I was officially hired after the start of the school year. It was only a few days in though. Let me try and put that whole year into as little words as possible.
I taught Resource for 4th and 5th grade mostly. I did have a 3rd grade class that I pulled a student or two out of but that was it. I taught Behavioral Skills to a small number of students right off the bat in the morning and then did 5th Math pull-out, 4th Math push-in, 5th Reading pull-out, and ended my day with 3rd/4th Reading pull-out.
Those few students that I had for Behavior Skills were rather interesting. I had one who smelled horribly, and one that when he went back in to the Gen Ed for Math every time the lights were turned out... enjoyed himself. And I'm not talking about hand through pocket enjoying himself.. I mean pull it out and enjoy himself. Trying to get that student to realize that was not appropriate was a difficult task which I'm not sure we ever really got through to him. The other one had excuses for everything, mom had excuses for everything, he seemed to be a pathological liar, and was extremely lazy. He never seemed to want to do anything unless you told him everything. I also seem to remember him telling me that his mother moved him to where they were and changed schools for him to get a "fresh start" and "not be in Resource" anymore. Well records follow you child. We knew about all of what had happened at the previous school. There have been few students that I have disliked greatly in my now 5 years of teaching but he was one of those few. Other than those two, for the most part it was a pretty average first year. Trial and error. Figuring out how to teach according to goals and Gen Ed curriculum. Learning how to write IEP's correctly. Holding IEP meetings. Finally, learning how to deal with and overcome some behavioral problems from students. You know normal things for teachers.
Now, as I mentioned before sometime in March I was informed about changes that had been made for the school. The school had 2 Resource classes (one for grades 1-3 and the one I taught) along with 2 self-contained classes, an Early Childhood, and what is called KIDS. The KIDS program was an Early Childhood room specifically for kids with Autism. The 2 self-contained programs that they had were the same program just different grade levels. One was for grades 1-2 and the other was 3-5. Clark County School District decided that the school was not a good location for the Primary (grades 1-2) program. So they deleted it. This meant that to begin with if the teacher of the program wanted to stay at the school the lowest seniority person would be surplused (the term we use for involuntarily transferred.) Well, that person was me. I would not be surplused if the teacher wanted to transfer herself or any other teacher in the department wanted to transfer. After a few days, it sounded like most of the people in the department wanted to stay. Around that time those in my department and the principal started telling me that I should just transfer on my own. Then I would have more of a say of where I go. Especially with the fact that I had such a low seniority number in the district. I would not have a good time at the surplus meeting. I was helped by some mentors/PD providers in locating a new school in the area of the city that I wanted to be in. I interviewed with a few schools but never heard back from them. One was for another Resource position and one was for a self-contained. I went on my third interview and it was successful. Even before I was officially offered the position I knew things were going well when the AP showed me the classroom and told me about what was going on with the program at the time. When we returned to the office I was offered the position and I accepted it on the spot. The next thing I remember is that I was walking out to my car calling my boyfriend at the time and telling him and him being in disbelief that I was offered it right there. Later, I found out I had been the only one that had called and voiced interest in the position.
This new position was what I had really wanted when I went into Special Education. A self-contained room. It wasn't quite the grade levels I had originally wanted but was willing to work with for various reasons after what I had learned in that first year of how 3rd-5th graders in Special Ed really functioned.
So it was on to a new school. New school year (well of course). And finally, a new program! All of which I was excited for!
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