For students with disabilities, having a great resource specialist teacher can make all the difference. Also known as special education teachers, resource specialist teachers provide quality education to students with disabilities and ensure that they make the most out of their school experience.
Resource specialist teachers do all the things that regular teachers do, albeit a little differently. For instance, resource specialist teachers create and implement Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) to help special students learn in the best ways possible, depending on their individual needs and capabilities. And unlike regular teachers, resource specialist teachers have to go through specialized education and in-class training before becoming qualified to teach children with special needs.
The typical workday of a resource specialist teacher revolves around implementing IEPs, providing remediation instruction, and of course, delivering classroom lectures and activities. Communicating with their students' parents, healthcare providers, and other school staff is also a common activity.
The average salary of a resource specialist teacher ranges from $39,000 to $66,000 a year. For some teachers, providing remedial instruction to special needs students adds to their income.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a resource specialist teacher. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.08 an hour? That's $54,251 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 55,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many resource specialist teachers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed interpersonal skills, communication skills and physical stamina.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a resource specialist teacher, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.9% of resource specialist teachers included student learning, while 12.6% of resumes included professional development, and 9.5% of resumes included regular basis. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the resource specialist teacher job title. But what industry to start with? Most resource specialist teachers actually find jobs in the education and non profits industries.
If you're interested in becoming a resource specialist teacher, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 25.7% of resource specialist teachers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 54.7% of resource specialist teachers have master's degrees. Even though most resource specialist teachers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a resource specialist teacher. When we researched the most common majors for a resource specialist teacher, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on resource specialist teacher resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a resource specialist teacher. In fact, many resource specialist teacher jobs require experience in a role such as teacher. Meanwhile, many resource specialist teachers also have previous career experience in roles such as special education teacher or substitute teacher.