The man (or woman) who can make hard things easy is the educator.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Given this quote from Mr. Emerson, teaching students with special needs takes an individual with a special gift for educating.
Life can be hard at times, and teaching strategies can’t be as easily shared with fellow teachers, so we’ve put together a list of the top inspiration blogs for educators in Special Education. Some of the tips found in these blogs can be applied to teaching students at all levels. If you have some special knowledge you’d like to share, we have a guide that teaches anyone how to start a blog.
The blogs are in no particular order, if you find a blog you like, please share this list with your friends and colleagues and let them share in the knowledge.
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13 Special Education Inspirational Blogs
If you’re considering adding blogging to your curriculum, we covered the 10 Benefits of Blogging in the Classroom in a previous article.13 Inspirational Blogs All Special Education Teachers Must Read Click To Tweet
This blog explains how children can be taught in an effective and efficient way. The author explains why a child must comprehend the correlation between written letters and spoken sounds. He claims that it helps a child decode new words and sounds which he/she may not be familiar with.
Jerry Webster explains the basics of special education in this blog. He claims that children with disabilities often struggle in learning basic concepts thus they are much more demanding compared to the rest of the class. Different games and role plays can help these children in grasping concepts they would not have been able to understand otherwise.
The blogger talks of how children with autism often face learning disabilities and are quite slow in grasping concepts compared to their peers. A number of exercises have been drafted by Doctors which are known to help autistic children learn faster. According to the author, these exercises not only add to their physical fitness but also help them grow mentally.
On this blog, teachers and parents will find unique strategies to handle disabled children in a better way. Children with disabilities cannot be taught the regular way. The blogger explains why they require a special, rather a more strategic way of teaching in order to learn concepts.
This focuses on learning both technological and traditional educational tools which assist in handling children who require special education. The blogger emphasizes Wandoo Planet, a recommendation engine for children, just like Pandora. Basically, kids pick some of their favorite interests, through an interesting activity, and the website suggests books and movies for them to see later on. The goal is to help students find books in which they may hold interest and encourage them to read more.
Girard Sagmiller, the blogger himself has struggled with dyslexia for decades and now he has come up with a bunch of amazing tips for those who struggle with the same disease. Children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia are usually labeled as the ones who need ‘special help.’ Once the child overcomes the disability, it becomes hard to remove the label that was imposed and the child feels as If he/she is associated to some stigma. Therefore the blogger suggests that in order to shelter a child’s self-esteem and confidence, such labels should be avoided.
This blog will definitely help a teacher handle a rowdy class. The author talks about the system based on “Daily Behavior Report Cards,” (DBRC) which is a term used to refer to a combination of different techniques.
This Blog is for all the parents out there who hesitate in getting therapy for their kids. Sometimes it’s hard for parents to accept that their child needs therapy, but it really shouldn’t be. Therapy is nothing to be ashamed of ever, says the blogger. School therapy can help a child grow mentally extensively and adds a lot to a child’s progress in everyday activities such as cleaning up after playing, bathing, reading etc.
9 – Reality 101:
This Blog basically describes how students with a different level of intellect are usually judged on the “Reading Level Group” they are on. For example, one may be on 2 and the other on 6. It is usually implied that the one on level 2 is way down compared to the one on level 6.The blog suggests that instead of comparing children, parents & teachers should treat each child according to his/her individuality.
The blogger, who himself has suffered from the same problems explains how school is not always fun for some children. School struggle has come to become one of those problems almost every house hold is facing. Shut-down learners are basically all those frustrated students at school and along with the frustration come embarrassment, shame and pessimism for these children.
11 – Teachers at Risk:
This blog is basically a shout out to all the teachers out there who are afraid of taking risks in class to improve the general environment. Teachers have to take risks at times to elevate the level of comprehension prolonging in the classroom. One of these risks is giving children choice says the blogger. This gives children somewhat maturity and confidence and develops their self-esteem.
School psychologist Rebecca Branstetter explains how important it is for teachers and parents to exchange notes about children with the school psychologist. The psychologist can predict a child’s learning pattern and behavior system better than his/her parents or teachers thus with the help of a psychologist, a child can make great progress.
13 – Barto’s World:
This blog is all about finding creativity in your children. It explains how parents and teachers can foster a child’s creativity. Many people assume that creativity is an inborn talent that their kids either do or do not have, just as all children are not equally intelligent, all children are not equally creative. But actually, creativity is more of a skill than an inborn talent, and it is a skill parents can help their kids develop.
We hope you found this list helpful, and if you have any blogs you’d like to suggest be added to this list, please let us know in the comments or send us a note in our contact section.