Spe­cial Needs Stu­dents:
Resources for the occa­sional teacher

By Sylvia van Campen

An unfa­mil­iar school, unfa­mil­iar class­room, unfa­mil­iar rou­tines, and unfa­mil­iar stu­dents can con­tribute to a sense of uncer­tainty when I accept a call as a daily occa­sional teacher. Add to the mix the chal­lenge of not know­ing which stu­dents have spe­cial needs or are on an IEP and how to best teach them, and my con­fi­dence may begin to waver. So where do I begin when I step into a new classroom?

An indi­vid­ual edu­ca­tion plan (IEP) is a writ­ten plan of action for a stu­dent who needs accom­mo­da­tions, mod­i­fi­ca­tions, or an alter­na­tive pro­gram. It con­tains a wide range of infor­ma­tion such as a sum­mary of the student’s strengths and needs, accom­mo­da­tions, and pro­gram, plus infor­ma­tion on resources, teach­ing strate­gies, and personnel.

As an occa­sional teacher, I am part of the team work­ing with all stu­dents in the class­room and should know which stu­dents are on an IEP. Often the teacher I am replac­ing leaves a list of which stu­dents I need to learn more about. Some­times their accom­mo­da­tions, mod­i­fi­ca­tions, and/or alter­na­tive pro­grams are explained. Some­times they are not and I need to do a bit of research on my own. I always spend a few min­utes before school check­ing this information.

What if there is no note or I don’t under­stand what I read? There are many other help­ful resources avail­able at the school.

An excel­lent start­ing place is the office. I take a moment to touch base and ask the admin­is­tra­tion if there is any­thing I need to be aware of in the class. Each school also has a spe­cial edu­ca­tion resource teacher who is part of the team work­ing with spe­cial needs stu­dents. Ask for infor­ma­tion that might be use­ful about the class or a spe­cific stu­dent. The spe­cial edu­ca­tion resource teacher can also share knowl­edge about spe­cific teach­ing strate­gies. Sup­port staff may also be work­ing with the iden­ti­fied stu­dents in the class­room, and they know which rou­tines are effec­tive. A neigh­bour­ing teacher can also be help­ful. Last but not least: don’t for­get to speak to the stu­dents them­selves! Depend­ing on the their ages and needs, I find stu­dents with spe­cial needs can often teach me how I might best teach them.

Most impor­tantly, I try to stay cur­rent in my under­stand­ing of stu­dents with spe­cial edu­ca­tion needs. I read, research online, ask ques­tions, carry a few good books in my OT bag for ref­er­ence, and observe what works best.

Resources

The ETFO Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion Hand­book describes strate­gies and teach­ing tech­niques by area of stu­dent need. Avail­able from shopETFO, shopefto@etfo.org.

The ETFO Occa­sional Teacher web­site: http://etfo-ot.net/

Weber, K. & Ben­nett, S. (2008). Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion in Ontario Schools, 6^th edi­tion. Markham, ON: Inter­na­tional Press Pub­li­ca­tions, ipppbooks.com.

The Ontario Cur­ricu­lum Unit Plan­ner: Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion Com­pan­ion is divided by excep­tion­al­ity. Avail­able at ocup.org/resources/documents/companions/speced2002.pdf.

“Teach­ers’ Gate­way to Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion,” Ontario Teach­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion web­site, otffeo.on.ca/english/pro_specialed.php.

Sylvia van Campen is the first vice-president of the Upper Canada Occa­sional Teacher Local.