As a special education teacher, I have to collaborate with several adults throughout my day such as related service providers, general education teachers, parents, administration, special area team members, etc.  Through being a self-contained teacher, a push-in provider, and a co-teacher, collaborating with other adults is one thing that does not change.  With each new position, I have had the privilege of working with great teams of paraprofessionals. Working with paraprofessionals in your classroom can be challenging but when done correctly, everybody benefits - especially your students.  It takes a lot of effort to make your classroom team work together collaboratively.  Here are some important things to remember that I have learned along the way: ...

How many of you have weekly meetings with your team?  I know it is best practice, but it is soooo hard to stick to a consistent schedule, especially when my inclusion team involves 3 general education teachers, 4 paraprofessionals, and myself.  And that is not even including the special area folks and related services providers.   When you have several adults working with the same group of students, it is vital for everybody to be on the same page.  It is especially important to keep the paraprofessionals in the classroom up to speed on student progress and your expectations for continued growth, both academically and behaviorally.   Over the years, I have learned a few things about successful and, more importantly, productive team meetings and I am hoping  to put them into practice before I go on maternity leave in October.  That way, my team can easily continue our schedule.    ...

It's Wednesday afternoon and your team has all gone home for the night.  You have a pile of papers on your desk to be filed.  There is another pile of student work to be posted on the bulletin board.  Homework still needs to be graded.  You opened 3 parent emails during lunch and need to adjust some things for tomorrow's homework.  There are two tests tomorrow and you need to make some more copies of graph paper.  One of your TAs had a few questions about a test that you didn't have time to answer.  Oh, and there have been some changes to the related service schedule.  And it's picture day tomorrow.   Sound familiar?  Um, this was my Wednesday!  It wouldn't be so bad but it seems like every day is just as crazy.  Every. Single. Day.  ...

So, a couple weeks ago a friend of mine called me to ask some advice about handling some issues with a TA working in her classroom.  At the time, there was only a few days left of summer school but she would be working with the same TA in the fall.   ...

How many of you struggle with remembering which kid has which testing accommodations?  This year, I have 12 students with IEPs and 1 student with a 504 plan.  They all have testing accommodations, but they are all DIFFERENT!   Did I mention that I have 4 paraprofessionals to help me administer the tests?  I am so thankful for that! I don't know what I would do given the variety and high needs for testing sessions.  With so many kids and so many adults, I needed to find a way to streamline our processes for our testing days.   ...