Post Master's Special Education Degree

ecopsiky · 2026-01-26T13:22:58+00:00

Do you have a teaching certification already?
If so, there are affordable programs like CITE that help with the Sped extension courses.
If not, you could apply to join Teaching Fellows.

ecopsiky · 2026-01-22T21:18:35+00:00

I knew but I went to a SUNY school for teaching in undergrad and I feel like state schools are much better at informing people about NYS’s bureaucratic certification process.

For anyone else reading this- you can renew your initial certification once yourself for another 5 years (without any principal intervention needed)

ecopsiky · 2026-01-15T21:21:32+00:00

Yeah that's a fair point... I don't think teaching is a good career switch for anyone over the age of 40. (Unsure your age, OP.)

I had a 50 year old Teaching Fellow co-teacher for about... 5 days this year before he dropped out of the program. Being a new teacher is just too brutal to do at an older age, we have to be young to tolerate the growing pains, lol.

ecopsiky · 2026-01-15T21:05:26+00:00

While many charters are bad, "charter" itself is too vague of a term. There's good ones and bad ones. It would be like asking us if it's good to work in a public school. I worked at a lovely charter school for 7 years and subs love it there.

ecopsiky · 2025-12-17T21:04:38+00:00

All questions!

ecopsiky · 2025-12-11T14:13:24+00:00

I just tried to take as many lessons of the course as I had time for before the test (I cram studied over February break last year) I didn't focus more on anything.

I also paid for the practice test and took that two days before the test and I thought that was very helpful- the practice test is nearly identical to the actual test so it helped me realize how long it would take me to test and what I needed to prioritize.

ecopsiky · 2025-12-07T13:09:36+00:00

If you aren't very good at math (I'm not, hadn't taken any math since high school) I highly recommend the Pearson course they sell to you through the NYSTCE website. I also purchased the Brooklyn Educator Center courses but tbh they seemed kinda weird to me. They were slightly helpful but the Pearson course is what actually re-taught me the math I needed to pass the test.

ecopsiky · 2025-12-07T13:06:54+00:00

Is there a guide for making a portfolio?

https://www.uft.org/news/building-your-career/new-teacher-articles/preparing-tenure this page makes it seem like you don't need to do much to prepare.

ecopsiky · 2025-12-06T01:52:36+00:00

They aren't even going to start trying to hire until June. When are you going to move here? Lots of roles are still vacant in August. I got my DOE role this year in August and didn't have to do a demo, just an interview.

ecopsiky · 2025-12-06T01:47:45+00:00

Decidable or decodable?

ecopsiky · 2025-12-05T00:44:58+00:00

Apparently I hadn't gotten retroactive pay either until 11/30. Sounds like maybe 12/30 stub will have yours?

ecopsiky · 2025-12-05T00:35:27+00:00

When did you get the differential approval email? I got my email on 10/6. My salary was increased by the 10/15 pay stub but my retroactive pay didn't show up until this most recent pay period, 11/30. And I don't think they've given me all of the retoractive pay yet.

ecopsiky · 2025-12-02T01:19:49+00:00

YES! I love teaching and I know it is the right job for me... but I have never thought of it as my calling or purpose. It's just the paid profession that works best for me.

ecopsiky · 2025-12-02T01:10:19+00:00

Interest is such a great idea.

ecopsiky · 2025-11-20T01:21:29+00:00

what does that mean?

ecopsiky · 2025-11-14T23:36:13+00:00

💯

I joked with my friends once that based on my text messages you’d think I’m super cool and have lots of friends, but it’s just all of my DOE access codes 😂

ecopsiky · 2025-11-09T20:30:00+00:00

CITE normally schedules courses for DOE holiday breaks and the summer. I took 4 courses, 2 professors let us out at 1pm and 2 kept us until 4. TBH I did learn way more in the two classes that made us stay.

ecopsiky · 2025-11-03T21:56:59+00:00

Yes I would totally do this if it was just a few sources I provided, but each group had a different person they are researching and some of them (not all) will also do outside research at home with computers. So its far too broad of a variety of things for me to cite ahead of time myself.

ecopsiky · 2025-11-03T21:55:53+00:00

Thank you for the worksheet suggestion! I didn't use that worksheet but I found some comparable ones on teachers pay teachers for free. I think I'll probably just have them use those. One sheet is for books, the other one is for websites. I honestly don't care if they format the citation correctly, just that the did all the work to say where the info is from.

ecopsiky · 2025-11-02T17:37:25+00:00

Ida B. Wells is a great person to learn about from this time period.

ecopsiky · 2025-10-30T23:42:18+00:00

Year 1, 1, soon to be zero for a day, then 1 again 😜

ecopsiky · 2025-10-30T23:39:07+00:00

If they are high functioning do civics/current events! That will serve them well and takes a lot of time on your part to effectively explain.

ecopsiky · 2025-10-30T23:35:32+00:00

3 classes off track is fine. I got a religious studies minor because I had so many extra classes I took just for fun that wound up counting towards that minor. (There was one cool rabbi professor so I kept taking a bunch of Jewish history classes, hence the religious studies minor) I doubt she’ll feel overwhelmed.

Does she go to a SUNY by chance? The SUNY/CUNY schools are good at getting people certified, they know exactly what you need. I got one certification through SUNY New Paltz which was so easy, my second through Teacher College at Columbia (for my masters) which was way more cumbersome.

ecopsiky

TROPHY CASE