Ivy Terrey

Ivy Terrey is a paraprofessional in a 5th grade classroom at Laurel Ridge Elementary.  She is a special education paraprofessional but she does special education in the morning and regular education in the afternoon.  She comes from a long line of firefighters, teachers, military, and farmers.  She is half British.  She has been a paraprofessional for 10 weeks, she is learning as she goes.  She would like to be the actual classroom teacher in the 3rd, 4th 5th or up to a senior in high school.  She is more geared towards special education than regular education.  Ivy's mother is a special education teacher and she has two older siblings who have special needs.  She hears many people saying that they cannot not handle students who are special education because there is so much "extra" that is needed to get them to learn.  But for her, but she is able to separate what they do know from what they can't do and meet their needs.  To be a great special education teacher, you need to not take these behaviors personally but be a gentle teacher.  These students need special care and she can provide that.   For example, there was a student who was upset because he lost a blank sheet of paper that he needed for his homework.  But once she explained that they could give him another sheet of paper, he was able to handle it and get his work done.