They have to be ready to listen to all problems, no matter how simple, and give immediate assistance. At the same time they have to be prepared to respond to the crises which arise in schools everyday:
You have to find ways of being there. Teachers don’t always like to arrange meetings, but they like to drop in. Maybe you’re right in the middle of something, but you have to make yourself available for them when they’re available.
In the methods and resource role you can plan a day, but very often you can only get into a couple of things that you want todo. So you have to be on your toes and be able to be versatile, to change your plans on the spot. In the classroom it’s a much more organized day. You know exactly what’s going to happen.
The M&R teacher also helps the teacher initiate the integration program for a particular student and get it started in the classroom. One former M&R teacher said:
I had to make sure that the teacher had enough resources to work with. Also, if teachers were having any difficulty, I would see how I could assist them in making it easier for the child to participate in the classroom. I had to be in the classrooms at times monitoring what was going on and the way things were being handled — how the teacher and the student were adjusting and if there were any difficulties.
A final activity that involves considerable time, particularly for M&R teachers working at the junior and senior high school levels, is actually planning and coordinating the overall schedule of exceptional students. Students with disabilities attending high school can find it particularly difficult to have a focus for the day at school.
