I am a special education teacher. I am also an online seller. The more I know about online opportunities, the more I worry about my students. Yes, I have to teach them basic subjects like Math and English. But I also have the responsibility to prepare them for life after high school. Technically, this falls under transition goals. Let me explain.
Transition Goals Explained
All students with IEPs have transition goals by the time they are in High School. IEP or Individualized Educational Plan is enforced by Federal Law. That means transition goals are required by law too. SPED teachers like me are case managers of different students with special needs. Besides teaching them academics, we have to make sure their transition goals are followed.
It is easier to schedule teaching independent living and career exploration when you teach self-contained classrooms. But not all students with IEP's are taught together in the same class. Many attend classes with other students and this is called inclusion.
Lack of time in Inclusion Setting
I used to teach students with special needs in the inclusion setting. I was assigned students in 9th and 10th grades who were not taking the same classes. A few of them were all taking Geometry during the same period but they were spread out to different teachers. In other words, it was challenging to schedule and support them in their academic subjects and I barely had time to give them meaningful transition services.
Changing workplace
At the same time, the employment world is changing. Globalization paved the way to virtual workers from other countries and less entry job opportunities. Home-based entrepreneurship rose through online marketplaces like Etsy, Fivver, Amazon, Jet and Ebay. Amazon itself helped a lot of people earn money through their various channels like Fulfillment by Amazon (third party selling), Merch by Amazon (Print-on-Demand Shirts, Hoodies, Sweatshirts), Kindle Direct Publishing (Self-Publishing), Mechanical Turk (fees for small tasks) and others.
All in all, there is a rising number of earning opportunities in online marketplaces and our students are not being prepared for them. Moreover, students with disabilities may thrive in these marketplaces. Students with physical limitations will be able to work at home using computers. Students with limited focus can work during their peak time and can be free of regular working hours. These opportunities may also be helpful to typical students without disabilities but may be homebound in the future to take care of small kids or sick relatives.
What can a SPED teacher do?
So how can teachers like me expose them to these rising online opportunities? Well, why not integrate online gigs with with standards based mini-projects? For example, we can introduce Print-on-Demand Shirts in algebra problems by using their selling price, royalties and number of sales in creating equations (HSA-CED.A.1). We can also read about trademarks (RI.9-12.1) and how to check if certain phrases can be used. These projects will expose students to different online entrepreneurship opportunities while studying their academic courses. I proposed this idea to Essentials 4.0 Fellowship and they helped me organize a pop-up.
The initial product is now available online at Teachers Pay Teachers. This first InjectProject product is about Print-on-Demand shirts and hoodies and includes 3 levels of differentiated work for students with disabilities. More are coming but any feedback is appreciated.
