I said I'd put this up, so here it is... assorted bits of emails I sent when I was first looking into this job. A lot of them may seem familiar to various people and for that I apologise. I cut and paste a lot of my emails when I want to tell lots of people stuff but slightly differently and that's another reason (justification?) for the creation of the blog. You'll all know everyone is getting the same thing and it doesn't seem quite as rude as a group email....
Actually, rereading this stuff has made me feel far more positive than I was when I put up the other post this evening. I can remember why I was excited!
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Have organised to go on a school tour tomorrow at the Special school. The woman I met at the weekend talked to the Assistant Principal and she suggested coming on the tour that is run weekly for potential volunteers and that it would give me a good over view of the place and then I would probably know whether it was for me or not...
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At the moment I'm trying to think it through and can't be sure whether the positives outweigh the negatives. It sounds like a really creative teaching environment with lots of support available and the chance to feel like you are really making a difference to individual student's lives in a more concrete fashion than with able kids... Less conforming to uniform and other irrelevant standards found in schools, less prep work, marking and stress... Able to be involved in more aspects of personal and physical development of the individual... Possibility of pursuing special ed academically with an Ma...
On the down side, I wonder if I'd get too emotionally attached to kids with poor potential life outcomes... If I start in special ed am I cutting off possibilities in other schools as I wont have the experience in an average classroom? I need to find out where the students go after school - are they institutionalised or is there a continuation of the rich experiences provided by schooling?
Dunno, dunno... And my thoughts are just chasing round in circles when I have too much other stuff to do!
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it were grouse! am definately goign to apply for a job there...
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Went for a tour and a chat with the APs at the Special School yesterday. It was great. They have a fantastic school culture of supporting life long learning and are really open about the problems in dealing with special kids and the support available. Will have to get my bum into gear and work out this online recruitment process and come up with some decent sounding answers to the key selection criteria as applications close on Monday!
I will be applying for other jobs too, but I think I really want this one. It's going to be head first into the deep end wherever I start (and at least they have a pool! ;o).
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Apparently there is no longer a qualification for teaching special ed and the school is very supportive of grad teachers. I went out last week to visit and had a tour of the school and a chat with the APs. The school was great. The kids are very high need physically and the teaching style is more like primary teaching but in very small classes and a team environment with Physio's, OTs, Speech therapists, volunteers etc. The school seems to fit well with what I believe teaching should be and has a really holistic approach to student development.
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Met a woman the other week who works at a special school, went out for a visit to the school and it was fantastic! Have applied for a job there and am really hoping to get one of the 4 jobs going! Applications close today so I hope to hear something this week.... am soooo nervous!
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I hope I get the job too. I don't get very excited about much stuff, life just happens but I really want this and its making me feel very strange... Mostly terrified that I'll be disappointed!
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