5 Survival Guidelines for the New Special Education Teachers
6th June 2020
It's true that the primary year of any teaching job is more or less always the hardest and this is particularly true for special education teachers. Undoubtedly, special education teachers always experience some additional fretful feelings whenever they go through their initial year of teaching. The reason is that they have some kinds of supplementary, distinctive responsibilities to complete in order to have a flourishing year. Sometimes, they have to deal with the parents of the children with special needs as well. There are a lot of different styles that special education teachers can use.
Well, after meeting all the required criteria for teaching special kids, you've at last been presented a job as a new special education teacher.
So, now how do you perform?
This is what you geared up for.
To continue, here are some effective strategies you should start practising at the earliest:
1. Build a Constructive Contact with Parents
This is one of the most important things which you need to do as a new special education teacher. This is necessary as you have to learn more about their child to teach effectively. It is the parents who will give you all that valuable information about their child. By establishing a positive relationship during the initial days is very much appreciated. Moreover, it will make parents more approachable because you always need to contact them about the progress of their children in the future.
2. Incorporate a Reward System
This is also significant in a special education classroom, just like how the strong set of tenets and consequences are important. This category of classification can be basic as you would like to formulate it. Do you know it is also an exceptional tool for the behavioural data collection of your special needs learners? By using their specific IEP goals, you can customize this structure for each student in your classroom.
3. Re-examine All the IEP Dates
In a special educational teaching world, timelines and deadlines are essential. The Individual Education Program (IEP) deals with all deadlines and if you miss the deadlines, then it can lead to troubles in IEPs, maybe which can indicate the prospective credentials from your district or state. That is why you need to go through each student's IEP data and mark your calendar with their appropriate dates. It's really helpful to stay ahead of time and plan for the rest of the months when you'll be busy with meetings and paperwork.
4. Make Game Plans
It is highly recommended to create a game plan for your different IEP meetings. As a new special education teacher, you may feel browbeaten while leading your first-ever meeting. Try to build up an outline to keep you on track, try to have a good perceptive of your student's up to date IEP and come with preparation for the new goals and services. By bringing a tentative arrangement you can show others that you are well-prepared and professional, which ultimately leads others to trust and respect you.
5. Be Flexible Enough
You should conserve your energy. Try to allocate time each day when you will stop working—even if you have more works to do. It is important. The field is a changing one, just when you feel that you have figured out everything you will see something will change. It can be anything; it might be a new student, new behavioural hitches with an existing student, and so on. Sometimes, it can be wearisome to repeatedly face changes, that is why it is necessary to be flexible.
Apart from the above-mentioned tips, another piece of recommendation we would like to give new SEN teachers is to understand when to request for help. After all, completing all the required formalities to teach the special needs children by enrolling for special educational needs online courses, applying these traits in your work will definitely help you a lot. You'll be flabbergasted at how much improvement all of your students have made by the end of the year and as a teacher, seeing this accomplishment is one of the best things that will keep you going.
