Organize Your Time and Your ActivitiesBe Open to Innovation, Change and New Opportunities
7. Change your environment. Changing roles from resource teacher to special class teacher, for example, may reduce stress by allowing you to focus on direct service instead of having to cope with the additional demands of diagnosis and consulting. A school counselor who moves from a high school to a junior high school situation may find the job description at the new school more satisfactory. A simple change in environment from one elementary school to another may give you a new perspective, new friends, different students, and new supervisors.
8. Keep yourself motivated. It is important to keep motivated. Seeking out new experiences can be one way to maintain professional interest and prevent stagnation. A special educator can try new instructional techniques, implement alternative programs, or develop new materials. A school psychologist can add a test to his or her test battery or try a new counseling technique. Look for opportunities to share your expertise--Present your project at a CEC federation or national conference; submit your curriculum or research to the ERIC database.
9. Consider career options. There are many alternative career avenues that special educators and special services personnel should consider to diversify their experience or stimulate interest. Career options include placement team coordinator, itinerant diagnostician, work study coordinator, consultant, and inservice coordinator. In some districts, educators have the option of taking one of those roles for one year and then returning, refreshed, to previous responsibilities. There are also many opportunities for part time jobs or job sharing (two educators share one job--one works two days per week, the other three) which may provide a change of pace for weary professionals.
10. Seek out personal learning experiences. Professional and personal growth requires that we keep learning. Certification requirements and school salary schedules encourage educators to take additional coursework. Seek programs of study that are interesting and stimulating as well as appropriate for meeting requirements. Programs that provide new skills needed on the job (i.e., consulting, teaching reading, diagnosis) or that broaden your base of knowledge (a special educator taking courses in psychology or sociology) are ideal. Dropping a course that is irrelevant, poorly taught, or too time consuming may also be very therapeutic. Seeking out personal learning experiences can likewise add productive dimensions to an educator's experience. Taking classes in ceramics, knitting, car maintenance, or home repair, for example, can provide a myriad of benefits. Not only do they develop new skills and interest, but they might even save you money.
8. Keep yourself motivated. It is important to keep motivated. Seeking out new experiences can be one way to maintain professional interest and prevent stagnation. A special educator can try new instructional techniques, implement alternative programs, or develop new materials. A school psychologist can add a test to his or her test battery or try a new counseling technique. Look for opportunities to share your expertise--Present your project at a CEC federation or national conference; submit your curriculum or research to the ERIC database.
9. Consider career options. There are many alternative career avenues that special educators and special services personnel should consider to diversify their experience or stimulate interest. Career options include placement team coordinator, itinerant diagnostician, work study coordinator, consultant, and inservice coordinator. In some districts, educators have the option of taking one of those roles for one year and then returning, refreshed, to previous responsibilities. There are also many opportunities for part time jobs or job sharing (two educators share one job--one works two days per week, the other three) which may provide a change of pace for weary professionals.
10. Seek out personal learning experiences. Professional and personal growth requires that we keep learning. Certification requirements and school salary schedules encourage educators to take additional coursework. Seek programs of study that are interesting and stimulating as well as appropriate for meeting requirements. Programs that provide new skills needed on the job (i.e., consulting, teaching reading, diagnosis) or that broaden your base of knowledge (a special educator taking courses in psychology or sociology) are ideal. Dropping a course that is irrelevant, poorly taught, or too time consuming may also be very therapeutic. Seeking out personal learning experiences can likewise add productive dimensions to an educator's experience. Taking classes in ceramics, knitting, car maintenance, or home repair, for example, can provide a myriad of benefits. Not only do they develop new skills and interest, but they might even save you money.
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