I remember sitting in my classroom about five years ago, watching a student I’ll call “J” navigate a simple transition from English to Financial Literacy. Every step of the way, J was looking at me for a prompt. “Open your folder,” I’d say. J opens the folder. “Find the green tab.” J finds the tab. “Pick up your pencil.” J … Read more
I remember the first time I felt like I was failing a student. It was early in my career, and I was in the middle of a 50-minute Financial Literacy block. A student—let’s call him “J”—had completely shut down. The textbook was on the floor, the chair was pushed back, and the air in the … Read more
I’ll never forget my first “total classroom meltdown.” I was a green teacher, armed with a color-coded behavior chart and a lot of optimism. Within twenty minutes, the chart was on the floor, a student was in crisis, and I was standing there feeling like a failure. I realized in that moment that behavior isn’t … Read more
Sitting at your desk at 5:00 PM on a Friday with a mountain of crumpled sticky notes, half-filled clipboards, and the nagging feeling that you missed a data point for “Student A’s” social-emotional goal is a rite of passage in special education. But I’m here to tell you: it doesn’t have to be your reality. … Read more
Color coding is the ultimate secret weapon for reducing cognitive load and boosting independence in the special education classroom. By assigning specific colors to subjects, students, or stations, you create a visual map that guides learners through their day with minimal verbal prompting. I remember my first year as a digital literacy lead. I had … Read more
📝 The Blog Post (~2,000 words)
Opens with the “I almost didn’t make it to year six” hook — personal, real, immediately relatable. Each of the 5 strategies is written in that mentor-coaching voice: grounded in experience, not preachy. The flow goes:
Minimum Viable Day — reframe success with a professional “floor”
Energy Audit → links to Todoist
Hard Stop Time → links to Google Tasks + Todoist
5-Minute Reset → links to Headspace (free for teachers) + Calm
Burnout Early Warning System → links to Finch + Woebot
Closes with newsletter CTA, a reflection question for comments, FAQ section, and 8 credible references.
For Special Education teachers, OTs, and SLPs, AI is a powerful “cognitive prosthetic.” Let’s put my AI Assistant, Shiny, to work. These prompts are designed to create the visuals, scaffolds, and scripts that support executive functioning (EF) without overwhelming the student. Here are 10 high-impact AI prompts tailored to your Transition classroom and the specific needs of your … Read more
Emotional Disturbance is arguably the most stigmatized IDEA disability category in the entire system. Students who qualify under ED are frequently labeled as “difficult,” “manipulative,” or “a behavior problem” — when what they actually have is a documented neurological and emotional condition that makes regulating feelings and behavior genuinely hard. This post is for new special education teachers who are about to walk into a room with an ED student and don’t feel prepared. It’s also for experienced teachers who’ve been doing this long enough to know that behavior is communication — and that the right structure, tools, and unconditional positive regard can change everything.
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.
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.
