Becoming A Special Education Teacher Analysis

My career goal is to obtain a master’s degree in elementary education by the end of Fall 2016 in order to start teaching by the beginning of Spring 2017. Upon completion of the dual certification track, I will receive elementary (K-6), special education (ESE K-6), and ESOL endorsements. Before entering graduate school, I always believed these certifications would prepare me for teaching more than if I had started teaching immediately after graduation. Today, I still hold this belief to be true, for I have opportunities now to closely practice, implement, and refine teaching skills, strategies, and qualities that I learned as an undergraduate in a real school setting. I am also able to work closely alongside teachers who have experience working with students with identified disabilities and experience the different behavioral responses that students with identified disabilities may exhibit. As a first year intern this semester, I even sat in on an EPT (Evaluation and Planning Team) meeting regarding whether or not a student in my first grade classroom should receive a 504 Plan that I did not get to

Time is passing and opportunities are opening for more students with special needs. Many students in college are getting more interested in Special Education as career that will allow more organization to have more workers with a big potential that will have an important impact on these kids with disabilities. However, this will require more training for the students that organizations around the country can give them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,“the career outlook for special education teachers should remain steady through 2024, with an increase of 6%, the national average for job growth in the United States. The median salary for this position is just over $55,000 annually,” (“Master in Special Education”) The approach the

In elementary school, my classroom had students with and without disabilities, and we all shared the same space while working towards a common goal, but over time this diverse community diminished. This phenomenon of tracking and hierarchy of opportunity in education that I notice today is also responsible for creating an environment in which secondary special education is often a segregated locale, physically and socially removed from mainstream public schooling. I've witnessed Syracuse University push against this norm and challenge these boundaries time and time again, and I feel that before entering my own my classroom I want to address these issues of homogeneity and continue to build my tool box of inclusionary practices that extend past my current

I completed my field experience at Cedar Crest High School in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Since I serve the role of building principal, I am exposed to many different special education situations on a daily basis. Through this leadership field experience, I have learned a few additional things. It has taught me to stop and listen to what is occurring in our special education classrooms. By completing classroom observations, I was able to focus on the students, instead of rushing through a classroom observation on a teacher.

The special education teacher interviewed, co-teaches algebra into three class periods. She is able to teach up to 50 students. In her classroom she can teach children with disabilities or up to 25 at-risk students.

As we grow in education, it always seems as in there is someone that is left behind. Educators need to be able to reach out as many students as possible, but some may argue that it does not feel this way. Often, students with special education needs are considered to be too difficult to teach, or simple just a “lost cause.” The way we interact and care for all students not only shows in each student, but it shows in the impact it has on the community as a whole.

Autism Speaks. (2012). The Federal Response to Autism. Retrieved June 17, 2012, from HYPERLINK "http://www.autismspeaks.org" http://www.autismspeaks.org.

In the team, I work with we are a group thirteen people who must collaboratively daily for my student. The team is made up of the special education, regular teacher, occupational therapist, speech, special education aide, adapted physical education, liaison, social worker, principal, BCBA, aba technician, assistant principals. We have few ways that we collaborative for her via a weekly meeting that goes on every other week that her team must attended if they can make it on Wednesdays. During this meeting, a person is put in charge of taking note on a google doc that is shared with the whole team. People can add on to the doc prior to the meeting if they can’t attend and want things to be shared about progress or concerns.

Experience by doing is a critical lesson to learn in high school. My passion for working with students that have special needs has given me training vastly beyond the realm of books and lectures. Since my junior year, I have been volunteering to bowl and play basketball with the Special Olympics team in a club called Unified Sports. I have obtained vital skills through helping and understanding how these amazing people conduct their lives. My interactions with the students have instilled motivation, trust and confidence in them and with me.

When I was asked to reflect on my experiences in EDSE 316 and the fieldwork, I had to think long and hard on how I would sum up four months of classes and fieldwork into four pages. I have learned so much about the various disabilities and how it has change the world of special education. I think a better term would be the “endless possibilities of education”. It wasn’t too long ago when children with disabilities would be stuck in a room in the back of school only to be seen in the beginning and end of the school day. They were the ones who rode the other buses and no one really talked about. This class has allowed me to speak of my own family and how special education impacted my life. I have a brother whose whole life was spent in the special education class, and my own sons with speech and learning disabilities who are now receiving special education services. It also allowed me to reflect on my own participation in the special education program in my early elementary years when I was struggling with my own speech disability. This class gave me the chance to see the timeline of special education, from its earliest beginnings to what it is now.

This has inspired me to become a special education teacher, specifically an applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapist. I have seen how much my brother has excelled through his assistants, and I want to help people like my brother. I know children with autism struggle with communication, so I want to help them be able to communicate their thoughts and

“Special education labels don’t define children; Children define themselves” (Dalien, 2015). I am interested in becoming a special education teacher because I have always loved being around children, and I have a soft spot for kids with autism and other disabilities. The first time that I ever thought about working with special needs children was when I was in the fifth grade. My mom worked at my school as a teacher assistant in a first grade classroom, so in the morning I would go to her classroom and wait for the bell to ring. A little boy named Alex who had Cerebral palsy and a spinal problem, came into class early as well. I immediately connected with him, and began going to my mom’s room every morning to play with him before class. It soon became the highlight of my day. Alex could not talk very well and could not walk, so we rolled cars around the floor, traced shapes on to the whiteboard, or sometimes crawled on the floor chasing each other as monsters. I loved seeing how me playing with him made him smile so big and become more outgoing. My dream is to give kids like Alex a reason to smile and help them reach their full potential. In this speech you will learn all about special education teachers, including, but not limited to: What they do, where they typically work, their environment, how much they get paid, benefits the job entails, the education and skills required to become a special education teacher, and information on the job outlook.

My twelve hours of observations was completed with the same students and teacher because I had the opportunity to observe various disabilities in multiple different settings. On my second day of observations, one student with autism stole my heart. His name was Andrew. I entered the classroom, he looked up at me and said, “Amanda!” with joy. I smiled so hard and said “Good morning Drew.” He noticed my visitor tag because he is a very observant child. My visitor tag had my full name on it. Drew called me over to his desk and sounded out my full name. He repeated out loud a few times and never forgot it. I was amazed. He often would introduce me when I went into a new classroom setting with him. Drew and I became close and I helped him along

In an article written by Gong, Zimmerli, and Hoffer (2013), researchers Leiter and Maslach define burnout as “a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment.” This syndrome can be felt in any person regardless of experience, race, or profession. In professions such as teaching, burnout can easily be obtained due factors such as substantial paperwork, limited support, and poor workplace climate. It is imperative that burnout is reduced is order to keep qualified individuals in the profession especially when there are limited people in the field. Special Education Teachers make up one critical shortage area in the teaching profession that has a greater rate of teacher burnout and attrition. One reason for this is because special education teachers report higher levels of work related stress than their

Being a special educator, there are different roles and responsibilities separate from a general education teacher. As a special ed teacher, you need to be able to be more flexible and open-minded when it comes to teaching. These students, whether in a self-contained classroom or an ICT class, will have such differing needs than their counterparts. While they may still have some same needs, most of them will be different and individual. Even though we may have several students with the same disability in our class, that doesn’t mean that we can treat them the same; each student has differing abilities that we must figure out individually. This is one huge problem that I see prevailing in schools today. Teachers tend to think that if a child has autism, they have the same issues and needs as another child with autism but this is not the case. One child might need headphones for noise-canceling features while the other child might be ok with sound but need more social interactions skills. The ability to discern what a child needs based on their own performance is a crucial aspect to supporting every student equally. As a special educator, we need to not only look at their deficits but their capabilities as well. To define someone by what they can’t do is such a negative point of view. If we go into the classroom trying to find what is wrong with a child, we may never notice what exceptional skills they may have. For example, in class when Mark Sarabian came to talk about the