9 Time Saving SPED Teaching Tools
Running a special education program is challenging but it can be made easier with the right SPED teaching tools. 🧰
The duties of a special education teacher are far reaching.
Not only are sped teachers responsible for helping students with IEP learn and grow academically, socially, and emotionally, they are given a pile of paperwork.
Because of this, many special ed teachers are looking for a quick way to organize their world and streamline their processes. 🗄
Let’s dive into my 9 favorite sped teaching tools.
Daily Schedule
Most special education teachers are spread into multiple general education classroom for inclusion.
They also cover different grade levels and sometimes an entire building. 🏫
Also, they are given a caseload with multiple disabilities.
Many students need a visual or written schedule but every sped teaching professional needs their own daily schedule. 🗓
Here’s what I recommend with your sped schedule:
- Every classroom you will be in along with the times
- Which students you are servicing at what time
- Teaching assistants location and focus students
- Intervention times
- Arrival and dismissal (include late start and early dismissal students)
- Lunch periods
- Specials or Recess for elementary
- Prep period
- Any additional duties you have (recess, lunch, bus or car drop off/pick up)
Then make sure you date your schedule and update the date anytime changes are made.
Testing Schedule
Following along the scheduling 🚂 train, let’s jump into standardized testing.
Those state tests jump in and steal a lot of teachers’ instructional time.
But that comes with a ton of scheduling as well.
I’m not sure why, but it seems like special education teachers have gotten the white elephant gift at the staff 🎄 Christmas party.
If you don’t know what I mean, I’m talking about often managing the standardized testing schedule.
Sped teachers are often the appointed person to make sure that all of the classrooms are good to go on their standardized testing schedules.
This means that sped teachers have to organize the schedule to fit in all kids testing not just their caseload numbers.
This has gotten to be a little bit easier now that almost everything is digital but everyone still looks for a schedule. 🕵️♀️
I have several different sets available to me in an elementary setting or a secondary setting.
It is important that the sets are editable and easy to use.
I highly recommend making a set yourself or finding a ready to use grid that you can modify.
This can increase your organization and save you hours of your time. ⌚️
Also you score more bonus points with your general ed teacher peers and your teacher evaluation score from the principal always seems to go up. 😉
IEP Documents Checklist
There are so many different documents that go into an IEP.
Can I get an amen? 🙏
Keeping the paperwork straight and making sure that I have all of the necessary components is a juggling act.
I like to keep a ✅ checklist up at my desk bulletin board area that shows four IEP documents that I’m ask to assess often.
This includes
- Student observations
- Functional behavior assessments
- Behavior improvement plans
- Crisis emergency plans
These key IEP supporting documents each have crucial components that should be included when 💻 typing up a report.
This is a free downloaded checklist that you can use in with your special ed paperwork, too!
I’ve also included the first paragraph summary template for writing a student observation.
Simply edit, smile, and take a sip of your favorite warm drink. I’ve got a ☕️ hot chocolate waiting on us!
Transition Assessment
Late one night my 📱 cell phone rang.
It was my sister who is an SLP.
She started telling me that she was working on an IEP that she’s teacher of record for and it popped up that the student needed a transition assessment.
Next, she said that she’d never done one before because most of her students have aged out by the time the transition assessment requirement occurs.
I told her, “No worries. I can 📧 send you my transition assessment packet that has tons to choose from. Just pick one and you’ll be set.”
Confused she said, “No, I don’t need that. I just need to know where the transition assessment is.”
I was confused back and said, “Well, I have it saved on my computer and you can just choose the one that you want.”
Her response was, “No, I just want to use the one that’s in the system. Where can I find it?”
That’s when I started 🤭 laughing and said, “Oh there isn’t a transition assessment from the state. They expect you to either find or make your own, and then upload the results from the assessment into the system.”
She was not impressed with the state’s method.
Regardless, she got the assessment done and crossed her fingers that she’d never have to do another one.
Point being, get a set of transition assessments.
While it is an extra step in the IEP process, it’s actually really fun and valuable information.
Seriously, try one of mine and tell me you didn’t have fun. I DARE YOU! 🫵
Goal Bank
I’ve asked my special ed department to provide the sped teaching staff with a strong goal bank and objectives to go along with each goal.
Unfortunately, I’ve been told that a goal bank is 😞 frowned because each student deserves their own individualized goal for them to focus on.
I absolutely agree with this, but I’m confused that I have to tie each goal to the state standards that are exactly the same for every single student.
Like, huh?
I’ve been using a goal bank to write my IEPs for the past decade.
It helps me make sure that my language is professional and that my goals are 📏 measurable and obtainable.
Also, using a goal bank helps me target areas that my students do show weaknesses in the state standardized test.
Main areas to collect IEP goals in are
- Concepts of Print
- Early Reading Skills
- Fluency
- Comprehension
- Number Sense
- Geometry
- Money
- Time
- Computation
- Measurement
- Algebra
- Foundational Writing Skills
- Sentence Writing Skills
- Paragraph Writing Skills
- Behavior Goals
- Communication Goals
- Functional Skill Goals
So, start collecting and goals that you write that you think are really strong goals or find a gold bank that you can pull from and copy and paste into your IEPs.
Of course, you should always add it a goal to make it applicable for that child, but there’s no 🚫 reason to start from scratch when we’re following state mandated standards.
IEP Help Guide
Similar to the IEP goal bank is an IEP help guide.
The language for certain areas in the IEP can be a bit tricky, especially if you’ve never written one before.
Having a set of scripted phrases 🚦 ready to paste into an IEP is essential to save you time and sound professional.
For instance, almost all the students on my caseload are required to take the state standardized test.
Of course, there’s a little ✅ box on the IEP that asks if the student will participate in testing.
This can be the same sentence for every student or it can be tweaked a bit.
I typed up two different versions that I can copy and paste into the form.
The 1️⃣ first one is
STUDENT will participate in all required assessments at the local, state, and federal levels with accommodations.
The 2️⃣ second one is
STUDENT will be participating in all standardized testing programs as his peers at the school with the accommodations noted within the IEP. STUDENT benefits from extra time to complete task as this helps reduce the frustration of time constraints. He also benefits from small group instruction and the use of a calculator to increase his rate of completion in math.
Of course, I change out STUDENT for the actual student’s name.
I also edit the student’s accommodations if I go with choice two.
Please believe me when I say that I’ve used my IEP help guide to write every single IEP I’ve ever written.
Best IEP ✏️ support tool EVER!
Behavior Management Set
Sped teaching professionals know that one of their main jobs is to help students access their education. 👩🏽🎓
Oftentimes, this means supporting the student into making positive behavior decisions.
Special education teachers need to have a quality collection of tools to provide effective behavior management in a school setting.
This could mean having a variety of visuals. 🪧
My go to behavior management tools are (click on each link if you’d like to see more):
- Behavior charts
- Behavior contracts
- Calendars for behavior
- Communication boards
- Control cards
- Cue cards
- Daily reports
- First Then boards
- I’m Working for cards
- Reward charts
- Rules and Procedures posters
- Social stories
- Think sheets
There are so many different ways to 🎗 support students and families.
Positive discipline paired with clearly defined rules and expectations can be life changing.
Start your collection and add to it as your students come and go, grow and change.
This is truly one of the ways teachers can positively change a student’s life.
I can’t wait to see all the wonderful things you will do! ❤️
Service Logs
IEP logs document time and services for your SPED teaching students in an inclusion or a severe/moderate setting. 📃
These pages make it easy for you to document the dates, times, subjects, lesson, and accommodations provided to each student on your caseload.
I recommend these for any Teacher of Record or Teacher of Service to students in preK / preschool through high school.
To speed up the documentation process even more, I created fillable pdfs. ⌨️
I love anything electronic because I can find it faster and the typing looks better than my junky handwriting. Not teasing.
Use service logs to document digitally or 🖨 print them off and house them in your files.
The main service logs that I recommend are
- Academic Support Services Daily Log (2 pages)
- Daily Inclusion Sheet
- Inclusion Documentation Record – DETAILED with 2 logs on a page
- Inclusion Documentation Record – BASIC with 5 logs on a page
- Weekly Inclusion Support Log
- Break Room Sign In Page
- Resource Room Sign in Page
IEP service logs are useful for special education teachers for students with an identified disability that qualifies them to receive an IEP.
Also, they are helpful for speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists.
Progress Monitoring Tools
Simplify progress monitoring for IEP goals that are behavior-based with ready-to-use and editable tracking sheets for data collection.
This lets the teacher end the 🤔 guesswork for your well-written IEP goals.
Let’s see another list with the focus being behavior progress monitoring forms this time!
- Interval Student Observation Progress Monitoring Form
- Following Directions Observation Form
- On and Off Task Student Observation Form
- Off Task Observation Progress Monitoring Form for RTI
- Independent Work Monitor
- Coping Skills Progress Monitor for RTI
- Homework Progress Monitoring Form for IEP Goals
- Organization Progress Monitoring for IEP Goals
- Morning Routine Progress Monitoring for RTI
- Materials Check Progress Monitoring
- Desk/Locker/Cubby Charts for Progress Monitoring
- Ongoing Student Data Charts for Progress Monitoring
First, select what time progress monitoring form you’re going to use.
Then, use the tool to 👩🏾💻 document time intervals or a random sampling during the school day.
Read to use progress monitoring tools and perfect to record your students’ behavior for RTI and special education IEPs with the provided log.
Having documentation templates for behavior skill development to formally document progress monitoring is a must for sped teaching tools.
Also, make sure that they are editable so you can adjust these as needed for your students.
SPED Teaching Success
Special ed teacher must be well-versed in creating and implementing IEPs for each student.
They are also designing and delivering effective ✍️ instruction for their students’ unique needs.
Special education teachers are tasked with creating a positive learning environment for all students and forming meaningful relationships with students and families.
Having the right SPED teaching tools can help teachers 👍 confidently tackle these duties and ensure successful outcomes for students.
