Sharing my experience in the classroom as a life skills special ed transition teacher by providing resources and solutions for fellow educators
5 Professional Developments for Special Education Transition Teachers
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There are roughly 34,891 different conferences, professional developments, and training opportunities for special education teachers, but most don’t cover the best niche in special education- transition!
Our young adult students aren’t ‘kiddos,’ we don’t...
How To Teach: Brushing Your Teeth
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Importance of Brushing Teeth
Clean the body, clean the hands, and clean the teeth! There is both a social value in being clean AND a health value in being clean. Therefore, it's important to explicitly teach students how to be clean. Regardless of age, some students will need step-by-step...
Building the Vision: 5 Steps to Prepare for Your Child’s Life After Special Education Services
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Let’s pretend you are a parent of a child with an intellectual or developmental disability, or the like, and are lying in bed worrying about what their life will be like as an adult. It’s likely you are sweating from worry, probably tossing and turning because you don’t know...
How To Teach: Picking and Putting on Clothes
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Importance of Getting Dressed
It is a social norm for humans to put clothes on to keep their body private, to protect it from the weather, to allow it the ability to move as needed, and to serve as a non-verbal cue to others how they can serve you (work uniform). Therefore, knowing WHAT to...
How I Told My School I Sell Resources On TeachersPayTeachers
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You know that feeling, where you are trying to keep a big secret from everyone and you prepare for the day when someone is going to point blank ask you about your secret? Yeah, that was me with my TeachersPayTeachers store for many years.
I was hiding my beloved asset, the one that...
How To Teach: Taking a Shower and Applying Deodorant
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Importance of Showering and Applying Deodorant
I’ve heard that smell is more closely linked to memory than any other sense. Most likely, a good smell is going to trigger happy thoughts and a bad smell will trigger unhappy thoughts. So, let’s help our young adult students be...
5 Things I Don’t Do as a Transition Teacher
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I’ve been teaching transition for the majority of my teaching career and having taught in high school settings prior, there are so many notable differences (all of which are for the best, in my humble opinion).
I’ve listed 5 things I don’t do as a transition...
How to Teach: Using the Bathroom (Toileting) and Handwashing
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Importance of Teaching- Bathroom/Toileting Skills and Washing Hands
The human body needs to relieve itself multiple times throughout the day, thus toileting skills are a necessary part of anyone’s day. Since handwashing occurs most frequently after using the bathroom (as well as before...
Transition Student and Family Journey To Securing Benefits, Supports, and Services
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Out of respect for individual young adult students and their families that I work with, this story is a fictional story based on common experiences.
Jakeel’s IEP annual review was about 6 weeks away and I reached out to the parent to set-up an informal transition meeting...
How to Explain SSI to Parents of Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
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‘We can support them financially, we don’t need the money.’
‘Wow, that care and programming is really expensive. I’m so used to the school providing those services.’
‘I think we will worry about that later. Let’s focus on...
Government Benefits and Your Transition Student: SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, and Medicaid Waiver
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Connecting young adults with disabilities with the right supports, services, and benefits is KEY to success after they accept their diploma and leave transition services. If you are newer to teaching life skills or transition, then you may need an overview of what ‘supports, services, and...
I Wish I Would Have Known This as a New Transition Teacher
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I would say it was my first or second year teaching transition when I heard one of my fellow teachers mention 'SSI.' They were curious what the difference was between SSI and SSDI. As you might assume, I was unaware and thought it didn’t apply to me.
What I didn’t know...
Is this Functional Life Skills Curriculum right for you and your students?
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After having taught functional life skills to transition age students with intellectual disabilities, autism, down syndrome, and a range of other disabilities for 6+ years, I felt confident creating structured and consistent lesson units (from scratch) that would meet the needs of all students....
Top 5 IEP Transition Plan Parent Assessments
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It’s that special day that everyone remembers so vividly, including you, the parent or guardian, and the student- the day the student turns 14 AND A HALF years old.* It’s commemorated in so many ways, because a half birthday when you are 14 is totally a big deal.* Thank goodness...
How to Teach College Tuition and Class
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Our LAST topic in the Consumer Math Blog Series is about how to teach College Tuition and Classes. Read more about why and how you can teach College Tuition and Classes using my College Class and Tuition Lesson Unit (click here to get your copy).
How to Teaching Car Buying
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Our next topic in the Consumer Math Blog Series is about how to teach Car Buying. Read more about why and how you can teach Car Buying using my Buy a Car Lesson Unit (click here to get your copy).
Purpose of Teaching Car Buying
If your students are in high school or have...
How to Teach Public Transportation
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Our next topic in the Consumer Math Blog Series is about how to teach Public Transportation. Read more about why and how you can teach Public Transportation using my Public Transportation Lesson Unit (click here to get your copy).
Purpose of Teaching Public Transportation
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How to Teach Trip Planning
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Our next topic in the Consumer Math Blog Series is about how to teach Trip Planning. Read more about why and how you can teach Planning a Trip using my Plan A Trip Lesson Unit (click here to get your copy).
Purpose of Teaching Trip Planning
Students are typically asked to...
How to Teach Time Management
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Our next topic in the Consumer Math Blog Series is about how to teach Time Management. Read more about why and how you can teach Time Management using my Time Management Lesson Unit (click here to get your copy).
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Creating a Schedule for Life Skills: How to Figure Out What to Teach and When to Teach It
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Are you fresh out of college and just accepted your first job teaching life skills at the high school or transition level? Or, was your department chair so impressed with your skills that they want you to bless the students in the functional foundations classroom with your talents? Either way,...
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