Sharing my experience in the classroom as a life skills special ed transition teacher by providing resources and solutions for fellow educators
How To Teach: Online Banking & Using an ATM Skills
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Importance of Online Banking and ATM
When was the last time you balanced your bank account using a check register? Yeah, I thought so! Online banking is now available through most banks and can eliminate a whole list of challenging tasks for our students, like completing check registers! No...
How To Teach: Budget Skills
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Importance of Teaching How to Budget
Knowing how to budget, money specifically, is how someone strikes the balance between getting both their needs (food, water, shelter) and wants (movie tickets, game tickets, new phone) met. We all wish we had endless amounts of money to spend, but...
How To Teach: Paying With Cash and Debit Card
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Importance of Knowing How to Pay with Cash and a Debit Card
Many people make more purchases using a debit card than paying with cash, and very few pay with a check anymore. Therefore, learning how to pay the way stores and businesses accept payment is a must.
In fact, more...
How To Teach: Counting and Adding Coins and Dollar Values
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Importance of Counting and Adding Coins and Bills
Yes, the debit card (and even credit card) reign supreme in the money world, however there are still times when a student would need to not only know and add dollar bills, but also identify and count coins. So, while the need for this skill is...
How To Teach: Following a Recipe
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Importance of Following a Recipe
Cooking is just following a set of steps to create an end product. While the concept is simple, it can create a lot of opportunities for students to get off track and experience a cooking failure rather than a cooking success.
Learning how to...
How To Teach: 5 Food Groups
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Importance of 5 Food Groups
The Food Pyramid is what most of us grew up learning about and while I know there were levels to the pyramid and that determined how much of something you should eat, it was a little complex. MyPlate is the new guide, rolled out by Michelle Obama during the...
Soft Skills in Special Education Using Conover's Workplace Readiness
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A speech pathologist shared with me recently that Google conducted a study and found that of the top 8 reasons people are most successful at work, the first 7 reasons were soft skills (read: nothing to do with the worker’s capacity to do the actual job at hand). If you aren’t...
How To Teach: Where to Store Food and Read Expiration Dates
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Importance of Food Storage and Expiration Dates
Helping unload the family groceries and putting the food safely away can be a BIG help to caregivers. Also, detecting mold and knowing not to eat it can keep students safe from sickness. So, knowing where to store food and how to read expiration...
How To Teach: Kitchen Safety
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Importance of Kitchen Safety
The kitchen is now the heart of the home. So, your students are likely in and out of their family kitchen multiple times a day, to grab a quick snack, eat a meal, or get a drink of water. However, the kitchen CAN have many hazards that could put students at risk...
Why I Prefer Teaching Transition Over High School
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I remember squating in front of a student’s desk in a high school math class where I was a co-teacher reviewing absolute value with them and how to apply it to different problems. I thought to myself, ‘they are probably never going to use this in their entire lives and yet, I must...
How To Teach: Table Manners
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Importance of Meal Manners
While you may think manners only happen at the ‘dinner table,', meals can happen anywhere. However, regardless of if your student eats at a dinner table, a pop-up tray, on the floor, or at a restaurant high-boy, they need to know what to do at each point...
How To Teach: Packing Skills & Keeping a Wallet or Purse
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Importance of Packing and Wearing or Using a Wallet or Purse
As students become teenagers and young adults, being able to hold their own things shows a level of independence. Holding on to a bag and keeping the bag with them as they move from one environment to the next will allow them to...
How To Teach: Self Advocacy Skills
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Importance of Self Advocacy
Adults advocate naturally constantly throughout their day, we just don’t come right now and announce that we are doing it (however, we really should). Therefore, advocating for yourself is not something that is typically modelled for our students on a...
How To Teach: Cleaning A Room
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Importance of Cleaning a Room
Some people are born with the need to have things clean and orderly and others...just aren’t. However, learning to keep a room clean (like a bed room or dorm room) is a useful skill. Not only will students increase their feeling of accomplishment because it...
How to Prepare Students (and Families) for Life After Special Education
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You may or may not have started counting down the days until summer break, but if it feels within reach to you then you know your students and young adults are feeling it too.
Students and families start to feel that final countdown stress probably before you do. They know the bus...
Meaningful Homework for Students In Life Skills (Special Education)
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It never fails, one family each year on my caseload requests that I send homework for their student to practice after school and on the weekends. I completely agree when families ask for ways for their students to practice the skills they have learned in school at home.
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How To Teach: Phone Skills
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Importance of Phone Skills
Answering and talking on the phone may be a life line in the case of an emergency. Making a phone call may be necessary to set-up a doctor's appointment. Texting may be the best way to communicate with a manager or supervisor. Phone skills are important for our...
Teaching Life Skills: Washing the Dishes [Special Education]
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Importance of Doing the Dishes
If you eat, you create dirty dishes. Since we all eat, about 3 times a day, we are bound to create at least 10 dirty dishes.It's the skill that can be an independent work task (like after eating a quick lunch) or whole group activity (like during holiday meals...
Technology I Use as a Special Education Transition Teacher
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If you teach special education, then you know technology can really be both your best friend and worst enemy. Below I’ve listed my favorite technology websites, features, and programs and I’m a harsh critique as I have a list of the technology that falls under Worst Enemy.
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How To Teach: Laundry Skills
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Importance of Doing Laundry
Washing, drying, and hanging clothes is a mundane chore that will truly never end. Students can greatly increase their self confidence by learning how to sort clothes, start the washer, flip clothes, unload the dryer, and fold and hang. Laundry also incorporates...
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