Are you a new special education teacher looking for must-have resources for your brand new classroom? Look no further because you have come to the right place!
Being a brand new teacher can be super overwhelming but being a brand new special education teacher can sometimes take the cake. Sometimes you are the only special education teacher in the school and it is up to you to create a schedule and curriculum for your students. Oh and did I mention that your students will all be functioning at different levels so you will not be able to do the exact same thing with each of them? That can be the tricky part.
Here are 5 MUST-HAVE resources for new special education teachers:
1. Daily Communication Logs
Keeping clear and concise communication with families of your students from the start is always best in my book! For the school year, you will want to make sure you have daily or weekly communication with families about what their child is doing and how the school day is going. This is especially important if you have any students that may be non-verbal or have trouble letting their parents know about their day. Daily Communication Logs make school to home communication simple and clear. You can print a bunch and put in their take-home binder. If the student has a paraprofessional with them, they can help fill it out also. I have also taught some students to fill out parts of it as well, such as circling their special for the day or writing the date in the box. These are differentiated and also available in spanish for any ESL students as well! There are different versions in which you can circle everything or versions with boxes for writing. These are also editable and can be used in Google Slides if you would rather email it home at the end of the day! Check out this post about 4 ways to communicate with parents for more tips on this!
2. Leveled Comprehension
As I said above, something to make sure that you realize as a new special education teacher is that not all of your students will be able to do the same work, follow the same curriculum and have the same goals for the year. You will most likely have 3 or 4 different reading and math levels in your class and you could have students that are still working on letter recognition and not yet reading. In addition, you will have some students that need to work on social skills or you might even have students that are non-verbal that use an AAC device. As a teacher, teaching your students how to communicate and read will absolutely be a part of your day. Using Leveled Comprehension can make this task much easier on you as a new special education teacher!
This Leveled Comprehension Bundle includes 8 resources total-4 printable resources and 4 digital resources:
Digital Leveled Comprehension Set 1
Digital Leveled Comprehension Set 2
Digital Leveled Comprehension Set 3
Why it’s great:
+ Introduce using fading prompts each day
+ Track WH Question data to determine growth
+ Perfect for IEP goals or state assessments
+ Use bingo daubers for non writers
3. SSE Math Curriculum
When you have multiple students on multiple math levels, it can be overwhelming-especially as a brand new special education teacher. Simply Special Ed Math Curriculum helps you keep things simple, differentiated and organized and is a must-have resource! This Simple Math Curriculum Bundle is over 1000 pages and is available to print or for digital use. This special ed math curriculum bundle is designed to directly teach basic math skills to students with special needs. Each resource can be used to help students practice and generalize important baseline topics! Each unit directly teaches each skill, right down to the number, shape, or size.
WHAT SKILLS ARE INCLUDED?
Unit 1- 1:1 Correspondence
Unit 2- More or Less
Unit 3- Size
Unit 4- Shapes
Unit 5- Patterns
Unit 6- Coins
Unit 7- Number Sequencing
4. Data Collection Sheets
As a special education teacher, you soon become very familiar with data collection. It’s up to you to keep data on every single student’s IEP goals and show the progress made at the end of each quarter to their parents. The Special Education Data Sheets Bundle will literally be your saving grace to get through your first year of teaching! The data sheets are available in both print and digital form, as well as being editable.
INCLUDES 37 PAGES OF DIGITAL DATA SHEETS!
+ Goal Data Sheets
+ Daily Data Sheets
+ Behavior Data (2 to a page)
+ Toileting Data (full class)
+ Toileting Data (2 to a page)
+ Behavior Tally
+ Behavior Data
+ Community Data
+ Lunch Data (2 to a page)
+ Morning Data (2 to a page)
+ Pack Up Data (2 to a page)
+ Tooth Brushing Data (2 to a page)
+ Hand Washing Data (2 to a page)
+ New Student Data
+ New Student Checklist
+ Task Box Data (2 to a page)
+ Independent Data
+ Blank Sheets
Going digital is NOT simple for everyone. I get it! That’s why I’ve included video tutorials in your download to guide you along the way and assist you with capturing data digitally using Google Slides™ and Google Forms™.
FORMS INCLUDED:
– General IEP Goal
– Frequency Goal
– ABC Data
PRINTABLE SIMPLE DATA SHEETS INCLUDES:
+ Goal Data Sheets (4)
+ Daily Data Sheets (4)
+ Behavior Data (2 to a page)
+ Toileting Data (full class)
+ Toileting Data (2 to a page)
+ Behavior Tally
+ Behavior Data
+ Community Data
+ Lunch Data
+ Morning Data
+ Pack Up Data
+ Tooth Brushing Data
+ Hand Washing Data
+ New Student Data
+ New Student Checklist
+ Blank Sheets
+ Editable Sheets
5. Year Long Life Skills Centers
If you are teaching special education in a life skills setting, you absolutely need these year long life skills centers! Teaching students independence and the skills that they need to be a functioning member of society is extremely important in the special education world. How easy would it be to print and prep materials over the summer and have life skills centers ready to go for the year?
WHAT SKILLS ARE INCLUDED?
– Matching Socks
– Setting the Table
– Washing Dishes
– Folding Facecloths
– Brushing Teeth
– Washing Hands
– Sorting Recycling
– Wiping the Table
– Vacuuming
– Sorting darks and lights
– Matching Tupperware
– Wrapping Gifts
WHAT IS INCLUDED FOR EACH SKILL?
– visuals
– letter home to family
– task analysis
– sorting labels
– data sheets
– certificate of completion
BONUS MUST HAVE!
I couldn’t go without mentioning a bonus must have for new special education teachers. The Simply Free Library is an amazing resource with over 75+ free downloads that will get your classroom ready for your first school year and beyond. You can join here (for free!)
I hope you have a great first year of teaching special education and found some of these resources valuable!
