During interviews the one question that keeps coming up is if I have any experience writing an IEP and the program that the school district uses. Well no I haven't because I've been a regular classroom teacher and now am moving into SpEd so I'm asking how you would answer that question so the interviewer would feel confident in hiring me for that position? Thanks!
Could you comment on attending IEP meetings? Could you contact the person who had written those IEPs and go from there? I know that if a teacher at my school was getting their sped endorsement I would be more than willing to go over IEPs with them. Didn't you do any IEP writing in your studies?
I have commented that I have attended IEP meetings, been a part of them, went over them with teachers. The focus in my studies was more of the language of IEP's not writing them.
You could mention having used ieps that were in place for your students, being familiar with the components of the iep.
Check out your local ISD, or RESA (whatever the intermediate school district is called there) and see if they have a SPED tab on the site, then look for the IEP, most of those have a standaridized one for the local schools to use. The go over it page by page. If possible, see if they have a blank one for the school you will interview in, and go over that one. Make sure you know the form well so you can reference it in the interview. Then bring up having read over, and followed IEP's for your regular ed kids. good luck
I would also suggest that you state that you are committed to timeline compliance (doing paperwork within the timeline required) and that you are willing to learn. I started out years ago with a gen ed degree and went to school WHILE I was teaching. So I had NO experience with IEP's. Good luck
When I was looking for my first job I looked up the state IEP form and made a "practice IEP" for a student I had known in my student teaching, which I brought to interviews. We never once discussed how to write IEPs in my college courses, and in fact I'd only seen a few completed ones. Many of the other student teachers got some experience in their placements, but at my school they did all their IEP writing/meetings during one week of the year, and it wasn't during my placement. I didn't necessarily go into the fact that I got NO training with them in interviews, but I explained why I hadn't gotten to write a real one and how I was able to seek out some practice on my own instead. It shows initiative for sure!
What sort of experiences did you have with them while you were getting your special ed degree? Can you speak about that? Did you student teach in a special ed classroom?
