Hi and happy summer to everyone on summer vacation! I just updated My Special Education Teacher's Caseload Binder which is one of my favorite TeachersPayTeachers products and wanted to share some organizational tips with all of you!
This school year marked my 5th year as a special education teacher, and over the years one thing I learned is that special educators need to be extremely organized. I look at my schedule and my paraprofessional's schedules multiple times a day, and I often need to have information at my fingertips such as what accommodations a student requires, or the number of hours of services a student is provided. This product contains 129 pages of binder covers, organizational forms, IEP meeting notes sheets, and data collection sheets for individual student goals.
This product contains two systems the first is my caseload binder which helps me manage the unique needs of the students on my caseload. The second is the system I have created to share valuable information about my students with their general education teachers, and my data collection system.
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The pack starts off with some options for binder covers and dividers. Before this update my binder cover options were limited to mint and gray (two of my favorite colors) but I wanted to expand to some fun patterns- this product now includes 22 options of cover sheets.
Here is my personal favorite:
Here is a sample of some other cover options available:
If there is a certain background you would like to see leave a comment at the bottom of this post and I would be happy to update the product with your request.
In addition to the variety of fun covers the caseload binder contains organizational pages specific to special education teachers.
I organize my binder into sections. The first section is information about my caseload. The first thing I do when it is determined which students are on my caseload is to go over their IEP's with a fine tooth comb,
The first thing I look for and record is when the next IEP meeting or Annual Review needs to be held. I mark all meetings for the year on one sheet so I can see in one glance which meetings are coming up. In addition to the caseload binder I also keep a desk calendar and I write the student's initial on my desk calendar 30 days before their next IEP meeting as a reminder to myself to make sure the meeting is scheduled.
I also look through my IEP to see when the next triennial is due. I mark a reminder on my calendar at least 60 days before the triennial is due.
If it is my student's triennial year, I fill out this reevaluation form- this helps me keep track of what assessments need to be completed and what days and times are best to evaluate the child. I found that if more than one person is completing assessments (e.g. the SLP, OT etc are also doing assessments) the best way is to A. make a shared document where each person blocks off a testing time, or send an e-mail letting the team know the times you are testing.
In addition to looking for meeting dates, another thing I immediately look for is the number of service hours each student is receiving. On the sheet I list the student on my caseload in alphabetical order, which the number or hours they receive and the level of current performance.
I also keep a list of each student's accommodations and modifications handy. Next year I am going to be working with third graders for the first time and I think this will be even more useful as I know there will be more assessments in 3rd grade.
Other forms about the students on your caseload that are provided with this document include allergies / medical forms, transportation forms etc...
The next section of my binder is probably the most important - the schedules! I print out the schedule frame for myself on cardstock and fill it in with pencil, because my schedule changes so much! I do normally type in my student's schedules and my paraprofessional's schedules. In the past I have color coded the schedules by child (on my paraprofessional schedules) or by setting on my students schedules (one color for the resource room and other color for the general education classroom).
In the schedule section I always print out the yearly school calendar and any other calendars or schedules that are relevant to you. My school has a schedule for recess and lunch duties, a schedule for late openings, and early dismissals.
Other sheets that I put in the schedule section include yearly professional development sheets, team meeting schedule ...
I created this support service page so I could track of when the related service providers were in my building. This information comes in handy when I am scheduling team meetings and IEP meetings.
The next section of my binder is the planning section.
I use two of these sheets- one to plan my schedule and one to plan what I am planning for my paraprofessionals.
There are also other sheets available for yearly planning. This year I want to complete a classroom transformation each month. I am hoping this sheet will help me plan and stay on track throughout the year.
Also included are a variety of note taking sheets and to do list templates to keep you organized.
There are also note organizers for IEP meetings, initial evaluations, reevaluations.
In addition to organizing yourself the product also focuses on the organization our your student's goals and objectives. Over the last five years I have spent a lot of time trying to find the best way to collect data on each of my student's objectives in an organized way. The system I have used for the last few years has really worked for me. I keep a binder for each of my students with a tab for each of their objectives.
I fill out this IEP at a glance sheet so I can easily see this information without flipping through the entire IEP. Once I fill this out I share this sheet with the student's classroom teacher.
Once I have determined my student's schedule I make a copy of it and place it in the binder. In addition I fill out this service sheet to keep track of when my students are receiving special education and related services.
I make a table of contents with each of my student's objectives.
Each objective gets a cover sheet.
Each cover sheet lists the materials needed to work on the objective, the prompt hierarchy, and instructions for the teacher / staff working on the program objective.
A variety of data sheets are included to collect data on each objective.
Leave a comment and let me know how you collect data on your students!
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