my job

I have often wondered if college professors in the education field have ever actually taught in a public school classroom. Sometimes I feel that I was not fully prepared to handle all of the various aspects of a special education teacher. To be honest, none of my cooperating teachers ever let on either. I knew I would be writing IEPs and taking data to show progress. What I wasn't prepared for was dealing with the parents. I think we should have had a course in that. Behavior management for the students? Sure, I had a class in that. But dealing with a parent's behavior? Not even close. For the most part this school year, I have great parents. But there is always one. It is really hard to make progress with a student whom is non- compliant when the parent is the same way. Yesterday was an inservice day in the district. This gave me an opportunity to play catch up in the room since I am not required to attend the meetings. I spent the whole day just dealing with issues on this one student. To start off with, he is truant. He has not been to school since February 28th. I have had the truancy officer out to the house twice. The problem is that said student has since turned 18 and I can guarentee that Mom hasn't gotten guardianship of him. According to her on the last visit, the son is in Indiana with grandpa and they can't get student to return home. Now pardon me but if grandpa is ready to return to Ohio then said student should have no choice but to come back with Grandpa. Originally we were going to do a surprise home visit yesterday to see if student was at home and have an impromptu IEP meeting. I had about a day and half's notice to write an IEP on a student that has not set foot in my room in almost two months. Mid morning yesterday I learned that we were going to follow protocol and give a two notice for the meeting. I then spent the entire afternoon going through his cum file to see how it would be possible to get him graduated sooner. I am going to be ticked off if I do all of this and he doesn't return. They say the burn out rate for special education teachers is 11 years. I am at that mark and there are some days I can see why. I am not ready to give up yet, but I teeter on a thin line. Generally those are days when I get fed up with the politics of the job. I think I just found my next topic.