2.) FACILITATING

3.) ADMINISTRATING

4.) INNOVATING

Something that resonated with me was a statement made by a participant that special education teachers have a responsibility to be innovative and proactive in generating new ideas and seeking new considerations. Special education, and education in general, is a growing field in research and its application in the field. Applying those concepts to the classroom can support the program as a whole to meet the needs of the students. In general, special education teachers have to interact with colleagues, families, and students. It is important that special education teachers maintain a healthy and positive leadership role as they establish appropriate supports and curriculum for students, communicate with the parents, and collaborate with colleagues. 

I have been able to observe these qualities in the special education teacher I work for as a paraprofessional and have been able to learn from her experiences as she works with students, fellow teachers, and families. 
Today, the teacher discusses to me about the impact communication skills have on the relationships she shares with her colleagues and families and that it supports her efforts in their collaboration. Personally, I want to improve my skills in communication to support my ability to perform in leadership roles and collaboration. I appreciated this reading because it brought to light the many areas where special education teachers serves as leaders and advocates for their students. 

Special education teachers lead in their classrooms, schools, and communities in several ways. Four major components that stood out to me from the article and that I have observed working in schools are education, advocating, collaboration, and innovation. 

Education:

Advocating:

Collaboration:

Innovation: 

My major takeaway from the article and my experiences is that special educators have the opportunity to use their unique expertise to be leaders in their schools. My goal is to serve as a support to my colleagues and families that I work with. I want to share my ideas and knowledge while making sure to listen to the perspectives of others. I also want to make sure that advocating for my students always remains a priority. 

Bagley, S., & Tang, K. (2018). Teacher leadership in special education: Exploring skills, roles, and perceptions. Journal of Interdisciplinary Teacher Leadership, 2(1), 44–63. https://doi.org/10.46767/kfp.2016-0023 

Teachers wear many hats but they all lead to the success of the student. Each person has a role to play in the educational system and teachers sometimes fulfill many different roles. Some of the roles mentioned in the reading that stood out to me were, collaboration and training. 

The ability to collaborate with other general education teachers, establish relationships so your special needs kids may have the support they need if or when they move into a general education classroom which ultimately is the goal for some. Collaboration is also important when working with parents of these students. Collaborating with parents, gaining and relaying information between the two parties is necessary for successful teaching. 

One teacher mentioned her role was to train and help the learning environment because the best and most conducive for learning to take place. This is an important part of the process, as teachers we need to be constantly evolving our practices and teaching styles to fit what is needed. the idea is that good teacher leaders teach students, not lessons.

In the two roles I mentioned about I definitely engage in both but the teacher training stood out to me the most. I do not necessarily train other teachers but when I am observed by another teacher I love getting feedback and changing my style of teaching to be more effective in the classroom.

Teachers don't only have important roles that they must play but their characteristics and skills really set them apart. One of the characteristics mentioned in the reading that I really connected with was the ability to have patience and compassion.

I do not teach special education but am a teacher and this has been a goal I have been trying to work on is the learn to love and have compassion for the hard student. It's easy to love and be patient with the good student but how can I extend that same compassion to the student that rebels or "doesn't care". I may not teach special education but my daughter is special needs and can be very difficult at times, and even as her father I lose my patience often. As a parent I have a hard time at times trusting the people we leave her with at school or anywhere else when we can't see her because these kids can be very hard and sometimes even hard to love. that is my biggest fear as a parent of a special needs child. luckily we haven't had to deal with that yet all of my daughters therapists and teachers are incredible and that has been the single most important thing besides her home life. She has progressed so much in just a year of being in school because of her teachers.

I have seen the other side that when a teacher has compassion and patience with their students, they really do change lives. This is what I remember in my teaching everyday and if I can do that then I have succeeded in my job as a teacher.

In my educational experience, Special Education Teachers by default are Teacher Leaders. I say this because in my experience, they are often on their own to do advocate, innovate, facilitate and administrate. In the public education setting, especially at the elementary education level, SpEd classes are often limited to a single classroom, or occasionally split in to two classes if a school has the need. The departments typically increase in size as we move to secondary levels and expand to around six or eight teachers,  in what my be thought of as a “traditional department”.  This often means that elementary special education teachers are a department of one, maybe two and are left to fill all the traditional roles themselves. I readily concede they typically receive support staff in the way of para-professionals, and most of those “paras” are nearly as special as the SpEd teachers are themselves, they can not serve in the same capacity, leaving it up to the teacher to fill in those gaps. 

Being on their own, these SpEd Teacher Leaders are left to fill all the roles and are spread thin as they have so very much on their plate, let alone the challenging tasks of bonding and engaging with their students and managing their classrooms and the personalities within them, balancing the needs of everyone, any individual special needs and often having some of the most challenging students in the given building. Focusing only on the “advocating” portion of their role. Imagine an average family that is just doing what they must to get by, they often don’t have the knowledge or resources to know what is best for or what is legally required to be provided for their student. They are instead advocating out of love and/or need for their student, which then increases the role of the SpEd teacher to advocate for what they know is best for each student in their care, wether it be additional services, or alternative learning, or even a medical need being met. 

The role of a SpEd Teacher Leader is one that many others are not aware of or wanting to embrace. 

Additionally, special education teachers need to build relationships with many people involved with their students. Not only general education teachers and related staff, but also parents. Special educators use their leadership skills to effectively communicate with parents and establish good school to home relationships to best serve their students. 

Last, I think special educators also need to work with their building and even on occasion their district level admin. Like I mentioned above, special education students can be some of the most difficult within a school. Keeping communication about student needs and concerns with administration helps to not only get those needs met if there is a fiscal need, but also can help with inappropriate punishments for students with disabilities. 

Teacher leaders put students first. They do this by advocating, facilitating, administering, and being innovative:

Advocating for their students by staying up to date on current laws and strategies that could help students and standing up for their students’ rights.

Facilitating their school environment by having the skills to collaborate with their colleagues. They can lead meetings, mentor or coach other teachers, and they continually work towards improving themselves and the teachers and staff around them. 

Being an “administrator” in the school. Not being the principal or the special ed director, but taking a role to supervise some part of the school. Whether it is leading meetings, helping other teachers, or joining committees, teacher leaders find a way to lead. 

Teacher leaders are innovating. They do everything they can to make sure student needs are met. They learn new information, go to trainings, bring back information to their colleagues, get creative, and problem solve. 

I am not much of a teacher leader. But I am surrounded by some very awesome ones at school. I have seen some really great real life examples of teacher leaders in action. My previous co-teacher was one of the best teacher leaders I have met. Now that she is no longer in my district I am trying to fill her shoes. My new co-teacher is new to teaching and I have tried very hard to share my knowledge of special education preschool with her. I fill her in on any interventions that I know of and give advice to her when she needs it.  We have attended trainings together. We have meetings to problem solve issues that arise in our classroom. I am now in charge of planning lessons and activities for our classrooms. I make sure I include the other migrant preschool in any plans we make or any new information we get at trainings. I have big shoes to fill and I will keep working to develop the teacher leader inside me.

In my current position, I serve as the only resource teacher in my building and I am the “gatekeeper” of our program. In this unique role I serve as the “point person” for both general education teachers, administrators and other specialists that work with my students. I also lead the organization and structuring of our team meetings within the department. These aspects all reflect the administration role. 

I engage in the role of innovation by both researching to develop new methods to help my students with research based practices and by problem solving on a daily basis. I am constantly reflecting on both data collection to see how I can improve my practice and researching curriculum that could better meet the needs of my students. 

I engage in the role of advocating both for my students and their parents. I do this by making sure that I promote collaborative relationships with other professionals within my building and at the district level so that all of my students’ needs can be met. I work in educating general education teachers and bringing district services to my students. I also work to advocate for my students by presenting myself as an approachable individual to make others come to me for questions and concerns they might have about my students and their services. These relationships are so important for the promotions of my students’ needs being met across all settings. 

Finally, I engage in the role of facilitating through the aspect of mediating. Special education can be an overwhelming entity for anyone looking in, this including general education teachers, parents and sometimes even administrators that have not had a lot of exposure to the world of special education previously. I am responsible for clarifying concerns and making sure that adults coming into our world have clarity and are comfortable interacting with different aspects of our world that they are required to interact with. 

I strive to be an approachable teacher leader because a lot of what we do in our profession does involve “people skills”. I feel that if I can build on being an approachable leader all of the aspects of being a good leader including advocating, facilitating, innovating, and administrating fall under this.