Get Organized for the Week in Special Education

I feel very strongly about a weekly organization plan because teaching is such a dynamic and ever-changing job. I tend to plan for the week on Thursday or Friday of the previous week so that my Monday runs smoothly, but you can plan any day that works best for you!

Progress Monitoring Data Collection

1. Each week, you should have a list of students that need to be assessed as a part of their progress monitoring for their IEP. 
2. Based on this list, pull assessments from your progress monitoring binders.
3. I usually write my students’ names on the assessment I’ll use for them, and I do the assessment at the beginning of my session with them so I don’t forget. You can go about this however it is best for your and your students.
4. After they complete the assessment, Record the data on their individualized data sheet and store the assessment in their section of your progress monitoring binder.

Meeting Schedule (if you have any meetings planned for the week)

1. Ensure that the parent and the rest of the IEP team has confirmed that they’ll attend the meeting. Ensure that everyone is clear on when the meeting is taking place.
2. If you are responsible for finding coverage for yourself or the teacher you are working with, ensure that is done the week of the meeting.
3. If you will miss any service time with other students, communicate that with them and their classroom teacher.

Lesson Planning

Some schools may require you to submit lesson plans each week, but traditional lesson plans for classroom teachers do not tend to work for special education teachers because we have so many different groups of students to work with. Here is an example of a weekly lesson plan that I use for my instruction with my small groups. Note that this is an example of a group that moves quite quickly. Some groups of students may use a whole week or a few weeks to review the same concept.