Building Wings

08/21/2026

Educators, how did this week look for YOU? 📚✏️

Back-to-school season looks a little different everywhere. Some educators spent the week welcoming students and learning new names. Others were deep in professional development, classroom setup, and planning. And some are still holding onto those final days of summer before the school year begins. ☀️

Wherever you are in the back-to-school journey, we want to hear about it!

💬 Are you back with students, prepping with your team, or still on summer break? Drop your answer in the comments! 👇

Here’s to a school year filled with connection, growth, and plenty of moments worth celebrating. 💙

08/21/2026

Your students need consistency. Your teachers need time. Daily Routines help provide both. 📚🔢

Delivering research-based literacy and math instruction every day shouldn’t require educators to constantly search for materials, create lessons from scratch, or figure out what comes next.

Daily Routines in Readtopia® and ReadtopiaGO® provide a connected system of short, predictable lessons designed for emergent readers, AAC users, and students with significant cognitive disabilities.

Students build foundational skills in letter knowledge, phonological awareness, phonics, word reading and writing, and early number sense—all through consistent routines designed to support participation, confidence, and measurable growth.

For educators, that means less prep and more purposeful teaching.

For students, it means knowing what to expect while getting repeated opportunities to practice, communicate, and grow.

And if you haven’t explored Readtopia recently, it may be time for another look. Today’s Readtopia is more interactive, connected, and teacher-friendly than you may remember.

✨ Stop reinventing the wheel. Start building stronger learning foundations.

🔗 Learn more about Daily Routines in Readtopia and ReadtopiaGO: https://pulse.ly/vrn9ynjhj8

08/20/2026

Back to School LessonPix Live with Dr. Karen Erickson and Maureen Donnelly.... it's going to be great!! Mark your calendar. 😍
Join here on Sept 1st!!! https://www.facebook.com/share/18wKf7k3WT/

08/19/2026

📣 WEBINAR DATE CHANGE: “Teacher’s Bestie” is moving to October 1!

Our free teacher-paraprofessional collaboration webinar with Karen Starr, M.Ed., originally scheduled for August 20, has been rescheduled for October 1.

While the date is changing, the conversation is just as important.

Strong special education teams are built on clear roles, intentional communication, and trust. When teachers and paraprofessionals understand how to work together—when to lead, support, prompt, or step back—students have more opportunities to participate, communicate, and build independence.

New Date: October 1, 2026 📅

If you’re a special education teacher, paraprofessional, administrator, or anyone supporting learners with disabilities, we hope you’ll join us.

Already registered? Nothing you need to do other than mark your calendar with the new date.
Haven’t registered yet? There’s now more time to save your seat—and invite your classroom bestie! 🤝

🔗 Register here: https://pulse.ly/hccefbswh2

08/19/2026

As students head back to school, there’s an important question for every special education team: What does specially designed instruction actually look like in practice?

Specially designed instruction (SDI) is at the heart of special education. But effective SDI is more than modifying a lesson or adding accommodations.

It’s about intentionally designing instruction around each student’s IEP goals, strengths, and access needs—while maintaining high expectations.

That might mean providing an effective way to communicate, using explicit and systematic instruction, removing barriers in the classroom environment, collaborating with related service providers, or choosing age-respectful and accessible materials.

And while SDI is individualized, educators shouldn’t have to reinvent instruction for every student, every lesson, every day.

A consistent, research-based curriculum framework can provide a strong foundation while giving educators the flexibility to individualize how students access, participate in, and respond to instruction.

As back-to-school routines take shape, now is a great time to revisit SDI and ask: Are we giving every learner the instruction and access they need to make meaningful progress?

📖 Read “How to Provide Specially Designed Instruction: What It Is and Why It’s Needed” to explore practical examples of SDI, co-teaching, classroom design, and consistent curriculum frameworks.

🔗 https://pulse.ly/8sdgsynqrh

Examples of how to provide specially designed instruction in K-12 self-contained classrooms and learning spaces to meet a wide range of student needs.

08/17/2026

What if current events could become one of the most engaging literacy opportunities in your classroom? 🌎📚

The start of a new school year is the perfect time to build routines that connect reading, comprehension, communication, vocabulary, and background knowledge to the world students experience every day.

That’s where News Currents® by Building Wings comes in.

News Currents brings timely, age-respectful current events into the classroom in an accessible format designed to help students engage with real-world topics while strengthening essential literacy and communication skills.

This week’s topics include:
☄️ The Perseid Meteor Shower
🐾 Capybaras Crashing Legislation
🌎 The Earth Prize Winner

The topics change, but the opportunity stays the same: helping learners read, think, communicate, and connect with the world around them.

If you’re looking for an engaging special education current events resource to add to your classroom routine this school year, now is the perfect time to discover News Currents.

🌎 Make the world part of your classroom.

🔗 Learn more about News Currents: https://pulse.ly/32hegy93xy

08/15/2026

Great teacher-paraprofessional partnerships don’t happen by accident.

They’re built through clarity, communication, and a shared understanding of what student support should look like.

When those pieces are in place, paraprofessionals can support learning without unintentionally taking over. Teachers can lead instruction knowing their team is aligned. And students have more space to communicate, participate, problem-solve, and build independence.

That’s the kind of teamwork Karen Starr, M.Ed. will explore in our upcoming FREE webinar for special education teams.

📅 August 20
⏰ 12 PM CST

Karen will share practical ways teachers and paraprofessionals can strengthen their partnership and create more intentional support for learners—without adding another complicated system to the school day.

Because sometimes the best way to better support a student is to first strengthen the team around them.

👉 Register for free and invite a teammate to join you: https://pulse.ly/1lfvdesb9c

08/13/2026

Back-to-school planning is about more than preparing individual classrooms. For special education teams, it’s an opportunity to ask: How can we create literacy experiences that connect students, educators, and learning across the school community? 📚✨

Lauren Fuhr’s team starts each school year by planning together—aligning literacy instruction across classrooms and finding meaningful ways for students to apply their learning beyond the classroom.

That collaboration matters. When literacy instruction creates opportunities to read, communicate, connect, and engage with the world, students aren’t simply completing lessons—they’re building skills and confidence through meaningful experiences.

Readtopia® helps make that possible, giving special education teams a comprehensive literacy curriculum designed to make rich, engaging literacy instruction accessible to learners with complex needs.

Here’s to a new school year filled with collaboration, connection, and meaningful literacy learning for ALL students. 💙

🔗 Looking for a special education literacy curriculum that can bring your classrooms together? Learn more about Readtopia: https://pulse.ly/3nuhn0crju

08/13/2026

📚 Decodable texts or differentiated texts—which should you use, and when?

The answer: join to find out!

Join Building Wings for a FREE webinar exploring how decodable texts support phonics, decoding, and fluency, while differentiated texts build language comprehension, vocabulary, background knowledge, and engagement.

Grounded in the Science of Reading and Active View of Reading, Maureen Donnelly, M.Ed., and Alison Dennis, PhD, will share practical examples from Readtopia and ReadtopiaGO to help you choose the right text for the right instructional goal.

📅 August 26, 2026 | 12 PM CST

👉 Register here: https://pulse.ly/pmzcbpiwil

08/11/2026

🚨 Tomorrow is the day! 🔢✨

How do we help students with complex learning needs move beyond simply reciting numbers to developing meaningful mathematical understanding?

Tomorrow, Claire Greer, PhD, and Allison Dennis, PhD are diving into the research behind early counting, foundational number sense, and the thinking that helped shape Learning Numbers—Readtopia’s NEW emergent math routines.

During this FREE Building Wings webinar, you’ll explore how research can inform accessible early math instruction and get a closer look at how number chants, storybooks, and structured routines create opportunities for learners to engage with foundational math concepts.

📅 TOMORROW — August 12
⏰ 12 PM CST

If you support students with complex learning needs, you won’t want to miss this conversation.

🔗 There’s still time to register! Save your spot today: https://pulse.ly/qz6za1l2cv