Today’s blog post is a guest post written by Kaylan Long of Caffeinated Behavior Change. She is a school district behavior specialist and BCBA who supports classroom teachers and students in special education. She shares all about the what and why of staff training in a Special Ed Class.

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Setting Up a Self-Contained Classroom


I’ve noticed over my journey that most districts have trainings or support for resource/inclusion programs, lifeskills/autism programs, and preschool programs.  The one thing I’ve noticed to be consistently lacking across all districts is support and resources for teachers of behavior/EBD programs.  This is so surprising to me considering the high turnover rates in these programs.  I also remember when I was first starting out that I would scour the internet and teaching blogs for posts on how to set up these programs and I couldn’t find ANYTHING! It was so discouraging to me because I so desperately needed help and guidance.  

Now that I’m 8 years in, I feel confident in the ability to run an effective program, so I’m creating this exact resource for you all.  This set-up has been implemented across cultural backgrounds and disabilities, in a K-5 program, and 3-5 program, and middle school program. The thing I didn’t realize is that the key to a well run classroom doesn’t change across disability areas.

 

4 Key Areas for Self-contained classrooms.

There are 4 must have areas in every behavior program in my opinion.  These are Whole Group, Small Group, Independent Work, and Calm Down area.  Start designing your layout with these 4 areas in mind.

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