geek.teacher

I’ve recently been in contact with a pre-service Special Ed major who needed to ask some questions of a current Special Education teacher. When I saw his post asking for help, I thought, “Hey! I’m a Special Education teacher!” so I told him to send the interview questions my way. Since it’s the most I’ve written about Education in weeks, I figured I’d post my answers to his interview here.

1) Name/School/State
Dan Callahan
Drexel Hill Middle School
Pennsylvania

2) What college did you graduate from and with what degrees/accreditations.
I graduated from St. Joseph’s University with a Bachelor’s in 2001, with concentrations in Elementary and Special Education, and again from SJU in 2002 with a Master’s with concentrations in Special Education and Reading. I currently hold the following certifications in Pennsylvania:

• Special Education K-12
• Elementary Education K-6
• Reading Specialist K-12
• Middle Level English 6-9
• Middle Level Mathematics 6-9
• Middle Level Citizenship Education 6-9
• Middle Level Science 6-9

3) What made you want to teach special education?
I originally chose to study Special Education because I knew that no matter what classroom I taught in, I would have students with special needs.

4) Do you co-teach/co-plan? If so do you get a specific period/block to do this? What are your feelings/experiences with co-teaching?
I don’t co-teach, but since I’m in a Middle School, I do have shared Team Meeting time where I meet with other teachers to discuss the needs of the students on our team and plan activities for them.

5) What is the protocol for home-bound instruction?
In my district, most of those procedures are handled by administrators. Once a determination for homebound instruction is made, they arrange the teacher who will provide it, and the classroom teacher that the student came from will provide that teacher with some curriculum guidelines and materials.

6) What is the district’s procedure for autistic children?
As with any other students, our procedure is to provide them with Free, Appropriate, Public Education. My district has students on the Autistic Spectrum  represented at al levels of Least Restrictive Environment, with some included in Regular Education for all subjects, some receiving resource-level learning support, some in our own full time autistic support classes, and some in Approved Private Schools. It all depends on the child’s needs and what the parents agree to.

7) If the district has an autistic class are they required to take state tests (GEPA/HSPA etc)
In Pennsylvania, all students from grades 3-8 and grade 11 are required to take state tests. Fortunately, for those students with the most severe needs, we have an alternate test. The alternate test is made up one-on-one hands-on activities to better demonstrate the child’s progress in their special curriculum. The tape is videotaped and sent to the state for scoring.

Is communication with child study teams generally easy? Any anecdotes regarding times when you clashed with them?
My students have generally been previously identified for Special Education services years ago, many before they even start attending school. Since the primary function of a Child Study Team is to identify students with special needs, I have little if any contact with an actual team. I do work with many people who would represent such a team when my students need to be Reevaluated, and have had positive communication with them at every juncture.

9) Are parents generally helpful or harmful when it comes to interaction between them regarding their children? Any anecdotes regarding especially negative communication with a parent?
Most parents are generally helpful. Typically, situations turn negative when you have to tell parents something they don’t want to hear. In some cases, that’s when the parents want services that the district doesn’t feel need to be provided. In others, it’s ongoing discipline problems. The best approach is  to make positive communication with the parents as early in the year as possible to help build trust. This can be difficult, though, if you teach in a district where parents will frequently change contact information without informing the school district, don’t answer the phone, or don’t use voicemail/answering machines.

If any other Special Education teachers out there have some followup stuff, especially in the areas I was clearly weakest in like homebound instruction and child study teams, I’d be glad to point him back to this post with your responses. He’s also now got me curious. Since I’ve only taught in one district, I kind of just take our procedures for granted, and assume that’s the way things are done. I’d love to hear if people have any wildly different responses to some of these answers, in particular with the questions about autistic students.

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