Lots of teachers and administrators have been cycling in and out of the Woodland community, leaving students without solid educators. The special education department has had the short end of the stick, having two of their teachers leave within the past year. But a saviour has come from the heavens for the special education department, Jaqueline Kline. Kline is a newly employed teacher, and she is here to stay. Before joining Woodland’s vast and diverse family, she was working at a middle school in central Connecticuit. Unfortunately, the job wasn’t a good fit, and she resigned. After finding the application for the special education position at Woodland, Kline immediately applied. Now, she is extremely happy at her new job, and is here to stay for years to come.

“Students and staff are  so warm and welcoming; they are all so open and supportive of my ideas, and the atmosphere here at Woodland is great,” said Kline. 

One of the many things that Kline is looking forward to at Woodland is seeing the special education program grow. The program now is smaller than most school’s, and is tucked away to essentially hide the students. The program itself does not gain much attraction by itself, and is rarely spotlighted in media coverage. For example, the school store is run by the life skills program, but no students or staff ever go into the store and purchase the goods that they sell. Kline intends to attract more media coverage and aim the spotlight on the program so students and staff alike can have more involvement with the special education students and program alike.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the peer buddies program develop more, and I’m really excited to see if that opens up more opportunities for the special education students,”  said Kline. 

Another activity that Kline is especially looking forward to with her students is watching them attend the prom with general education students. She elaborates that it is really awesome that the general education students make the effort to attend the peer buddies prom, as they have done years prior. Kline also loves how respectful and inclusive the students have been towards her students, and loves how intertwined the general education and special education students are. 

Being a special education teacher does come with challenges, but Kline wouldn’t have it any other way. She decided to become a special education teacher to help kids with different disabilities in honor of her sister who has autism. She says that having a sister with a disability has been eye – opening to see what struggles those students have both inside and outside of school. Kline says that she wishes to ease the transition from school, to home and to make sure that the students have it as easy as possible.