ROME, GA—July 20, 2022- Rome City Schools held their second annual Special Education Rookie Retreat last week at the RCS Board of Education. The intensive orientation lasted a full week, attended by 28 first-year RCS Special Education teachers.
As educators were acclimated to policies, procedures, practices, and meeting the needs of the individual students they would soon be serving, the main objective of the retreat was to let the “rookies” know that they have the full support of the RCS board, administration, and fellow faculty.
Director of Special Education, Kriszti Kilpatrick, explained that RCS begins serving children with disabilities as early as the age of three, through grade 12. The retreat covered aspects of the job, such as how to evaluate and assess a student in order to create a good plan for them, how to write goals for the student, how to work with students who have difficult behaviors and how to put positive plans in place for them.
"This week has been designed to give the educators a good example of what good instruction looks like,” Kilpatrick explained. “So, we tried to design it so that there are different activities built in throughout the week that are not only fun for them as adults, but that they can use with their kids as well that build relationships, build community and build trust.”
First year RCS Special Education teacher, Beth Rushing, said that she already sees the extent to which the RCS administration understands the challenges of a Special Education teacher and expressed her gratitude for the guidance and assistance that has been offered as the educators plan their year ahead.
“They have provided us with a district special education manual that outlines, specifically, the procedures for the district, which has been so helpful,” Rushing said.
Rushing began her career in Special Education before she even turned her tassel in high school. Feeling a deep purpose, not only to work with exceptional students, but embrace them, include them, and offer them patience and grace, Rushing went from shadowing a special education classroom in junior high to fulfilling that vocational purpose in her last 21 years of teaching.
Kilpatrick explained that the RCS Special Education department is growing and that it's imperative that the teachers meet and maintain the department's high level of expectation.
"I want them to know what we expect and why we expect it,” she said. “This is all for the kids. This week is all about lighting that fire for our educators, and also about building a sense of security in their support systems. We want them to know that they have support from district staff. We're going to walk them through the challenges, and we're going to help them grow. Being a first-year teacher is hard and change is hard when they're coming from other districts. This is about building community, but also about building their knowledge of what our expectations are.”
Kilpatrick explained that the retreat focuses on special education law, policies and procedures, instruction, data collection, building relationships with colleagues, and working with general education teachers and therapists.
The retreat even ended on an impromptu note, impromptu acting that is. Educators were able to role-play the process of Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings, addressing what to do and what not to do.
“One thing that really stood out to me in just one day of training is how much of a family the RCS Special Education department is,” Rushing said. “I have never, in 21 years of teaching, felt so valued and important and really included. I know that if there is a need for materials or programs in my classroom, I can reach out to any of the Special Education administrators, and they will make it happen. The administration doesn’t want only the students to be successful, but they want their teachers to be successful as well. I know that I can reach out and can be acknowledged when there is a need for myself or my students. This will be my first year with the RCS district and I am so excited for the journey ahead.”
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