Make-It Take-It Binders

In my continuing professional development opportunities for Instructional Assistants who are wanting to become teachers I have been asked to attend another conference and advanced training session entitled Make-It Take-IT: Communicating Critical Student Information to General Education Teachers course taught at the San Diego County Office of Education's North County Regional Education Center in San Marcos by Tina Aboud on behalf of the North Coastal Consortium for Special Educations. Tina's idea of putting together a "desk reference" as she describes it, for general education teachers to see what the needs of their special education students appealed to me as I was worried about what to ask for from my special education colleagues. for some time I had wondered how to ask a special education teacher for specific information on a student so I would not be overwhelmed with a students special education file. Tina breaks the information down into wonderful digestible pieces so that a general education teacher can simply flip the binder open, pull the appropriate tab, and understand what is expected from them on behalf of the student. Tina puts together in a sample binder with topics such as: Team Contact Information, Background Information, Start of the Year Tips, Previous Teacher Reports, IEP information, Behavior, Accommodations and Modifications, and Notes pages. She distributes these binders to the general education teachers before the school year and again during the school year if for some reason the file has been lost or misplaced. Special needs students are also given the same binders (minus a few important tabs) so that they have the information as well, helping them to advocate for their needs during the school day. I am very grateful that I attended this training as it will help me as a general education teacher to better and more quickly understand what it is that I need from a special education colleague to help a student succeed in my classroom. If I can help implement this binder system within my school I may be able to help other general education teachers understand what it is that they need for a special education student's file.