Ep. 61: 4 Must-Know Tips for New Special Education Teachers in Self-Contained Classrooms

🎙 Join Caitlin and guest Michelle Morris, an experienced self-contained classroom teacher, as they unpack real talk for new special ed teachers. From unexpected chaos to building strong staff dynamics, Michelle shares the five things she wishes she knew starting out—plus how to lean into your team and your strengths without losing your mind.

💡 Whether you're brand-new or deep in the trenches, this episode will leave you feeling seen, supported, and ready to pivot with grace.

🔑 Key Takeaways
🌀 Be flexible—plans change, behaviors erupt, and that’s okay
🙅 Don’t take things personally—from students or staff
🤝 Use your resources—you're not expected to do it all alone
✨ Play to your strengths (and your team’s!)
🧘‍♀️ Take breaks when you need them—it’s not weakness, it’s wisdom

📚 Resources and Ideas
🎧 Other episodes you’ll love:
🔗 Ep. 47: Managing Paras
🔗 Ep. 30: Supervising RBTs and Paras
🔗 Misfit Minute #5: Best Clipboards for data collection

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📢 Share this episode with a teacher, BCBA, or administrator looking for fresh approaches to special education and behavior analysis!
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📚 Connect: Follow us for more tips, tools, and discussions about all things behavior and education.  

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Transcript

Ep. 61: 4 Must-Know Tips for New Special Education Teachers in Self-Contained Classrooms

Caitlin: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. It's Caitlin from the Misfit Behaviors Podcast. Welcome back. Audra is off this week and I am joined by one of the most amazing special education teachers I have ever had the honor of working with, Michelle Morris. Welcome Michelle.

Michelle: Hi. Hi, how are you?

Caitlin: Awesome. So first let's just hear a little bit about you, your background. How did you get started in special education?

Michelle: Sure. I had graduated college with an elementary ed degree and I just wasn't ready to start rest. I ended up, aftercare program at an out of district school placement in autism services. And from there it just spiraled. I really loved the kids and what they did and what they stood for at the company. I worked at their aftercare program and that turned into me substituting, which turned into me then becoming a head teacher and then lead teacher and ca also. So yeah, the whole thing .

Caitlin: So right now you teach a self-contained classroom within a public school district. And what is the age range or grade level of your students?

Michelle: [00:01:00] My grade level students are kindergarten to second grade, so it's about six or five to eight, depending on their birthdays.

Caitlin: And what is like the, I know there's no two children arelike, but within your classroom, what types of skills, what type of skill level are we talking about?

Michelle: We have a variety of skills in our room. I have some students that are more physically limited in their capabilities, so they need a lot more physical prompting to do things. I have other students that are, they know their letters, their numbers, they're reading, sight words. Most of my students are nonverbal or have limited verbal abilities. So they have a device that they use to communicate. Yeah, they're really good and socially is where I think, and, behaviorally is where my students probably need the most support.

That is what probably most of our listeners are resonating with right now. So let's jump into some of 

Caitlin: the tips you put together. I think you came up with four tips that you wish you knew when you started teaching self-contained. So what is your top number one tip that every self-contained teacher going into this should know?

My number one tip is to be flexible. There's so many ins and outs with our students [00:02:00] who need all the 

Michelle: support, with all the support staff that are coming in. And your schedule is gonna be totally different 'cause you generally have mixed grades. Be flexible. Our students, their behaviors are sometimes unpredictable or, you don't necessarily know when it's coming. You might plan for a group and that group gets derailed because some student decides to, scream or engage in some disruptive behaviors and that totally, impedes your group. But you know what, that's okay. I think being flexible, you have to realize, you know what, not every group's gonna be perfect, especially with our population, but those opportunities are great opportunities to help our students learn and be better also. They could benefit from learning a lot of functional communication, especially in those moments. And it's important for them to also learn to be flexible because that is a hard skill for them too.

Caitlin: I can attest from working with you for so long now, how flexible you are, and I think that's a testament to you that you, I don't wanna say, like when we talk about special ed and being flexible, and sometimes people take that the wrong way. " Oh, so just lower your expectations." And I [00:03:00] think it's more about reframing because there's been so many times where I've debriefed with you at the end of the day or the end of the week and you say, oh, yesterday's group was a little wild. It started off this way and then this student, this happened. But you not only are able to pivot with that and be flexible and model that flexibility with your students, but you're always able to find that positive spin. So something you just mentioned like maybe a behavior started, but maybe that was the perfect opportunity to prompt that replacement skill and it led to a teaching moment. So that's something I think is an awesome reminder for any teacher to know as well.

Michelle: With, all the staff coming in and out, sometimes IEP meetings pop up or unexpected, they get held up because of behavior from another student or, whatever it is, their schedules might be changed. So you might expect a student to be taken at a certain time that might not happen. And that's okay. It's no one's fault, it just is what it is. Yeah, being flexible. And that leads me into my next tip actually, Is, don't take anything personally with everybody involved, you have to understand where they're coming from and everyone's gonna have different points of views on [00:04:00] things. Just remember that you're the teacher and don't take anything personally from staff or even students. Sometimes those students have those nagging behaviors that dig at you and you just have to take a deep breath and not take it personally. You may have a staff member come in and say, Hey, why don't you try using this? Or Why aren't you using this type of tool to help the student, like I told you, and you know what, don't take it personally. Sometimes those moments just come up and again, it's forgetful, so don't take it personally and then it helps work well with others.

Caitlin: I love that because when you first started, I thought you were only speaking in regards to the student behaviors, which is something I feel like we hear a lot. Don't take their behaviors personally. Don't take it personally if they have a physical issue or something like that, which I feel like we hear over and over, but I think it's so important to remember as a self-contained special education teacher, even with staff, like you mentioned, like there's gonna be times where like your coverage, like that person's meeting ran super late or something like that. Or your speech therapist or occupational therapist forgot to push in for their session. And it's so easy to get caught up in those little things, but [00:05:00] when you remember like how busy they are, how much work they're putting into your classroom too, that nothing is personal, whether it's a student behavior or a staff member's response on any given day.

That leads me into my third tip, which is use your resources. We have our speech therapists, our ot, our pt, anybody else, even anyone else in the building, other teachers for curriculum. Use 

Michelle: your resources if you need help. I don't know everything, and, something might not be working and they can help you and support you in that regard. So let's just say, the ot missed your session, or you notice something happening while the student was like writing their paper, using their handwriting and, always bring it up to them. They're the ones who can give you that support and tools that you need. I can't tell you how many times I've asked staff members " what do you think that I should do?" And, everyone's always willing to help. So don't be afraid to ask.

Caitlin: I think that's such a great tip because a lot of times a special ed teacher might feel pressure to have to know how to do it all themselves because you're hired in this like super unique role. You're hired to work with these students that like nobody else has the training for. So I've seen a lot of [00:06:00] teachers fall into that trap where it's like you don't wanna ask for help because maybe you see it as like a sign of weakness or something. But like you said, we might not be the experts in autism or ABA or this behavior plan or that. But I don't know anything, I didn't go to school for teaching a child how to write their letters or teaching a child how to use the communication device or something. So we often work with so many experts in their fields and I've seen you really pave the way for that like collaborative relationship, like true open door policy where you make everyone feel comfortable offering suggestions and you are very receptive to things, whether or not you use them that day or not. I think you set the great model for that collaborative relationship in a classroom like yours where there are constantly adults in your room.

Michelle: I'm not saying it's not a lot, it can be overwhelming sometimes. Absolutely. But we're ultimately here for the students and I can't do the best by them because I don't know everything. Use those resources to help you.

Caitlin: Yeah, and I think too, just again, reframing those expectations, like you said, it, it's constant, and I'm sure it can [00:07:00] be draining. I remember that when I was teaching. There were days where I'm like, oh my God, if that door opens one more time, go into it saying oh, I bet nobody's gonna come in today and offer me a suggestion like, that's never gonna happen. Like you have to know that's your environment where a thousand adults work with these kids and they all want like a little bit of control and have something to say, something that's valid. So I think the more you expect that and are receptive to those suggestions, that also paves the way for, there may be a suggestion where you're like, you know what? I'm not ready to try that. And then that person's receptive to your follow up to that. And then that collaborative relationship can really bloom. 

Michelle: I really do feel like I do have strong, positive relationships with my staff members and like also the staff in my classroom, and I encourage them to always ask me for help as well. If they ever need anything or there's something they're confused about, please don't hesitate, interrupt my work session. It's fine. Just say, hey, when you have a second. If that's too busy, there's always a box you can leave. Hey write on a post-it. Anything you're thinking of during work session or while you're working with that student and I'm working with this student, and we can [00:08:00] debrief in the morning or at the end of the day, anything helps that.

Caitlin: And I think that's another one too, like with your parents or your aides, if you're lucky enough to have a few in your classroom, you don't wanna set the tone where it's like they're afraid to come to you for questions or you are too brisk with them where they don't feel like they can interrupt you for like even a split second to ask something quick. And you set a great model for that as well where they feel comfortable. Like they know if you're like hands-on with a student, they're not gonna interrupt you and go, what should I do in this moment? They all feel comfortable and nobody feels silly asking you too many questions and so you get a lot of questions, but I'd rather get a lot of questions and have them a little smoother than have someone go, oh, I was afraid to ask. And so I did that. Like totally blew up and it was the wrong thing to do.

Michelle: And it's okay. We all make mistakes and especially with our students. Sometimes you try something, it doesn't work, you try something else, but you're right, we need each other to help come up with those strategies. I also ask them questions. Ask them what they think is working and not working, whether it's regard to the classroom, student programming, it could be schedules. I know sometimes I'm not an organized person. Oh, this is my next tip is play to your strengths and your staffs. [00:09:00] I know I'm not an organized person and I try to be, I'm working on it. I really am. But some of my staff are, so I really use my staff for certain things. I have some staff that are better making crafts, coming up with ideas. I might say, Hey, I wanna work on this today. And they'll say, Hey, we should do this, and this. This will work for this student, this won't work for that. Also some staff are better at running certain things, like we do an activity schedule in my classroom. Some paras might be better with a certain student versus another student. So again, I play to their strengths and if we're going outside and I need someone who's gonna be able to chase one of the students, I pair them with that para, if someone's hurt that day, sometimes I hurt my back. That's just physical, but it could be towards anything. But play to your strengths and also your staff. So it helps our classroom run more smoothly. I always ask Hey, what do you need from me? They're like, Michelle, I need a schedule. I'm like, okay, I'll get you that schedule, then. If they can have that so I can help them, then we can really help our students the most.

Caitlin: It's is so funny to me 'cause you always say you're not organized and to me like you're so organized because it's all in your brain. Like I don't know how you keep track of like where all your kids and all your kids are every [00:10:00] second. So I guess you're not organized in another way that I don't see like. And I know you delegate that to your paras. Like when I walked in the other day and one of them was organizing the chips by flavor in the closet and you could tell like that was where she like, she wanted total control over that. And you were like, by all means

Michelle: Please organize that. I cannot, I guess I don't think about myself as organized, but you're right, I have everything going on in here, but sometimes we need it written down and I don't have to realize that other people might need that as well, even though I don't need it. They may need it.

Caitlin: It's hand in hand with your last tip because they feel comfortable asking you. They're not gonna say oh, I'm gonna write it down myself, or try to write it down and get it wrong. Like they're just gonna be like, I need this to function and you're gonna get it to them as soon as you can. And then it's like win-win. You're both happy.

Those are awesome tips. I think anyone starting out or even who has been teaching special ed for a long time can benefit from.

Michelle: The only thing I just wanna add is don't be afraid to ask for a break. If you don't, you're having a moment. The door is opening too many times. You're not getting compliance or something's really getting to you. Don't be afraid to ask for a break and say, Hey guys, I need a minute. And take that time for [00:11:00] yourself. We've been getting out on walks at lunchtime and really just getting outta the classroom is just refreshing. So it's been nice.

Caitlin: I would echo that. And also, I remember like when I became a new mom and everyone was like, take the help when people offer it 'cause so many people wanna help you. But again, in that role, you feel like, no, I have to do it all myself. So you don't always wanna ask for help. So I feel like there's always people that are willing to help more so than you even know and totally just take advantage. That is it. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Join us next week for another episode, and don't forget to join our Facebook group. Thank you so much for joining us, Michelle, and

Michelle: thanks for having me.

Caitlin: Bye.