I graduate in May

Thanks for the encouraging words! :) I love hearing from all the retired teachers. I also love that many of you stayed in the profession beyond your "thirty years"

Thanks! Good luck to you in pursuing your Master's Degree! I'm not suprised that so many yorkietalkers teach special education. The love of people and children is usually synonymous with the love of dogs :)

How exciting for you! I wish you the best of luck and hope you find a job quickly!!

Thanks!

Thanks to you! :) That is very true about love and teachers! :DHowever...

It is refreshing to see your excitement in teaching. Teachers like you are not as common as you would think. My only advice to you is to keep learning! Teaching is a growing process and the more you do it, the heavier your little bag of tricks gets. If you need anything for your first year, PM me and I can send you some resources. ;)

I do love it :D. And thank you! I most certainly WILL pm you :)

Most sped ed kids don't do well at the reg. tests, and the alternative tests are too easy. I heard they got rid of the "middle of the road test" That's really what they need.

Sped. Ed is interesting, you never get bored from doing the same thing. Each day is different, no matter how you plan for it, it never happens the way you plan, but you get through it.

:thumbup::thumbup: The best part of teaching is seeing the I got it moment. That makes me keep going!:thumbup::thumbup:

In New York State, our students take Regents exams at the high school level. There are five exams that must be passed in order for a student to graduate, but additionally there are many of these exams in most subjects. There are also the assessments in eighth grade and below. My special ed. students take the same Regents exams, and they must pass them. Each teacher will now receive a score at the end of each year depending on how effective they determine the teacher to be. Part of this grade is determined from how much progress each student makes. This means baseline testing the beginning of each year and follow up testing in the spring for each student on top of all of the other exams they take. It is very sad the direction that education is taking, and it is a very flawed system. The pay here is much higher than other people have mentioned on this thread, but the cost of living on Long Island is also very high. Despite all of the changes that are really upsetting and demoralizing, I absolutely love the interaction with my students. When I close my door, nothing else seems to matter, and I feel so fortunate to go each day to a job that I love. I've grown close to many students and families and remain close many years after they have graduated from high school. The pressures are great, but the rewards are even greater.

I feel the same way. The sad thing is some of the flawed changes are going to make schools lose some amazing teachers. There is no accountability on anyone but the teachers.