We tend to think of visual cues as supportive tools for students with special needs or for English language learners, but sets of visual prompts can also be helpful to students outside of these groups, and especially important for classroom management. This concept might relate to a direction in the classroom, a recognition of desired behavior, or a redirection.

Teachers and families across the country have been under immense stress approaching a different kind of instruction over the last year and a half, and worrying about how it has affected our students. While focusing on health and safety is always a top priority, as students return to the classroom this year, we may need to broaden that focus and prepare them with an accelerated learning approach. But as educators, we are not only concerned about academics, but also about mental health, and to ensure students flourish upon their return, it is important we look at the whole child. In this 14-lesson plan eBook, created in partnership with Cathy Henry of The Curriculum Corner and Free Word Work, we've put together a variety of lessons and activities for K-12 students, including those in special education classrooms, to work towards project-based, student-driven learning designed to help combat the academic impact of lost instructional time.

Educators know that having strong behavior management skills can be as important, or even more important, as the ability to teach content. We want to help children modify detrimental behaviors, but we also don’t want any of our actions to result in a child feeling shamed or demeaned. This can be a challenge! Because we've all had a challenging past few months, and feelings of embarrassment won’t help children improve their behavior, we've partnered with Cathy Henry of The Curriculum Corner and Free Word Work to put together some ideas to help you work on actions and reactions with your students on a more personal level. These are ideas to help students learn and grow and meet goals, making them proud of their positive results!

An emotion meter is a great way to gauge what mood your students are feeling in the moment! Whether it's for posting in the classroom, calming corners, or student journals, this tool can be created large or small for group or individual discussions. With social-emotional learning for students a topic of the utmost importance as children grow and mature, use these simple exercises to give students meaningful tools for managing and working through their feelings!

As students today are spending more time sitting with technology than ever before, educators continue to innovate with creative ways to get them up and moving, while learning as they go. And after a year centered around terms like isolation, quarantine, and shelter-at-home, finding new ways to engage students and welcome them back to school buildings for learning can be a challenge. But we've got a fun way to get the wiggles out. And as you may have guessed, it's another free sensory path for schools! (Download our forest adventure sensory path here!)

With traditional education instruction rooted in desk-sitting and blackboard-writing, teachers today are constantly innovating to reach students where they are, and how they learn best. In a classroom full of visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners, educators have found creative ways to help students learn through viewing, hearing, and doing. Enter - the sensory path for schools.

by Cathy Henry, Guest Blogger Special education teachers have an important job working to help students reach their full potential. They work tirelessly to find ways to help students navigate the general education classroom and to build life skills. While the job is never easy, it has grown to include even more obstacles and responsibilities during the time of COVID. Trainings offered to help during this time along with new tools for teachers and students are growing. However, finding the time to master these can be a challenge with the very full schedule teachers already have. Today I am sharing five quick tips, plus a downloadable guide with templates and ideas, designed to help you navigate the challenges of teaching special education via a virtual or hybrid model.

Of the eight categories of intelligences, research suggests that visual-spatial learning is the most predominant. When a teacher can train him or herself to think like a visual learner, modifying instruction isn't hard. Some fairly straightforward tweaks in the instructional approach can support learners across the spectrum in core curricular areas and beyond. Visual and other sensory approaches to learning can transcend the barriers of language and culture, create a common language to bridge the generational gaps between educators and students, and open up new opportunities for societal and job equity for those students traditionally disenfranchised by the formal education system. We at VariQuest know how important diversifying instruction is, to ensure the needs of all learners are met, so in partnership with Susan McClester and updated with the help of Carman Le, MAT, we've created a free eBook dedicated to successful strategies in catering to visual and sensory learning instruction - and we'd like to share it with you! Visual Learning for the At-Risk Student contains...

Effectively reaching students whose exceptionalities run the gamut of intellectual, communicative, sensory, behavioral and physical is a continuous challenge faced by educators. As schools move toward the ideal of an Individual Education Plan for each and every student, experts agree that differentiated instruction, which integrates the regular use of visual aids and manipulatives, is making learning meaningful and engaging for more students than ever before. We at VariQuest know how important research-based instructional strategies and educational aids are for special education, and we want to give you every tool possible, so we've created a free eBook dedicated to successful strategies in working with students with exceptional needs - and we'd like to share it with you! Boosting Success for Exceptional Needs Students contains...