I Don't Know?!

Here's the short version first. I don't know what grade I'm teaching next year. 

Keep reading for the long version if you're the nosey type like I am. 

Back in January my husband and I moved to my hometown, Salisbury, MD. After living in Delaware for 10 years it's been an adjustment coming back. A lot has changed, but we're happy to be here and happy to be close to old friends! 

So what made us come back? Well my husband passed the Maryland bar while we were living in DE. Knowing it would be easier for me to find a job in MD versus him sitting for the Delaware bar we decided we'd look at moving back to Salisbury. Not to mention the price of real estate also played a part in our decision since we were also looking into buying our first home along with our move. 

Since we moved I've been commuting an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes (depending on traffic) each way. The drive is not bad. We don't live in a heavy traffic congested area. But losing that amount of time daily on the road is hard. By the time I make it home in the evenings it's almost dinner time and then bed time is short to follow. It's really made me wonder how 9-5pm-er's do it?! 

I planned to finish out the school year following our move with the hopes of landing a teaching job closer to home before the start of the 2016-2017 school year. Well we're a day away from July and I STILL don't know what I will be teaching next year. 

I don't feel discouraged at all. I'm still very confident that I will find something. I was spoiled the first go around and landed my first teaching job where I completed student teaching. I interviewed my last day of student teaching and was called and offered the job the next day. I spent my whole summer prior to my first year teaching thinking about and planning for my very first classroom. This go around, I have no idea what I will be teaching and it's tough. 

I want so badly to be thinking about next school year. Planning ahead and creating new resources. And that's hard when you have no idea what you could end up teaching. And since I want to land a job closer to home I'm open to any positions 3rd grade or lower, inclusion or special education. If I could handpick my job I'd love to give inclusion kindergarten a go, or even self-contained kindergarten. I have a huge desire to teach something different. I need that right now. But I know a new school will be change in itself so if I stay in pre-school I hope the change in school is refreshing enough to be the motivator I need. Those 5 year special ed burn out rumors are no joke. And there's the fact that I have 6 years worth of special ed. pre-school resources in my garage right now that my husband can't wait to see leave. 

Have you recently changed schools, grade levels, or moved? Any words of advice or encouragement?

IEP Writing Tips & Planning Pages

I know that the IEP format varies greatly state by state. Some use online systems, some use computer, but not online systems-- I'm sure there's even some of you out there who could still be hand writing all your IEPs! Which, I think would be crazy, but at the same time, our online system frequently has glitches and I feel like I write out most of the IEP on paper first anyway, so it could still be a blessing for some.

Regardless of what the system looks like for you, I thought I could still share some tips with you. This is the process I use when I sit down to write an IEP. It's precise. I've spent the last 6 years perfecting it and every time I write an IEP I perfect it a little bit more.

Each year IEP writing for me includes IEPs for new incoming pre-schoolers, annual review meetings for pre-schoolers already in our program and revision meetings throughout the year. I'm going to share my tips with you from the experience of writing a pre-school IEP. I specify pre-school student because again, many IEPs look different among states, and can also be different for different grade levels. I might include stuff your IEP doesn't require, and your IEP might require stuff that mine does not. Either way I hope you still find these resources helpful to you in your writing process!

Before I get started I make sure I have a time sheet to keep with my paperwork. This isn't something we're required to do, but something I began doing myself this year just to keep track of how much time I spend on an IEP for a student. 

When I'm writing an IEP for a new student the first thing I look through is the evaluation report and while doing so there are several things I'm looking for. I can save time by using this page to fill in info as a come across it. 

The next thing I'm looking for are the areas of delay for the students. I list out both the areas of qualifying delays and the areas with a partial delay. A partial delay may still require a need area or even a goal on the IEP if the child still has skills under this domain they need support with. The areas with qualifying delays MUST have goals.

Once I've identified the areas where I need to write goals I move to the next sheet. I use one of these for each need area where I am writing a goal, so you'll have to print multiples of this one. I list the area of need at the top, then refer to the evaluation report to gather the students present level of performance in this area.

When I write goals I always write the annual goal first and then make my benchmarks from there. I included space for up to four benchmarks on this page. Sometimes you may have 5 depending on when during the year you're writing the goal.

Once goals are completed the IEPs we write look at additional considerations. This includes special transportation, 12 month entitlement services, and extended school year (ESY) services. This is typically stuff I add to the online system as I'm going through, but I've included it in the forms as well just in case.

And for me, the last consideration for the IEP is an explanation of the student's placement. The placement page shows what kind of setting the child is in and we have to explain/summarize why that child is placed in that setting. Again, this is typically something I just add to the online system when I get there, but I've also included this on the planning pages.

I hope this is something you'll find helpful while writing an IEP. For me this really helps me organize the information and my thoughts before entering it into the formal IEP system. By having the additional pages for the smaller sections at the end I can get everything done on paper--which might also be helpful if I find myself multitasking during maybe a staff meeting haha.

I've also included forms for when you are working on an annual review IEP for a student you already have. In this case the "process" can be a little different because you aren't using an evaluation report to base your IEP off of.

If this is something you think could help you out, click the photo below to head to my TpT store and grab a copy!