Autism Classroom Resources Podcast: A Podcast for Special Educators

How can you possibly find time to effectively train your paraprofessionals when there is little to no student-free or duty-free time to do so? It may seem overwhelming and impossible but, with your CORE systems in place, you can be successful in training paraprofessionals in your classroom. There are several to make training paraprofessionals more achievable even with an incredibly busy schedule....

A huge factor in how efficiently and automatically your classroom runs is if your staff is on board with the classroom systems. We want our classrooms to run smoothly and with less support from you as the special education teacher. In order to do this, we must effectively communicate our expectations of special education paraprofessional duties to our staff. There are many tools and strategies tha...

Using the CORE model of systems in your classroom can free up time to do more direct instruction, planning, and time for yourself. In order for these systems to help reduce stress and exhaustion, they must be set up ahead of time. One key thing to set up ahead of time are the systems of instruction we will use in our classroom. As special educators, we need to make sure that our systems of instruc...

As special educators, we have so many things going on in our classrooms everyday. We all want to find a way to be more efficient and save time in the classroom. That’s where the CORE model comes in. Setting up the different elements of the CORE model may take some time upfront but will save you so much time in the long run. When trying to save time in the classroom, there are a few tips that can r...

Are you ready to reduce stress and decision fatigue and regain some energy and happiness by improving the systems you have in your classroom? We all know there is no stress like teacher stress and if we can set our classrooms up in a way that can reduce this stress, it is well worth the time and effort to get the systems put in place. We are covering the benefits of the CORE model, the impact of d...

Looking at how your classroom currently runs, do you have systems in place so you don’t really have to think about what you’re doing because it runs automatically? Having efficient classroom systems has so many benefits including higher engagement for students and less decision-making fatigue for you.  Today we are talking about what systems you should have in place in your classroom, why you...

Is your classroom set up in a way that allows it to run smoothly and almost automatically (or auto-magically, as I like to say) ? Special education classroom organization is a huge piece of The CORE Model. It promotes collaboration, reduces stress, and allows you to get back to teaching instead of just managing your classroom.  In this episode, I share what the CORE Model is, how it came abou...

We live in a society where consequences seem to be the expectation for certain “bad” behavior. A lot of teachers seem to struggle with knowing what they’ll do when a student demonstrates disruptive behavior. So in this episode, I talk about consequences and how ones you choose may not always be the most productive for your students. 2:51 ​ - Why all consequences aren’t equal for all students 6:58...

I have a love-hate relationship with interactive whiteboards. They have so much potential which I love, but too often they just get used as giant TVs. The interactivity part of the equation gets thrown out the window! So in this episode, I talk about the dos and don’ts of using these boards and how to help students use them constructively in the classroom. 1:35 ​ - Why this is such a hot topic for...

How can parents, other caregivers, or service providers be trained in implementing behavioral support for autistic kids? And should you, as a teacher, facilitate it? I get asked these questions often when speaking about behavioral support in the classroom. In this episode, I answer these questions and give you specific ways to help students’ families handle their behavior. 3:52​ - How you train ot...

Teachers deal with distracted students all the time. There’s the student who wants to be on the computer instead of reading his assignment or the one who’s waiting for lunch instead of working on her math problems. I get asked questions all the time about these kinds of behavioral support issues. So in this episode, I talk about some of the strategies you can use to deal with students who want to...

Being thankful comes with a lot of health and mood benefits. And now that we’re in November, it’s the perfect time of the year to stop, take stock of what has happened to you, and give thanks. Your autistic students should have that opportunity as well, but they get robbed of the benefits if they don’t have the support to give that type of thanks in a way that other people will understand.  I...

Someone recently asked me about using a first-then schedule. They wanted to know when to use one instead of a regular schedule. A first-then schedule is one of the simplest kinds of visual support you can use for autistic and other special needs kids. So in this episode, I talk about first-then schedules and how and when to use them in the classroom. 1:46 ​ - What a first-then schedule does and th...

For the last few episodes, you’ve heard me talk about visual schedules. But there’s a type of schedule that often gets forgotten about or overlooked by teachers. In this episode, I discuss group or class schedules and why they’re every bit as important as other kinds of schedules to use for your special education classroom. 2:19 ​ - Something I find happens a lot in self-contained special ed class...

How do you decide what kind of schedule to use for your students? While we focus on visual schedules for autistic classrooms, they’re very useful for a variety of reasons. In this episode, I discuss the different types of schedules, how I decide which type to use, and how I decide when I need to change it to a different kind of schedule. 2:13 ​ - The different kinds of visual schedules you can use...

Everyone says you must have visuals in an autism classroom. But everyone assumes you know what that means or that these visuals will somehow magically solve students’ behavioral problems. While they can’t do that, they are a really important component of your classroom (and not just for those with autism, either). In this episode, I discuss seven reasons why you need to use visual schedules in you...

Just the facts, ma’am. That’s the attitude you need to have when you’re collecting antecedent behavior consequence data in a functional behavior assessment. Like I talked about last week, you want to keep your emotions out of it. In this episode, I want to get a little more specific and follow up with a couple more things to think about when taking ABC data, including a strategy to help you amend...

Students learn their ABCs, but special ed teachers need to know their ABC. When dealing with challenging behavior from students, you need to collect antecedent behavior consequence data (a.k.a. ABC) so you can figure out the why behind the behavior. In fact, it can give you all kinds of information, but only if you take it correctly. In this episode, I reveal some specific things you need to know...

For a lot of special educators, data is the giant elephant in the room. It gets treated like that kind of a four-letter word when it’s not. Now I’m a huge data geek, so much so that I wrote a book about it. But I know data only helps you if it’s real, reliable, and teachable. So in this episode, I talk about how you can use data in a real classroom, with real students for group instruction. 3: ​ 1...

You’ve collected some classroom data, so now what? Leaving it sitting in a binder doesn’t help anybody; therefore, it’s critical that you set up systems for regular analysis. We take this data for legal reasons, to show progress, but most importantly, to troubleshoot any learning issues confronting our students.  In this episode, I discuss how to make analysis happen and the three elements to...

When it comes to data collection, there’s no one-size-fits-all, and it involves way more than just finding the right datasheet. You have to ensure you build a system with the right data, not more data. So today is all about focusing on data systems.  In this episode, I walk you through how to get started and what you need to consider when creating your systems for instructional data collectio...

Wouldn’t it be nice to have data collection work for you instead of against you? I hear from teachers all the time that data collection is one of the most difficult things to figure out. You get told to take it but not how . In this episode, I cover the three most important aspects of the data you collect and five things you can do to improve your data collection over the next few months. 1:45​ -...

As a leader of the classroom, you’ve done everything you needed to do to set up your staff for success. You’ve created the zoning plan, trained them, and provided feedback to them (and received feedback in kind). But what do you do when things still aren’t going well with the staff? That’s the really hard question I tackle in today’s episode, so buckle in! 1:57​ - What to do if you have concerns a...

You went into education wanting to teach kids, not manage adults. But to run a special ed classroom takes a village--one you need to lead--and that takes the form of your classroom staff. I’ve dedicated this month to discuss how to train that staff and so far in this series, I’ve talked about setting up the classroom structure for them and addressed three of the most common roadblocks in training...

Special education classrooms are unique in that they have a level of supervision not seen in other areas of the school. In running the classroom, you have a staff and are expected to train, but you’re not really a supervisor nor have a hand in selecting who’s on the staff. And with the students taking up so much time, you also don’t have a lot of opportunities to train them, either. In today’s epi...