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Writer's pictureThe ED Queen
Jul 107 min read

Take a Look in my Self-Contained Behavior Classroom!

So, you are taking over a self-contained, special education classroom and you are wracking your brain on how to set it up! I spent each year curating the ideal physical space for my students based on their needs and behaviors. Let's take a look at my top favorite spaces and set ups I created over the years and the intentionality of why I set it up that way.




Here is a 360 degree view of the room. Starting at my teacher desk all the way around the room. If you're wondering why my classroom wasn't 'pinterest cute', it's because I focused more on intentionality and functionality of the space. I wanted it to not be over-stimulating for students, but still feel cozy and accessible for their needs.


Teacher Area & Organization



Alright, let's start with my teacher station! I absolutely loved this set up. Prior to this, I had a traditional teacher desk, and that clunky metal desk just sat in the corner and rarely got used. Honestly, the clunky teacher desk resulted in so many power struggles as students would go under it or get into the drawers. After one year of that, I had enough. I used a gofund me for the u-shaped table and purchased the cubed organizer and rolling cart. I ran my teacher-led station from this area and all of my lesson plans were in the rolling cart. The left side of the rolling cart had the materials for the lesson plans organized by subject and day of the week, and the right side had various drawers for organization from materials that needed prepped, checklists, visuals, math materials, etc. This rolling cart was a GAME CHANGER for organization and teaching multi-grade level instruction. Some years I was teaching 5 grade levels! This helped to keep all the materials in one place and allowed me to keep my sanity. You can snag the rolling cart off my amazon affiliate link here:


If you are curious about how I planned for multi-grade level instruction, read the blog post here:


I loved the cube organizers to store binders, small drawers, data collection clipboards, technology or miscellaneous items! Having this behind my desk made the binders more accessible and I kept all my IEP data collection tools in it, which allowed for ease of access when students were really engaged in work! I never had to disrupt or lose the momentum with them because I could just easily turn around and grab my materials. Here are amazon affiliate links to all the materials that were on the cubed organizers:


Cube organizer: https://a.co/d/1DNUlKI

1 inch binders: https://a.co/d/1c8uxsv


Fidget and Sensory Systems

When I first started in the classroom, I had most of my fidgets and sensory tools for free access...well, big mistake! Allowing everything to be free access distracted from learning and made the classroom lack intentionality in being a learning environment. Even though my students needed more opportunities for regulation and breaks, we still wanted to focus on building skills academically and social-emotionally. I had all of my sensory tools and brain bin materials in these tubs and up in cabinets. Students could use hand signals to request materials. This helped us to build student's self-advocacy skills, but also create boundaries and limits to access of materials.


The image on the right, were my brain bins! We started each day with using brain bins as opposed to traditional paper and pencil morning work. I loved the shift I saw in my students when we started using these. You can read more about my 'brain building' mornings in this blog post: https://www.theedqueenbehaviorblog.com/post/morning-routine Here are amazon affiliate links or TPT links to the materials above:


Plastic storage bins: https://a.co/d/64O35IO

Laminating sheets: https://a.co/d/a0Pjg2i


Student Desk & Area


We had various student desk arrangements over the years. My first year we did round tables and students didn't really have assigned areas (disaster). We attempted pods a few years! It went ok, however if you have a class of students who struggle with peer interaction, it may not be the best choice. My last few years of teaching we really landed on individual areas with velcro boundaries around their desk. At first I thought the kids would hate it, but honestly they LOVED it. The ownership of having their own area and space allowed them to create safe areas to regulate or go to when they were upset. I also loved the visual boundary as it helped support my students with impulsivity. We did lots of flexible seating in my room, so this allowed them the ability to lay on the floor in their area or bring flexible seating furniture near their desk. The velcro dot and boxes also helped me to keep my sanity in keeping the desks in the areas they needed to be in. At the end of each day, we had a photo on our powerpoint of what their desks should look like before they got on the bus. This helped create collective ownership over keeping our classroom clean!



One other impactful part of the student desks were the magnetic hooks on the side of their desks! We stored each student's individual social stories, token boards, visuals, etc. on the side of their desk with a key ring and the magnetic hook. This helped tremendously with organization of their materials. Each morning students read through their social stories or processed through their visual supports. This was embedded in our routine and the materials were easily accessible by staff and students. Here are amazon affiliate links to all the materials:


Velcro for the boxes: https://a.co/d/bbVsJgD

Velcro dots for the desks: https://a.co/d/5mHYUNw

Editable free nametag from my TPT store:

Magnetic hooks: https://a.co/d/g9t1yoF



Visual Schedules


Would you believe me if I told you this was my favorite part of my classroom? Woof, I was in love with this color coded visual schedule. I primarily was an ED teacher, but towards my last few years in the classroom I received more students with an ASD diagnosis. So, I shifted my classroom to support their needs. We transformed a part of the white board into a visual schedule. Each student was assigned a color and a picture of their face was on the right side of their colored visuals. After each subject area, students would 'check their schedule' and move their face down along the velcro strip. A few reasons this was so helpful 1.) being in multi-grade level classroom, it was so important for us to ensure all students stayed on schedule! 2.) the color coding was so helpful for student organization as well as having their face up on the board and moving down throughout the day helped them to visually see the day as it progressed. 3.) I mean, look at it. It is so cute!!





Call me crazy, but I actually had 2 separate visual schedule systems. In my defense, this one below was more for the teacher and para organization. As students moved their face down along their colored visual schedule throughout the day, we also had a powerpoint up and running throughout the day. This powerpoint ran off 15 minute increments breaking down for students and staff what was happening during that 15 minute time. So how did this powerpoint and the student, color-coded schedule work together? Say students were cued to move their face to the visual for 'reading'. This cued to students that we were starting the reading block. 90 minutes is a long block without a visual to break down stations! We then cued students to use the powerpoint so it told them what specific reading station to be at. Key information I included in the powerpoint:

  • A visual for each station in the reading block

  • Visuals for the technology websites they were to be on

  • Color coding that aligned with the lesson plans for myself and paras to be able to pull the correct plans for the students

  • A 'star' to indicate any special events certain students needed to go to. For example: if I had a student who was joining their general education classroom for a special activity

  • A lunch/recess visual because you know when you teach self-contained and try and include your students in general education as much as you can, trying to remember all the lunch and recess schedules for the different grade levels is hard!

  • A song embedded in the powerpoint to cue students to switch to the next station


Did the powerpoint take a lot of time to create? Absolutely, but this was the heart and soul of keeping my students on their schedule as well as providing visuals and prompts for my paras so they knew exactly what they were to be doing! This kept me from having to redirect verbally all the time and helped students to learn to use their resources around them to stay on track with their schedule.


Visual Supports, Everywhere!





If we had a system, we made a visual for it! My classroom was full of visuals supports and scripts. This made students so independent! And some of the visuals were 0% cute, but focused more on teaching and cueing students the appropriate behavior or procedure to get access to something. Anytime we had a behavioral issue, classroom management problem or needed to be intentional with teaching a space we always started with asking ourselves "how can we reinforce or teach this skill with a visual?" Visuals helped us to not only teach skills, but reduce so much of our verbal language with kids. Verbal language is often the beginning of a power struggle. You can take the power out of the struggle, by teaching and reinforcing with visuals to allow students independence! Here is a link to my free resource library and TPT store with some of these visuals:



Make your classroom your home

If there is one thing that is certain, your classroom is your home. Your home for you and your students. A home where you can create the culture and cultivate the love for your babies. A home that allows you to show students their worth in your eyes. The home that sets the mood and creates the standard for which you will live as a family this year. As you think about the intentionality of your space, don't forget that this space is for small humans who need a lot of love, patience and understanding. Make that space for them!



This blog contains amazon affiliate links.

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