Teaching methods provide great foundations for the classroom, but what if that class includes children with special needs? Or, if you want to focus on special-needs children, who do you expect to lean on to learn new techniques for the classroom? While local support groups may provide great peer advice, some of the best teaching tools are online, as they often pertain to specific special education teaching methodologies. The following list of 40 informative sites to learn about effective special education teaching methods includes all-inclusive tips, specific teaching aids and collaborative teaching methods with parents and with other teachers.

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Those studying for a degree in special education know that there are many challenges to both studying and practicing these specialized teaching methods. With the education of so many needy children at stake, it is very important to know as much as you can about the subject. Everyone from parents of special needs children to teachers to those who want to see the most disadvantaged children taken care of can benefit from learning more.

To help accomplish this, we have gathered 40 must see YouTube videos to learn about effective special education teaching methods. In addition to teaching a few techniques that can help all sorts of students learn, they can help you learn everything from the basics of special education all the way up to policy practices in the area. (more…)

Working with special needs students is both challenging and rewarding. While a master’s degree in special education can prepare you for the policies, psychology and structure involved in teaching special education courses, sometimes it takes a little boost from peers to get that creative and inspirational spark going. The following list is filled with 40 inspiring blogs that every special education teacher should read, as they focus on special needs kids as well as on creative ways to teach those students. Special education teachers, organizations and professionals provide the blogs below — all you need to do is let your own imagination spark as you read them! (more…)

One of the great things about technology is the way it can be used to enhance education. Even teachers can use technology in the classroom to improve the educational experience. Educational technology is about more than computers in the classroom and smart boards. Indeed, it is possible to use mobile smart phones to help enhance your teaching.

Whether you are using your BlackBerry for reference, or whether you are using one of the applications that can help you organize your life and your lesson plans, you might find that a smart phone can make your job as a teacher a little easier. Here are 27 great BlackBerry apps that teachers can use:

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Individuals who are involved in special education often are overlooked by the general public. Fortunately, they often are rewarded for their accomplishments in the field with awards and honors from their peers. The following list of teachers, parents and professors all recently were rewarded for their work with special-needs people, mostly children. You might be amazed, if you research further, by how much music has become part of the educational process, especially for special-needs children. (more…)

Unique web applications can be a great help for anyone. If you’re in the teaching profession, great web apps can help you get new ideas about strategies and techniques to use in the classroom, and some of the web apps themselves can be classroom tools. To help keep those creative juices flowing, we’ve come up with eleven web applications that can be great for teachers of special education. Check them out for yourself.

For Your iPhone

If you have an iPhone, you have a wonderful teaching and classroom tool. There are already lots of classroom tools and applications for iPhone, and there are certainly many more to come. Check out these five. You’ll also want to recommend some of them to your student’s parents.

1. TED: TED stands for Technology, Education and Design. This nonprofit organization that exists basically to enlighten the world. TED can give you tons of ideas for your classroom and even for your personal life.
2. Model Me Going Places: This is a tool you can use right in the classroom. It is designed to help children navigate challenging locations in the community.
3. Sentence Builder and Question Builder: Geared toward elementary school children, these applications help children build grammatically correct sentences.
4. IEP Checklist: Make sure you’re considering every step as you develop an IEP for a child with this user friendly app. This is a great app for parents whose children are on an Individualized Education Plan, too.
5. Web Reader: Uses text to speech technology for reading web pages allowed. This may be a great tool for helping some of your children use web pages in the classroom.

For Your Computer

Of course, not every teacher has an iPhone. But, don’t despair; there are plenty of great applications for special education teachers that you can use on your home or classroom computer, too.

6. Curriki: This is a collaborative tool that allows teachers to share curriculum and lesson plan ideas. Learn what other special education teachers are doing in their classrooms and share your unique ideas as well.
7. Teacher Tube: Originally part of You Tube, Teacher Tube is a focused video sharing site that holds videos of interest to teachers. The videos range from those you could actually use in the classroom with your students to those that are designed to help you solve classroom issues and get new ideas for presenting lesson plans and motivating your students.
8. Brain Honey: This application includes instant access for one instructor and multiple students, online content authoring, mapping tools, personalized lesson plans, a student portal and a dynamic online grade book. It’s a tool every teacher can use.
9. Class Marker: Generate your own tests and have them graded for you automatically. It can also send grades to parents for you.
10. Moodle: Moodle is a virtual learning environment that educators use to create online learning sites. Make your own Moodle sites geared toward your students’ need and abilities.
11. School Rack: The app allows teachers to build colorful, customizable websites, while storing mailing lists and moderating private discussions with students and/or parents. You can really make and use a website for your own classroom with this great application.

Teachers of all kinds are always looking for more and better applications and tools for themselves, their students and their classrooms. These are just a few of the many applications out there that can make your job easier and more productive. There are also plenty of applications that can help you keep your students more engaged and more productive.

Don’t stop with these applications! More are coming out every day, and you’re likely to find that a wide range of them will work for your classroom and teaching situation. The internet is one of the greatest tools to come along in decades, and it is a particularly effective tool for teachers because children are so drawn to it and because today’s children, even many of those with special needs, love it and are accustomed to using it. So, take advantage of all the applications you can find to make your classroom come alive for you and your students.

Special education focuses on teaching students with special needs who require a certain type of attention and education. These students differ in that information is processed differently, and their education requires individually-planned and systematically-monitored teaching procedures, processes, materials, settings, as well as other necessary interventions in order for them to be successful in the classroom. This list offers seven essential books on special education which focus on the implementation of various teaching methods, as well as how parents can collaborate with educators to further their children’s progress. (more…)

The online Masters in special education offers a path for professionals to achieve with their desire of enhancing their skills. This is incorporated with the latest developments pertaining to that field. The program helps to synthesize the most current research basing it on interventions that will help in determining the best practices for students. The online Masters in special education can lead to teaching careers whose curriculum is designed to effectively help students with learning disabilities from different parts of the globe. Some of the areas that it pays keen attention to is strategies, practices and techniques for this disadvantaged learners which will eventually help them apply the skills learned to their real life situations. (more…)