Reality 101: CEC's blog for new special education teachers

Mentors

Here’s to all those wonderful professionals who take time to mentor someone. There are different types of mentors. Perhaps some of you have been assigned a “mentor teacher” to provide guidance and advice as you work through your first year of teaching. Having a mentor in your school building to turn to for advice and suggestions is wonderful. What a great resource! We hope that you are using your mentor as much as you possibly can—asking questions, borrowing resources, copying effective lessons, talking through situations.

Make the Most of Your Trip to the Convention

Headed to Seattle for the CEC Annual Convention? Great! We have all been to the convention many times and continue to marvel at what a great opportunity it is for meeting people, learning new things, and picking up what’s going on in the field. Following are some tips for making the most out of your time at the CEC Convention & Expo.

Before you leave, be smart about what you pack.

• Wear very comfortable shoes—you will be on your feet a lot! Sneakers are fine at a convention as long as they are in good shape.
• Bring professional clothes for interviewing, casual clothes for site seeing, and something in the middle for sessions.
• Bring address labels to use to sign up for mailing lists, door prizes, and catalogs—you don’t want to have to keep writing your address over and over again.
• Take a pad of paper or a notebook to write down contact information for new friends, job opportunities, notes from sessions, etc.
• If you have one, bring a small rolling cart or a small piece of luggage on wheels. It will make walking long distances easier if you’ve collected freebies and catalogs at the exhibit hall.

Who's in Charge?

The scene: a fourth-grade math class comprised of students with mixed abilities, including three students with IEPs.

9:25 a.m. - The teacher asks the students to take their seats and to begin the warm-up problems she has on the board. She tells them they have 10 minutes to complete the warm-up and then they will start the new lesson for the day.

9:30 a.m. – Very few of the students are in their seats working on the warm-up. Students are either in line at the pencil sharpener, have asked permission to go to the restroom, are talking to one another, or are talking to the teacher.

Working with Parents

As special educators, we spend a great deal of time thinking and planning appropriate educational strategies for our students. We also work with a variety of school personnel to ensure that our students receive necessary supports.

We also must do our best to work effectively with parents. Here are some tips about working with parents that we’ve learned over the years.

1. Keep a log of all contact with parents—phone calls, e-mails, notes, quick conversations in the hallway. And keep copies of any notes or e-mails sent to parents that contain important information about students.
2. Don’t hesitate to contact parents with questions that you have about their child.
3. Encourage parents to contact you with questions or concerns.
4. If you need to visit a parent at their home, be sure to take a colleague with you.
5. If parents don’t respond to your inquiries in a timely manner, don’t make assumptions about why you haven’t heard from them.
6. Keep parents informed about what is going on in your class.
7. Let parents know when their child has done something positive, not just when there are concerns to discuss.

What have you found to be effective ways to work with parents? How do you communicate with your students’ parents? Let us know.

Joyce and Mary

Thinking about Core Values

Wow—it’s March! Only a few more months until the end of the school year and only a few more weeks until Spring Break! We are thrilled to have the opportunity to share with you during this month. We are Joyce Meyer and Mary Cohen—friends, educators, colleagues, and, along with Maureen Gale (your blogger last month), co-authors of CEC’s  Survival Guide for the First Year Special Education Teacher.

Joyce comes to you from Gurnee, IL, where she is an elementary school principal. Over the past 24 years in education, she has taught students with Specific Learning Disabilities, served as a District Coordinator for Special Education, and also served as an Assistant Principal. Joyce continues to be an active member of CEC and the Learning Disabilities Association, serving at both the local and state levels.

Mary lives in Bethesda, MD (just outside of Washington, DC), where she works as an education consultant. Mary taught in a high school in a small town in Kentucky before moving to the DC area to work for CEC. Though she left CEC in 1993, Mary has continued to work in the education field in a variety of capacities.

Though the two of us came through special education undergraduate programs at different times and in different states, one of the assignments we both had to do was write a philosophy of education. Mary remembers having this assignment in more than one class. At the time, the focus was on “getting it done” so that the next assignment/project/test could be tackled.

How to Organize Classroom Meetings

Today, in my final post, I'd like to discuss designing and implementing class meetings. As I've said, this is a wonderful way to create a positive classroom environment and teach your students to respect each other.

A few tips to get you started:

• Select a name for your class meeting. This will identify your class meeting(s) as a specific activity with guidelines, rules, and expectations. 
• Set a specific time for your meeting and be consistent. Our students thrive on routine.
• What will your seating arrangement be? On the floor, at desks, at tables? Assess the structural needs of your group.
• Tell the students the purpose of class meetings, such as getting along with others, building a sense of community, problem solving, and sharing their feelings and information about themselves. They should know that this is one way they will learn to express themselves appropriately, communicate, and develop social skills.