Just Different

So... I was out several days a bit ago. But, as a special ed teacher, I sometimes have a hard time writing sub plans. I wonder if I'm just being dramatic about something that all teachers have to do, but then I stopped to think about it. Here's an example of why it's hard.  Say for one portion of the day, a gen ed teacher decides to write in their sub plans to have their kindergarteners color for 30 minutes. The teacher might have to add in the plans that "So-and-so is the paper passer and so-and-so is the crayon box helper." Other than that, the plan is solid for that 30 minute time block.  Now for me--same activity--this I what I have to explain in the sub notes:  Students may choose between using crayons , dot markers , or regular markers , but A and B students need to use dot markers. So-and-so uses a slant board to put the paper at a better angle. X, Y, and Z kids need to use the lightboard to select a color and to color on top of because they have vision im...

Here's a new thing I decided to do when planning for this year. Since I have students with such a wide range of abilities, I really want to individualize as much as possible. Duh, obviously! That's the goal, right? But I decided to approach thinking about it differently than I have before: I thought out and wrote up an IDEAL day for each student. What would they work on in the areas of self-help skills, vocational skills, academic skills? What gross and fine motor activities would they engage in? What sensory activities would they do? What are their preferred activities that I want to make sure they get to do when they are finished working? I wrote their IEP goals in red because those are the things I for sure need to get to. The black ink is things that would be awesome for them to have exposure to. The IDEAL scenario. So now, as I look at these charts for each of my 9 students, I can decide how I want to schedule our day. Can I incorporate all of the academic skills i...