It's Not Easy Being Tween / UDL Strategies
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 02/12/2019 · Last modified 01/23/2025
ELA educator Cheryl Mizerny invites you to have fun developing your own UDL-enhanced unit. The former special ed teacher details how using Universal Design for Learning helps all learners grow, then she shares her argumentative writing unit enhanced with UDL practices.
Inclusion / It's Not Easy Being Tween
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 12/31/2018 · Last modified 11/12/2019
Former special education teacher Cheryl Mizerny says the same techniques used to help kids with dyslexia succeed can benefit all students in the core subjects. Now an ELA educator, she highlights useful tools, instructional techniques, assessments, and SEL strategies.
Executive Function / It's Not Easy Being Tween
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 11/19/2018 · Last modified 02/17/2024
Drawing on her special education background, ELA teacher Cheryl Mizerny works to build kids’ executive function skills. Here she offers techniques to help strengthen what she considers the most crucial skills for middle schoolers: task initiation, organization, and time management.
Co-teaching Conversations / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 10/23/2018 · Last modified 11/24/2019
Co-teaching and UDL coach Elizabeth Stein has found a tool that has the potential to break down communication barriers that get in the way of what co-teachers really need to do. She recommends the Four A’s Text Protocol to energize co-teacher dialogue and collaboration.
Assets-Based IEPs / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 05/15/2018 · Last modified 11/25/2019
Most educators take one of two perspectives on students with disabilities, says Elizabeth Stein. They see them with deficits or with strengths and assets. In this resource-rich post, Stein makes the case for an assets-based approach to designing accommodations and the IEP.
Engagement / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 10/02/2017 · Last modified 11/13/2019
Emotions are a natural part of learning, writes co-teaching coach and NBCT Elizabeth Stein. In fact, she says, when teachers in inclusion classrooms tap into emotions and provide quality feedback, they’ll find they’re better able to serve diverse learners effectively.
The Co-Teaching Relationship / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 06/06/2016 · Last modified 11/11/2019
Summer is a good time for co-teachers to revisit the meaning of “CO-“, says instructional coach Elizabeth Stein, and discover definitions like joint, mutual, common. Stein offers tips to prepare for a co-teaching year marked by CO-creation for student success.
ELA co-teaching team Rachel Wysocki Kent & Genevieve Federick share a successful independent reading strategy they designed around a challenging group goal (read 500 books) and a teen-friendly focus question: “What does it mean to be a young person in 2015?”
The Co-Teaching Relationship / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 01/17/2016 · Last modified 11/26/2019
Halfway through the school year, it’s time for co-teachers to examine the learning culture they’ve created in their classrooms, says instructional coach Elizabeth Stein. She offers three steps co-teachers can take to improve toxic or separatist relationships.
For teachers considering a career in Special Education, an area of critical need, reviewer Laura Von Staden fears that those readers may not finish That’s Special feeling equipped or encouraged to teach this group of students and may decide not to enter the field.
