This school year has been an absolute dream so far. Last year was extremely demanding and a real test for me, so I'm loving this year. I am a general ed teacher going back to be a special education teacher, and I am getting the picture that that is pretty uncommon. I am also elementary, and have always taught 4th and 5th grade classes. This is year 11 for me.
The past 10 years I have taught as the general ed teacher as part of an inclusion class. I have had varying levels of assistance from the special ed teacher, from the beginning where the special ed teacher would just assist with my lessons that I taught completely by myself, to the past 2 years where my special ed teacher and I planned together and co-taught. I like planning together and co-teaching much better. I was also lucky enough to work with a special ed teacher the past 2 years that was really inspiring and actually encouraged me to join this cohort.
I am not teaching any special ed kids this year, :( and not by choice. I'm not really sure why, but I ended up with a SCOPE cluster and very high kids. I only have one student that didn't pass one SOL test, except for a repeater placed in my class on the first day of school. Although the planning and differentiation part of the lessons are much easier and quicker, I miss my special ed kids a lot. Hopefully I will get to work with them again next year.
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Liz Uebelhoer
I think it's great to see a gen. ed teacher wanting to go over to the spec. ed side! It's out of the norm apparently..but great! Personally, I have known my whole life that I wanted to teach..it just took me a while to get there. And in the past 5 years or so I have realized I really want to teach special ed. I think working with people with disabilities is so rewarding, even if the progress is slow. I hope that once I'm in the classroom I can make a difference in students' lives and shape/assist them to become the best they can. It's very exciting!
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