Teaching has always been a noble profession and one has to be very considerate and they need a lot of patience if they have decided to become a teacher as a career option.
When one wants to become a special education teacher, then it has its very own challenges which are way different than being a regular teacher. Hence one has to be very much aware if they want to take up this as a profession. In order to become a SEN teacher one needs a proper teacher training course where they can learn how to dedicate fully into being a teacher and then work as a special educator. This is an extremely rewarding career and one can make a lifelong impact on themselves if they choose to be a part of this job.
Special education teacher training courses are always meticulously crafted and help one to learn vividly about the methodologies and details about how they must behave with a special child in a classroom and how they should make them learn new things. Once one becomes a SEN teacher, then they need to constantly improvise their methods for teaching and there are some basic things that are supposed to be learnt.
The involvement of a SEN teacher is crucial in many ways and here are some responsibilities that one needs to look at:
Curriculum Design
Special education teachers have to craft the lessons for any inclusive classrooms and also need to ensure that all the needs to students with disabilities are considered. Teachers can work together in order to develop a curriculum which is accessible to all the students who are specially-abled. There needs to be certain modifications in the curriculum which have manipulative texts and visuals.
Classroom Instruction
In case of inclusive classrooms there are co-teaching models. But if it is a special education teacher class, then the lessons have to be provided in a certain way. These students need extensive cooperation and the teachers have to monitor each and every student’s learning progress. They always need to provide supplemental learning materials to them. SEN teachers must remember that students need different levels of assistance and individual instructions at this stage depending on their unique needs. Sometimes they also need to provide one to one lessons and sensory activities and arrange things like sessions with speech therapists, dyslexia coaches, counselling sessions and many more.
Learning Assessments
The teacher needs to provide the students with regular assessments so that they can keep a track on how much they are learning. Lessons should be periodically evaluated to see if the students are also gaining some self confidence while they are getting more of general education.
Advocating for Students
SEN teachers needs to serve as advocates for students who have special needs. They need to make people understand the importance of inclusion and how to implement them in the campus activities.
These are the major tasks that a SEN teacher needs to do an undergoing a special education teaching course can be very helpful.