Kei Lucas, Elementary Special Day Class
(Generally students with moderate to severe disabilites)

Ask this teacher:

• Why did you decide to become a Special Education teacher?
• What does it take to be a good Special Education teacher?
• What advice would you give a first-year Special Education teacher?
• What are the biggest challenges you face?
• How do you meet these challenges?
• How do you balance the many demands on your time?
• How do you handle the paperwork?
• How much time do you spend on planning and preparation?

  I am an early riser so I am usually here at school by about 6:30 and I know I’m certainly not the only one who’s here that early. I think that is a little bit out of the ordinary. Most people are coming in closer to 7 or 7:30 to start prepping. Certainly most of us stay after school for at least an hour or so trying to pull things together. My own personal situation is that my children are out of the house, so I can afford to be here early and stay late and it doesn’t impact anyone except me. It’s not unusual for first, second, and third year teachers to be at school until 5:00, and veteran teachers are chasing new teachers around saying, “You’ve got to go home. You need to get out of here. You need to leave school.” But I will tell you that a lot of times, we turn around and come back to our own rooms, so are we talking out of both sides of our mouths? Yes.

• How do you work as a team with parents, administrators and other teachers?