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Whether your a parent/guardian looking for the best ways to help your struggling students become more successful in school or learn something new, or a teacher looking to make a difference in the lives of students across the country here is a list composed of 5 of the best websites for high-impact tutoring in reading, mathematics, and various other subjects.

1. Ignite! Reading

Ignite Reading is an online tutoring platform based on the Science of Reading. Students receive 15 minutes of high impact differentiated instruction in the foundations of reading each day Monday through Friday for the entirety of the School Year via video chat in an online lesson space. Ignite pays tutors $17.50/hr while in training, then $20/hr with a maximum of 30 hours a week once they complete certification. Additionally, they pay tutors every other week. Also, tutors are part-time employees not contractors like most other online tutoring platforms. Lastly, Ignite pairs tutors with students based on their availability with the assumption that they will remain with the same students for the whole school year and all lessons are one- on-one.

2. Hoot Reading

Hoot Reading is a Canadian based online tutoring company focused on the Science of Reading. Students can take sessions through school programs and individual memberships. Furthermore, students receive guided reading instruction from a tutor through an online lesson space. Sessions range from 20 minutes to 50 minutes. Hoot pays tutors monthly on a tiered system based on education and experience ranging from around $12-$20 an hr. Hoot schedules tutors with students based on their set availability. Lessons are one-on-one.

3. BookNook

BookNook provides 30 minutes of literacy instruction to students focused on decoding, comprehension, and fluency. Students take sessions through school programs 2-5 days a week via zoom and the BookNook Learning Platform. Moreover, BookNook pays tutors $18/hr twice a month and tutors have to pick up sessions through opportunity drops that occur at scheduled times throughout the month. Sessions can be 1:1 as well as small groups.

4. Varsity Tutors

Varsity Tutors provides tutoring online and in-person. Students can take 1:1 lessons and small group lessons in a variety of subjects. Varsity Tutors pays $15-$25/hr. Moreover, tutors are sent pairings to review, then select the ones they’re interested in. However, after selecting pairing they have to wait to see if the student picks them too in order to work with them. Tutors are responsible for creating their own lessons based on student needs.

5. Outschool

With Outschool, students can take a variety of classes based on need and interest. Classes are offered in 1:1 settings, small group, and large group settings. Classes are also offered as live classes via zoom and asynchronous classes. Teachers set their own rate, schedule, the type of class they want to teach, and how many students they would like in each class. Teachers also create all of their lessons and lesson materials.

Furthermore, interested in additional options for educational interventions check out my post Best Apps/ Sites for Special Education.

Best Apps/ Sites for Special Education

By SpEducator Online

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Are you one of those teachers constantly looking for the best apps/websites to use with your students? Well here is a list of some of my favorite sites to use with Special Education students. These are some of the best apps for reading, writing, math, SEL, and behavior, as well as IEP goal writing resources.

Learning A-Z:

Learning A-Z is amazing. It consists of a variety of programs designed to meet your learners at their level. There is Reading A-Z, RazKids, Writing A-Z, Foundations A-Z, Vocabulary A-Z, and Science A-Z. There are also options for ELL students. I personally love Reading A-Z and RazKids. They have a variety of leveled readers and decodables for teaching all different reading skills. There are also a variety of assessments for progress monitoring and additional materials and activities that correlate to each book. Additionally, RazKids gives the students the opportunity to work independently on reading skills at their level and earn rewards for creating their own robot and room for the robot.

Happy Numbers:

Happy Numbers is similar to Learning A-Z in that it meets your learners at their level, but it focuses strictly on Mathematics. The students complete a pre-assessment to determine where they are at, then placed on a learning path. They can work independently at their own pace on their learning path targeting math skills they need to master to reach grade level material.

ABC Mouse/ Adventure Academy:

ABC Mouse is for students 2-8 years old. It is very interactive and full of learning games, books, puzzles, and songs for children to learn a variety of concepts in reading, math, science, social studies, and art. ABC Mouse also includes a progress tracker and virtual rewards for students.

Adventure Academy is for students aged 8-13 years old. It was created by the same company as ABC Mouse, but for older students. It teaches subjects such as reading, math, science, and social studies through game play adventures and includes progress tracking.

Social Express/ Centervention:

These two sites are great for SEL and Behavior Intervention.

Social Express teaches foundational social skills through interactive animated lessons. You can use it one on one or with a whole classroom and includes grade level quizzes and progress reports.

Comparatively, Centervention teaches social emotional skills through interactive stories. It personalizes to each students needs and includes baseline and progress reports. There is also a daily emotion check in for each student to complete that is shared with the teacher. Overall, Centervention includes 5 programs based on student grade level and needs. There is Zoo Academy: Grades K-1, Zoo U: Grades 2-4, SS Grin: Grades 3-5, Hall of Heroes: Middle School, and Stories in Motion: Autism.

Everfi:

Everfi is designed for K-12 students. There are a variety of digital lessons for students to take to learn or work on skills in reading, math, and other subjects. Topics included are financial literacy, health & wellness, STEM & career readiness, character education, history, digital literacy & wellness, STEM literacy, sustainability education, and early academic readiness. Additionally, lessons include games, assessments, and progress monitoring.

Prodigy:

Prodigy is a role-playing online game. There is a Math version and an English version. Students learn a variety of math or ELA concepts through adventures. They can customize their characters, battle their friends, create a custom built world, and complete quests by correctly answering questions.

Vooks/ Epic!:

Vooks and Epic! are amazing apps/websites for interactive reading practice. Both of these sites include a variety of books for children. Some books the children read themselves, while some books include read along narration. These sites also include videos, lesson plans, and quizzes to assess comprehension of the books being read.

Essential Skills:

Essential Skills provides interactive focused instruction for K-6 students. It focuses on Reading, Math, Science, and English Language Learning lessons designed for special education, English learners, response to intervention, and older remedial students.

Unique Learning Systems:

ULS is designed specifically for students with special needs in all grades pre-k through transition. Through interactive differentiated lessons students work towards mastering their states extended learning standards. Lessons focus on reading, math, science, social studies, and transition. This platform also includes built in assessment tools and resources for progress monitoring.

Goalbook:

Goalbook is an absolute necessity if you’re a special education teacher. It helps with scaffolding instruction as well as IEP development. You can use it to create and complete IEP goals, behavior plans, and present levels of performance. You can also find a variety of resources for behavior and social-emotional learning, and so much more.

If you’re interested in additional tutoring options check out my post Best Tutoring Apps/Sites for Educational Interventions.

Top 6 Favorite Teacher Items for Back 2 School

By SpEducator Online

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This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

With back to school just right around the corner there is lots of shopping and organizing to do to get ready. I thought this would be a good time to mention some of my favorite items I like to have as a teacher. Here are my top 6 items I make sure I have ready to go before school starts.

1. Rolling Cart- This cart is the best thing I could have bought as a teacher who travels between buildings. It makes it so easy to keep everything I need to carry around with me between buildings and classrooms organized and easily accessible without hurting my back and shoulders carrying multiple bags.

2. Flair Pens- These pens are awesome. I love using them to color code my planner. I also use them for progress monitoring and grading. If you like using a variety of colors for teaching, planning, organizing, etc. then you need flair pens.

3. Planner- Every year I buy a new planner to help keep me organized. I use it to keep track of all of my IEP/ETR meetings, staff meetings, due dates, appointments, and anything else important. I like having a planner that includes monthly calendars and weekly/daily organizing. My newest planner also includes notes, goals, priorities, habit tracker, and to-do list sections, as well as a yearly overview and list of holidays. Here is the planner I bought for this year and it comes in multiple colors.

4. Tabletop Pocket Chart- This pocket chart is great for teachers who travel between buildings. It’s a pocket chart on one side and a magnetic dry erase board on the other side. It also includes pockets for storing dry erase markers, erasers, or magnetic letters and folds up easily with a handle for easy carrying.

5. Laminator- Every teacher should have a personal laminator. I use mine at home and in my classroom. It’s nice to have on hand so you can laminate anywhere, anytime without having to wait in line. Plus half the time the laminators in the schools either don’t work or run out of laminating sheets with no known date of when refills will show back up. This laminator is similar to the one I own and I love it.

6. 3-Hole Punch- Finally, I like having my own personal 3-hole punch. I use this a lot when organizing my many resources into binders. I have one at home and one for my classroom so I can punch holes whenever I need to without having to track down a 3-hole punch at work. This is the 3-hole punch I own and it works great.

Learn from Failure

By SpEducator Online

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Did you know there is always something to learn from failure. Well there is. For example, one evening I was cooking dinner for my family and it did not turn out great. I was making Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. We had two different boxes: the regular noodles and Scooby-Doo shaped noodles. Well it turns out the regular noodles cook a lot faster than the specialty shaped noodles. The regular noodles wound up mush ruining it all, but we still ate it. Lesson learned don’t mix different noodle types when making Mac & Cheese.

So, why am I telling you all of this because it’s important to know that there’s always something to learn from failure. Whether you’re a student or a teacher you can always learn something from your mistakes.

As a student you learn what you still need more work on. What you need more practice with or need to study more. You also learn what you’re strengths and weaknesses are.

As a teacher you learn what strategies work and what strategies don’t work when teaching your students. You learn that what works for one student may not work for another. That’s where differentiation comes into play. You learn that if something isn’t working you need to adjust and figure out what you’re doing wrong and what you could be doing differently to make sure all of your students are learning what you want them to.

There is just so much to learn from failure. So the next time you feel like you failed just take a moment to reflect about what went wrong and how you can do better next time. Take it as a learning opportunity and make sure to let your students know it’s okay to make mistakes as long as they learn from them and use them as a way to better themselves.

Compassion is KEY

By SpEducator Online

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What is the best advice you ever received about teaching? Like many of you I have been given plenty of advice over the years in regards to teaching. The best advice I ever got was from a teacher I interviewed in a previous post of mine (Interview for an Inexperienced SpEducator) , which is “Compassion is KEY.”

Compassion is so important, especially now. With the pandemic going on and all of the changes we’ve had to endure this year, we need compassion. As teachers, we get a lot of crap from people for all of the breaks we get. Summers off, snow days, and other random days off throughout the school year. Then there’s the whole working remotely and people saying that we aren’t actually working because they’re doing our jobs now. They don’t seem to understand that homeschooling and remote learning are two different things, but that’s a whole other can of worms.

Anyways, what all of these people don’t realize is teachers need this time off. Working with students, dealing with parents, and dealing with other people in our buildings can be so emotionally exhausting. There are days where you will just lose your patience so easily with people. So, when you finally get home you just want to be left alone for awhile. You want to unwind and de-stress from the day before talking to anyone else. So these breaks teachers get are very much deserved and needed. The teacher I interviewed in my previous post calls them “Compassion Days”, which seems like the perfect name to me.

What’s some of the best advice you ever received? Feel free to share in the comments.

Interview for an Inexperienced SpEducator

By SpEducator Online

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This is an interview I did with another teacher a few years ago. I thought it may still be helpful for those of you who are new to teaching. This teacher has been teaching Special Education for 19 years now. She has taught Kindergarten, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 8th grade students. This interview is from 2014, so it’s a little old, but it helped me when I was starting out.

Interview:

Why did you decide to become a teacher? Are you happy with your decision?
- I decided to become a teacher because I wanted to help a student population I knew. I wanted to help the at-risk students and to help experience school success. On certain days I am happy with my choice. Seeing the students light up when they get something or when they see their grades have risen makes me happy. There are other days when I’m not so happy because I’m stressed and what not. That stress is 100% non-student related. It is usually related to other people I have to deal with throughout the day.
What is most difficult about teaching?
- The most difficult part about teaching is all the changes. With the constant change things can get stressful or redundant. Some examples of changes are buzzwords and lesson deliveries. Some changes are things that used to be taught years ago and they’ve brought them back as brand new ideas.
What is your favorite part about teaching? What is your least favorite part?
- My favorite part about teaching is just being with the kids. I enjoy helping them succeed. My least favorite part of teaching is again all the changes, such as the new common core standards and evaluations.
How do you handle students who don’t seem to want to learn?
- For students who don’t want to learn, the school that I work for has a program that consists of teams called seniors assistant teams. Each team picks one person to go to training sessions, after which each trained person gets together with their team and makes an intervention plan. With this plan we try to figure out what will motivate the particular student into wanting to learn. We also have a 3×3 method that we use, where we meet with the student and come up with three issues that the student is having, then we come up with five possible interventions for solving these issues. After a few days we meet again and then come up with three positives that have resulted from using the interventions for the students’ issues.
How do you encourage class participation? How do you engage parents who are inactive?
- There are a variety of ways that I encourage class participation. One technique that I and another teacher I work with came up with is called my 2 cents. With this method each student gets two cards that look like pennies. They are required to use both of them by the end of class. In order to flip a card they have to participate in some way (raising their hands, answering questions, etc.). If they participate at least two times then they get what we call fast cash, which they can use to enter a big drawing we have later on. For those students who still don’t participate, because there are always some, we will go up to them individually and ask them questions for them to answer so they can flip their two cards over for their participation.
- To engage parents, I send home an introduction letter in August. This letter will include information such as my name, email, how long I’ve been a teacher, the school(s) I graduated from, but it will also include more personal information such as my husband’s name and how long we have been married and stuff about my dog. I will also send home an attached survey for the parents to fill out, so I can get to know a little about them and the student as well. Another thing my school will do sometimes if a parent or parents are not showing up for IEP meetings, conferences, or returning calls or emails, is home visits. This doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while we have to do a home visit to get the parent(s) involved.
What is your approach to classroom management?
- There are a variety of approaches I like to use when it comes to classroom management, but one in particular is a reward system. When I have my small groups, my IEP students, I will do an activity where the students get to play teacher. They each get to make up one rule, which are usually really difficult rules that no teacher would ever come up with. The students are geared towards what I want them to be doing and allows them a say in what is going on in the classroom with this task. This lets the students feel like they have part in the classroom management. When the students make the rules they get so many stickers for the rules and at the end of the class, once they have earned so many stickers they get a choice of what they want to do for the rest of the class period, whether it’s do a puzzle or read a book, it doesn’t matter.
What advice would you give a first year teacher? What do you wish someone would have told you prior to teaching?
- My advice for a first year teacher is to use your mentor. Focus on how they are helping you and don’t be afraid to try new things. Also get to know people in the school you are working at. Figure out who you want to be around, who will help you, and who you should avoid.
- What I wish someone would have told me prior to teaching is compassion is the key. People give teachers a lot of crap about having summers off, snow days, and other stuff. What they don’t realize is teachers need this time off. Working with students and dealing with parents and other people can be so emotionally exhausting. There are days where you will just lose your patience so easily with people after being at school all day. When I go home all I want to do is just be crabby for a little while. Teachers deserve these breaks they get; me and the other teachers I work with like to call them compassion days.

What is an IEP?

By SpEducator Online

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What is an IEP? I’ve received this question numerous times. I usually just respond with “It’s an Individualized Education Plan. It tells you the students’ goals and accommodations”, but there is actually so much more to it than that.

There are 17 sections to an IEP. They are as follows:

Cover sheet

tells you the students’ name, birthday, student number, grade level, address, IEP & Evaluation dates, district of residence and service. It also includes a checklist for the rest of the IEP to make sure every section is complete, parents’ contact information (address, phone numbers, email), questions regarding if the student is in preschool, 14 years old for transition purposes, a ward of the state, or on a scholarship, and an other section for adding anymore pertinent information not stated anywhere else in the IEP.

Future Planning

is for stating what the IEP team (teachers, parents, and administrators) would like to see the child improve on throughout the year. This could include academic skills, behavior skills, social skills, etc.

Special Instructional Factors

is for marking if a student has behavior needs, limited English Proficiency, blind, deaf, communication needs, assistive technology, or specially designed physical education. If any of these are marked yes then they are required to either have a goal/accommodations related to them or needs to be mentioned somewhere in the student’s profile.

Profile

talks about the students’ strengths, weaknesses, interests, needs, medical information, evaluation results, state/district test results, recent progress, Reading Improvement Plan (RIMP) if the student is K-3, justification for accommodations and/or modifications, and anything else important to know about the student.

Extended School Year Services

is used to determine if a student needs extended school year services. Most student’s don’t, but some do. This is based on data collected by the team and how much the student regresses academically during school breaks (summer, winter, and spring). Most have minimal regression, but some lose a lot of what they’ve learned during breaks from school.

Post Secondary Transition

is for students turning 14 years old during the length of their IEP or older. It contains goals for preparing for graduation, college, work, and independent living after high school.

Measurable Annual Goals

lists the student’s goals. These can be academic (reading, writing, math), behavioral, social skills, speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc. It includes what the goal is for, present levels of achievement, the goal itself with objectives, and how it’s going to be measured, as well as how often it will be reported to parents.

Description Of Specially Designed Services

states what we will do to provide services for the student (direct instruction, multi-sensory approach, repeated practice, repetition, manipulatives and visuals, etc.). It states who will provide these services, where they will be provided (therapy room, general education classroom, etc.), how much time is required for each goal and the frequency for which they will be provided services. This is also where the students related services (speech, OT, PT, etc.), accommodations/modifications, assistive technology, support for school personnel and medical needs are listed.

Transportation

section states if a child needs special transportation to and from services. It also lists any accommodations they may need for it, such as a harness, an aide, wheelchair lift, etc.

Nonacademic and Extracurricular Activities

states if a child will have the same opportunities to participate in nonacademic/ extracurriculars. It also states a justification if they will not participate.

General Factors

is a checklist of items the team has to discuss. This includes students’ strengths, needs, parent concerns, recent evaluations, testing, and if they are on track for the 3GRG.

Least Restrictive Environment

states the child’s disability category and placement (resource room, tutoring, etc.). It also states the percentage of the school day they spend outside of the general education classroom. Additionally, it says if the student attends the school they would attend if not disabled. Lastly, states a justification for not receiving all special education services with nondisabled peers. All in all, this is the best environment for them to receive their special education services.

Statewide and District Wide Testing

states if a student participates in the Alternate Assessment or regular assessments. It also lists what accommodations they receive for each type of assessment.

Exemptions

states whether or not a student is exempt from passing the 3GRG, Graduation Tests, or other assessments.

Meeting Participants

is a list of everyone who attended and participated in the IEP meeting.

Signatures

is where parent/guardian signs whether or not they agree and give consent to implement the IEP.

Children with Visual Impairments

section is only for students with visual impairments (blind). It states what type of media the child requires to do their school work (i.e. large print, braille, etc.). This is not for student’s who just wear glasses to see.

Overall

As you can see there is a lot of information that goes into each IEP. It usually takes me around 6 hours just to write one.

So, what is an IEP? In simplest terms it’s an Individualized Education Plan. It’s the document that states what a student’s goals are and what accommodations and services they have to help them achieve these goals and access grade level content.

Hello 2021

By SpEducator Online

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Hello 2021 and Happy New Year Everyone!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like the first half of the school year started off slow and then just sort of flew by and now we’re in the middle of the school year and my busy time is starting. That is…it’s time to get writing all of my students Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) for their upcoming annual reviews.

While this isn’t necessarily difficult and I don’t have very many students on my caseload right now, it’s still very time consuming. I probably spend at least 6 hours on each IEP that I write. It takes even more time when it’s a year where my students ETR’s or Evaluation Team Reports are also due. Then I have to fill out documents for the school psychologist to do the evaluations and wait for the results to be able to fill in those section(s) of the IEP. Needless to say my next post will revolve around IEP’s and what goes into developing them.

Anyways, I say again Hello 2021 and Happy New Year. I hope your new year is starting off to be a good one and if there are any topics or questions related to Special Education that you would like me to cover in my upcoming posts just let me know.

The Return (Sort of…)

By SpEducator Online

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School staff were required to return to work in the buildings October 14th in preparation for students to return to a blended learning model beginning October 19th. It’s so surreal being back in the buildings after being away from them since March 13th. It’s so quiet and empty. Tables have been replaced with individual desks that are all spread out. There’s directional stickers on the hallway floors. Signs everywhere telling people to self assess their health before entering the buildings and to wear masks in common areas.

Some people have been so anxious to get back in the buildings. Not me, I’m anxious about being in the buildings at all. I’d rather stay working from home where I know I’m less likely to get sick. It’s just me and my husband at home and neither of us go anywhere unless we absolutely have to. Also, I feel more alone in my buildings than I did working from home. Sure in both locations I’m sitting in a room by myself for 6+ hours a day while I attempt to Zoom with my students. At least at home I have someone to eat lunch with and talk to on my breaks. At my buildings everyone just sits in their classrooms with their doors closed all day. There is no real interaction between people.

Two Days Later…

Additionally, after two days of being back in the buildings preparing for the students to return we received notice that the students return to the buildings would be pushed back to November 2nd and to prepare families for blended learning we would hold two weeks of virtual orientations. Now we are suppose to schedule virtual orientations with our students families. This is to discuss procedures for coming to the buildings, while still working out of our classrooms.

Another Four Days Later…

Well that didn’t last long. Four days later, we have now received another notice saying to postpone the virtual orientations we’ve been planning because students will no longer be returning to the buildings in November. They will stay remote until at least mid January. But again staff are to continue working in their buildings. This makes no sense. Why is it too dangerous/risky for the students to learn in the buildings, but it’s not for the staff. I wouldn’t be surprised if this doesn’t change again soon. I mean over the course of about a week and a half the district has changed their mind multiple times about switching from remote learning to blended learning. This is quite the roller-coaster ride we are on right now.

Virtual Learning: How do you feel about it?

By SpEducator Online

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I don’t know about you, but I’m torn with my feelings about Virtual Learning. I love working from home and not having to drive anywhere; normally I have to drive between multiple buildings throughout my work day. Plus working from home means I get to sleep in a little later in the mornings because I’m just walking into my office/guest room to work. This really cuts down on my commute and I get to enjoy lunch with my wonderful husband as he is currently home all day.

Conversely, I’m finding it difficult to get my students to log on to their Zoom meetings with me and getting them to complete their Google Classroom assignments. I keep sending messages to my students and their families with little to no response on any platform thus far. I’ve even contacted their gen. ed. teachers to see if they are attending and completing work for them. The consensus has been minimal for all 5 of my students so far. This is partly due to technology issues (i.e. broken Chromebook, lack of internet access), but for some of them they just aren’t getting on to my stuff and no one at home seems to be making sure they are. This isn’t great considering we’re in the 9th week of school already and I have very little data currently for their progress reports that I need to complete next week.

If I could just find ways to get the students to either log on to my Zoom or complete their Google Classroom Assignments during the week I would feel so much better. Right now, I just feel stressed out, exhausted, and over it. I know there is only so much I can do from a computer though.

Aside from students not engaging with me, I also feel like my work load has doubled. As well as the amount of meetings I have to attend weekly. There is so much more planning and organizing that goes into virtual teaching. We can’t just dig into our normal resources and curriculum like usual. We have to find a way to convert it so students are able to engage with the materials virtually. Although for me this can be fun depending on what I’m setting up for my students to do.

Additionally, I am in Grad School right now and attending remotely as well. So I spend 12+ hours a day on my computer, which is way too much time. I definitely have to make myself takes breaks away from my computer throughout the day. I get up, walk around, stretch, and give my eyes a break from staring at my computer screen. But even with all the added computer time and stresses of teaching remotely, I still prefer it. I hate having to drive in traffic everyday between multiple buildings.

How do you feel about Virtual Learning?