It is hard to believe that this is my fourth year as a teacher for special education, and my 6th in the field.
As an aide, I have worked in district Special Day Class, a Non-Public School for Autism, a Non-Public School for ED and severe behaviors, and as a teacher in a Self Contained High Behavior Autism Program, a higher functioning district Middle School SDC (with periods and grades and subjects, eek!), and currently in a County Special Day Class for Severely Handicapped students.
I can’t say that I actively enjoyed one more than the other these past 6 years because one of the best parts of special education is that every job is so so different! And each comes with its own challenges and rewards.
For example, in one previous setting, my aides and staff were amazing and so much fun to work with, but we had such high aggressive/self injurious behaviors we had to go into restraint 1-3 times per day. It was exhausting and I ended up using a lot of sick days just to recover mentally and physically from the day before.
This is only my second year with the county, and to be honest due to our life constantly moving between the Bay and the Valley, my second year teaching consistently anywhere!  And year two has come with just as many ups and downs.

The Ups:
Include working with the same staff (or mostly the same) and building a relationship with them.
Getting to know the kids better, working with the same kids and families for more than one year is great building consistency and for knowing what works best with them.
Getting to expand upon work, schedules, and new ideas brought into the class in the last year. It is nice to continue working on new curriculum, assessments and goals and really see progress as the years go on.
No big shake ups! As much as a secretly love re-organizing and rearranging classrooms, there was definitely way less stress this year knowing that

The Downs:
Having the same students means knowing what to expect, which can be good or bad if you have students with behavioral issues. For example, Knowing that a parent won’t come to an IEP gives you a good idea of what to expect out of them all year. Knowing that “Johnny” has marathon blowouts in his diaper every other day makes you a little hesitant to come to work when its your toileting day!
Schedule Shake Ups/Staff issues- Just because you are now here for your second year does not mean that things are going to change any more significantly than they had before. Issues that were unresolved or swept under the rug last year will not magically get better this year.
More expectations/less expectations.  In some ways, when you get in the swing of things, it leads to you expecting more from your staff and self, such as knowing what data to take to get great results. In other ways it can lead to complacency and laziness which I especially can fall guilty of.  Now in my 18th week of pregnancy, there was a 4-6 week period where I was just exhausted and did not want to work on any new stuff.  Movie Fridays occasionally happened on Wednesday afternoons and paperwork got a bit behind.

I tend to lean towards the moving and challenging myself in all aspects of life.  While I’m not sure whether I will stay in SH forever, learn more about BCBA, go for my admin credential, or even move into general education some day, I am so glad for this opportunity to be teaching students I love in a supportive and upbeat classroom for the second year.