Special ed. subbing

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Special ed. subbing
By Ken

Hi Joan,

I have sub'd in a number of special ed. classes. Late last week I did an ED room for elementary kids and the past 2 days I sub'd for an aide in a middle school ed. class. I have also sub'd for the teacher so have
learned their room and routine well enough to be able to step in.
The elementary ED day also had a sub. in for the aide and it made for a very hectic day for both of us. The saving grace was the room is in a small K-5 school (feeder to a larger district) and I already knew some of the kids from sub'ing in the building. The aide also worked hard and we made it thru the day.
I feel

comfortable working with elementary up to about 5th or 6th grade, particularly with the ED kids. I have seen some horrid situations with the older group and have little experience with the high school age kids.

My degree (many years ago) is business/accounting and I worked in those areas for a number of years. I have a Wisconsin emergency sub. license so, in some sense, my training to teach has been learn as I go.

I sub. in smaller school districts and I have heard that some sub's don't want to take these calls. I take them, if available, because I feel like it gives me more tools to even sub. in all the other classrooms.

If schools/school districts are having problems in developing sub's willing to take these assignments I think they need to understand the unique issues and either offer training or do it in-house and pay the sub's for the time they attend. There are more issues with behavior management, etc. Also important is the protocol for how to handle a kid who gets out of control, starts tossing furniture around, strikes out at you, others, etc.

For an ED room where some kids may "loose it" I think the school ought to invest in some type of alert system (something the sub. can carry, much like a cell phone) that can immediately bring help without the need to run and look for the internal phone #'s, etc.

Sorry if this is a bit rambling but I appreciate it when we get a teacher visiting the sub. forum and solicits our input.

PS - if you're in central WI - near Madison - I'll be pleased to sub. for you!

Ken - WI