Organizing/Decorating

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Organizing/Decorating
By Tina Winquist

Hi Pam!

Congratulations on your new position. SPED teachers not only have to contend with curriculum and classroom design but also planning IEP Meetings.

I'd suggest decorations that enhance the imagination and can lend
itself to your curriculum. For example, if you are planning a unit on marine life than perhaps you could decorate your walls with an ocean scene and marine animals. Try organizing in a way that would "kill two birds with one stone." I wouldn't go overboard with decorations myself, I would allow students to help decorate perhaps one of your bulletin boards as a "Beginning of the Year

Activity" (this would help promote teamwork and provide an ice-breaking opportunity).

For organization, get a 4" 3-ring binder and fill it with copies of all your student's most recent IEP's. Alphabetize the IEP's for each of your classes and you may want to keep your goals and objectives somewhere on top for easy access. I use my binder as a daily reference source(I even keep my grades and attendance in it). All of my students have portfolios and a copy of each student's goals and objectives are in their individual portfolios so that they are always aware of what they need to work toward. My binder also helps me organize for upcoming IEP's.

Hope this helps!