Special Ed Teachers - what do you do?

You only have your endorsement in ESL and you would not have to get your endorsement in special ed in order to teach it WOW! that would never fly here.

As a teacher you get there early in the morning to do paper work, go to meeting, and prepare for the day. Depending on what level of special education you want to teach, you could have to change diapers, assist with using restroom, and full personal care. In many cases you may have students with behavior issues. You would then need to set up behavior mang. programs, insure safety of other students if you have a violent student, and learn to react and take charge in a ever changing environment. If you have pull out students, they would come for a scheduled time and go back to classroom when you are done. In some cases you may be asked to help in the classrooms. You may even be asked to co teach. If you are in a self contained room, you will pretty much have your students for most of the day. Having a set schedule, extra activities for students that finish early, and set classroom rules would be very helpful. Since you have the same kids every day almost all day a teacher must be creative to come up with new lessons and activities to keep the interest of students. After school could consist of: IEP meetings, parent phone calls, preparing lessons, cleaing up your room, meeting with other teachers and specialists in regards to student needs, etc..

This reminds me of when I was helping a guy with his high school learning disabilities class. The whole class was out of control because he hadn't the foggiest notion as to how to make things interesting or adapt instruction. He had a ton of certifications that he got by taking tests, but he was clueless in the classroom. He kept asking me to explain the whole teaching process to him, but I had to tell him that I couldn't go back and teach him what he missed in college.

If you are a natural teacher and since you are already able to adapt instruction for ESL students, working in certain special ed fields won't be that hard. Many of the strategies that work for ESL students also work well with kids with specific learning disability. However, if you plan to teach something like autism, you might want to take some seminars. Also, behavior management is more of an issue in special ed classes than it is in ESL.

special ed is a lot of paperwork and it is all legally binding. You are wise to consider taking the classes. There is a ton of legal stuff you MUST know to teach students with special needs.