Adventures in Special Education

Best wishes to you littlek. I'm sure you will really enjoy your year

<grabbing a chair>

Settling in to read along.

Thanks all. I'll be back with news by Wednesday night for sure!

littlek, Looking forward to your updates.

Looking forward to hearing more, k.

Why, with a Masters, are you a step down from the SpED teachers, LittleK? Is it a matter of work experience or do they have more advanced/specialized degrees?

Good luck with this year and your students.

Here for the nonce.

I think it's all a big fat plot (motive unknown). Get you to train and qualify yourself at enormous personal expense, then shuffle you off to the side till the education is partly forgotten, and partly dated. Finally, promote to the position you were so well qualified for so many years ago.

It happens over and over again. It never ceases to be infuriating.

Waiting for the updates - and have a nice first day (today?)!


(A friend is a special education teacher.[Only a few univerities have departments for studying that here.]

Have a great first day.

Hey littlek!

This is my area -- my focus was deaf education but since that's part of special education I got the broader special ed exposure too. I finished my master's a while ago now and have only worked with deaf kids/adults since, so might not be able to contribute much -- but happy to help if I can.

And always interested in listening.

Happy first day of school...!

Good Morning littlek,
I THANK you as graciously as I know how (on a page from a distance).
My experience with SpEd teachers and coaches has been VERY POSITIVE. I have a 44 year old daughter, who spent twenty years in special education, and for that reason she can 'speak' well enough for ME to understand--(she has a very small mouth) 8 years of speech training gave her confidence and desire if not perfection!
Now, I have a grandson with Cerebral Palsy- the victim of a misplaced needle in the brain as a 'newborn'. He is bright, beautiful, entertaining, and beloved to his twin brother, and we all.
Being subject to seizures, and having slowed reaction performances; he is in the Resources classes of his school, and has some MARVELOUS Special Ed instructors. God bless them, and you ALL, who make learning 'normal' for ones who are more stressfully challenged.

I'm pulling up a chair too! I'll be very interested in what the year hold for you, littlek.

JTT - Roger's answered for me, pretty much. OI have the degree and two years of mixed elementary experience. But, we wet-behind-the-ears teachers are a dime a dozen. We've saturated the market. When we all started, people were demanding new blood in the schools to replace retiring baby boomers. We answered the call and now we flounder. Happens all the time. I remember in the late 80s it was lawyers who were floundering.

Thanks all for well wishes, and for being interested bystanders.

I have a great team to work with and a SpEd supervisor who knows what's what. She'll fight for us too.

lounging on a sofa... will be reading along...

Best wishes LilK. x

checking in, teecha! ....

I get to go on a whale watch next Friday! (I think)

I love whale watches!

I suppose I should talk about other stuff, too. Busy day today. So many little details, so many schedules to keep in mind. So many kids I know the faces of but have forgotten the names that go with the faces. Some of the teachers I know already.......

what she said.