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How long have you been teaching special needs children?

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How long have you been teaching special needs children?

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"This is my second year as a teacher."

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What made you choose the teaching profession and why special needs?

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What made you choose the teaching profession and why special needs?

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I was a para for 10 years and I became a para for special ed because I was looking for a job that had good hours for my family. My first year there I realized I really liked working with kids with special needs. So my second year there I started exploring options to getting my teaching certificate and I already had a bachelor's in psychology so I didn't want to start all over. It wasn't until my 10th year that I found a program that allowed me to use my bachelor's degree and go back to school, take the courses I needed, as well as get my masters. So I decided to take the leap and try teaching.

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How have your ideas toward teaching changed with each passing year of experience?

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How have your ideas toward teaching changed with each passing year of experience?

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It's been interesting because this is only my 2nd year. My 1st year started out normal, I would say, and teaching was a little bit harder than I anticipated. The hard part was all the planning because almost each student needs a lesson plan because they're all somewhere different in their learning from the others. So if I want to teach a lesson it has to be somewhat generic because I may have one at the 4th grade level, one at the 5th grade level, and maybe two at the 7th grade. So you have to try to find something that will benefit all of them if you want to do direct instruction. That was more challenging than I thought it would be. Then COVID hit, and my 2nd semester was interesting because I didn't really have kids because everything went online. This year has been a little different but I do better with direct instruction. It's been weird because I don't know what a normal year of teaching looks like yet.

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Can you recall your ideas about teaching when you were a teaching education student like me? What were they? What are they now? (These questions go hand-in-hand because she is a teaching education student right now.)

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Can you recall your ideas about teaching when you were a teaching education student like me? What were they? What are they now? (These questions go hand-in-hand because she is a teaching education student right now.)

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I don't know what a normal year is like. So teaching through the pandemic, is like, I don't know any different. So I just do the best I can because I don't have anything to compare it to. This is my normal.

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How does teaching children with special needs differ from teaching other children? 

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How does teaching children with special needs differ from teaching other children? 

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I've only taught special needs. Special needs to me is children with learning disabilities, emotional, and some on the spectrum. So high incidence special education is what I deal with.

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What advice can you give me for teaching children with special needs in the regular education classroom?

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What advice can you give me for teaching children with special needs in the regular education classroom?

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Treat them like any of the other kids in the classroom. If they're in the classroom it's probably because they have special needs. They're in there because they are capable of doing the work so make sure you're doing the accommodations and modifications that are in their IEP. That's what's going to help them and bring them up to the level of the other kids.

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What changes, if any, would you make to the education system regarding special needs children? 

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What changes, if any, would you make to the education system regarding special needs children? 

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State assessments is a big one because whether it's special needs kids or kids in the general education classroom we're told to be creative, especially with a kid with an IEP, we accommodate them. Yet they want us to give them a standardized test but we don't standardize everything we teach. Why do you want me to subject a kid to that? I don't mind inclusion as long as the teacher realized they should be doing the accommodations and modifications. Some teachers just don't do it. The other thing as a special education teacher is it drives me crazy when the general education teachers say "your kids", "those are special needs kids." They're not, they're general education kids who get support from the special education teacher. They're not MY kids, there shouldn't be a difference. I just support the kids.

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If you could choose another career field, would you and why?

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If you could choose another career field, would you and why?

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Considering I'm almost, I would say no. I feel like this is where I belong, this is my passion. When I was your age I wanted to work for the criminal justice system and I actually wanted to do psychological intake in prisons.

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Whether you're going to be a special education teacher or a general education teacher, you need to have a good working relationship with the others. If you're a general education teacher you need to communicate with the special education teacher because that's why they're there. So if you do have questions about a student with an IEP, that's why they're there.

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What are some challenges you face in teaching special needs students? What are the rewards?

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What are some challenges you face in teaching special needs students? What are the rewards?

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The challenges I face are motivation. Getting the kids motivated and to do the work because it's hard. They have a learning disability so the work is hard for them. Getting them confident in what they are doing so they will actually do the work. Sometimes it's just telling them, I work with 7th and 8th graders mostly so it's just telling them I know it's hard but you can do it. Sometime it's giving them free-time, so you do this much work you can have some free-time. Sometimes it's food. The best parts are when the kid gets that light-bulb moment and they get excited because they got it.