Special Educator’s Reflective Calendar and Planning Journal

"I am in awe of the innovative, relevant, and incredible motivational ideas! This tool addresses many of the most challenging areas of special education and provides strategies, guides, and daily reflections that educators need to continue or reignite the passion that called them to serve as special educators."
—Mary Beth Schafer, Special Education Consultant

Retain your love of teaching and reduce stress through daily reflection and planning!

Refining organizational and time management skills while taking time to reflect on practice can be a challenge for any busy, calendar-driven special education teacher. Following a format similar to the authors′ best-selling resource for general education teachers, this concise guide helps special educators plan ahead, manage daily priorities, increase their instructional effectiveness, and nurture their own professional development.

Written by experienced special educators, this daily planning journal takes novice and seasoned professionals from August through July with tips, affirmations, action items, and space for daily to-do lists. Reflective prompts address critical issues such as:

• Working with parents
• Advocacy for students with special needs
• Building team rapport with staff
• Writing and implementing IEPs

Use The Special Educator′s Reflective Calendar and Planning Journal to advance your growth as a special education teacher and develop skills that will have a positive impact on students′ learning and performance.

Mary Zabolio McGrath taught in the Bloomington, MN, public schools for 31 years, working as a classroom teacher, a demonstration teacher with the Project Read program, and as a special education teacher in the areas of learning disabilities, behavior disorders, and developmental delay. She has served as national secretary for the Council for Behavior Disorders and on the board of the Minnesota Council for Exceptional Children. McGrath has written articles for educators, parents, caregivers, and the general public. In addition, she has authored/coauthored books on educational subjects. Currently McGrath works as a professional speaker, working with schools, parents, and organizations to reflect on and improve the quality of career relationships and life transitions. She is a member of the National Speakers Association and Toastmasters International. McGrath has a doctorate from the University of Minnesota in educational administration, with collateral work in organizational communication. She earned a master′s degree in educational psychology. Beverley Holden Johns brings her 35 years of experience working with students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) within the public schools to her current post as learning and behavior consultant and an adjunct instructor for MacMurray College, where she teaches the course on special education law, adaptations for the general education classroom, and EBD. Johns is the lead author of ten books (and co-author of another) including Reduction of School Violence: Alternatives to Suspension, Techniques for Managing Verbally and Physically Aggressive Students, Surviving Internal Politics Within the School, Safe Schools, Teacher’s Reflective Calendar and Planning Journal, Effective Curriculum and Instruction for Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Students with Disabilities and General Education: A Desktop Reference for School Personnel, Getting Behavioral Interventions Right, Preparing Test-Resistant Students for Assessments: A Staff Training Guide, The Ethical Educator, and Motivating the Unmotivated Student. She has written a workbook to accompany a video for paraprofessionals entitled The Paraprofessional’s Guide to Managing Student Behavior and over 40 articles. She is co-author with Janet Lerner of the seminal college LD textbook, the 11th edition of Learning Disabilities and Related Mild Disabilities, and they are currently working on a college textbook on Students with Special Needs in General Education: Practical Adaptations and Teaching Strategies. She is the 2000 recipient of the CEC Outstanding Leadership Award from the International Council for Exceptional Children, Past International President (and current board member) of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders, and the 2007 Recipient of the Romaine P. Mackie Leadership Service Award. Johns is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in American Education and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.