I know a lot of teachers are pretty pissed off about how this school year is shaking out. It’s been tough on us. At first, I was really depressed about having to start from scratch redesigning everything about my social skills class so it would address current issues and function in a remote environment. I mean, when you’ve mentally prepared yourself that it’s about to be Your Year, a pandemic is a solid kick in the teeth. But I pulled up my Big Teacher Panties (thanks, COVID Fifteen!) and got to work.
Category Archives: Differentiated Instruction to Address Behavior
Ideas for differentiating instruction via accommodations and modifications to address students’ behavioral and academic PLEPs to increase normative behaviors
Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
I’ve written and spoken a lot about the link between undesired behaviors and classwork that is too difficult for students. I’ve been following my convictions about this for the past year and am pleased to announce that I have opened a sister store on Teachers Pay Teachers, Universally Designed. Right now, my focus is on reworking […]
Universally Designed: Coming Soon!
I’ve been working on a new product line since January that I hope to roll out for a soft launch this summer. After finding that there are VERY few lower Lexile versions of texts in the most commonly-adopted literature books at my high school (and even FEWER that were actually engaging and of good quality), […]
Free Lesson: Do’s and Don’ts of Workplace Grooming Slideshow Templates
My students are focused on all things work-related between now and the end of March. We had some discussions in class yesterday about skills we wanted to make sure we addressed, and students and cadets wanted to be sure we talked about looking professional (good grooming) in the workplace. I see lots of teachers assigning […]
Questions You Just Don’t Ask
After enjoying nearly two weeks of Winter Break spent wearing sweatpants and not brushing my hair, my colleagues and I were back at work today. We didn’t have students today, which is probably the best choice in terms of their safety. A bunch of cheese-bloated, middle-aged teachers coming in fresh off half a month of […]
Sensory Grounding BINGO
New, FREE lesson on enraged2engaged.com, E2E Sensory Grounding BINGO! After one of our functional kids with ASD had a scary meltdown in class a few weeks ago, the group (peer models and students) unanimously voted on a coping skills unit for the next round of lessons. New-teaching-partner Chris, the cadets (peer models), and I have […]
Brand New E2E Game Available on TpT!
I wrote a new game! E2E Awk-Words on TeachersPayTeachers I have seriously been trying to think of a good game to call Awk-Words for the past two years. This is the culmination of a dream. E2E Awk-Words is a printable card game that will encourage students to roleplay and discuss normative (and not-normative) responses to common […]
Stepping Away
I’ve been avoiding writing a blog entry for a while now. Honestly? It’s because I wasn’t sure what to say. I have stepped away from behavior. That’s right, I applied for an in-district transfer last year, left the program for EBD I helped to start, and (for the first time in more than 13 years) […]
All-New Game: E2E Get My Goat
I’ve written my first game specifically designed with my current class of functional high school students in mind. I feel relieved to have revived my lesson-planning mojo. The vibe of a functional class is SO DIFFERENT from the high functioning kids with EBD and ASD I’ve taught for so many years. I’m astonished by the […]
The Dumbest Kid in Class, Part 2: Teacher Tips
After the first post, you may be thinking that the Exeter Math Institute Workshop was terrible and that the instructors were awful. That’s not the case, at all. I got some really cool ideas to share with my gen ed Algebra co-teachers when school starts that I think will benefit students. Naturally, my key focus […]