Reviewing Elementary Special Ed Websites

Reviewing Elementary ESE Websites

1)  Intervention Central

This website provides lists of lesson plans and activities to help your students improve.

Currency: The last post on this website was May 4th, 2015. Not as current as the information could be, but not as old as other ones I've seen.

Relevance: In my prospective, I think the relevance of this website is fantastic. I think many of their articles about student de-escalation, and using delayed timing flashcards to help a student's confidence are really helpful. Some of their techniques and activities I have never heard of before. I would definitely use them myself, and encourage other teachers too as well.

Authority: The creator of Intervention Central, Jim Wright, is a school psychologist. Though I would prefer him to have a background a special education, I do think he still has a good background on how a student's mind works.

Accuracy: The resources on this website are accurate and helpful, especially the reading and math activities. Of course, every student may need changes made to the activity, but Wright makes it easy for you to do that by not making the activities or lesson plans too complicated.

Purpose: The purpose of this website is to help teachers that have run out of ideas when it comes to students that are struggling. If you have a student that needs help academically or behaviorally, this website has great lessons that are not often used. For example, I've never heard someone doing delayed response flashcards. Typically, a teacher would expect an answer to a flashcard immediately, and a struggling student may get the answer wrong because they tried to come up with the answer too fast. This could cause the student to lose confidence. Jim Wright suggests informing the student that they have time to answer, and when they do, the teacher reinforces with praise, and repeats the correct answer. If the student gets the answer wrong, the teacher will repeat the question and let the student answer a second time. There are many other interactive lessons like that on Intervention Central.

Overall, I give this website a 4/5 stars. It has good and helpful information that is easy to follow along with. I knocked a point down for currency and overall aesthetics of the website.

2) Adapting for Autism Blog

This is a blog that provides resources for teachers working with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Currency: The most recent post on this blog is from March 1st, 2018. One post this year is good enough for me! Most available special education resources are pretty old.

Relevance: These posts are very relevant for any ESE teacher. She talks about visual schedules, helping students that have trouble putting classroom objects in their mouths, and games that are appropriate and easy to play. Any ESE teacher has dealt with the issues she talks about, and her resources seem commonly used and helpful.

Authority: The creator of this blog is a Recreation Therapist that does PE, art, music, and other extracurriculars for autistic children. She has more than enough experience in a classroom with autistic children for me to trust her.

Accuracy: I don't really know how to deem her posts as accurate or inaccurate. She posts different activities and templates, and writes a few posts here and there that discuss ESE "issues".

Purpose: This blog would be great for any beginning ESE teachers. It talks a lot about making charts to track progress, making schedules to help with transitions, and other activities anyone could implement. If I felt like I needed to add things to my classroom procedures I would check here. And her posts about common ESE issues help you to relate and feel less alone, because not many people are posting about teaching ESE these days.

Overall, I would give this website a 5/5. It was helpful, easy to navigate, nice to look at, and the author seems like she really knows what she is talking about.