Teacher Talk

Building positive relationships with students is an important part of effective classroom management, alongside clear rules, routines, and consistent expectations. Research from the Australian Education Research Organization shows that trust between teacher and student supports calmer, more productive classrooms and makes behavioral expectations easier to hold. Part 1 of 5. Follow ...

Group work for students with disabilities works, but it has to be taught before it's expected. Front-load the routine and define each center's objective. Group strategically based on the lesson objective and students' instructional needs, while providing the accommodations, modifications, and supports required by each student's IEP. Structure is what ...

Classroom behavior management strategies work best when you pair a few well-practiced go-to moves with the flexibility to switch tactics for students who don't respond to your usual approach. Five practical options here- brain fuzzing, check-in/check-out, High Trust language, Love and Logic's SEL banking, and restorative practices- cover students at ...

IEP progress monitoring is the regular collection of data showing whether a student is moving toward their IEP goals. Since Endrew F. v. Douglas County (2017), an IEP must be reasonably calculated for progress appropriate to that child’s circumstances. Monitoring gives the team data to evaluate that progress and whether ...

A special education degree qualifies you to teach students with disabilities once you hold your state's license or endorsement. District roles like IEP case management, transition coordination, and instructional coaching often build on it, though requirements vary. Clinical work such as speech-language pathology or behavior analysis needs separate credentialing. Most articles ...

A solid IEP annual review checklist covers three phases: gather current data and update the PLAAFP before the meeting, walk through goals and services with the team during it, and confirm signatures and next steps after. A second reviewer catching gaps in that paperwork before the meeting can help head ...

We need more teachers because openings keep appearing without the profession expanding. Projections Central expects elementary teaching employment to dip about 2% through 2034 alongside roughly 91,000 annual openings, which largely reflect replacement needs as workers transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. This essay argues the real ...

Teacher fears run well past first-day nerves. In one teacher’s informal social-media thread, respondents named job loss, contract non-renewal, abuse from students and parents, medical episodes without breaks, and a retirement they can’t afford. Those replies are an unrepresentative sample, not a survey. This is her account of them. This piece ...

Reframing negative language in the classroom means swapping phrases like "I can't do it" or "I don't want to" for growth-oriented ones like "I can't do it yet" or "I get to." The shift works with students and with parents in tough conferences. Four strategies do most of the work: ...

Failure can teach leaders lessons that success doesn't, especially when they reflect on what happened. After losing a superintendent bid, I came away with seven lessons: flip your perspective, find the win, model failure for students, learn about yourself, set up your future, have hard conversations, and pay it forward. Failure ...