Practice teaching is teaching me a lot

And one of the most important things practice teaching is teaching me is that I'm in the right part of education for me. Because I will be a Special Educator, I am required to do a rotation in both Special Ed. and in gen. ed. (general education). While I am enjoying my students in my gen ed rotation, and while it's in some ways easier, I've realized how much I miss the ways that special ed. is able to really individualize instruction. In special ed. we are required to keep documents for each student, detailing their goals, disabilities, and lots of other stuff. There are notes about what helps and about what doesn't work. We work hard to learn exactly how each student learns best and how to keep that child learning to the best of his or her ability.

And I really wish we had the ability to do that for every single student in the schools. I wish that general educators had the same tools at their disposal that we have to track the ways our students learn. And I wish this even more than I wish we had enough copier paper in the teacher's lounge. Or that we had enough pencils to go around.