Special Education for Beginners | Managing Paraprofessionals, Special Education Strategies, First Year Sped Teachers, Special Ed Overwhelm, Paperwork for Special Education Teachers - 5 Things I Wish I'd Been Taught in College

5 Things I Wish I'd Been Taught in College

11/10/21 • 21 min

Special Education for Beginners | Managing Paraprofessionals, Special Education Strategies, First Year Sped Teachers, Special Ed Overwhelm, Paperwork for Special Education Teachers

#60 5 Things I Wish I'd Been Taught in College

As a teacher leader and someone who provides support to other special educators both online and throughout my district as a department head and through providing professional development to teachers...I hear this All. The. Time.

I wasn’t taught that in college.

And the sad truth is that they are right. They weren’t taught a lot of things in college that they are having to deal with today and it’s very aggravating. Imagine if a doctor were to say..."Sorry I can’t treat that sore throat because I wasn’t taught that in school." Or if an electrician said, "Your house may or may not burn down because I wasn’t taught how to fix that in school." And just as 2 examples...both doctors and electricians are taught while actually working within their field. They have clinical experience and hands-on training that help prepare them for when the unexpected happens.

It’s frustrating to me because we need to know. We need to be told about all aspects of the job so that we can better prepare ourselves for what we will actually experience instead of having to figure it out on the fly and spend 5 years or more struggling. We need to experience a meltdown and see how an experienced teacher handles it. We need to see someone put together a schedule and plan instruction groups. We need to see how to progress monitor and organize data. It’s really no surprise that the burnout rate for special educators is so high We literally were not adequately prepared for this job.

So I thought I would begin to try to let you in on the biggest holes your college preparation classes left.

This episode discusses:
1) Dealing with behavior
2) Managing paperwork
2) How to work with a variety of students at one time
3) Supervising paraprofessionals
4) Scheduling

I truly believe our college preparation classes drop the ball in so many areas when it comes to preparing special educators for the real world. Hopefully this episode will help teachers who are struggling with these aspects of being a special educator.

Mentioned in the Show...

Episode 43 with Sasha from the Autism Helper
Episode 56 with Nicole from Adaptation Station

Paraprofessional Handbook

How to Write an Effective IEP Digital Notebook

Previous Episode

The Letter I Wish I'd Had as a 1st Year Special Education Teacher

Ep. 59 The Letter I Wish I'd Had as a 1st Year Special Education Teacher

As a veteran special educator, I can look back on my career and think, “Holy crap...I have come a long, long way since that first year.”

In fact those first 5 years were pretty cringy if I say so myself. I think I was still trying to fit into some kind of mold of what a special education teacher should look like based on the perception of special educators as a society.

Those first few years were so hard and so overwhelming for a certified special education teacher who had taken all the required classes that I cannot even begin to imagine how hard it is for teachers these days for the teachers who are not highly qualified, OR not qualified at all really.

Many of the teachers working within the field of special education don’t have ANY background in education, much less special education and the number of these interim instructors is increasing drastically due to high attrition, Covid and burn-out.

So if there’s one thing I can do on my end having a platform like this podcast, it’s to educate. I wrote a letter to my 22 year old self telling me what I wish I would have been told waaayyy back then. Hopefully this letter will help you see that it’s okay to struggle. It’s okay to go through tough times. And I want you to know that you are not alone. There are so many people out there who have gone before you who can support you with whatever you need.

I know that writing this letter helped me put into words all the frustration I have felt throughout the years with this profession. The ups and downs...the wins and losses...the tears and the laughter. All of it...the good the bad and the ugly are what have made me who I am today and I wouldn’t trade any of it. I just wish I could have been given some heads up about the way things really were instead of coming into with rose colored glasses. And that’s why I wanted to share it with you...so that you could feel my struggle and know that you aren’t alone in yours. Together, we can push through and become the amazing teachers we were intended to be.

Listen to this episode to hear the letter that is receiving great feedback and lots of love from special educators all over the country.

Mentioned in the Show...

Sped Prep Academy. com/quiz

Next Episode

Episode 61: When Your Job Imitates Your Life: A Special Conversation with a Special Educator

Episode 61: A Special Teacher
Wowza!! Grab your Kleenex before pushing play on this one!
What an amazing and impactful episode this is.
This week’s guest is another fellow podcaster and special education teacher. I didn’t have any idea when I created my podcast that there were so many podcasts hosted by special education teachers, but this podcaster has a different story from the majority of us.
Paul Hubbard is a special education teacher, but he is able to see the field of special education through a different lens than most of us because he has some of the same characteristics as some of our students.
Paul's story is both heartwarming and inspirational. Listen in as he shares how he was diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia and how the power of just a few key individuals in his life put him on a path to eventually become a special education teacher and help students just like him.

His story really hits home and makes you stop and think about what kind of impact you could (should) be making on your students and I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to share Paul’s story with you.
Paul Hubbard has provided over 30 Professional Developments on technology integration in his school district. He is a Google Certified Teacher pursuing his master’s degree in educational technology. During the remote learning, Paul initiated weekly video announcements to promote a sense of normalcy with students school wide. He now produces daily announcements, and has become a role model for all the students in his school through career education, reinforcement of expectations, and positive lighthearted fun. Paul also has written and received over eight educational grants for his classroom and school. In his free time, he works on restoring his 130-year-old home with his wife Brianna, and puppy Lilo.

I’d love it if you’d connect with Paul:
Follow him on Instagram or
Listen to his Podcast: Special Odducation

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