Reality 101: CEC's blog for new teachers

The Conference within the Conference

In this last post, I was going to discuss the great sessions at the CEC 2009 Convention & Expo in Seattle. As I have implored in my other posts, attending a CEC convention is a great way to meet people and see old friends -- luckily everyone wears a name tag so you don’t have to remember names -- but there are great educational sessions as well.

But instead, I am going to write about what I call “the conference within the conference.” My first day at the conference, Wednesday, was spent in one of the preconvention workshops that last all day and go in-depth on a particular issue. As I was leaving my preconvention workshop and heading to see Marlee Matlin speak at the general session, I chatted with a group of teachers who had just received their program guide (a massive undertaking it must be to put one of these together). These attendees felt very overwhelmed about what to do and where to go.

Job Hunting at the CEC Convention & Expo

By David F. Bateman, Shippensburg University, PA

After the CEC 2009 Convention & Expo, many of the new teachers with whom I talked went back to a school year they were excited about and said was rapidly coming to an end -- while others said it could not end soon enough. Some teachers stated the warmth of April and May makes it difficult for students to focus on their work in school. Some of these same students may need extended school year programs or summer school to address deficits from the academic year, but hope springs eternal for them.

One of the things (among many) that impressed me about the convention in Seattle was the sheer number of school districts recruiting for new teachers. It was pretty much “name a state” and there was a representative from that state (or several different school districts) looking for new special education teachers. I wish I’d known about how impressive the job recruitment at the convention was when I was looking for a job -- CEC membership is worthwhile for that reason alone. One can go anywhere and CEC really does a great job of making the world available to you. Tell your colleagues and any soon-to-be graduating students about the amazing job fair. It is a reason all by itself to go the conference.

Reflecting on the CEC 2009 Convention & Expo

By David F. Bateman, Shippensburg University, PA

Regular readers of this blog know the contributors change on a monthly basis. To all the other contributors, I realize how unfair it is that I have the month of April and I apologize in advance (but I’m not changing -- so don’t even ask).

Why is it unfair? I just attended the CEC 2009 Convention & Expo in Seattle and saw amazing people who truly care about students with disabilities and who have devoted their lives to working with a part of society some wish did not exist or would just go away.

Working as a special education teacher can be lonely. During my first years of teaching I was the only special education teacher in the building -- there was a great speech/language pathologist who held my hand a lot during the IEP writing, but on the whole I was on my own.