Here is where I would like to do a shout out to our awesome speech and language teachers! They provide a valuable service to millions of students, nationwide. Their work lays the foundation that classroom and special education teachers use to teach EVERY OTHER SUBJECT. If you don’t know them already, get to know your speech and language people in your school. They can give you valuable insight into how you can help mitigate reading issues before they become a problem in your classroom.*

Step 2: Watch!

 As you already know, students give their emotions away in just about everything they do. Watching how students interact with the curriculum helps teachers to note where students feel confident or lack confidence. These indicators help teachers to know areas in which students need more work to help them feel more confident in their abilities. 

Step 3: Try It Out!

After listening and watching, sit with your student as they attempt to perform the task you feel they may be struggling to complete. This is a perfect opportunity to see exactly what is causing the struggle. Pinpointing this makes the next step much less painful for yourself and your student.

Step 4: Assessment

 As you know, the Response to Intervention (RTI) process would not be complete without an assessment. Determining the area of weakness prior to assessments means that teachers will need to test that skill and any prerequisite skills as needed. For example, students who are struggling to identify letter sounds should be assessed to determine the letter sounds with which they struggle, as well as their ability to differentiate sounds, or identify letters. 

Step 5: Make a Goal!

 After assessing the current skills of students, a goal should be made to help the teacher and student determine next steps. By creating a goal which describes exactly how well the student will perform the skill, as well as when the student will be able to perform the skill, teachers create a road map which will help them to know how best to move their students in that direction. 

 You may be thinking. “Now that I’ve done all this, what do I DO with my student?” Here comes the fun part! Now is when you and your student start working toward your goal. Using games as practice is an ideal way to help keep your student motivated while working toward their goals.I have created and shared a system I have used many times to progress monitor my students. I have included assessments, games, and suggestions for how to help students achieve the goals you have made with them. Through the use of fun games, you and your student will make gains toward your goals. For a closer look at what I have used for rhyming identification check out the link below. 

Want more info? Check out my post: 5 Steps to Integrate Progress Monitoring to learn more about how I have made progress monitoring a seamless part of my day.

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The post 5 Steps to Begin Effective Progress Monitoring appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

     After 11 years of teaching students with special needs in both the general and special education setting, I have learned to fully appreciate the importance of progress monitoring….even if it can be a pain in the neck sometimes.   

 Progress Monitoring takes many forms depending on the age, grade level, and what the student is learning. The main focus behind it is to find the baseline knowledge of a student and monitor changes in this as students progress through various interventions. Interventions can be as simple as using a color overlay while reading, or practicing vocabulary using flashcards.

     When I work with other teachers on progress monitoring, they repeatedly tell me that they don’t know where to begin. My answer is always the same, “Start with the most basic skills with which the student is struggling and work your way up from there!” For example, if a student is struggling with letter identification, start there! Students will just be frustrated if we try to work on sounding out CVC words if they have not yet mastered the identification of all upper and lowercase letters.

One way to think about this is the foundation of a house. If the foundation of the house isn’t well-built the rest of the house cannot stand, similarly if a student’s reading foundations are not strong, they will struggle to read (and write, which is closely linked with reading). 

     With this in mind, I have begun putting together the items I have used over the years to assess and improve upon the basic skills my students have. I am starting at the most basic phonics level (letter and sound identification) because this is usually where teachers begin to notice a student having difficulty. I think that it is important to note that most students also struggle with phonemic awareness prior to their phonics struggles, though this is usually not caught until students begin to struggle in phonics. 

       Making progress monitoring fun for students does not have to be a huge struggle. Simple games can be used to practice skills and determine next steps for lessons. The same games can be used to determine progress, which correlates to graphs.

        Over the next several weeks, I will be sharing different ideas and resources I have used over the years to progress monitor my students. I will also be sharing some of the feel-good (or hilarious) stories I have experienced along the way, and my own struggles through the world of “data collection”. I have come to love data, and I hope you will too!

To learn more about my love-hate relationship with data, check out: Make Data Your Friend

If you are looking for some easy ways to get started on progress monitoring, check out my FREE data recording sheets: Data Recording Sheets

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The post So, What Is Progress Monitoring? appeared first on Teaching Struggling Learners.

So, how did Data and I really become friends? Well, it started about 9 years ago, back when I was a baby teacher. I had a slight no idea what I was doing, and really the only thing keeping my head above water was my awesome teacher-friends.

Back then, I taught a first grade resource class for students who struggled in reading and/or math. My kiddos were so cute! And they tried so hard! I spent almost all my extra time working on lesson plans, making activities, and oh the hours I spent with laminate and scissors. I loved my students, and my general education team members. It was awesome! (Also, it was in Hawaii, so I spent my weekends laying on the beach. It’s better to just admit now that you are jealous. It’s ok, I’ll wait.) Those were the days….then I got a new student…and my blissful lessons were…well….non-existent.

Seriously, how many times have you had that happen? You have your class (general ed or special ed, we can ALL commiserate here) going well. The students know the rules and procedures and you have your teaching groove on….then THAT student joins your class and you might as well start your year over because all your training and classroom community just got thrown on its head.

Don’t get me wrong, we accept the new student into the fold, but nothing is the same as it was before…This is what happened when my new student joined. He was supposed to be on consultation, but we figured out by the end of the first week that that just wasn’t going to work. The student was violent, like none of us had ever seen. He was incredibly intelligent as well. He could read a room, and knew exactly which student would react the most to his particular brand of attention. By the end of the first week, the student had destroyed his general education classroom twice, threatened several students with pencils and scissors, and caused his teacher to wonder if teaching really was the profession for her.

So, for safety reasons, we convened an IEP meeting, and services were increased to help him have some “cool-down” space and smaller group time. Our hope was that these interventions would relieve the student’s anxiety. It worked….for about an hour. The issues we saw in the general education classroom were just as bad in mine. He just had less space to move. By the end of the second week, my room was destroyed…. I don’t know how many times, but I do remember going home that Friday and not having the energy to go to the beach the entire weekend. I had bruises up and down my arms from being hit, kicked, punched and bitten.

On Monday, I met with my principal and counselors and we discussed the need for Data. I hated Data. NOT in my classroom! I barely had time to get out of the way of the objects being thrown at my head! How in the world could I deal with Data in that kind of environment? Fortunately for me, cooler heads prevailed, and Data came for a visit.

The first week was horrible!

I kept forgetting her in another part of my room. I have no idea how many times I had to tape her back together, and how exactly does one lose THAT many writing implements in a half of a portable??? BUT, on Friday, after school, when I sat with my counselor and teacher friends….Data and I had survived. Not only had we survived, but we now had cold, hard proof of what we had endured that week. Seeing it written down, in it’s multi-colored, ripped glory, gave me a deeper appreciation for what I had endured that week…..and my respect for Data was forged. My colleagues looked at the information with me, and we worked out a plan to help the student (and me because being bitten REALLY hurts) in the coming week.

The second week, Data and I were on better terms. I still forgot her on my desk. I still taped her back together many times. She got me back with some really spiteful papercuts. But she helped me see what interventions were working, and which ones were a waste of my time. The team met again and decided that experts were needed. The interventions weren’t working the way they should. The student needed more than we knew how to give.

Data and I got to work.

The experts were impressed with how well we worked together. They overlooked the tape, and fact that at no point was there a consistent color pen. (Crayons look professional in a pinch right?) Data and I demonstrated that the interventions I was able to give on my own were not enough, and together we convinced the experts to pony-up for a one-on-one aide to help this student manage his behaviors. Then, month after month, Data and I teamed up to show the progress the student COULD make when he had the support he needed.

Data didn’t leave my side during the entire experience. In fact, she came back day after day, and together we started looking at my other students and their progress in academics. We put our heads together and figured out, again, what interventions were working and which were a waste of time. …But this time….This time it was fun. I started to look at Data as a friend whose insight I needed to help me do what was best to help my students get the most out of my time with them.

I won’t say that Data is my best friend…..but she has saved me countless hours of struggle, frustration, and wasted time. She has backed me up in meeting after meeting where I advocated for the services and rights of my students. She has recorded my most difficult days and most amazing triumphs. I could not do this job without her. And for this reason, Data and I will always be friends.

Want an introduction to Data?

Click the link below for a free data collection sheet, similar to the ones I have used to collect academic data for my students.

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