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That is not true at all. IEP meetings are once per year, in the spring. If a self-contained class has 12 kids, there are 12 IEP meetings spaced out over a few weeks. Once a year and when new students enter. Special ed teachers that I worked with were in the classroom with the kids the majority of the time. They are special people and have a big impact on the lives of kids. But you need to know you have the patience and really a calling to work with a difficult population and parents who are often desperate to help their kids learn. I quit because my caseload was too large and I didn’t feel I got the support I needed regarding that, I was very stressed. But when I think I could have retired in another 10 years and instead I worry what happens when I get too old and disabled to work, I wish I at least tried another district, but most contract out for therapy.
Plus don’t cover you get all the holidays too, week+ at Christmas and Easter, Columbus Day, etc. The drawback to that is you have to travel at peak vacation periods only. We only got 3 personal days.
Thanks for your perspective. It is very interesting to hear it. What are you doing now? Are you still an OT? have worked in a lot of special ed classrooms. Some rooms had mostly autistic kids, some EBD, and some with severe physical and/or mental impairments. My favorite rooms had mostly down syndrome kids. They were really sweet and fun to work with. The hardest were the ones with the severe physical and/or mental impairments, then EBD, then autistic kids. I have also subbed a number of times in an alternative high school that had a lot of EBD students and those coming into sobriety. In Wisconsin the cross-categorical spec ed cert allows the holder to teach in a variety of rooms.
I once worked with a para who used to be a special ed teacher for maybe 20 years. As a para she of course does not make a lot of money, but she does not have to deal with all the responsibility, including the parents, bringing work home, or handle the paperwork hassle like a sped teacher does, etc. I believe paras get the same healthcare bennies as sped teachers. I think being a para is a good job for an old person who is looking for something somewhat easy with good healthcare.
Last edited by Justsomeone9; 03-27-2019 at 09:23 PM..
I think there are many companies pushing to sell people courses to get certifications as if simply having that all by itself will land them a job. I don't like to see people get their hopes up for something when they don't have all the facts.
I agree. Whenever I see the "Start a new career, just take our [VERY SHORT TIME] class in $[subject]" ads (and they're a dime a dozen out there online) - I wonder why we don't see states cracking down on these blatant false advertisements.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the median income for a teacher is $59,000. For a 190 work-day a year contract at 8 hours a day, it works out to about $39 an hour. I once investigated the rad tech and MRI tech career options. To be an MRI tech, experience must first be obtained as a radiation tech. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, if 2017 the median MRI tech salary is $70,000. But if we take $80,000 and divide it by 49 weeks a year and again by 40 hours a week: 80,000/49/40= $41/hour. And that does not include public loan forgiveness or a pension that I can get with teaching. From a purely financial perspective teaching seems make more sense.
Now the next challenge: Find a school district where you can get a job AND the school district is financially solvent. There are many that are chopping heads like crazy. Others pay very low compared to the cost of living. You'll have to relocate to a different state, most likely.
Thanks for your perspective. It is very interesting to hear it. What are you doing now? Are you still an OT? have worked in a lot of special ed classrooms. Some rooms had mostly autistic kids, some EBD, and some with severe physical and/or mental impairments. My favorite rooms had mostly down syndrome kids. They were really sweet and fun to work with. The hardest were the ones with the severe physical and/or mental impairments, then EBD, then autistic kids. I have also subbed a number of times in an alternative high school that had a lot of EBD students and those coming into sobriety. In Wisconsin the cross-categorical spec ed cert allows the holder to teach in a variety of rooms.
I once worked with a para who used to be a special ed teacher for maybe 20 years. As a para she of course does not make a lot of money, but she does not have to deal with all the responsibility, including the parents, bringing work home, or handle the paperwork hassle like a sped teacher does, etc. I believe paras get the same healthcare bennies as sped teachers. I think being a para is a good job for an old person who is looking for something somewhat easy with good healthcare.
I’m still in OT, but I went back to nursing home rehab. That’s funny, because I always found the children with downs to be some of the more difficult to deal with. They can be very very stubborn as well as sweet and charming. There was one little boy who I had to only see in the class, because when it was time to go back to his classroom he would sit on the floor and shout “No!!!”. Sometimes he would wait until we were in the middle of the hallway to do this, LOL.
I found older kids generally easier to work with then the younger ones. I spent most of my time in the preschool disabled classes, where many of the kids were non-verbal. The parents are often also by far the most intense in preschool and kindergarten. These were the parents who would come to the initial IEP meeting with a lawyer and a list of demands.
As far as hospitals go, I am certainly open to working at one. To be honest, within some bounds (location, salary) I am not in much of a position to chose who I work for. There are maybe 4 hospitals within commuting distance of me. I have applied to some already. I am also looking into healthcare insurance providers.
With how the current hospitals SYSTEMS are setup and depending on what job you take with them, a hospital isn't the large building you see as their main campus. When I say SYSTEM, it is a system these days. They open clinics everywhere, and some have mobile units that drive out to rural areas. The mobile units have so many things that it is a mobile clinic, webcam for doctors, but scanners and POC testing, etc. I see clinics inside malls now, how's that for a "hospital" setting?
Working at a hospital, you can get on their pay scale for their city workers, but be 100 miles away and get paid the same and not the lower rural salary.
but for health insurance jobs, here some of them are work from home. They hire you for 6-12 months where you are in their offices, but after that and you are trained, they let you work from home because to them, having people spread out through different time zones is better than having everyone in one time zone as a national provider.
but medical device/instrument support provided via phone calls are also work from home too, one of our guys work out of his garage where he keeps old instruments so he can go over them at the same time on the phone with us.
Now the next challenge: Find a school district where you can get a job AND the school district is financially solvent. There are many that are chopping heads like crazy. Others pay very low compared to the cost of living. You'll have to relocate to a different state, most likely.
I am pretty much chained to where I am because of my wife's job. If I was 23 years olf relocation would be an option. I am willing to drive for up to an hour for a job. Because of my situation I think I will have to be very, very practical about what kind of jobs I can get. It is hard to get rehired at a business when I have not been in the business world for a few years. Hopefully I won't have to do clerical work. I am going to start applying with local temp agencies as I think that will be a good way for me to get my foot back in the door.
With how the current hospitals SYSTEMS are setup and depending on what job you take with them, a hospital isn't the large building you see as their main campus. When I say SYSTEM, it is a system these days. They open clinics everywhere, and some have mobile units that drive out to rural areas. The mobile units have so many things that it is a mobile clinic, webcam for doctors, but scanners and POC testing, etc. I see clinics inside malls now, how's that for a "hospital" setting?
Working at a hospital, you can get on their pay scale for their city workers, but be 100 miles away and get paid the same and not the lower rural salary.
but for health insurance jobs, here some of them are work from home. They hire you for 6-12 months where you are in their offices, but after that and you are trained, they let you work from home because to them, having people spread out through different time zones is better than having everyone in one time zone as a national provider.
but medical device/instrument support provided via phone calls are also work from home too, one of our guys work out of his garage where he keeps old instruments so he can go over them at the same time on the phone with us.
I will investigate world from home hospital gigs. There are a lot of work from home scams out there but there are still a fair number of legit options. I always thought it would be more difficult to get promoted when you are working from home.
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