What it takes to be a special education teacher

Tucked away in the B Hallway of the first floor, English class is underway for Ms. Lauren-Ashley Minor’s Learning For Independence class. Six students are typing on their computers writing summaries of their winter break.

Laughter can be heard from the other side of the divider that runs along the middle of the classroom, where six other students are in math. A student is writing on the Promethean board with a malfunctioning pen and his classmates can’t help giggling.

At first glance, teaching this level of special education can seem simple. Small class sizes, colorful worksheets, the classroom environment feels stress-free and youthful .However, many people are not aware of the workload special education teachers are responsible for. A lot is expected of all teachers, but there is not enough appreciation for teachers such as these.

Ms. Misha Powell and Minor work together as teachers in the Learning for Independence (LFI) program, one of three special education programs at Springbrook. The other programs are the School-Community-Based (SCB) program and Learning and Academic Disabilities (LAD) program. LFI also has three paraeducators, Taylor Stockinger, Timothy Toag, and Ashley Malleck.

In LFI, students don’t have obvious disabilities. Other students wouldn’t realize they had a disability unless they heard them speak or saw their school work. The children in the program have a range of functionality. Some students are nonverbal and others have normal social skills but struggle academically.

LFI is designed to give students the right tools to live independently. Students can stay in the program until they are 21. In most cases, college is not the next step for them. They will likely enter the working world or into an adult program after graduation.

“I know that in Montgomery County there is a few to choose from. There’s still not a lot to choose from, but I think they should go to the next setting where it’s a structured environment,” Powell said.

Their curriculum covers a wide range of both educational and social skills. For example, during one English class one student could be learning to memorize their address and phone number while another is building sentences.

“I always want to make sure that even if I’m teaching the same concept or the same lesson I’m doing it in different ways so that my students aren’t doing the same thing over and over again,” Minor said.

Special education students are required to learn the same curriculum as any other student. The first two periods of the day LFI students can be found in elective classes with general education students.The challenge for teachers is suiting their students’ unique learning disabilities so that they can retain the information. All work is adapted and manipulated to fit the level of the student.

“It does take a lot of preparation before school, after school, on the weekends sometimes to make sure that the kids have the materials necessary to be able to understand the lessons,” said Minor.

A large part of LFI involves taking students out of the classroom and developing social and working skills. Tuesday through Thursday, students are assigned to work at a local business. Groups of students are working at the Marriott, Habitat for Humanity, Shoppers, and Sunrise Assisted Living. They are expected to learn things such as cleaning, sorting, and bagging. Some students that aren’t quite as ready to leave the building stay at Springbrook and bake cookies and sell them to staff.

Monday and Friday, all the students have instruction on how to go out into public environments. The goal of community-based instruction is to teach students how to survive in society. For instance, the students may travel to the grocery store and learn how to shop and pay for their groceries. Students also learn to interact with other adults besides their teachers.

To be able to have experiences like these and other aspects of the job require an extensive amount of paperwork. This becomes a very time consuming part of their job. Individualized Educational Plans (IEP) are required by law and were designed for all special education students to outline the goals for the school year. IEPs require detailed paperwork to fulfill these plans.

“There’s a lot of paperwork. I would say 50% of being a special educator is clerical. Working with IEPs, working with assessments, you know just all different types of documents,” Powell said.

Data is collected on students every period of the day. It is written on a number of things such as goals for a student, developments in behaviors, and updates on job and community skills. Data is then complied to show student progress throughout the year and to ensure students are being placed in the right classes.

“You are responsible for the caseload of a group of students and that is difficult to manage but it’s not impossible,” assistant principal and special education supervisor Ms. Nikki Morales said.