Encompasses a wide range of learning experiences designed to enhance teaching practices and improve student outcomes.
I’m sitting here at my desk at 11 PM on a Saturday night, staring at a WordPress dashboard that finally looks like a real website, and I have to tell you—I’m equal parts exhausted and exhilarated. We did it. We’re here. Welcome home. If you’ve been following along (or if you’re just discovering this space … Read more
The process of getting back to blogging is not as easy as I thought it would be. As I’ve shared in my recent blog post on January 23, 2026, my first post after 10 years of being away from blogging, I’m back at the keyboard—this time with clearer purpose and hard-earned perspective. Having this as my … Read more
Tired of spending hours rewriting the same lesson for students at different levels? In this post, National Board Certified Teacher Maria Angala pulls back the curtain on how she uses AI as an “iteration partner” in her bilingual special education classroom. Teaching students who are navigating both IEPs and English language learning, Maria once spent evenings manually differentiating every text three ways. Now, AI handles the drafts — and she handles the decisions. She shares exactly where AI saves her time (leveling texts, generating sentence frames, simplifying vocabulary) and where it falls short (missing cultural context, overestimating reading levels, using idioms that confuse ELL students). The result? More time for one-on-one instruction, stronger lesson delivery, and a less burned-out teacher. A must-read for any SPED or ELL educator curious about AI — but wanting to stay firmly in the driver’s seat.
Discover how AI-powered prompts revolutionized my IEP writing process, reducing documentation time by over half while maintaining personalization and compliance. This comprehensive guide shares the exact prompts I use daily as a special education case manager, complete with real examples, implementation tips, and troubleshooting advice. Learn how to ethically integrate AI into your special education workflow without sacrificing the individualization our students deserve, plus get access to ready-made templates that address present levels, goals, accommodations, and progress monitoring for students with diverse learning needs including sensory processing differences and multilingual learners.
I remember sitting in my classroom a few years ago, staring at a stack of generic curriculum guides and then looking at my students. In one corner, I had a student who could tell you everything about the history of space travel but struggled to write a single sentence. In another, I had a student … Read more
A bilingual SPED coach breaks down one of the most consequential distinctions in special education: the difference between language acquisition and a learning disability. This post explains why the two can look identical on the surface—and why getting it wrong leads to either misidentification or delayed intervention. Learn the key coaching lens: language acquisition shows growth with support, while learning disabilities show persistence despite it. Includes practical pattern-based observation questions, recommended assistive technology tools for both populations, guidance on home-language assessment, and an FAQ. Essential reading for bilingual educators, new SPED teachers, and families advocating for accurate, culturally responsive evaluation of multilingual learners.
Other Health Impairment (OHI) is the IDEA disability category that most teachers search for and most families don’t understand — because ADHD lives here, not in its own separate box. This post breaks down what OHI means, how ADHD qualifies under it, and what real classroom support looks like for students who are misunderstood, misidentified, and often just plain exhausted from trying to keep up with a world that wasn’t designed for their brain. It’s also personal. My husband was diagnosed with ADHD in his 50s — and I’d known since college. ADHD isn’t abstract to me. It’s at my dinner table every night.
After ten years away, I’m back at the keyboard—this time with clearer purpose and hard-earned perspective. For a long time, I stepped away from writing—not from teaching, but from sharing it publicly. The last ten years were full in a different way. I focused on family life, on becoming more present at home, and … Read more
Opens with the deeply personal “I used to be the teacher who made things” — the specific grief of a creative person who’s gone quiet — which lands immediately for any teacher who’s felt it. Roots the concept in Dr. Dalton-Smith’s research framework and then moves through three signs of depletion before offering five targeted strategies:
Build a weekly “receiving” practice → Libby (free library ebooks/audiobooks)
Go somewhere you’ve never been — novelty is the raw material of creativity
Be a beginner at something → Skillshare · Duolingo
Curate your environment for inspiration — your spaces feed or fail your creative system
Rest from professional creativity deliberately — TpT, Pinterest, teacher Instagram all pull from the same well
The social media section names the specific problem: teacher Instagram measuring you rather than inspiring you — and offers a practical fix using One Sec, Freedom, and Are.na. Closes with the weekly/monthly/daily architecture, newsletter CTA, reflection question, 5-question FAQ, and 11 references.
Opens with an immediate, inclusive disclaimer — this isn’t about religion — which is important because it keeps every teacher reading instead of clicking away. Then grounds the concept in Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s definition before diving into the deeply personal “losing contact with why you chose this” framing that every veteran teacher will recognize. The 6 strategies are sequenced from internal to external, daily to seasonal:
Name your “why” in writing — the real version, not the interview answer
Keep a meaning journal → Day One — not forced gratitude, specific felt moments
Build a purpose community — faith groups, PLCs, mentorship, educator circles
Practice Sabbath — your way — research-backed, inclusive of all traditions
Spend time in nature — Attention Restoration Theory, 20 min/week minimum
Return to beauty monthly — music, art, poetry, film, receptive encounters
The social media section is especially honest — naming the performance-of-meaning that teacher Instagram often produces and why it’s antithetical to spiritual rest. App links: One Sec, Freedom, Insight Timer, Day One. Closes with daily/weekly/seasonal architecture, newsletter CTA, reflection question, 5-question FAQ, and 11 credible references.
