Ep. 13: IEP Data and Materials Organization: Work Smarter, Not Harder

💥 Taming the IEP chaos! This episode is your guide to simplifying goals, data, and materials. Get ready for stress-free IEP work!

✅ We'll cover smart systems from binders to dry erase magic. Find what works for YOU!

🎁 Join the Facebook group for FREE IEP goodies: "At-a-Glance" sheet and Goal Check-off List!

💎 Today’s GEM: There's no one "right" way to organize. Get creative! The goal is easier IEP work and seeing your students SHINE!

✨Join our Facebook Group for a community of like minded individuals & to valuable grab FREE resources to save you time! ⬇️

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Transcript

Caitlin Beltran: I love that you're printing graphs in this scenario. It's way old school. I.

Audra Jensen: a little old school.  

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to The Misfit Behaviorists. Glad to be here. We are going to be talking about some IEP goal materials, collection, how to organize things today, how to streamline the materials and keep every, all your data flowing nicely.

Caitlin Beltran: That's right. And remember to join our Facebook group, The Misfit Behaviorists, if you haven't already, because we, for almost every episode, we post a free resource in our file library. And I know there's gonna be a good one after tonight.

Audra Jensen: Yes. So whether you are a special education teacher or an ABA therapist or a parent supporting a child with an IEP, I know how overwhelming it can be to juggle all the materials. From the very beginning, when we started in this process, when Isaac was little, having just so many materials, I've seen different systems used over the years.

And so today I thought I'd maybe share some of the, my own kind of tried and true systems. I'm sure a lot of you have seen a lot of these systems before, but it's to hopefully bring back a little sanity in the process to help you actually enjoy working because I know. I have been one to, with all my materials in my arms, trying to carry everything, especially those early learners that have so many manipulatives and reinforcers.

And so I was thinking about how can I help people think about how to organize that material. So Caitlin, what's your favorite way to keep all of your materials organized?

Caitlin Beltran: I think just constantly investing in, binders and roll carts,When I was teaching, I would have, I'm just, I'm sure a lot of our listeners do, every kid had a station with their own binder and their own roll cart. And then I would be like, crazy and label every piece of material with, their initials, what drawer number it went in their roll cart. So, just those generic systems, I think that keep us all sane.

Audra Jensen: Yeah, those are the ones. So I thought maybe I'd go over quickly kind of the basics. I'm a big believer in having a few key things in your IEP toolkit. So before I show you the systems that I've used. Oh, and if you're not watching this on YouTube, this is one where I'm going to be showing a lot of things.

So you might want to go over and check us out on YouTube. And that's YouTube at the Misfit Behaviorists. You can find this episode and the other ones there. but I will try to describe and if I'm not describing something, Caitlin, just jump in and say, Hey, so if you're not, if you're not watching, this is what I'm showing.

So that would be great. So here are a couple of things that I like to have in all of my IEP processes. Like the first thing is an IEP-at-a-glance. I don't know if you can see that. I like to take, because you know, IEPs can be really, really long. And for staff or parents or somebody, they're not going to have the chance to review these on a regular basis because they're really long.

So I like to take an IEP, a fresh one that I've created, and then I use like a one to two page little snapshot of what it is. And it has just basically their service minutes. accommodations that they're required to have, and then just very quickly, the goal and what their progress is. I like to try to keep it down to one page.

It can go on a clipboard or in their data binder. And then if they have a BIP, then there's also a section that I put in just a quick synopsis of the BIP as well. So those behavior plans are always forefront in the minds of the staff. So that's the first thing. another thing is, of course, data sheets.

So whether you're using data, digital data, or you're using like your full size, I also like to create the little tiny ones. These are really good for the mini notebooks or the mini clipboards that can be carried around. Some of these mini clipboards also have little spots for your lanyard. So a lot of my staff would put these on the lanyard, which makes it really easy to carry the data around.

That's a really nice one. Then, I like to have a check off sheet, which has all of the goals just written down like this. And then, each day that a staff is working with a student, they can check off the programs or the goals that they worked on. And this just helps us make sure we're not missing anything.

If we don't have a specific day to day that we're tracking everything, this is a way, especially with your students who are doing a lot of skill acquisition programs, that we don't miss anything. Some of our IEPs have a lot of goals. And so we want to make sure we're not kind of accidentally missing something over the course of time. And so this is a very quick way. If I have several staff working with a student, they can go there and check the ones. And then when I pick up this. I can see, oh no, we keep forgetting or we're not having an opportunity to work on, eating with a fork. So next time we have snack, let's make sure we have a snack where they can practice stabbing the fork or whatever it is. So I like having a quick checkoff sheet. And then, of course, data graphs, anything you're using for tracking progress in that kind of visual way to make sure that we are seeing the progress or making changes that need to happen. And we are doing that kind of in as real time as possible.

Caitlin Beltran: I love that you're printing graphs in this scenario. It's way old school. I.

Audra Jensen: a little old school.

Caitlin Beltran: For, I don't know, it's funny because when I started in the public school, I was constantly printing graphs and I was like, oh, I'm the only one that wants to see these graphs. So, but now I just keep, you know, on my computer and obviously with Google, I'm just sharing more easily, but, back in the day, I would print the graphs, but I love the master checklist.

Oh, go ahead.

Audra Jensen: I was just going to say, I think that has lessened over time of printing those graphs because we do a lot more digital data today. The advantage kind of of the printed one is you have a notebook and it's moving around and wherever you are, you can kind of, flip through what's going on, but definitely over the course of the years, that's becoming less and less. We also want to save some of the trees. So we want to print less and less just because, this materials and ink, especially if you're printing out of school materials and yet that is something you have to consider.

Caitlin Beltran: Very true, but it's true. I remember that's kind of why I just chuckled because back in the day, we all had to print the graphs after each quarter and then it was kind of cool because depending on how often we cleaned out the old ones, like the staff member, maybe two classrooms down the road might just wanna be like, oh my gosh, wow. that's when he was toilet trained or see that little bump of progress that like you don't really get that anymore 'cause no one's looking like browsing digital libraries. You're just going to the one you want. but I was gonna say, I love the master checklist because we talked about in a previous episode how you know, you do not have to take data on every single goal every single day.

Usually not even close, but I never thought of like my staff usually just keep the notebooks open as they're practicing if it's not a data day. But I love the checkoff because it kind of just makes you feel a little bit more accountable that you hit just a broad range of goals for that day.

Audra Jensen: Right, I will put that and I'll put the IEP-at-a-glance that I have, I'll put those in the Facebook group so anybody can access those. They're both very quick and easy, little helpers that you can use. All right. So let's get to the heart of it. How to wrangle the materials. I have seen over the course of many years several different processes and I've used a bunch of different ones, so it's really going to be whatever works for you and your strengths and especially what works for the student that you're working on or you're working with because, every student is going to be a little bit different and that's really important. You may have in one classroom several different, kinds of students you may have different methods for each of them. You may have one system for everybody or you may have multiple systems for the variety of students you have. I think that's important to keep in mind that it can change.

Oh, I forgot this one, too. Do you have these everywhere in your room? The little like this are fishing tackle boxes

Caitlin Beltran: Or craft.

Audra Jensen: These are amazing. Oh yeah, crafting ones.

Caitlin Beltran: And the people who like bead or necklace and we used to keep all the little treats there.

Audra Jensen: That is the other thing I love to have in all of my. So this one I have just token boards. So I have a whole bunch of token boards that slip into this one because it's a really big one. And then all the little pieces from the token boards fit into there. There's only a few in there right now, but that's another thing I love to have when there's another show in town.

Caitlin Beltran: So the first method is the fat notebook, the classic three ring binder. It is the tried and true tested, binder that we all use. Sheet protectors are your friends here. These are perfect for mobile students or students who have goals with minimal materials. So we have, you have your data notebook and then each of your little sheet protectors can hold your data, your graphs, in addition to any materials that fit within that.

Audra Jensen: And so I like to just use sheet protectors for these like emotions cards and stuff like that. So that one works really well. This is probably the one in schools that I've used the most. It's also really beneficial for students who can move around themselves and can grab their own notebook and take it somewhere with them. So I like the data notebook for that reason.

Caitlin Beltran: The data notebook is my favorite and I love customizing each notebook for each student and putting something maybe like a picture of the student on the front that you can see from like across the room

Audra Jensen: Excellent. I love that. Okay. 

Caitlin Beltran: So method number two I like is the dry erase sleeve. You can get them off of Amazon, but this little system and this is really good. This fits in the goal sheet, the data, everything right inside of it, one for each goal. This one is really good if you have students who have, you want to keep You know, different goals for different students in different places throughout the room, so like you could have all of your reading goals each, labeled with the student and what the goal is.

Audra Jensen: You can have all those in the reading center and then all the math ones over here. And these are really good to be portable. I use these also with, you can get a little ring. They usually have a hole in the middle and these also can be portable for the student to carry around. I think it's really good for them to use to start to manage their own materials.

But these are just really nice because they can. They can hold more than like a sheet protector can and a little bit bigger size and everything can be self-contained in there and I usually will put this one isn't a good example, but I usually will put the front sheet will have the student's name and what the goal is.

So it's really easy to flip through for a staff to grab the one that they want. These I've also put into, the third method that I'll show you in a second, the document box. So these can all fit into there so they can Like a student has a whole bunch of those that can be carried around throughout the room if needed.

Caitlin Beltran: So we use those dry erase, sheet protectors. Is that what they're called? Like sleeves? A lot. I actually never thought of using them that way, where you would put all, everything into the sleeve for that program. So like data sheet, like pictures, if it's tacting, like put future materials, whatever. So then I could picture it all laying out on the shelf.

Audra Jensen: And what I like to do, speaking of that, is like materials. I like to have, I'll use, like three ring binders, not three ring binders, the little metal rings. And so I'll have, and I'll use little teeny post it notes that will say the current set. And so a staff can grab out the current set of materials that they're working on.

And then in addition, in that sleeve, I'll have other ones that will say next set or set three or set four or something. So that if they, and they've all been trained on how to, you know, if they look at the data and the last three people have hit 80 percent or above, they can actually move on to the next set.

As long as it's on the data sheet and they know what it is and all the materials already there for them so they can pull it out.

Caitlin Beltran: Yeah, I like doing that too when we can. It's just preparing those future materials, like if you're putting in a program for whatever, tacting, just print all those pictures at once. Because I used to print like three or five at a time, and then it's just so disjointed if they do move up early, or they're waiting on you, or you don't know who's in charge of the materials, just having a system is great.

Audra Jensen: Also, you can have mastered materials in there and then you can pull them out for maintenance checks and, integrating them with all the other programs you're working on, which is really nice to have all those materials easy to access there. Alright, so method number three is the portable box and that is, I have a couple of them here.

You can get these off Amazon or any office supply store. These are really good for students who are in, a heavy skill acquisition phase where they have a lot of materials. Those are your early learners who are working on, identifying objects, reinforcers that can be stowed away here.

Caitlin Beltran: I actually had one that most of these have, this one doesn't, have a little hole here that you can actually lock. I've had to lock a couple of these for students. Just to describe this for anyone not watching what would you call this if you were googling this or looking at like a portable file box?

Audra Jensen: I think it, it is called like a portable box file or file folder box. And it is, it fits the hanging folders in it. Those green folders that we all know that hang in file folders. And then I use those plus a manila folder in those that can have either the goals and, the data, the graphs and everything, as well as any of the materials.

So, and then this one, like I said, this one is my favorite. This one has a top, which is where you can put your pencils and your, timers and little fruit snacks, if you need one.

Caitlin Beltran: I wish I had thought of this method when I was doing aba therapy in the home and traveling home to home rather than the binders where I was trying to shove everything in.

Audra Jensen: We used to have in the clinic, we had shelves and shelves of these. They all had everybody's, every student's name. So when a student came in, we would go to the file folder. We would go to the file folder, shelving, I don't know what else to call it. And they would find their box, would have their name on it and take the box down.

And that's something you can do in schools as well as have everybody boxes there. It also helps them learn, their names and identify that type of thing. Here's another one. This one is a little bit longer and you can get the legal size to fit in this one. This just gives you a little bit more space this way, but seriously, you can throw everything in there from all your materials.

I have a little whiteboard marker, games and my favorite little story. And then, like I said, each one has the, the folder itself. And then within that, you can have all of your data and your programs as well as the, any stimuli that you need.

Caitlin Beltran: I love that

Audra Jensen: Okay, so if you even have, those are my three kind of, the three methods that I've used the most, but you mentioned another one that made me think this is another one I use is those rolling carts. Those are the ones that have multiple drawers that are long, tall things, and you can have them labeled for each of the students.

Each of the goals have all the materials in it. The rolling carts that have the wheels on them that you can roll around throughout the room. Those are great. they're the ones that's really good for a teach method. If you're running a classroom has a lot of independent work tasks and stuff and teaching students how to do that.

Moving from one drawer with the stuff they're working on, once they're finished with it, moving into the next drawer. Those are all really good methods. And don't underestimate the use of those little photo boxes. I have them around here somewhere, but those little photo boxes for stimuli, and the simple, those little metal rings.

If you have, if you don't have photo boxes, you just, put a little hole punch into all your stimuli and throw a little metal ring in there and that keeps them organized as well.

Caitlin Beltran: I love those. We used to do with our roll carts, like everybody had their own and then all the staff knew, but we would label it like top drawer was reinforcers, middle drawer was like pens, pencils, et cetera. And then the bottom was like the file folders where we'd keep all the materials in them.

Audra Jensen: Yes, excellent. So those were my ideas. My gem this week really is just to remember that there's no one size fits all. You need to experiment, find out what works for you and your students and the workflow of your classroom. The goal is to make working on the IEPs easier, even a little fun.

And ultimately, see that your learners are making the progress you want to see them make. So if you have your favorite system, we'd love to hear about it, hop onto the Facebook group, or if you're watching this on YouTube, throw a comment in there or email us, whatever. We'd love to hear you had some creative ideas and how to manage those materials. I know walking through a classroom or going from space to space and trying to carry all of the materials a lot of times is overwhelming. So creative ideas are great.

Caitlin Beltran: Absolutely. And speaking of social media, don't forget to join our Facebook group Misfit Behaviorists because we'll be posting that checklist that Audra mentioned, and also I think the IEP goal sheet. So those will be in the file library after this week. Definitely join us next week. We're gonna have a guest talking about experiences working as a BCBA in a public school district, so be sure to listen for that.

Audra Jensen: Awesome. Thank you guys. We will see you next week.

Caitlin Beltran: Thank you.