Teaching Jobs are Not Equal

​At the moment I am cozy and grateful for the opportunity to write undisturbed in a comfortable location.  I am on a break, a much earned break from my 9-5.
 
My 9-5 is teaching (managing a classroom, managing/coaching paras, being cooperative with teammates, planning for instruction and the most intense…interacting with and instructing the students.  
 
Now here is where I might make enemies.  What I will express is only my opinion, and that is not all teaching jobs are equal.  I have often been envious of teachers in upper elementary, high school or my goodness of older more functional beings.  I have often been envious of teachers with students who can communicate effectively to solve problems rather than displaying a maladaptive behavior that you must go through the scientific process to determine communication function.  I have often been envious of teachers that work with a wide variety of parents that have a balance of challenges.  I have been envious of teachers who get to see progress at a much more steady, predictable rate.  Now, to be fair, I respect all teachers.  Using professions to uplift the life of others is just great peopling.  However, I do believe preschool and elementary student wranglers may have much more of a burden than learning directors of adults. 
 
At the preschool and elementary level, we are teaching regulation, executive functioning, social and academic skills.  There is also the burden of ‘first contact’ in building and maintaining positive relations with parents from the start of the little adorable germ breeder’s school career.  Toss in shoe tying, blowing noses and other add-ons, the preschool/elementary teacher has a whole heck of a lot of responsibility.  Now given they directly serve their often congested charges approximately 6.5 hours a day M-F, and given that these pint sized pupils really don’t do ‘independent tasks’ so great that requires the preschool, early elementary teacher to find planning time elsewhere.  Oh the number of times I have walked hurriedly past a room of compliant students working independently while a teacher plans or collaborates to improve the quality of their teaching.
 
Now that I’ve attempted to paint a picture that Brene Brown might approve of, I want to add on a level that some teachers are working with.  Sadly, not enough teachers, but it makes sense.  Now, take those preschool/early elementary teacher pictures I’ve attempted to conjure.  In all fairness, reduce the number of kids in the classroom.  Maybe add one or two other adults to help.  
 
Now that you’ve got a new view in mind, imagine that none of the 9 students can express their needs and wants in a clearly understandable way.  Some lucky students have a device to assist, which requires new learning on your part and a new layer to your instruction.  Imagine that most are in a state of uncomfortable dysregulation that comes through in tantrums, noises, self-harming behaviors and one student’s regulation strategy triggers another student to become dysregulated.  Now imagine that you must adhere to a 25 page per student individual plan, oh and through the year you must collect reliable data and draft a new legal document.  Contemplate working with families that all have an extra burden or several burdens due to difficulties of disabilities.  These could be trying to secure supplemental therapies, spending more time on supporting your child just so they could have a fulfilling life, or extensive doctor appointments to upkeep medications.  Consider trying to provide the best inclusion support with teachers who have less patience for your students, more teaching to another adult for each kiddo.  Ponder how it may feel to have a student unexpected behavior divert the course of your lesson plans seen as a normal daily occurrence (its like they collaborate to take turns).  Mull over the number of injuries these tiny tots incur through their behavioral expressions as they rebuff ‘hard’ work of learning.  Cogitate about how progress for students might occur in a setting such as this and the impact on the educator of limited progress.  
 
Lastly, ask yourself again, why are special education teachers hard to find in the shrinking field of all teachers?  Not all teaching jobs are equal.
 
My opinion (And I hope to goodness this occurs more than I know about, because most of my time was in a low socio economic school district that did not have all these resources…yet):
A solution for one special education teaching role, self-contained special education teacher.  Teaching noncommunicative students on the spectrum is extremely dauting.  Often, they are lumped together in a classroom that serves autism (some of the fastest neural speeds) and cognitive disabilities (some of the slowest neural speeds).  This exacerbates the challenges already mentioned above.  This type of classroom is best run with a series of ‘stations’ so that you can split up the learning groups for efficient learning time.  This requires quite a bit of transitions, which also serve to provide movement breaks.  Students in these classrooms at the younger level often have sensory diets to help learn regulation skills.  Students who are the youngest in these classrooms often have maladaptive behaviors.  So, running stations requires planning, communicating planning to other adults, managing regulation needs and fostering independent transitions.  
 
For the beginning of the year (at least) I believe students would be best served if the special education teacher didn’t have to be running (sometimes literally) at a lightning pace to get it all done.  I believe self-contained classrooms catering to students on the spectrum and/or cognitive challenges should have a classroom teacher, two paraprofessionals to help facilitate learning (others added if student comes in with limited independence and requires dedicated para times) AND a behavior tech support staff whose primary job is to work on the ‘classroom’ schedule and student transitions.  This would allow the teacher to teach more frequently rather than losing precious time in helping the student struggling with transitioning and leaving a learner just waiting in a learning station.  The behavior tech support staff could also be the data collector as well as the sensory diet manager, again allowing for the teacher to focus on the instruction of students, not just managing a sensory diet that was already drafted and may not need a teacher.  The behavior tech could also be assisting in students going into regular classrooms for special subjects or other integreation opportunities (again so an adult can be retained in the classroom for instruction).
 
Why am I advocating for a behavior tech when I have two paraprofessionals envisioned in the room?  I do this because over the years you never know what you are going to get with a paraprofessional outside of a great loving heart.  Additionally, if you are splitting your class of 9 (minimally communicative and often with bathroom schedules) into meaningful configurations for actual skill progress that means at more times than not, (except when they each take their lunch or are taking students to special subjects) you will want multiple learning groups running.  As the classroom teacher you are to instruct the paras on the new activities and of course teach, communicate to parents and on and on.  The behavior tech alleviates some of the daily demands in taking data on certain students so you don’t have to multi-task (something that I hear repeatedly is not good, yet expected of teachers every moment of every day).  The behavior tech ensures that sensory diets are managed with integrity without negatively impacting student learning by taking away an instructing adult.  The behavior tech can consistently target certain student behaviors that are being shaped.  Yep, lots of benefits that essentially boil down to increased learning opportunities.  Does this seem like a lot of resources to be granted?   
 
Well, given the increase and projected increase in special needs students, envision a future for the students, the families, and the communities 20 years down the road if we don’t maximize their time in the public education system.  ALL kids CAN learn, some just need different, if not given different these students may not learn, their families will need to work harder to assist their child, the student themselves may become self-defeated and the impact on the community in regard to safety and economy may be quite negative.