Let’s call them the secrets of special educators. They’re the skills, practices, things that special education teachers and paraeducators do all the time to reduce disruption and increase learning. And they’re not secrets they want to keep!
“A lot of what we do in special ed not only benefits kids with IEPs, but it benefits all kids,” says Lisa Moody, a special education teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Omaha, Neb.
Here are 13 strategies to try in your classroom:
1. Provide positive behavior support, all the time.
Not every teacher has to walk between desks with a bucket of M&Ms—but all should focus on seeing and supporting positive behaviors, Moody says.
“It could be the silliest thing, like, ‘I like how you’re sitting in your chair and waiting for math to begin. Way to go!’”
Specificity is key, says South Dakota teacher Eric Pedersen, who works in a contained classroom with students working on emotional regulation at Aberdeen Central High School. For example: “The way you came in the room today was very appropriate. You said hello to me in a good tone of voice, which likely would result in somebody saying hello back to you!”
Moody does this constantly, especially at the start of the school year. It makes kids feel successful, she says. As a result, students gain confidence and feel good about school. “It makes such a big shift in how kids see themselves,” she says. “If you lead with verbal praises, you’re going to get kid buy-in!”
2. Celebrate the smallest successes!
“I have kids who couldn’t open their Chrome books and now they’re cranking out five paragraphs—and it’s because we celebrated every step forward,” says Brandon Thornton, a special ed teacher at Bloomington High School, in Illinois.
This wasn’t an easy mind shift for Thornton, who started as a general ed teacher. “The special ed teacher celebrates when their kids recognize the multiplication symbol. My gen ed brain says, ‘Oh no, you don’t know what the times symbol is?’”
3. Focus on kids, not content.
Thornton originally taught gen ed math. Then, his first job as a special ed teacher was to co-teach English literature for high school juniors. Literature! “What got me through is ‘I teach kids,’” he says. “It’s a much healthier mindset to know your content isn’t the most important thing—the kid is.”
4. Be an advocate for your kids.
“I do think [special ed] teachers advocate much more frequently than I assume a gen ed teacher would,” Moody says. “We have to step in and say, ‘That’s not best for that kid.’”
“It’s hard to have those [critical] conversations with educators, with administrators, but at some point, it becomes second nature.”
Sherry Shaw, a paraeducator in Wasilla, Alaska, single-handedly got her former school to build a “sensory room” for her special ed students. “I had this one student whose sensory needs were so high, I went to the principal and said, hey, we needspace. Will you give me a classroom?”
5. Give kids time and space to calm down.
Shaw’s sensory room was open to everyone. “Not just SpEd needs a sensory break!” she notes. Shaw had dimmable ceiling lights installed and stocked the space with a trampoline, beanbag chair, coloring books, a ukulele (“My students at the time loved the ukulele!”), and tubs of tactile toys.
In Pedersen’s classroom, students learn to ask for time in what they call the “space room.” “My students will say to me, ‘Mr. Pedersen, I need a little time in the space room.’ And I’ll say, ‘That’s a perfectly adequate way to advocate for yourself,’” Pederson says.
Also, keep in mind that sensory stuff—like bumpy adhesive strips on desks—can help all kids to ground themselves and boost concentration, Shaw notes.
6. Ask for help.
This is about advocating for yourself, Moody says. “As adults, we’re sometimes afraid to admit to struggling. But I’m like, please I’ll take all the help!” she adds.
7. Work with parents. Really.
“Parents need to know you care for them and you care for their children. And, even if you’re asking something hard of those children, it’s because you have their best interests at heart,” says Georgia Green, a special ed teacher at Gale-Bailey Elementary School, in Marbury, Md.
Green has two adult brothers with intellectual disabilities, who still live at home in Jamaica with their elderly mother. “They’re the ones who motivated me to go to college and study special ed,” she says.
When Green meets with parents, she shares this experience. “I let my hair down and be vulnerable,” she says. By being her authentic self—and sharing her personal history—she can develop deep, respectful relationships with parents. It also doesn’t hurt that she frequently goes above and beyond to make little board games for at-home
family play, or laminates personalized flashcards for parents to use with kids.
At the same time, you do need to set some limits, Thornton says. “I wanted to be that person who is available 24/7, but I reached a point where I was getting trauma-fatigue from that,” he says.
Now Thornton sets the tone during the first week of class, telling parents the best time and ways to reach him. “I’ve stopped giving out my number, but I do have gmail on my phone!"
8. Talk to everybody in your building—and visit their classrooms, too!
“If you’re a gen ed teacher, you might typically stick with your cohort in your grade or department,” Moody says. Special educators, on the other hand, often team up with educators across the building. This kind of collaboration benefits students, but also educators, who learn from each other.
“I can go to just about any individual in my school and ask for help with something, or they can come to me and ask for my input in planning activities or helping students,” Green says.
Special educators also visit other educators’ classroom more frequently. Moody says: “There’s power in seeing so many different classrooms.”
9. Use universal design for learning.
Sometimes teachers think that universal design is a strategy for kids with disabilities only. This isn’t true, Moody says. Diversity in the classroom is today’s norm—and it’s increasing. Learn about universal design to help all learners. Get started at nea.org/UD.
10. Stay calm.
“Adults yell at me all the time. But you have never yelled at me, not even once,” a student told Pedersen. This is true all day, every day. Pedersen’s voice is the same, even tone. “If somebody is heightened, and you react to them in a heightened manner, it does not help,” he says.
11. Understand that behavior is communication.
This is something that Clinton Smith, a professor of special education at the University of Tennessee at Martin, tells his students all the time.
He also encourages the “ABC” method to understand—and address—student behavior. A, stands for antecedent, or what happened before the behavior; B, is the behavior; and C, is the consequence, which doesn’t mean punishment, but does mean what the student gets as a result of their behavior, like attention.
“If you understand this, you can address it,” Smith says. “Sometimes teachers don’t see the antecedent,” he notes. “Oh, you took recess away from this kid? Well, that’s why he’s cussing you out.”
12. Use punishment as a last resort.
If you hit the consequence first, you’ve just reinforced that “I’m a bad kid,” Moody says.
A positive reinforcement strategy—for positive behavior—will be much more effective, Smith promises.
13. Forget yesterday’s battle.
“I worked with a teacher once who punished kids for things they had done the last time they saw them, and I was like, ‘no, that was yesterday. It’s over with,’” Shaw says.
As an educator, it helps to start fresh each day. “I tell the kids, if you struggled today, it’s fine. Tomorrow is a new day,” Pedersen says. “And I’ll meet you where you’re at tomorrow.”
