I don't know if I'd call it for me, all though I think I would like it to have been I had a teacher that knew me knew who I was and helped me out a great deal, in the eigth grade when I entered my freshmen year in highschool he was there teaching, I know it was probally just a coincendence forgive spelling but I like to think it was for me lol my 8th grade class was seperate from highschool so basically he changed schools the same year I did. He helped me survive my freshmen year too. My worst experiance was a science teacher kept some work I handed in at the begining of the year, also I had missed some work being sick, she said it wasn't important to make up senior year by the way, towards graduation time she decided to tell me I had to make up the work that I missed and the work that I handed in at the begining of the year because it wasn't exceptable, I had to redue everything, I almost didn't graduate on time, I missed my senior picnic, senior skip day and trip to make up the work just so I could graduate because, she decided to wait to tell me that my grades weren't good enough to graduate based on some work I handed in at the begining of the year and some work that I missed when I was sick even though I was told that I didn't have to make it up. Hope that made sense.

Hello Mrs. D.!

It is really great that you are asking this question.  My son has autism and I cannot speak for my son but as a parent of a child with special needs I can give my parental perspective on this.

The best thing a teacher can do for my son is to get to know him as an individual and not as a label.  The worst thing a teacher can do is to pre-judge my son as to what he can and cannot do without assessing his skills.  Every child, regardless of label, is a unique individual.  I remember one teacher my son had who gave him peg sorting as a task and when I told her this was a meaningless activity and far beneath my son's skills...she told me that all autistic children start off with this sort of "learning."  I soon lost all respect for this experienced teacher who had many years behind her of teaching children with autism.

I would also say...focus on what the child can do and discover their gifts. 

Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs in the world.  I know...I was a special education instructor too.  So I applaud you in asking this question.  It shows your wish to be the best teacher you can be.

Thank you for your question!

Believed in me . listened to me.asked me how I felt and what I thought about my stuggles and my strengths in school.Asked about my home life /if I felt supported at home.I only recieved those things.I only recieved that type of teaching and care from my special education teachers.

As the mother of an adult child with developmental disabilities and autism, I know what I appreciated the most were the teachers who were compassionate, encouraging and made sometimes exceptional effort to help him.  I think he always felt treated as an individual.  The worst time he had was in high school where they mostly threw him into classes where he could just sit and be invisible and they were things he had no concept of.  He only got special ed help in phy ed and maybe one other class, the rest he was on his own.  He absolutely hated high school, except for one special ed teacher who kind of watched out for him.  It would have been a disaster without that man.

I think it's so cool of you to ask this question.  High school was a time when it felt like he was mostly just tolerated until they could send him on his way to a transition program which, by the way, was excellent - I wish high school could have been that way for him.  Everything was relevant, geared toward learning job and social skills.  I'll bet you're a good teacher by the fact that you even asked this question.

When my sixth grade teacher would let us wach movies in the class and she would put on movies like War of the worlds Classic 1953 version. and she would let us talk and draw at lunch. But then sombodey had to come in and read to us instead wich was a kind of ruined the whole experiance of waching movies at lunch