Special education teacher skills for your resume and career

I acknowledge the enhanced suite of tools offered in an online setting can be alluring. However, I've also noticed some trends that warrant concern. Many of the "free" products being produced in the tech industry have a hidden cost that consumers often pay without hesitation or without knowledge. The personal privacy of students, families, and teachers should be considered before steps are taken by schools or individuals to streamline classroom objectives using apps that require personal data to be divulged. This may not seem like a technical skill, but understanding the motivations behind creating free apps is critical in deciding whether those products are appropriate in the classroom.

Schools using Facebook Pages rather than investing an internal web-page, teachers feeling pressure to join multiple WhatsApp groups with both peers and parents, and the measurement of student success through apps like ClassDojo have not, in my opinion, garnered the kind of scrutiny we once placed on items like student files. The access to personal privacy of teachers, students, and our families when adopting these products far exceeds the information we once kept sealed. We can adopt technology and benefit from our connections without compromising our right to privacy.

Emerging teachers benefit greatly from measures that help them to partner with students and parents in gauging success, measure accomplishment, and support intrinsic motivations. Many of these skills can be found offline or by using platforms that minimize personal data collection. Hosting frequent parent meetings or sending regular briefings of class themes and directions expands your team to include those parents enthusiastic about engaging in school efforts. An ability to showcase growth in an accessible way to students and parents through portfolios helps sharpen efforts toward success. Partnering with community members, designing place-based units of inquiry, and promoting project-based learning can dramatically enhance the intrinsic motivations of students who see the relevance of their endeavors.

In any teaching position, whether special education or otherwise, it is perhaps the soft skills that are the greatest indicators of professional aptitude and success. In my years as a principal, we used to call this "teacher mojo," and it was an aura that is easier to glean in an interview than on a resume but centers around those personal traits that the person brings with them to the table beyond their content and pedagogical knowledge and expertise. A hiring administrator wants to know that the candidate is collaborative; special education teachers are expected to partner with their general education colleagues and related service providers and serve as case managers of interdisciplinary teams. They need to have excellent listening and facilitation skills, demonstrated through approachability, patience, flexibility, cultural competence, and the ability to lead sometimes difficult conversations. Special educators need to have impeccable time management skills and be reliable when meeting deadlines, as timelines are set by federal legislation and state regulation, not simply the whim of a school administrator. Additionally, they need to model inclusivity and kindness; they are often the voices in their buildings for the excluded students. They should be confident enough to say, for example, "have we thought about accessibility concerns for the upcoming field trip?" and be willing to kindly remind their colleagues of equal access and inclusivity when someone suggests "leaving those kids behind just this one time."

I think that learning is on a continuum. By advancing their degrees and graduate credit, teachers can move up the district’s salary schedule while continuing to perfect their craft.

So, a few skills are constant for our soon to be licensed special educators, a few depend on their licensure area. All need to be able to create dynamic, rigorous, and engaging instruction. Additionally, schools and districts want candidates with experience working with diverse student populations, have cultural awareness and competence included in their education, and have experience successfully implementing effective academic and behavior interventions. Candidates also need to be fully prepared to tackle the due process requirements of the job, including being able to administer assessments, collect data, create individualized education plans (IEPs), and ESRs, FBAs, and BIPs.

School districts are seeking resilient teachers. These teachers can teach using a variety of different instructional delivery systems (traditional face to face, remote or hybrid instruction). ALL of these formats will be desired after the health pandemic. Districts will continue to use a variety of instructional formats for a variety of reasons (e.g. health-related needs, weather related, natural disasters).