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Special Education Teachers, Middle School

Teach academic, social, and life skills to middle school students with learning, emotional, or physical disabilities. Includes teachers who specialize and work with students who are blind or have visual impairments; students who are deaf or have hearing impairments; and students with intellectual disabilities.

What you’d do

  • Develop or write Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students.
  • Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.
  • Develop and implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of handicapping conditions.
  • Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
  • Instruct students in daily living skills required for independent maintenance and self-sufficiency, such as hygiene, safety, and food preparation.
  • Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification and positive reinforcement.
  • Modify the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, based upon a variety of instructional techniques and instructional technology.
  • Employ special educational strategies and techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, and memory.

Skills that matter

  • Instructing
  • Learning Strategies
  • Active Learning
  • Active Listening
  • Critical Thinking
  • Monitoring

How to get there

Considerable preparation: most need a four-year bachelor's degree

Also called

  • Learning Support Teacher
  • MS SPED Teacher (Middle School Special Education Teacher)
  • SPED Resource Teacher (Special Education Resource Teacher)
  • SPED Teacher (Special Education Teacher)
  • ED SPED Teacher (Emotional Disabilities Special Education Teacher)
  • Interrelated SPED Teacher (Interrelated Special Education Teacher)

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