As an Intervention Specialist, on a daily basis I have an internal debate with myself on whether I'm doing the best I can at my job. In my school building we practice inclusion. Inclusion is the educational practice of educating children with disabilities in classrooms with children without disabilities. This has been around for awhile, but only within the last 3 or 4 years has it been implemented in my school building. I teach with some pretty great people, but some of them seem to have their ways of teaching set & I don't always know where I fit in "their" classroom. I think co-teaching (teaching alongside & with the classroom teacher) would be great, but I don't exactly know how to begin that.
Traditionally, an intervention specialist in an inclusion setting is an observer during the general education teacher’s lesson, where they might circulate to make sure their students are focused and listening. At the end of the lesson, they often circulate to help those students who didn’t understand what they were doing or pulling small groups to reteach or intervene. Their expertise is in reteaching in small groups or one-on-one. They are not used to delivering a lesson in front of a whole classroom.
Which leads me back to co-teaching. I'm not used to teaching the whole class, nor am I completely familiar with everything that is being taught in the general classroom everyday. I get accused of helping the kids too much, guiding them more than they need, and not making them do more on their own. I came across this following paragraph and couldn't say it any better myself:
"Intervention specialists are trained to understand the minds and thought processes of students on IEP’s, but now we are asking them to understand the minds and thought processes of the general education student as well. Now, that may not seem like a big deal, but believe me, it is a completely different way of thinking and requires a different way of teaching. It’s more hands-off at times, offering minimal guidance as needed. This is foreign to an intervention specialist who is used to restating and reteaching until the light comes on. The challenge is to not give too much help, which might result in the general education students relying too heavily on her when they might not need that extra help."
I would love to work closer with my general education teachers to benefit the students as much as possible, but this then leads me to my next issue. I have both 6th & 8th grade students this year, which means I'm expected to be in 6th grade Math, Reading & English, AND 8th grade Math & Reading all in the same day. Let me also add that all of those 5 classes mean there are 5 different teachers too. Since I'm "responsible" for the student's on IEPs, I'm also assumed to be their parent at times. I can only do so much with these kids. I cannot pick up their pencil & complete their homework for them. I can't make them magically pass a test. I can't force them to focus & be "good students" AND I can't take away their disability, BUT what I CAN do is help them with their homework, reteach a lesson, show them patience & let them know & show them that I care, not only about their schoolwork, but about their lives too. I feel like a rubber band being stretched in so many different directions. Don't get me wrong, I love my job & enjoy the daily challenge. I work very well with a couple of my general education teachers and what we do works, I just hope I'm serving my students the best I can! Because, after all, if I'm going to be a working mom & away from my daughter every week day, I better be making it worth while!
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