What are the odds? Has anyone gotten hired simply with a Bachelor’s in Sped as an actual teacher with teacher pay ?

Hi everyone! I'm in week 9 of my student teaching. It is really teaching me a lot about myself. I'm learning that I might not be suited for being a special education teacher. I'm interning in special education inclusion/resource and my enthusiasm has been going down. I'm finding it very draining. If it weren't for the fact that I need this internship to get my master's I'd be out the door.

I really wanted to make a difference for neurodivergent children since I myself am neurodivergent. But this really kicking my butt. Doing pull outs is way too fast paced and there are so many moving parts I'm struggling to keep up with. I keep having to ask my mentor teacher for clarification for things most interns know by now. I'm worried I'm going to screw up because my first formal observation was completely botched because of me.

I'm also realizing that being a teacher requires main character energy. I've seen all the general and special education teachers at my site. They have major main character energy. I've always been a supporting character (figuratively and literally, went to great lengths to only do supporting characters in school plays).

I still want to make a positive difference for children with differing needs, but student teaching is teaching me that being a special education teacher is not for me.

Hello everyone,
Im a student going for my special education certification, i’m currently taking a class in positive behavior support for students with disabilities and i need to do a teacher interview for a class assignment.
If you have a few minutes, I would really appreciate if you could answer any or all of these questions in the comments

1.      What types of students do you work with (ages, abilities, content area)? How long have you been teaching this group? How long have you been teaching in total?
2.         Why did you choose to work with this type of classroom/students?
3.        Did you receive special training in classroom management in order to work with this group of students? If so, what kind? If you received no special training prior to working with this group of students, what type of training do you think would have been useful?
4.        What are some of the BEST evidence-based practices you have used in your classroom throughout the year(s)?
5.         What is some of the advice you would give someone entering the field now on classroom management?
6.        Do you use any PBIS strategies in your classroom? If so, which ones do you use?
If not, which ones would you like to use?
7.        Of all you studied in school, which classroom management practices do you use and remember today in the classroom?
8.        What kinds of resources would you recommend to beginning teachers to help them with their classroom management?
Thank you so much for your time and help!

I have an 8th grade student with a diagnosis of Intellectually Disabled who is not able to do anything presented to them. This led me to looking deeper into his file and finding the ID diagnosis. Accommodations are very limited. He can copy words and to some degree write what you tell him to write, but does not seem able to actually think through and do assignments on his own. A 12 question test isn't finished after 2 class periods. He can't, for example look at a star chart and dimescribe a star, with everything labeled, but was able to copy the words off of the board onto the notes page. I keep pushing that he needs more help and needs to be on modified curriculum. He has not passed a test (state, district or local given on the platform that keeps data) in at least the last 3 years of data that we have. 3 YEARS! I am still being told they can't move him to modified until they try more Accommodations and he still fails. However, we are 10 weeks into the school year and a meeting has not been held yet to add accommodations. This sweet baby is getting 30 minutes of in class support twice a week. He has yet to be able to finish a single assignment. He shuts down if you try to stay with him to help keep him on task, but stops working the second you walk away. He does not speak. He can, he just doesn't. I don't know what to do to help him, but I know he needs a great deal more help than what he is getting. I have told the SPED department, administration and his mom, but nothing is changing. Yes, I am documenting everything I just don't know what to do to help. I have never had a student labeled as ID in a regular education class with so little support. He needs a coteacher and different material entirely. He is not capable of working on grade level that I have seen so far. I would say he's more on a 2 nd or 3 rd grade level, if that. Suggestions?

Hi so first of all, I’m not a teacher, just a math tutor with a psychology degree. I teach kids pre-K through 12 and many of my students are autistic and/or have learning disabilities. I’ve had a couple Gestalt language learners over the years and currently I’m working with a first grader with a speech delay and autism. I know she sees a speech therapist and I will be asking mom if she has any advice on what’s been working in therapy. I’ve done a little research on Gestalt language acquisition and it was brought up in a couple of my classes over the years- from what I can tell, there aren’t really any studies or common advice for how to support GLLs in learning math. I’ve been trying to apply the general advice the best I can (not asking as many questions, modeling sentences, using pictures and objects to model) but math necessarily requires breaking things down into steps and I’m not sure how to approach that with a student who processes things in chunks.

Right now we’re working on patterns (no problems here), comparing quantities, left vs right, shapes (again, no problems), and basic addition and subtraction (mostly good). I’m sure she won’t be the last GLL I work with so any general advice is also welcome!

Additional context: my tutoring center is really big on comprehension over memorization. We only really drill facts when kids have severe dyscalculia and aren’t responding to our usual methods. We use a lot of Socratic questioning which isn’t very helpful for a kiddo who doesn’t process questions well. Also, I am autistic myself and I find telling stories or roleplaying very difficult but luckily I’m not the only person here working with her so I can pass on advice to others as well. I had some success today shortening instructions and almost entirely cutting out questions. For example instead of asking “Are there more blue triangles or orange triangles?” I just said “More blue triangles” and then “More orange triangles” after a pause; she repeated back the correct answer. I didn’t feel like modeling by doing a question myself and narrating it really worked but I’ll keep trying because that seems to be one of her speech therapist’s strategies. I didn’t get a chance to talk to mom today but I’ll try next time.

I need some major help with a student of mine’s behavior. This is my second year teaching this student (sped pre-k) and I feel like it’s important to note that they had behaviors such as climbing and eloping but never harmed anyone. About a month and a half ago, they started pulling hair. At first it was a specific students hair and after a week or so it moved to literally anyone. And I’m not talking just tugs on students hair, they grab handfuls of it and pulls students to the ground. When they can’t pull hair they kick the other students instead. I’ve had our behavior specialist and our sped specialist come and observe which was really not helpful. I have tried social stories, a token board for when they’re having safe hands, and fidgets. There is an adult with them at all times and I’ve had to remove their access to the other kids. They sit at their own table for breakfast, morning meeting, read aloud, and small group and plays in a center by themselves with an aide during center time. At recess it takes two people to prevent the behavior. All of this is not preventing the behavior, we’re still having them pull students hair at least during centers and recess, and more attempts than that that we were able to intervene in time. Their IEP meeting is in two weeks and the behavior specialist and sped specialist don’t want to conduct a functional behavior assessment. The sped specialist wants to move the student from my room (integrated setting) to self contained. I’ve been taking data for about four weeks and I genuinely can’t figure out the antecedent. The student will stop whatever they’re doing and run across a room or the playground to pull someone’s hair. When the student comes in the morning and is in the hallway unpacking they will run at people to pull their hair. During center time they will jump a shelf out of their center, pull someone’s hair, and then go back to their original center. I have no idea what to do.

Hi! I am in my second year of teaching, and I work as a teacher in a classroom for students with severe and profound disabilities. I love my job, and it’s really hard. It feels so isolating to be such a specific kind of teacher that can’t relate much to all the other teachers I meet. I sincerely love working with the kids, but there isn’t even a curriculum available to me, let alone proper supports for student behaviors or appropriate staffing. Anyone work with a similar population? If so, how do you do this forever and still be a normal, happy, functioning person outside of work?

PS: I’ll be your best friend if you have a curriculum recommendation :)

Hello,

I have many years of experience as a SPED IA II + III, Resource. I just got called for a sped secretary position. Does anyone have this experience or know someone who did? My district is the largest in my big city. There are over 6,000 SPED students within our district. I’ve been an IA for over 10 years. I always work summer school clerk, so I have that experience too. Im extremely burnt out as an IA, but want to stay in my district. I want to be sure before I leave my decade long job.

Thanks

Particularly if you’re a mild/moderate support needs teacher but open to everyone in the sped world! My bargaining team is trying to advocate for more sped language because we. are. drowning!!!

I know this will vary quite a bit based on state and county, but just wanting an idea of caseload numbers that other Ex Ed teachers have. I’m in TN and have a caseload of 28 (only 11th and 12th). I like the school I’m at, been there for a while, but the grass is looking greener around me. I’m not sure if I just have the Fall Funk or should really consider perusing other schools next year.

Let me know!

I sometimes cover special ed when I’m not in a gen ed class teaching. I got paired with a student today that was exhibiting sexual behaviors (grabbing and pulling at his genitals and constantly needing breaks to sit by himself in a quiet room.) the student needs hand over hand help when using his assistive devices and; while helping him, he pulled my hand towards his crotch twice. I said no, pulled away and redirected twice and reported the behavior. No one seems to be taking my concerns seriously. I asked how to redirect the behaviors, what do they recommend and they said “this was the first they heard of this”. But several paras in the room were aware of the behaviors as well. I’m assigned to that same student again tomorrow and I’m scared. My concerns aren’t taken seriously and I don’t know what to do. Refuse to support the room? Walk out of it happens again? Because I’m not interested I finding out if it will happen again. I’m incredibly upset. I reported safety concerns multiple times today and the sexual behaviors multiple times. I don’t know what else to do.

Thirteen years in and I've never had a student refuse to even ATTEMPT a subtest in the Woodcock Johnson. My students refused to do any math subtests after 2 days of testing. My coordinator says to note it in my report, but won't give me any guidance as to what to write. Does anyone have the proper language? This is what I have so far...

(Student) completed the administered WJ IV Tests of Achievement subtests with the exception of the mathematics subtests, which he declined to complete despite opportunities to participate over two testing days. Consequently, mathematics achievement scores could not be obtained. Results from the completed subtests are considered a valid reflection of his performance in the areas assessed. His mathematics achievement cannot be determined from the WJ IV Test of Achievement due to the incomplete administration of the mathematics subtests.