Six First Steps for a New Special Education Teacher
Congrats! You’re a Teacher!
You finished student teaching and you have a fresh new degree and teaching license. You’re about to start your new job and might be wondering where to start. There’s a lot to do in the first weeks of school: you need to set up your classroom, learn about a million new teacher, admin, and student names, and figure out just how to make this last transition from student to teacher.
There are five things that new Special Education teachers might not even think of when they start preparing for their first class. I’ll admit they’re not as much fun as picking out a classroom theme, but this list will help set you up for success and decrease the amount of work you need to do throughout the school year.
1. See It: Translate Your Caseload into Something Manageable.
You’ll get a list of names and a stack of files when you start. Your first challenge is to turn all of that information into something you can use to teach students, collaborate with parents and Gen Ed teachers, and keep track of deadlines.
Check to make sure the caseload list and information matches the files. Read each file and pull out the relevant information that you’ll need for daily use: strengths, challenges, goals, accommodations, services, and important contacts.
2. Schedule It: Get Due Dates and Recurring Commitments on a Calendar.
Special Education has a lot of deadlines to keep track of. Initial meetings, annual meetings, evaluations, and progress reports can sneak up on you if you’re not careful. When you’re looking through the files for the See It step, also pull out the important dates and stick them on your calendar along with some reminders.
It doesn’t matter if you use a paper or digital calendar. The important thing is that you use what works for you. Pick the format that you’re most likely to use and keep updated.
3. Teach It: Translate IEP Goals into Something You Can Teach
IEP goals are written as part of a legal document. They’re often attached to standards and written in convoluted language. Just as Gen Ed teachers need to break down the standards for their lessons, SPED teachers need to break down the goal.
Start by identifying the highest priority goal. This might be one that’s linked to all the others. It could also be one that is having the biggest impact on the student’s ability to access the curriculum. Once you have the priority goal, identify the target skill, baseline, and first instructional steps.
4. Measure It: Develop a Progress Monitoring System
The only thing in special education more prevalent than due dates is data. Because you’re giving targeted intervention and only have a short amount of time in your sessions, you need to be responsive in your instruction. That means having a solid progress monitoring plan.
Progress monitoring is only useful if it aligns with the goal, is done regularly, and is used to inform instruction. When you choose a progress monitoring tool, make sure you pick one that measures the goal you’re working on. Then schedule it and plan to fold the data into the next steps of your instruction.
5. Connect It: Develop a Communication System for Parents and Colleagues
A special education teacher is the case manager for a team. It’s your job to coordinate with parents and general education teachers. Sometimes you’ll need to have difficult conversations as you do so.
Start off on a positive note by scheduling regular check-ins with teachers. This helps you establish a relationship and get an idea of how their classroom runs. Send parents a positive personal message about their child to start building that partnership.
6. Sustain It: Establish a Rhythm and Clear Responsibilities.
This is an important step that a lot of teachers skip. They start out strong with routines and good intentions at the start of the year, but it all fades away by November. Without a good rhythm, the work tends to pile up, and deadlines get missed.
Discuss and document roles and responsibilities across the team to make sure extra duties don’t creep onto your plate. Schedule regular time on your calendar to review the week. Look for patterns that happen over time and restructure when role creep happens.
These six steps will help you develop a sustainable system that will make your year go smoother. You’ll run the caseload instead of the caseload running you.
FREE GIft
Download the Student Snapshot here. The Snapshot helps you pull out the important information from the IEP and gives you a working document to use. This saves you time from pulling up the whole IEP each time you need to check something.
Interested in Structured Support?
The Special Education Teacher 1st 30 Days Toolkit walks you through a 30-day plan to set up your caseload and build the systems you need for the rest of the year and beyond. It even includes a mentor guide to share with a mentor or colleague.
The New Special Education Teacher walks you through the same 30-day plan with additional explanation and a print format with checklists and a daily closing capture writing space. It includes access to all of the digital tools, including the mentor guide, from the original toolkit.
A Question for the Field
What would you add as a 7th step?