Blog Post Listing

At the beginning of May, schools around the country will celebrate teacher appreciation week. As a former special teacher, I can relate to the dedication and commitment of special educators to help their students succeed. Often, special educators will put in extra hours outside of the classroom, working to find lesson plans that work for their students or finding new ways to teach information that students are not grasping. Our Healthy Relationships Team appreciates all your work and is here to help you every step of the way.

The Healthy Relationships Team realizes that all special educators need a little help sometimes, and that’s why it features ongoing consultations and support. We understand that the best way to appreciate special educators is to partner with them and offer our expertise to the challenges you face. Special educators can always ask us questions about lessons and ways to help their students with various needs learn.

What helps make our Healthy Relationships Curriculum easy to use and reliable is the work of the special educators who helped design it. These special educators have been in your shoes and understand and value the hard work you do every single day. That is why they developed our curriculum with strategies and lessons that work.

Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum also features a variety of ways to make teaching your students fun, including role-playing scenarios and interactive instructions—all designed to build practical social skills and activities for students.  Our curriculum features easy ways to connect with parents and encourages caregiver involvement and home reinforcement so that students can practice their skills in real-world settings.

To make it easier and less time-consuming, our Healthy Relationships Curriculum also features digital monitoring tools so you can track students’ progress and find areas where they need support.

I spent more than 20 years as a special education teacher & now a supervisor and have never come across a program that simultaneously supports educators and students. I would encourage you to look at our sample lessons and request a free demonstration of our Healthy Relationships Curriculum! I also encourage you to schedule a meeting with our team and discuss our curriculum. We are always happy to answer your questions!

Author: Jen Falkowski, MEd — Supervisor of Special Education

Springtime is here, and so is the fun that comes with this time of year. The warmer weather and fun activities mean you might need help keeping students motivated. Students with varying needs may even need extra support in staying motivated to succeed in the classroom Luckily, our Healthy Relationships Curriculum provides many fun learning outcomes to help engage your students during the home stretch of the school year.

Part of what helps keep students motivated during the final months of the school year is helping them remember that learning can be fun. Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum provides fun opportunities for our students to learn. Instead of using the same repetitive teaching methods, Healthy Relationships provides students with a variety of fun ways to learn. These ways to learn include:

• Role Plays, Demonstrations, and Life-Skills Activities: The best way to teach life skills is by having students use them. Our role-playing demonstrations allow students to practice the skills they learned during their lessons.
• Over 60 Scenario Cards: These scenario cards turn the lessons into real-life situations to help them better understand the lessons.
• Lesson Activities & Games: Our games are designed to actively teach lessons in a fun, active way to help keep students motivated. These pre-made games were by our team of educators & counselors.
• Fun activities and videos for parents to help students with various needs practice the skills they learned out of the classroom settings
• And much more!

However, students aren’t the only ones who need to find ways to stay motivated; teachers do as well. Sometimes, planning lessons that are fun for students can be time-consuming. We understand this and offer consultations and development opportunities for our teachers so they can help students thrive in and out of the classroom.

I believe our Healthy Relationships Curriculum features the perfect blend of fun activities and support mechanisms to help students succeed in and out of the classroom, especially during the final weeks of the school year. But don’t just take my word for it. If you want to help your students stay motivated to succeed, I encourage you to watch this informational video about our Healthy Relationships Curriculum. After that, request a free demo of our curriculum so you can get started teaching it!

Author: Melissa Ringold, MEd — Curriculum/Instruction Coach

During March, we celebrated Employee Appreciation Day. This day is meant to serve as a thank you to employees for all their hard work. One group that deserves additional notice and “thank yous” are teachers- specifically special education teachers. Special Education teachers work hard to ensure students with varying needs succeed in and out of the classroom. I worked for 20+ years as a special education teacher and know how much work planning lessons for a variety of student needs can be. It takes extra time and effort to develop these lessons. Often, special education teachers’ work goes unnoticed. However, our Healthy Relationships Curriculum strives to help and appreciate teachers every step of the way.

Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum provides special educators the help and support they need when they need it. Whether you are planning lessons or just have a question, we are always ready to assist. We understand that there is only so much time in a day, and you would rather be helping your students succeed than planning lessons or spending hours trying to find answers to a question.

Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum comes with a variety of benefits for instructors so they can spend less time frustrated and more time helping students succeed.

These include:

• Comprehensive Professional Development: We know that teaching special education can be challenging and offer real-life experiences, so you can confidently teach our curriculum.
• Tips & Suggestions For Teaching Lesson Content: We ensure teachers feel appreciated and valued by taking their suggestions seriously and incorporating them into lessons.
• Ongoing Consultation: We want to be your partner and help you through complex topics and challenges during the year.
• Built in measurement tools to easily gauge students learning outcomes.

Additionally, our Healthy Relationships Curriculum is designed to fit seamlessly with IEP requirements and can be worked into lessons you may have already developed.

Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum understands special education teachers’ needs, supports them, and appreciates their work. I wish a program like this had existed when I started teaching to add more guidance to my work and help my students succeed. If you think you could benefit from our curriculum, I encourage you to look at our overview video and request a free demonstration of our Healthy Relationships Curriculum! You can also contact us anytime by reaching out through the chat function on the website. We are always happy to answer educators’ questions!

Every special education instructor knows that the skills taught in the classroom must be reinforced outside of school to help students foster and develop those skills further. Feedback and progress tracking are essential, as they show where students excel and where deficiencies may arise. That’s why our Healthy Relationships Curriculum includes digital monitoring tools to help your track student’s progress.

Our digital monitoring Skills Evaluation in our myHRC Online Participant tracking tools allows educators to see how students use the skills they learned in the classroom in a real-world setting. This tool enables parents/caregivers to update students’ progress at home so that instructors can see what skills are being used in real-time. Our Skills Evaluation allows everyone involved in the student’s education to collect data on the student’s progress, view progress, and praise the students when they use skills taught in the classroom.

Our Participant Tracking tools also assist in allowing educators to know which lessons students with various needs are not grasping and may need additional support. Because of this, educators can make changes to their lessons in real-time to reinforce the skills the students may need extra help with and provide lessons to demonstrate outside the classroom.

Some of the other features of our Skills Evaluation include the ability to:

• Measure IEP/Treatment Goals
• Show what goals are understood and demonstrated by the participant
• Capture participant data from the beginning to the end of courses
• Visually show progress using color-coded graphs
• And much more!

During my 20 years as a special education teacher, I can attest that digital monitoring tools provide needed insights in the classroom. They help educators know what skills are being used at home and allow us to adjust our lessons to help students make progress quickly. Through this program, parents and educators can feel confident that their children/students will make progress. If you want more information about our digital monitoring features and our curriculum, please reach out via the contact us page on our website. Here, you can meet with our team and request sample lessons to see if our Healthy Relationships Curriculum is right for you!

Author: Jen Falkowski, MEd — Supervisor of Special Education

Happy New Year! A new year means new adventures and new challenges. It also means that students return to the classroom after a hopefully restful winter break. It also means that students have not been adhering to their daily routines because they weren’t in the classroom every day. Getting students back into an established routine can prove challenging. Luckily, our Healthy Relationships Curriculum can help. 

 

Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum knows the importance of routines. Special educators know their students best, and our team works with them to help find the ways our adaptable curriculum can serve their students and routines more efficiently and effectively. 

 

Our curriculum provides many opportunities for educators to build routines for their students. We understand that no two students learn the same way, which is why our curriculum features a variety of ways to teach students. Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum offers easy-to-use lessons to guide you in delivering challenging lessons. These lessons cover every topic, from basic hygiene to making friends to dating for our older students. 

 

Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum also understands the importance of using visuals and alternate means of learning. That’s why our program includes over nearly 200 role-play & demonstration videos, over 60 scenario cards to help students practice real-life skills, and fun, interactive role-playing games to act out the lessons.

 

However, we understand that routines must also be created at home, on weekends, and over any prolonged break from school. To make this as easy as possible for students, our Healthy Relationships Curriculum encourages special education teachers to work with students’ parents and encourage involvement. We provide the resources they need to work with their child at home to continue their education with easy-to-understand reinforcement activities and methods to keep them engaged in practicing the skills they learned in the classroom.

 

I spent more than 20 years as a special education teacher and have never come across a program that simultaneously supports educators and students. They can feel comfort in knowing that our program will adapt to the needs and routines of their students. Please review our sample lessons and request a free demonstration of our Healthy Relationships Curriculum! You can also use the chat function on our website to contact us. We are always happy to take questions from educators in live time. 

Author: Melissa Ringold, MEd — Curriculum/Instruction Coach

Each year, those in the special education community reflect on the importance of Dec. 2.  On this day in 1975, President Ford signed the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which ensured special education programs were available in all public schools and allowed students with varying needs to receive the help they needed. Since then, Dec. 2 has been celebrated as National Special Education Day. On this day, we strive to bring awareness to the special education community and honor educators that work in this field

Special education is essential to ensure students with various needs develop the life skills they need to succeed. Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum is designed to help students with these needs gain skills and form meaningful relationships. When teaching students with varying needs, it is crucial to have a curriculum that can easily adapt to their needs. Our curriculum features a variety of resources, including in-person role-playing activities, 180+ videos, scenario cards to help discuss the skills learned, and games to reinforce skills.

We also want to thank all special education teachers for their work. Filled with compassion, these teachers care so much about their students and want to see them succeed.  Those who teach our Healthy Relationships Curriculum know how much we care about them and their students. We provide these instructors with professional development to effectively teach lessons and adapt to their students’ needs. I’ve seen firsthand in talking with our teachers that they are always looking for new ways to help every one of their students excel and find the proper ways to teach their lessons. Special education teachers go above and beyond what is required of them and make an impact on so many lives.

Thank you to all special education teachers out there. And, if you are not using our Healthy Relationships Curriculum, you might want to click this link to schedule a demo.

Author: Jen Falkowski, MEd — Supervisor of Special Education

All teachers strive to relate to their students, especially teachers of students with various needs. Relating to students helps them pay attention in class and absorb the information they are learning. The students may also want to ask the teachers questions and feel empowered to do their best in the classroom. However, a language barrier can prevent the students and teachers from properly interacting in the school may occur.

That’s where our Healthy Relationships Curriculum can help. We understand language barriers make it more difficult for students with varying needs to learn the life skills their educators are trying to teach them. To help solve this problem, our resource is designed with home supplements and videos available in English and Spanish.

Our Spanish videos provide the same level of quality instruction as our English videos. They still cover our three essential modules for lifelong success: hygiene, human development, and forming relationships, but they are available in the first language the students speak. These videos feature Spanish-speaking students and take-home Spanish resources that encourage parent/caregiver involvement to reinforce these skills.

Additionally, our program also features an extensive library of videos that demonstrate examples of the student’s skills in the classroom, reinforce the importance of the skills, and show how to use these skills in real-life situations. Our library of videos is accessible not only in the classroom but also at home, making retention of lesson concepts easier with family encouragement and involvement.

Our lessons will help you relate to your students and allow them to access the materials when needed without someone there to translate for them. That’s what helps set our curriculum apart. We continually look for new ways to involve students who speak different languages – whether in the classroom or at home. We make it easy for educators to give the same level of attention and care to students who speak Spanish in their class and build lessons they will understand. We also can provide educators with ongoing consultation to help answer questions and make their lessons the best they can be!

As a  special education teacher for more than 20 years, I have yet to see a program with the level of detail that our lesson plans provide.  If you think our curriculum might be suitable for your students, please reach out and request a demo!

Author: Jen Falkowski, MEd — Supervisor of Special Education

As we transition into fall, many fun activities start to happen. People enjoy picking apples and making their way out of corn mazes. The crisp smell of bond fires fills the air. Halloween is right around the corner. I do not know about you, but I love the fall season—especially Halloween. Something about the costumes and decorations makes this holiday fun and exciting. Receiving delicious candy also helps.

However, as a special education teacher for over 20 years, I know that this time of year can be challenging for students with varying needs. There can be a lot of overt stimulation because of parties, costumes, and families’ schedules change frequently. That is why I recommend special education teachers use Halloween and the fall season as an opportunity to reinforce—not shy away—the skills that your students are building.

Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum teaches students a variety of social skills topics including setting appropriate physical boundaries, building, and maintaining relationships, and even what to wear.

When students are invited to Halloween parties and fall get-togethers, these are opportunities where their social skills may be evaluated. Our program offers numerous resources to help you craft lessons that can fit into any situation. For example, you might want to teach students what appropriate attire is for various events. Our program will help you teach proper ways to inform students why they need to wear clothes that can get muddy at a corn maze, why warm clothes at a bonfire is necessary during cold evenings, and why the fun of wearing a custom should be limited to wearing it on Halloween.

When you purchase this program, you will receive access to more than 180 videos, lesson plans, role-playing and demonstrations, and an online portal that allows you to teach these concepts more concretely to those students and clients we work with daily. Because our team has spent decades teaching and working with students with various needs, we have been in your position and are poised to answer any questions you might have. I would encourage you to take a look at a sample lesson or reach out to request a free trial to learn how you can implement this program with your students.

Enjoy a safe, fun fall season filled with good times and memories!

Author: Jen Falkowski, MEd — Supervisor of Special Education

As a former special education teacher, I, know all too well, the time, work, and sometimes, yes, frustration that is involved with lesson planning. With schools across the nation back in session for the academic year, September has always proved to be one of the busiest months of the year. Trying to get students acclimated to classes after the long summer break can be difficult, and educators’ professional development needs often gets moved off the priority list.

When my colleagues and I started to develop the Healthy Relationships Curriculum years ago, I immediately understood the benefits it provides to educators. Not only was it developed by individuals that are passionate about special educational programming, but it was also designed to save educators time, so they can teach their students more efficiently and effectively.

Our team understands that standardized requirements and IEPs can often be in direct conflict with one another. Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum addresses these divergent priorities, giving you the tools you need to prepare your students.

In fact, our Healthy Relationships Curriculum provides many benefits for instructors so they can achieve real results with students. These benefits include:

• Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum fitting seamlessly into lessons/activities you have already developed.
• Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum is designed to meet IEP efficiency standards, so you will not need to worry about your lessons being scrutinized.
• Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum addresses real world life skills to prepare students for adulthood.
• Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum comes ready to use and has built in measurement tools to gauge students learning outcomes.

And just don’t take my word for it!   Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum has helped countless educators navigate the unique challenges that arise in their classrooms. Take for example Alicia, an Autistic Support/Life Skills Teacher at Carlynton School District in Pennsylvania. Alicia told us that she appreciated how the program not only provides “great information” for her students, but it served as a professional development for herself.

The professional development and support that our Healthy Relationships Curriculum provides is one of the key features that make it stand out from other educational programs.  I spent more than 20 years as a special education teacher & now a supervisor and have never come across a program that simultaneously supports educators and students. I would encourage you to look at our sample lessons and request a free demonstration of our Healthy Relationships Curriculum! You can also contact us at any time  by reaching out through our the chat function on the website. We are always happy to take questions from educators in live time.

Author: Jen Falkowski, MEd — Supervisor of Special Education

 

Happy back-to-school month! All throughout this month, schools over the United States will welcome students back to begin another year of learning. Teachers of students with various needs are ready to welcome them back into the classroom to teach them life and relationship skills. Below are a few tips to keep in mind for this school year and how our Healthy Relationships Curriculum can help you accomplish them.

• Establish a robust curriculum: The most essential step for setting students with various needs up for success is using a curriculum built to tackle their requirements. Without a strong curriculum, students might fail to learn the skills they need to succeed in life. Special education teachers designed our Healthy Relationships Curriculum for special education teachers, so you know you’ll share lessons that work with your students.
• Be adaptable: As special educators know, being flexible with your students is important. Adapting to their learning style will help them succeed. That’s why we include multiple ways to help students learn. Our Curriculum features over 180+ videos, visual cue cards, and role-playing/demonstration scenarios.
• Communication with family is critical: Parents/guardians of students want to be involved in lessons and help their children succeed. Our Healthy Relationships Curriculum encourages parental involvement by sharing videos and online, revisable documents directly with families. We encourage our educators to discuss what their children learn in the classroom and how they can help practice these skills at home.
• Do not teach alone: We know planning the perfect lesson can be difficult. That’s why we offer special educators support and professional development in addition to an outstanding curriculum. This means whenever you have a question or need help, we will be able to guide you through the curriculum and help your students succeed.

Being a special education teacher can be as challenging as it is rewarding. However, teaching a program like our Healthy Relationships Curriculum can help make teaching simple and allow your students to achieve better learning outcomes. Trust me, I have spent over 20 years in special education and have never seen a Curriculum as comprehensive as this. It gives you and your students all the tools you need to succeed.

Teachers all around the country are using our Healthy Relationships Curriculum and seeing their students thrive. I encourage you to take a minute and read their feedback. After reading their stories, please request a demonstration of our Healthy Relationships Curriculum so you can start using it with your students!

Author: Jen Falkowski, MEd — Supervisor of Special Education