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Sharing my experience in the classroom as a life skills special ed transition teacher by providing resources and solutions for fellow educators

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How To Teach: Eating at a Sit Down Restaurant and Tipping
 

Importance of Knowing How to Behave in a Sit Down Restaurant and How to Tip

 

Your students may enjoy a sit down restaurant every week with family, they may go periodically on the weekend with friends, or they may go a couple times a year for special celebrations. Either way, they...

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How To Teach: How to Behave in a Restaurant
Importance of Having Manners When Eating at a Restaurant
Besides the grocery store, restaurants may be the community environment your students will visit the most. Therefore, it is important that they know what restaurant manners are expected of them in that setting. There are endless...
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Ordering Food at a Restaurant Worksheet
Teaching Life Skills: Ordering Food [Special Education]

For some students, ordering food from a restaurant is basically a part of their everyday life, but for others, it's an important life skill they might use a handful of times a month.  Regardless, food is a basic necessity and students are bound to access a restaurant (either by visiting...

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How To Teach: Restaurant Meal Budget Skills
Importance of Using a Restaurant Meal Budget
We may want to order everything on a restaurant menu that sounds delicious (including cheese fries, cheese curds, and a chocolate shake), but we just don’t have the money or stomach space for that. So, deciding how much money to spend on a...
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If I Had $1,000 to Spend on My Classroom

I’m going to give it to you straight right from the get-go: Some teachers will NEVER be given a budget to spend on their classroom, some will be given various amounts of money at various times with a strict timeline of when to spend it or what to spend it on, and some will have the luxury...

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How To Teach: Paying For a Purchase When Shopping

Importance of Paying for a Purchase

The checkout step at any store can be overwhelming. Some have signs on the ground, some signs are at hip level, and some are up above. Some have only human cashiers and others have a combination of self check out and cashiers. Some have only 1 check out...
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How To Teach: Cost Comparison Skills

Importance of Comparing Prices

Cost comparison is a skill that can be used anytime someone shops for something. You can compare the price of cell phones, oranges, shoes, and haircuts. However, knowing there are two factors that go into determining which is the best ‘value’ is a...
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How To Teach: Find Items In a Shopping Store

Importance of Navigating a Store

Being able to walk into a store and know where to go to get what you need can reduce anxiety and increase shopping confidence in a student. Most stores have similar layouts and will demand similar skills from the shoppers, so helping students to know how to shop...
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How To Teach: Online Banking & Using an ATM Skills

Importance of Online Banking and ATM

When was the last time you balanced your bank account using a check register? Yeah, I thought so! Online banking is now available through most banks and can eliminate a whole list of challenging tasks for our students, like completing check registers! No...
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How To Teach: Budget Skills

Importance of Teaching How to Budget

 
Knowing how to budget, money specifically, is how someone strikes the balance between getting both their needs (food, water, shelter) and wants (movie tickets, game tickets, new phone) met. We all wish we had endless amounts of money to spend, but...
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How To Teach: Paying With Cash and Debit Card

 Importance of Knowing How to Pay with Cash and a Debit Card

Many people make more purchases using a debit card than paying with cash, and very few pay with a check anymore. Therefore, learning how to pay the way stores and businesses accept payment is a must.
 
In fact, more...
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How To Teach: Counting and Adding Coins and Dollar Values
Importance of Counting and Adding Coins and Bills
Yes, the debit card (and even credit card) reign supreme in the money world, however there are still times when a student would need to not only know and add dollar bills, but also identify and count coins. So, while the need for this skill is...
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How To Teach: Following a Recipe
Importance of Following a Recipe
Cooking is just following a set of steps to create an end product. While the concept is simple, it can create a lot of opportunities for students to get off track and experience a cooking failure rather than a cooking success.
 
Learning how to...
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Kitchen Safety Lesson Resource
Teaching Cooking & Kitchen Safety: Special Education Lesson
Importance of Kitchen Safety

The kitchen is now the heart of the home. So, your students are likely in and out of their family kitchen multiple times a day, to grab a quick snack, to talk to a sibling or family member while they cook or clean, eat a meal, or get a drink of water....

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Why I Prefer Teaching Transition Over High School
I remember squating in front of a student’s desk in a high school math class where I was a co-teacher reviewing absolute value with them and how to apply it to different problems. I thought to myself, ‘they are probably never going to use this in their entire lives and yet, I must...
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How To Teach: Table Manners
Importance of Meal Manners
While you may think manners only happen at the ‘dinner table,', meals can happen anywhere. However, regardless of if your student eats at a dinner table, a pop-up tray, on the floor, or at a restaurant high-boy, they need to know what to do at each point...
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How To Teach: Packing Skills & Keeping a Wallet or Purse
Importance of Packing and Wearing or Using a Wallet or Purse
As students become teenagers and young adults, being able to hold their own things shows a level of independence. Holding on to a bag and keeping the bag with them as they move from one environment to the next will allow them to...
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How To Teach: Self Advocacy Skills
Importance of Self Advocacy
Adults advocate naturally constantly throughout their day, we just don’t come right now and announce that we are doing it (however, we really should). Therefore, advocating for yourself is not something that is typically modelled for our students on a...
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How To Teach: Cleaning A Room
Importance of Cleaning a Room
Some people are born with the need to have things clean and orderly and others...just aren’t. However, learning to keep a room clean (like a bed room or dorm room) is a useful skill. Not only will students increase their feeling of accomplishment because it...
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How to Prepare Students (and Families) for Life After Special Education
You may or may not have started counting down the days until summer break, but if it feels within reach to you then you know your students and young adults are feeling it too.
 
Students and families start to feel that final countdown stress probably before you do. They know the bus...
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Author

Heather

Blog Post Author

Heather is a former high school and transition special education educator with 15 years of experience in the classroom. She is passionate about creating high-quality, age-appropriate resources, sharing her knowledge of teaching with fellow educators, and helping Illinois families with disabled teens and young adults as they learn about and navigate the confusing world of benefits.

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