First

First thing's first.  I love my job!  No really, I love, love, love my job!  I'm an elementary-age special education teacher and I'm lucky enough to get up every day and go to a job that's exciting, inspiring, and more importantly...fun!  That being said, it's not always a walk in the park. Teaching is hard work.  Teaching special education is hard work.  Teaching special education in the midst of a major changeover of curriculum and instruction methodologies is hard work.  There are many times that we, as special-educators, get bogged down with the paperwork, the data, the meetings, the trainings, the paperwork...did I mention the paperwork?  With all these responsibilities it's very easy to lose sight of how fun it is to work with kids every day.  My goal here is to help other fellow teachers to find their way in the common core.  It's my hope that by doing this we can all work more efficiently and productively so that we can have more time to focus on why we got into teaching in the first place...the kids!