Launching a Career in Special Education

Your Action Plan for Success

Elizabeth Ann Potts, Lori Howard

• Publisher: Brookes Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781681253374
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

For new special educators, navigating the first few years on the job can be a complex challenge. Help is here in this positive and practical resource, your friendly guide to taking what you learned in your teacher prep program and applying it successfully in your classroom. Developed by two special education experts with decades of experience, this book gives you a complete action plan for on-the-job success—from managing everyday details like paperwork and classroom routines to mastering big-picture strategies for behavior management, collaboration, and assessment. Potts and Howard speak directly to you, talking you step by step through key procedures, addressing common questions and concerns, and giving you sound advice you can use for your whole career. Throughout the book, relatable quotes from new and seasoned educators offer real-world perspectives on the joys and challenges of teaching.

Whether used as a quick-start guide for novice teachers or a supplemental textbook for future special educators, this how-to resource will help you—and your students—thrive in your first few years in the classroom.

DISCOVER HOW TO:

• Set up your classroom
• Craft IEPs that reflect the student's and family's needs and goals
• Plan differentiated lessons that address IEP goals
• Find, use, and evaluate evidence-based practices
• Choose or develop classroom assessments that are reliable and valid
• Use positive strategies to reduce challenging behavior
• Prepare yourself and your students for a classroom observation
• Demonstrate professionalism in everything from your attire to your online conduct
• Collaborate effectively with other teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and support staff

PRACTICAL MATERIALS: In each chapter, Planning Timeline boxes highlight which tasks to do when; Special Topics boxes guide you through key issues related to ethics, co-teaching, and English language learners; and Reflection boxes give you activities and checklists to help you apply what you learned.

1

Getting Started

I just found out where I’m doing my student teaching, and I’m both excited and so nervous I’m almost sick! I’ve spent the last 3½ years learning so much, but how do I remember it all? And what about the other pieces, like getting along with my cooperating teacher? And the little things like parking and buying lunch?

—New student teacher

Beginning something new can be scary. Whether you are a new student teacher or a first-year teacher embarking on the next step in your career, this book is designed to be your field guide. You can read it all at once, use it as a refresher just before beginning a new school year, or use it as a reference tool as you spend more time in your classroom. Given how teaching life is intertwined, we suggest that, time permitting, you do both: read the entire book and refer back to it as needed.

BOOK SETUP

Modeling how you should teach, we have set up our chapters in a predictable format. There are certain elements that every chapter has, with the big headings in a certain order, but special topic textboxes distributed throughout based on content. Understanding these elements will help you make the most out of them.

Though we have tried to put some of the most important beginning-of-the-year pieces first (e.g., skills lesson planning in Chapter 3), important information for setting up your classroom and positioning yourself for success from the beginning are spread throughout the chapters. For instance, if you are a new teacher you want to have tips for setting up your physical space (see Chapter 6) before the school year starts. Likewise, you want to prepare for a substitute teacher (see Chapter 11 on professionalism) before you need one.

Standards

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the premier professional association for special educators in the United States and is a good source of ideas and support. CEC advocates for individuals with disabilities and for the needs of those who support them, including teachers, families, and related services personnel. In support of that mission, CEC developed a set of standards for new teachers that are designed to guide those working with preservice and novice teachers. Each chapter begins with a CEC Standard Connection, followed by a list of standards that are covered in that chapter. The list of standards at the beginning of each chapter highlights the standards most relevant to the chapter’s topics but is not exclusive because many of the standards overlap and apply to many topics.

CEC and the CEEDAR Center identified 22 high-leverage practices (HLPs) that are “best practices” within the profession of special education. In Appendix A, you will find a table showing which HLPs are discussed in each chapter. In addition, the appendix has another table that provides the definition of each HLP. More detailed information on the HLPs and their importance to classroom instruction and professional standards for special education teachers can be found through CEC or at the CEEDAR web site (http://ceedar.education.ufl.edu/).

Special Topic Textboxes

Each chapter contains special topic textboxes that apply to the content of that chapter; the special topic textboxes are designed to help enrich connections between chapters as well as highlight how the information in the chapter relates to the textbox topic. The special topic textboxes include Planning Timelines, Ethics Alerts, Remembering ELL Students, Co-teaching Considerations, and Reflection Prompts.

Planning TimelinesAs you enter student teaching or begin your first-year teaching, you may be wondering how to prioritize tasks, or when in the year it is important to do certain things. The Planning Timelines can help you with this. They highlight tasks you should complete early in the year to set yourself up for success (e.g., contacting your cooperating teacher before Day 1, setting up a substitute teacher file before school starts) and tasks you should do at other times of the year (e.g., cleaning off your desk).

If you don’t have time to read the entire book now, look for those Planning Timelines that encourage you to complete tasks early in the year. We also suggest adding tasks from the Planning Timelines to your calendar (whether paper or electronic) and checking them off as you complete them. This will help you stay organized and limit your “When was I supposed to do that?” moments. In addition, add deadlines and events to the calendar as you learn about them throughout the school year, and add reminders to yourself days or weeks in advance of items that require preparation.

Ethics AlertsAlthough Chapter 11 includes a section on ethics, including a list of the CEC’s Ethical Principles and Professional Practice Standards for Special Educators, the idea of ethics and how ethics apply to your work as a teacher cannot be contained to a single chapter. Look for Ethics Alerts to help you understand your ethical obligations as a teacher. Topics include confidentiality, student safety, and collaboration. You may assume that you are an ethical person and will always do the right thing, but these Ethics Alerts will guide you through moments when it is hard to know what’s right or when to stick up for it.

Remembering ELL StudentsStudents who are English language learners (or “ELL students”) have needs that cross through all topics. Just as general educators need to be prepared for the inevitability of having students with disabilities in their classes, all teachers need to be prepared to have students on their caseload who both have a disability and are in the process of learning English. Having an ELL student adds an extra layer of complexity to your work and affects all aspects of how you interact with the student, from assessment to communication with the student and his or her family, to how you instruct the student. Remembering ELL Students will highlight some things to consider and resources to seek out when working with ELL students.

Co-Teaching ConsiderationsMost of this book speaks directly to special education student teachers or new special educators. If you are co-teaching, however, you will have slightly different needs and will likely need to think about or approach challenges differently. Chapter 12 covers co-teaching exclusively, but the Co-teaching Considerations scattered throughout the book serve to make connections as to how co-teaching alters some of our advice, or how co-teachers need to think through aspects of teaching together. If you are co-teaching, we encourage you to share Chapter 12 with your co-teacher, along with the Co-teaching Considerations and other resources, so you can develop a shared vision of what your co-teaching relationship will look like.

Reflection PromptsA very important, often overlooked tool in making oneself better is reflection. As you engage in tasks, it is important for you to reflect and consider how you would improve on these tasks in the future. As you observe how others do something, you should consider how you would change (or improve) the practice to make it yours. Each chapter provides a short list of tasks to do in your instruction; activities to do in your placement or new job; or conversations to have with your cooperatin...