It is that time again! I can't believe school has started already! If you are a self-contained teacher, I know how overwhelming it can be. There are some many things that you need to do to get started. You probably feel like the tasks are never ending. I remember during the first quarter, I used to get kicked out of the campus by my custodians. They used to call out my name on the PA system and tell me "pack up or we will lock you up!!". Embarrassing and crazy... I know! The worse part was that I would often take the work home as well to continue working. But the truth is one way or another things will get done. Throughout my years, I learned tricks to make the beginning of the school year easier. I focused on things that take priority and got smarter on planning for class. I really wish that I would have had someone to direct in the beginning. Instead it took at least three to five years to learn these things. I want to save you those learning years and start guiding you to a better beginning of the year. I am here to make your life easier! If you are a newbie or a veteran struggling to get new ideas or ways to organize yourself.... I wanted to share 5 steps on how plan for your self contained class. You are probably thinking how can it be done in 5 steps????? These steps will be help you plan to a successful classroom set up.

First, you need to review your students IEP goals. 
You want to ensure your centers will meet, practice and review their IEP goals throughout the day. Therefore get to know what your students. I always begin by reading my student's IEP, and begin to prepare their Data Binders.

What is a data binder??? It's everything that will prove you have done your job while abiding to the legal document called IEP. It takes a while to start it and organize it, but once you do, it will be easy and quick.

​You will learn that every class and teacher are different.
I have changed my classroom set up within the 4 years I have been working every time! 

I will be posting pictures of each year for you to see how the class was set up. Later on, I will get into details on how each center works. I will have to update with more pics later on since I only have pictures I took but never with the purpose of creating a blog.