Special Education for Beginners | Managing Paraprofessionals, Special Education Strategies, First Year Sped Teachers, Special

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• A Midyear Reality Check for Special Education Teachers 07.01.2026 8min

  January can feel brutal in special education. You’re not starting fresh—you’re restarting the same school year, but this time even more tired. After winter break, many special education teachers return feeling overwhelmed, behind, and questioning whether they’re doing enough. So many teachers find themselves with that heavy feeling of being behind at the midpoint of the school year. This episode is designed to help you slow down, refocus, and give yourself permission to prioritize what actual...
• December Countdown – 3 Ways to Connect with Your Paras Before the Break 17.12.2025 9min

  In the final episode of 2025, we are shifting the spotlight from survival mode to connection by focusing on the heart of your classroom—the paraprofessionals who support students and teachers every day. With winter break fast approaching, this episode includes 3 simple but meaningful ways to strengthen team culture, boost morale, and create a sense of appreciation and belonging before you all head out for a much-needed break. Jennifer shares three low-lift but high-impact strategies tha...
• Simple Systems for Stress-Free Progress Monitoring 10.12.2025 10min

  In this episode of Special Education for Beginners, we're continuing our December theme of Survive & Thrive. Last week on Episode 289, we kicked things off with a powerful mindset episode that challenged you to let go of perfectionism, release the guilt, and embrace the idea that you are enough. Today, we're focusing on THRIVING through the chaos with actionable strategies. Let’s be real: December is no joke in the world of special education. The behaviors are ramping up, your...
• 3 Mindset Shifts to Help You Manage the Holiday Season 03.12.2025 10min

  Does the month of December fill you with joy or stress? This month is full of excitement, but also full of dysregulation, disrupted routines, extra demands, and emotional overload for everyone involved. In this episode, we’re kicking off the Surviving & Thriving in December series with three powerful mindset shifts that can help you navigate the season with more calm, more clarity, and a whole lot less pressure. As a special education teacher, I’ve lived through my share of over-the...
• Empowering Parents with the Special Education Parent Handbook 26.11.2025 8min

  In this final episode of our November theme, we’re shifting from simply supporting parents to truly empowering them. Throughout the month, we’ve explored how to build trust with families, welcome them into the IEP process, and navigate tough conversations with respect and collaboration. Today, I’m introducing a game-changing resource you can use to equip parents with the tools they need to feel confident, informed, and ready to be active participants in their child’s educational journey: the ...
• When the IEP Table Gets Tense: 5 Strategies for Hard Conversations 19.11.2025 13min

  It’s no secret that being a special education teacher requires wearing many hats. One of the most important (and sometimes most challenging) is partnering with families. Even when you're doing everything right, there are times when conversations get hard. In this episode, I'm giving you strategies of what to do when things feel tense, emotional, or uncomfortable during conversations with parents. Whether it’s a tough IEP meeting, a phone call after a rough day, or pushback on a decision, know...
• How to Get Parents to Know, Like, and Trust You 12.11.2025 11min

  Welcome back to Special Education for Beginners! In this week’s episode, we’re continuing our November theme of Family Ties: Strengthening Parent Partnerships in Special Education—and today, we’re digging into one of the most foundational strategies: helping families know, like, and trust you. As special educators, we’re often the case manager, service provider, and meeting facilitator all rolled into one—but to a parent, we’re still just a new face sitting across the table talking about thei...
• How to Make IEP Meetings Less Intimidating for Parents 05.11.2025 12min

  Welcome to November...the month we show gratitude for our parents! In this episode, we’re tackling a topic that doesn’t get nearly enough attention in the special education world: parents. While our job is to serve students, doing that effectively means working with their families, especially during IEP meetings. IEP meetings can be overwhelming for everyone involved, but they’re especially intimidating for parents. So this week’s episode is all about how to make IEP meetings less...
• IEP Alignment in Action: A Case Study Walkthrough 29.10.2025 18min

  We’ve spent all month talking about what it means to write strong, meaningful, and connected IEPs, and today, we’re putting it all together. In this final episode of the October series, I’m walking you through a real-time case study of a fictional student named Eric, a 5th grader with a Specific Learning Disability in reading and written expression. From the Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) all the way to the services and accommodations, I’ll show you...
• IEP Alignment from an Administrator’s Perspective with Dane Parcel 22.10.2025 15min

  In today’s episode of Special Education for Beginners, we’re taking our October IEP Alignment Series one step further...this time through the lens of administration. I’m joined by Dane Parcel, my current Special Education Director (and former co-teacher and colleague of many years), to talk about what true IEP alignment looks like from the director’s chair. This episode is packed with real, practical insight on what makes an IEP truly strong, connected, and defensible — not just complete. In ...
• Aligning Services and Accommodations to Student Needs 15.10.2025 14min

  In this week’s episode of Special Education for Beginners, we’re continuing our October series all about writing IEPs that are clear, meaningful, and truly connected. So far this month, we’ve talked about how your Present Levels (PLAAFPs) act as the blueprint of the IEP and how to use that information to write strong, measurable goals. Now we’re moving one step further — connecting those goals to the services, accommodations, and supports that make them work in practice. If you’ve ever cau...
• How to Draw a Straight Line from Needs to Goals in an IEP 08.10.2025 10min

  Hey there, welcome back to Special Education for Beginners! We’re continuing our October series on writing IEPs that are clear, meaningful, and connected. Last week, on Episode 280, we talked about the PLAAFP and how it serves as the blueprint of the IEP. This week, we’re taking the very next step: turning the needs you identified in the Present Levels into strong, measurable goals. Too often, IEPs end up with unsupported goals — goals that don’t connect back to the Present Levels. In this ep...
• The PLAAFP Is the Blueprint of Every Strong IEP 01.10.2025 14min

  By October, most of us as special educators have found our rhythm. The beginning-of-the-year chaos has calmed (at least a little!), routines are in place, and that’s when IEP season really starts to pick up. This month on Special Education for Beginners, we’re digging into how to make sure your IEPs are more than just compliant documents. They should be clear, meaningful, and connected — with every part of the plan tracing back to the Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Perf...
• How Movement Impacts Behavior: OT Insights for the Classroom 24.09.2025 26min

  This month on the Special Education for Beginners podcast, we’ve been focused on behavior—what causes it, how to prevent escalation, and how to respond when it happens. But today, we’re flipping the script and talking about what it looks like when things are going well. In this episode, I’m joined by Marga Grey, a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of CoordiKids, to discuss what true self-regulation looks like in the classroom and how educators can support it through movement, senso...
• What to Do (and NOT Do) When a Student Escalates 17.09.2025 13min

  📅 September Behavior Series – Week 3 Hey there, and welcome back to the Special Education for Beginners podcast! This is the third episode in our September series all about behavior—because if you’ve worked in special education for more than a week, you know behavior is part of the job. But how we respond makes all the difference. In this episode, I walk you through what to do (and what not to do) when a student is escalating. Whether it’s shouting, shutting down, crying, pacing, or full...
• How the Brain Impacts Behavior & What You Can Do About It 10.09.2025 25min

  Welcome back to our month-long focus on behavior management in the special education classroom. In this episode, we’re digging into the science behind student behavior with special guest Sam Parmelee. This isn’t your typical conversation about clip charts and consequences. We’re talking about regulation, relationships, and the real reasons behind challenging behavior. We know that classroom behavior can be one of the most overwhelming parts of a special education teacher’s job, and often the ...
• 7 Strategies to Prevent Behaviors Proactively 02.09.2025 13min

  Welcome back to Special Education for Beginners! September is such a critical month for teachers. It’s the time when routines are still being built and the habits you create now will either set you up for a calm, structured classroom or leave you constantly putting out “fires” all year long. In this episode, we’re talking about prevention...how to stop behaviors before they start. Of course, we know there’s no way to erase every single behavior, but wouldn’t it be nice to reduce the frequency...
• Keeping Perspective in Special Education: A Pep Talk for the New School Year 27.08.2025 10min

  At the start of a new school year, everything can feel big. The stress, the expectations, the changes...they all seem to hit at once. If you’re in that season of overwhelm, this episode is your much-needed pep talk. In Episode 225, I’m sharing the mindset shifts that have helped me stay grounded, protect my peace, and stop giving energy to things that don’t matter in the long run. Whether you’re already in the thick of it or gearing up to start the 2025–26 school year, this is the perfect tim...
• How to Choose the Right Data Collection System for Your Classroom 20.08.2025 16min

  Collecting data is one of the most important parts of being a special education teacher, but let’s be honest—it’s also one of the most overwhelming. Between figuring out how to track academic, behavioral, and anecdotal progress, and deciding how often to collect it, most teachers end up feeling stuck without a system that really works. In this episode, I’m breaking down the reality of data collection and sharing practical systems you can use to make the process manageable. From data notebooks...
• Mastering the Special Education Schedule (One Tetris Piece at a Time) 13.08.2025 16min

  Scheduling in special education isn’t for the faint of heart! Whether you’re leading a resource room program, a self-contained classroom, or managing inclusion services across multiple grades, you’ve probably felt like you were playing an endless game of Tetris...trying your hardest to make all the pieces fit without leaving gaps or losing a part of your soul. In this episode, I’m breaking down three distinct approaches: Part 1: Scheduling for a Resource Room We’ll dig into a practical, step-...