• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

October 23, 2014 Confessions of a Teacher

The Working Hours of a Special Education Teacher

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Teresa

Teresa Cooper is a 30-something divorced mom and teacher from North Carolina. She has a Masters of Science in Education for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment from Walden University and a BA in Psychology with a minor in Creative from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Having struggled with anxiety and depression most of her life and later having birthed a child with autism, she is passionate about spreading awareness and acceptance of mental illness and autism. After 13 years in education, she has a wealth of knowledge to share on education and bonding with children.
  • PTSD in Teachers: Yes, It's Real! - August 19, 2018
  • Teacher Anxiety: How to Cope With Anxiety Under Stress - July 29, 2018
  • Depression Kills Teachers if Left Untreated: It Should Not Kill Their Careers - July 23, 2018
  • Amidst Declining Mental Health in Teachers, What Can Administrators Do? - June 30, 2018
  • 5 Things I'd Tell Myself in My Earlier Teaching Years - October 15, 2017
  • How Class Dojo Saves My Sanity Daily - October 1, 2017
  • Surviving the School Year: Game of Thrones Style - August 27, 2017
  • What to Change Behavior? Start With Class Meetings in Special Education - August 20, 2017
  • When Your Administrator Doesn't Like You - July 3, 2017
  • Conquering Teacher Biases Against Disabilities: Important Strategies - May 8, 2017

Special education teachers work hard. People see smaller class sizes and equate that with less work, but that's a fallacy. I can tell you that in my small class, I'm planning three different lessons and within those three lessons, I'm modifying within levels. In my inclusion classes, I modify assignments, and teachers look at it like it takes just a few minutes, but sometimes I create modifications and it takes time to do that. So the inclusion teacher might create the lesson plan, but then I must plan for the small percentage children in the room that need more than the other percentage of the population. On the outside, that planning looks minimal, but it takes time. The working hours of a special education teacher span well beyond 7:30 - 3:30 p.m. daily.

In a week, my schedule will change, and I'll actually be teaching all resource classes for all different grade levels on a middle school level. This means planning six different preps a day, but not really, because I'm also teaching social skills, organizational/study skills, and many other things within one of my other classes. The planning and foresight that comes with that takes a lot of time. As it is, I bring work home nightly after staying at work until 5:30 p.m. every day even though my work day technically ends at 3:30 p.m. and I'm up until at least 11:00 p.m. working.

This happens not because of lack of time management, but because of lack of time. I get one hour during the day to plan all of these things, and sometimes I have meetings during that time. I must write Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), schedule meetings, call parents, and handle the occasional crisis that comes up. As you can imagine, an hour passes very quickly, but I power forward. What I don't accomplish at work, I bring home. Unfortunately, I lose leisure time and, during intense times, time with family.

Sometimes people wonder why I continue working this hard for this long every single day. I can answer that easily. I do it for the girl that writes in her journal that she feels safe in my classroom, the parent that tells me that her son wonders why I couldn't teach him two years in a row, the moment I see a student get something he didn't get the day before, the student that wants to follow me when I move to a different classroom because I've done so much to help him, and all those wonderful moments that happen during the day that allow me to see the reason why I took this job in the first place--to help children. Even on a bad day, when I'm emotionally exhausted, dead on my feet, and ready to drop, knowing what I do for the kids gets me through.

Now tell us, what time is your actual work day and how do you manage your lack of time?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Using Popular Music in the Secondary Classroom Taking the Anxiety Out of Student Placement in Special Education The Importance of Communication For IEP Students and Parents We Must Love Them
« Why Should We Care About Virtual Education?
Teaching Creative Writing to Younger Kids »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • My Union Showed Up for Me, and I'll Never Forget It
  • Your Students Deserve a Diverse Classroom Library. Here's How to Set It Up.
  • You Don't Have to Watch the Tyre Nichols Video, But Be Ready to Talk About It
  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.