Today I went to the private Special Ed school. It was a completely different experience. The entire day was organized and structured and the children are incredibly calm & well behaved considering that they have ED and/or Autism. There were two teachers in a classroom of six children. Both teachers are 20+ year veterans and I really learned a lot of great lesson on content delivery and classroom management. They had great transition structure and clear and defined rules.
The entire school is high security. When I first arrived, I almost felt as if I was visiting a prison. I had to get let in by a staff member at the front door because it’s locked with pass code entry. Then I was questioned and had to sign in. I was given a visitor tag to wear and was escorted to the room.
The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way is that after months of planning this with the principle, when I arrived, he seemed to have no idea who I was or why I was there and had nothing set up for me. I decided for this reason that I am not going back. Although the teachers were great and the observation extremely educational, I spent the majority of the time just sitting there and I don’t think that I will see much of anything different tomorrow. I feel much more productive and comfortable at the public school. I know what is expected of me and my role and they really need the extra help. Plus, I kind of missed the kids; I think I may be getting attached to them a bit after having some small breakthroughs that really touched that inner teacher in me.
There were a couple students I bonded with today and got to teach math and vocabulary to a couple of the students. Also, since there were two teachers, I spent a lot of time getting background info on the kids and understanding of the goals of the program.
I don’t regret having this day at the private school at all, I think I really needed that different perspective, but as far as the rest of my hours, I’m anxious to go back to my crazy and chaotic classroom!
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