We interviewed a number of novice teachers, and asked them to recount the realities of a special education classroom. Below is a glimpse into the Teaching Fellows program and the problems with the program’s crash-course training.

Ilene Chesler, Explore Charter School, Brooklyn, Special Education

[At a school] in Harlem, Special-needs kids were generally not regarded as college material, and therefore resources and support were minimal for those students and teachers, according to Ilene Chesler, a fifth-year special education teacher, who got her job through the alternative teaching certification program called New York City Teaching Fellows (see previous post).

In her first-year class, she saw kids with special needs that for various reasons were not put in special ed classrooms, many kids with behavior problems, and kids who were reading at years behind their grade level.

Chesler even had a student taken away in an ambulance. She told the school that the student was extremely defiant, yet the principle told her that she lost power of her classroom, and that she was expected to control him. Chesler said, “It was shocking.” The dean, principal and security guard could not control him, yet “I was expected to control him in a class with 13 other students.”

Chesler saw firsthand the inequity that is caused by labeling students “special ed” in public education. While a majority of general ed had air-conditioned classrooms, none of the special ed classrooms were air conditioned, she said. “Before I left my job there, the school ordered an air conditioner for the teacher’s lounge. I asked the school why the special ed rooms did not have them. I was told that there was a separate budget for teachers.”

Chesler said she knew from the beginning that the setting and school were not right for her, but that they were not good enough reasons to quit teaching. There was a glimmer of hope in one of her classes: ” I had one student who started off with a lot of issues. I worked with his guardian to have him moved to a special ed classroom, even though it was half way through the school year. I assigned my students a project on the twin towers. Since he had never been down there, his mom gave me permission to bring him. We went out for lunch and I found out he had never been out to eat. I gave him a menu, and he asked, ‘What is this?’ After he moved into my classroom, his guardian told me that he had become a totally different child— he was happy.”

After three years as a teacher in the Teaching Fellows program, Chesler was burned out. She barely had enough energy to look for a new teaching job, but when she found out there was an opening at the Explore Charter School–a high-needs school with a strong Teaching Fellows staff — she jumped at the opportunity to teach a special-ed class.

Chesler explained that this school, from the administration and teachers to the custodial staff, is committed to educating each student no matter what their background, and what their baggage. Even the kindergarten teachers have the names of their alma maters on their doors. A commitment to higher education is part of the school’s value system and it is demonstrated from Day 1.

At this school, she said, “Everyone goes to college.”

Brooke Workman, Explore Charter School, Special Education

Brooke Workman is an example of a Teaching Fellow who learned the way the New York City Department of Education works, and subsequently made smart choices [changed schools to one of her choosing versus being placed], is studying for a license in administration, and who will hopefully be teaching at Hunter as an adjunct professor, according to Professor David Connor, who served as a mentor for Workman during the Fellows program at Hunter College in New York.

At PS 101 in East Harlem, Workman faced a number of challenges, including an unsupportive administration; students not doing their homework, fighting, and coming in reading at years behind their grade level. “I didn’t get any help figuring out how to best teach them or manage their behavior. It was also a challenge communicating with parents and getting them to understand the importance of school,” Workman said.

While teaching special ed is challenging, Workman said she prefers to teach special ed because it is rewarding to work with students who would not necessarily get the support they need at home. “I am really teaching students who come in with almost a ‘blank slate’, and I get to teach them so much. I feel influential.”

Lauren Henkel, Middle School 326, Washington Heights, Special Education

Lauren Henkel, who teaches special-ed and general-ed students in the same classroom, found it tricky to service all the academic and emotional needs of special ed students in a general-ed setting. She said there is always a stigma attached with special ed, and a lack of understanding from parents and teachers. Students with specific disabilities are moved from a more restrictive environment to a less restrictive environment with the goal of preparing them for independent and productive lives. Schools as a whole need to explain to parents that being called “special ed” does mean there is something wrong with their child, Henkel explained.

Henkel started teaching her second year, but does not know yet whether she will continue teaching: “I will always be an advocate for kids who need advocacy, even if I don’t hold the title of teacher.”

Professor David Connor, Hunter College, New York City, Special Education

“Many teachers are faced with a ’sink or swim’ situation. Administrators make or break situations. Much depends on the experience, style, and priorities of the administrator. Most teachers survive because another teacher is appointed to be their unofficial mentor, or they are ‘adopted’ by teachers who can see the new teacher was trying hard, but struggling tremendously, as was the case with me,” said David Connor, a professor for special education at Hunter.

Connor entered the teaching profession in 1987, with a BA in literature, no education credits and no teaching experience. “It was the hardest year of my professional life. I wanted to quit every day for 3 weeks — and then things started to get better, because I made the adjustments.”

After working in the field of education for more than two decades in many capacities, he has deep empathy with the Teaching Fellows coming into the system: “The experience is surreal. Decisions are made, but there is no explanation given. Working with even one child can be tough (ask any parent), and many of these children come from one-parent homes, or other challenging environments, which do not support educational objectives. Teaching and managing between 12-34 students — all with their own physical and emotional challenges, personality quirks, problems at home — can be overwhelming, to say the least,” said Connor, who listed inadequate preparation, long hours and poor conditions in the schools as other reasons why teachers leave the program.

Connor explains that the only way he could see preparation for the job is with a “mentorship model”– whereby the Teaching Fellows either apprentice with an effective teacher for a year, or team-teach with a seasoned teacher. Then, on the first day on their own, the novice teachers will know what to do. The following analogy helps put his “apprentice’ model in perspective:

“Would we let a pilot attend a class or two, read some books, and give him or her the controls with a plane full of passengers? — That would be thought of as highly irresponsible, and even dangerous to all concerned– pilot and passengers. So, why allow good people who are willing to go into the teaching profession take such chances with the future of our citizens?” Connor asked.

Connor stressed that the majority of his students stay, work hard, and adapt to less than sterling conditions. He knows a number of Teaching Fellows who had little or no classroom experience when they began, but have subsequently made smart choices and have stuck with teaching.

“It is beyond me, and appalls me that the richest country in the world does not take care of its own children, including those with disabilities. Many are warehoused in dead-end programs without supplies, and very little technology. In some of our education classes at Hunter, students are given ways to operate a classroom on a 0 budget–as we know that’s the reality that some of them face.” - David Connor, a professor of special education and mentor to Teaching Fellows at Hunter College

For a nationwide look at our changing school systems, see the features on the Where We Stand site.