As the name says it all, special education is basically the training setup, learning environment or carefully designed institutional work patterns that are offered to the pupils with special needs. We are generally talking about those students who are not equivalent to normal kids and they are having some physical or mental deficiencies which they have to deal with while getting education or some specific training. The professional experts who have said ‘yes’ to this challenging scenario must work really hard because they have to assist those kids with their educational, personal, behavioral and emotional development at the same time. Such kids are not able to understand or respond to their teacher’s questions so the teachers are specially trained to behave quite patiently and with extremely polite and caring behavior. They have to motivate special children to get involved in social activities and also to learn the skills they need to live in society with honor.
Image credit: http://www.texasmonthly.com/
What actually the career demands:
If you are going to study special education as a subject, get your degree and proceed to be a special education instructor, just keep one thing in your mind that you will need lots of courage to deal with this profession because you are going to handle that special part of society which can be partially or totally dependent on others and such kids have so many behavioral issues. If you feel that you have got the potential to make them feel comfortable with their learning environment and help them to learn that how they should behave confidently when they are among their family and friends, you must go for the career. It’s not an easy task because so many times, such kids get disturbed and feel uncomfortable due to some situations and a special education instructor has to deal with the situation very carefully and wisely.
What is the main objective?
After taking your decision to be a special education teacher, obviously you would like to discuss that what actually you have to do in this career and how different is it from normal teaching process. Basically like other teachers, you have to focus that what strategies you will be adopting to help your pupils about their mental development and educational needs. Every child is different from other so the behavioral techniques teachers will adopt will be countless and also the educational modules. It is not always possible to work alone with special children; a teacher has to decide that whether he can handle things alone or with collaboration of others like those kids’ parents, other teachers, psychiatrists, school principal, any social worker, speech pathologist or anyone other who can help you to create an individual education program for every special pupil in their class. Moreover, it is sometimes essential to create groups of students to make learning better.
Individual Education Program (IEP):
We have used the term IEP in last few lines, which means Individual Education Program. You might have heard somewhere that for special education, teachers often do their job as a team. They need all the relevant people to create a suitable environment to fulfil the needs of these disabled children. IEP targets, sets goals and acts through that. It targets basic areas for improvement which a child needs and it is based upon complete activity set of a child’s daily routine. The instructor takes time to observe a child, list out all the weak areas which he has to work at and then plans accordingly. After the goals are set and the program takes a start, again a child is put under strict observation and every bit of improvement is reported to his parents and management.
Is this career favorable for you for a good earning?
Understanding all these points, the question that comes right after that is whether you can adopt this career as a good earning source. Before going into detail, you must know that all special education instructors need a license before stepping into this career. These licenses are approved by the education board of each state. Recent studies report that special education teachers are lesser than the need of society so more degrees and certifications are offered by education board to encourage students to adopt this field as a career. After all these opportunities, it is clearly observed that many special education teachers have switched their jobs to administration level and they have started teaching students the subject of special education. All these progressed and people’s involvement in this field show positive effects and the future of special education can be anticipated to be brighter than ever. The new setups and developed atmosphere of such institutes show that the upcoming scenario is quite promising for those who have devoted their lives to help humanity.
Are you ready to go for it?
If, after going through all the information which we have provided, you are ready to go for this special field, check out the list of characteristics you must have for this.
• Patience
• Courage
• Ability to work as a team to reach the goals
• Exceptional communication skills
• Multi-tasking is a must
• Ability to motivate students to learn and share their thoughts
• Creativity
• Capability to handle various techniques to achieve the targets
• Quick responding
• Caring and devoted attitude
• Stamina to handle critical situations
Author Bio
Jenny Campata has been working with writing challenged clients for over three years. She provides ghostwriting and ghost editing service as well. Currently, she is providing custom essay writing service via Getcustomessayhelp.com for the student of college and university.