Teacher Burnout : Teachers And The Causes

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

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.

SPE 513 WEEK 3 DQ 1 ROLE OF GENERAL EDUCATION TEACHERS AND SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS

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.

Teachers are often attributed to the problem because they typically make the initial special education referrals. Teacher perceptions are often biased and have been indicated as a contributing factor to special education disproportionality. A teacher lacks of adequate training, cultural insensitivity, and biased way of thinking may affect the referral process. Teacher differences from their students in their racial and ethnic identities, cultural, socioeconomic level, education level, and personal views can also have an impact. Although the number of students in education are increasingly a member of ethnic groups of color, poor, urban residents, and multilingual, the teaching profession is overwhelmingly European-American, female, middle class, sub- urban, and monolingual (Gay, 2002).

On August 7,2017, Ms. Kim Brown, who has 25 years teaching experience in special education was interviewed and shared some of her teaching expertise. She is certified in K-8 regular education and K-12 mild-to-moderate special education. One of the most difficult tasks in her job is working in the SEAS program updating goal pages. Although this can become very frustrating, seeing special need children try so hard to complete a task can be very rewarding and makes all the work worth the frustration. Being able to receive more professional development on special education topics would be very encouraging and helpful towards her job. She has taught in a self-contained classroom for 14 years where behavior is an enormous issue and requires strict supervision.

In the profession of a special education teacher, a person commits to helping children achieve their best and to help “students overcome their obstacles” while finding a way that the child can effectively learn (Hollingsworth). My mom’s career as special education teacher for twenty-two years, allows me insight and experience into the tougher aspects of this career, but also the rewards to the job. My mom helps me understand that a special education teacher guides a child to expand their strengths, develop strategies to overcome weakness, and to make best use of all available resources. Through helping her, and learning from her experiences, she taught me that a career in special education can not only challenge me, but may also become a

Special Education Teaching

Today, over six million students receive Special Education services from public and private schools. The reason why there is a shortage of Special Education teachers is that they leave their position because they cannot handle the additional pressures they have to face.

After reading the article by Owen Phillips, I find that there are several things I can do as a special education director to support teacher retention. First, special education teachers under my leadership would have a voice. For instance, when the school board or higher officials decide that a new program or method of instruction is needed, our team will collaborate to create a course of action and timeline for these changes to be made. They would also have a voice in decision-making and discipline. Secondly, I would be available to my special education teachers as much as possible. I want them to feel supported and heard during their time under my leadership. I would send out anonymous surveys quarterly to my staff to find out how they

Burnout is a vocational syndrome that can manifest in any field; those that work in the helping and healthcare professions have added considerations that potentially place them at additional risk. Whereas occupational burnout typically is characterized by increasing work expectations and decreasing support and recognition, mental health clinicians are also vulnerable to compassion fatigue and vicarious traumatization. These can manifest beyond the usual burnout symptoms of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreasing feelings of accomplishment (Kerr, 2016). Self-care, self-directed by the clinician, can act as a first-line defense against these serious problems, and along with the buffer of organizational supports, can mitigate

In the career of special education, teachers are trained to work with students who have either a disability, or requires of a unique instructor. However, in order to become a special teacher it has a variety of requirements. For example, some of the requirements that this career requires is of a long term education that includes: schooling , a bachelor and master degree, at least two years of

Elizabeth Stein’s Teaching Secrets: Advice for a New Special Ed. Teacher and Glenn Schmidt’s Advice for New Special Education Teachers were very insightful articles for students pursuing a Special Education degree. These articles touched on several aspects of a soon to be teacher’s thoughts and calmed many fears. These articles offer ways that a teacher can benefit individuals with exceptionalities, display real emotions that the audience may be feeling, and help to sooth any worry about dealing with parents.

I was also wondering why there was a shortage of special education teachers as well, I ultimately think it’s because many people believe the teacher pay is not high enough and special education requires a lot additional work such as filling out IEP forms, maintaining a caseload of students, attending IEP meetings and conducting behavior interventions. Coming from someone who loves special education I believe becoming a special education teacher is actually a rewarding job because you get to teach a diverse group of learners. There are a variety of classroom co-teaching methods. Supportive co-teaching often seems to work well in classrooms. When teachers are supportive co-teaching one member of the team is the leader and often teaches the class