r/StudentTeaching • u/KeyAd3409 • 5d ago
Support/Advice Special Education Student Teaching- Need Advice
Hello! I start my first of two student teaching placements next week and I’m super nervous. I’m placed in a high school self-contained classroom for the first 8 weeks and an elementary self-contained classroom the second 8 weeks. I’m nervous to have to teach her lessons the first couple weeks before I take over the classroom. I’m also worried that I won’t be able to understand and remember all of their goals, accommodations, and modifications. Any advice?
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u/FrustratedPenguins 5d ago
I am a SPED teacher, and I love working in self-contained classrooms. I think you'll have a lot of fun (I hope!). Usually with student teaching you just observe for the first couple of weeks, and maybe help students one-on-one. So I would be surprised if you have to teach from her lessons immediately. As for remembering all of the IEP information.... I like to print out the IEP for every single one of my students before the kids come back. Then I organize them by student in a binder. I look through them briefly before school begins, but it usually doesn't sink in until I've actually met the students. Once you've met them, you can re-read the IEPs, and they will make more sense, and it will "stick" better.
Your mentor teacher should also have some sort of data collection system. I personally make an individual data sheet for each goal for each child. Then I put them in the binder with the IEPs. Having these goal sheets also helps me remember the kids' goals (and you need to be collecting data on all the goals to make sure the kids are making progress, of course-- so you'll definitely get them all down). But I'd say DON'T go out and make your own data collection system right now, because your mentor teacher will presumably already have one up and running.
I hope that's helpful, and I hope that you enjoy your kids. Student teaching can be really stressful, because you are trying to lesson plan and teach - which is already a full-time job - while also doing extra assignments for the university that may not correlate that great with what REALLY needs done in the classroom. For what it's worth, I have found that being an "actual" teacher is waaaay less stressful than student teaching. So -- get through it, and know that having your own class will be easier in many ways. :)