How to Set Up Centers in a Special Ed Classroom

Setting up centers as a teacher in a special education classroom can seem daunting. However, Jen's here to tell you it doesn't have to be! In this video, she'll walk you through a few quick and easy tips and tricks to setting up centers - from English-Language Arts, to Math, to Independent Work! Keep it functional, keep it simple, and your learners will be on their way to learning in their classroom centers in no time!

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[Jenn-rvqs]

I love centers! I have a self contained classroom but it’s not specific to autism. I run 4 centers. A smart board center, an iPad center, a task box center, and a sensory learning center. We call them stations. My iPad station is usually seesaw, Unique, or iReady work. My smart board center is usually a game. The task boxes are usually matching visuals with vocabulary or their pertaining function, the sensory station is usually using Playdoh or manipulatives to complete an assignment. I’m trying to set them up more efficiently this year. It’ll be my second year ever teaching and last year everything felt a bit disorganized. This year, prior to going into centers, I’ll spend some time showing the students how to complete each center. All of my centers are differentiated and groups are separated by ability level so differentiation is easier to manage. I know there’s some argument to making groups with different leveled learners, but when I did that last year it was a mess. I struggle to create centers for every subject I teach, so I’ve made centers happen Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving Mondays and Wednesdays for lesson teaching and Fridays for small groups/IEP focused. I realized last year that I wasn’t collecting enough on-paper data, so much was observational. We’ll see how this year goes. Thanks for this video!

[m.kestridge]

You are saving my life with these! So great 10/10!!!

[TA-muhe]

I absolutely LOVE this!!! More more more on functional, yet practical centers❤❤❤

[annemariemiguel]

Thanks, that really made centers doable.

[ASLTeachingResources]

I just found your channel. I love what you're doing!

[jcastro]

Love it we had this and it worked great with a good amount of aides

[emmach]

Hi! I just saw your video and have some questions. So you mention that you have 3 centers for ELA, 3 for Math and 3 for independent work.
1. How a lesson plan structure looks like? Do you have one Learning Objective and you mention what students and paras/teachers should do in every center? Do you have exit ticket?
2. For ELA centers how you structure your center? Do you do reading while the paras work on the IEP goals or skills that build up on the reading comprehension goal?
3. Do you have phonics centers separately?
4. You also mention that each center is 4 minutes. What do you do when students finish rotating all 3 centers?
5. What do you do for science and social studies? My class really struggles in the end of the day, i.e. after lunch and recess.
We are a 3th/4th 8:1:1 class with students with severe autism, a very short attention span and a lot of behaviors (screaming, OCD).

[p.]

These are amazing tips, as a new teacher I struggled a lot. How do you work with these strategies with LFA kids, please? ❤

[kristentumino]

Another question -how ofen do you switch out the activities in the centers? also, do you have a list of center time activities you work off of?

[robinjohansen]

where do you get those tracing books and the matching books? I love them

[teramehrenberg]

if your centers are only less than 10 minutes, what do you fill the day with??? I'm a new teacher in a self contained autism K-2 classroom, and I inherited a disaster. I was given no time before the school year to set up my classroom or go through appropriate curriculum, and no time since because of constant meetings. It's a quagmire. Be that as it may, I'm finding that I've got 30-60 minutes of time that is supposed to be blocked for literacy AND for math, but my kiddos can't sit for 15 minutes, nor can they sustain that kind of rigor for that long a block. What do you suggest?

[Novbaby]

I have a couple question you said you have math language arts centers . So are your para teaching math or English . An when you teach the centers do you use a teacher Manuel or go off the top of your head . Also when do you teach IEP goal do you mind sharing a previous class lesson/ routine . I hope you answer because my question is kinda late for this video

[mspetty]

Where did you get the asl signs on the wall?

[kristentumino]

What do you do if a child finishes before the timer?

[mayracamarillo]

How many tracing and matching books do you create for the center?

[WDBsirLocksight]

dang looks fun 🖊🔠 🧵🧲 can I go back..? 😆