Sitting, stuck between two career paths with the rest of my life on the line, and the pressure of choosing between counseling or teaching is near overwhelming without weighing the pros and the cons for my final decision. Deciding a career that you potentially want to have for the rest of your life is nerve racking, especially when you can’t decide between several. In my case, I can’t decide between teaching in the special education department, or becoming a high school counselor. There are upsides to both jobs as well as downsides, but the one thing they have in common is that they both involve helping others, which ultimately doesn 't make my decision any easier. They are two drastically different careers, yet oddly the same which is …show more content…
Let’s start with the good stuff first shall we. The biggest pro of being a special education teacher would be the ability to help the students grow and adapt as members of the society as well as within themselves. Learning how to adapt to and accept a disability can be hard, but with a little encouragement and compassion it is possible. Every living creature needs little love in their life, and it would be no different in the case of these students. The idea that you have to dress, look, and act a certain way to be accepted and “fit in” is absurd. No two people are the alike, so why should we all conform to fit a societal standard. Being able to teach students with disabilities about self-love and embracing the very thing that sets them apart from the rest of the world, would be extremely worthwhile. Everyone is beautiful and getting those kids to believe that about themselves would help them to build confidence and gain skills to succeed in everything they attempt. This is a belief that I gained from a special education teacher at my own high school, Judy Smith.
Judy was an amazing person, she was a strong, joyful, hard-headed, stubborn, and wonderful woman. She is the reason I am even considering this career at all. Judy was compassionate and loving towards each and every student. She truly believed in them no matter what their disability might have been. She taught them how to cope in the real
Have you ever been in a position where you where stuck and couldn’t decide between two careers? Whether it was something that you love to do or something that pays well? The answer may seem easy to you but when you start comparing the facts; that’s when it gets hard to choose. For many of us, graduates and people around the world have a difficult time choosing a career that can be a confusing process. A lot of people tend to settle down on a career quickly. Unfortunately, choosing a rapid occupation often leads to an unsatisfying path in the future, if not sooner. Eventually the individual decides to quit and start all over again. According to choosingacareer.net, “6% of
Special education teachers make a conscious decision to work on a daily basis with students who display various disabilities. Some of the disabilities include autism, negative social and emotional behaviors, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, mobility disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, as well as students who suffer from being blind and deaf. When these disabilities interfere with the daily educational activities of a child, the child is in need of the valuable opportunities provided in a self-contained classroom.
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 today’s world there are more and more children coming into the general education classes having a disability. More general education teachers have to take on a bigger responsibility than what they signed up for, but that is part of being a teacher. I feel as long as the teachers collaborate with each other they will be putting the student’s needs first.
There are obvious disadvantages such as the lack of training, general education teacher will have in dealing with disabled students. A teacher trained specifically in special education could and would provide a much better service to the students that need it. Another issue is “depending on the nature of a child's disability, it can affect the way that a student behaves. According to the ERIC article, that pupil's misbehavior and disrespect can be so intense that it disrupts the learning environment” (Koolbreeze, 2017). This type of misbehavior could also be expressed in students without disabilities,
Special Educators are greatly needed in our school systems all over the United States. It takes a special person to be a Special Educator. In most jobs you are in need of patience, but with this career a requirement is patience. Some people are cut out for this career and some are not. Emotionally and physically this job can take a toll on someone.
When it comes to my career of choice I am very alacritous. I am very excited and ready to start college so I can get my degree and start working. Psychology has always sparked my interest unlike anything else. I am always filled with so much joy when I know I have helped someone to the best of my ability to overcome a problem of theirs. That alone is enough to get my through the hardness of
One of the reason people chose a career in special education is job satisfaction. Special education teacher perceived their job to be rewarding. They get personal fulfillment and gratification in teaching special need students. “It truly must be passion to continue working in special education because we all know it is a tough job.”(Participate 2010,”Motivational factor towards pursuing a career in special education”)They have the opportunity to make a positive difference in the students’ lives. When the student who is struggling in school graduate it brings great satisfaction to the educator. The most important part of this field is to help a child develop to their highest potential.
Personally, I have always been indecisive in all my decisions. Entering high school I had planned to take extracurricular classes pertaining to nursing. I was not exactly the most interested in that field of study, but I has been told that is the career I would make money in. The first day of high school I was not looking forward to entering the nursing class. I was sitting in my home room class waiting on my schedule anticipation rushing through my veins as I waited on my name to be called.
Abraham Lincoln once said “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Both careers I have chosen fit my goals, however, one career seems to fit my goals better than the other. I have decided to choose between an Occupational Therapy Assistant and a Psychiatric Nurse. Someday, I want to have a family, I want a career that will financially support my family and I also want a career that I will love doing for years, until I am at the retirement age. I want to be able to be content with the career I choose, and not go back and forth between careers.
A special education teacher needs to acquire a variety of different skills in order to succeed. “The majority of young men and women who major in special education bring a heaping helping of heart, personal commitment, and passion to the profession” (Hollingsworth). A special education teacher must enjoy working with children and developing activities and lessons to help them learn. Qualities necessary for
Growing up I knew I wanted a career where I can help people. I was undecided whether that would be in the form of caring for people or helping teach key stage 1. I thought I would enjoy becoming a nurse so started an access to higher education course in health care. Once attending university open days and finding out the unsociable hours and weeks away, I knew this is not the career path that I want to go for. As a mother, I want to be around and involved with my children.
Presently I am a Special Education teacher working with children who have a wide range of disabilities. My class setting is integrated, which mean half of the class is general and the other half is special. My primary goal is to modify general education lesson plans to meet each student’s needs and abilities. These needs may include, but not limited to emotional, physical or cognitive disabilities, teaching basic literacy and life skills. I have an interest in this field because I feel with the proper help and assistant; students make positive changes in their academic and social life. Providing early intervention is essential when teaching kids with disabilities. One of the main reasons why I have made the decision to pursue a PhD in education, specialization in Special educator, is because I enjoy what I do and would like to make a difference. My ultimate goal is to keep making a difference by helping those that needed it and provide them with the proper resources to enhance their ability. I want to be an example to my children and have them see the end result of what happens when one desire to strive for the best and what they can accomplish. I want my children to see that with hard work, motivation, dedication, concentration, and having no limits that they will attain any goals they may set forth.
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
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1883) said, “Each man has his own vocation, his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him.” (p. 112). He was speaking of the gifts granted us by God to fulfill the plan that He has for our life. Discovering and utilizing those gifts is part of the decision making process in career counseling. Christians advocate the use of spiritual discernment in order to guide the decision making process. Properly interpreting the will of God for one’s life is at the heart of each of our choices including those choices involving vocation.