[gretchin_2006]

I am hired to be a teacher in Maryland handling special children. I am not from that place. I came from another country asia part. I found that the cultural change is significant and overwhelming, what should I do to get the support that I need to be successful?

[DoulaLC]

Hopefully your school has assigned a mentor teacher to you, or they will, for guidance and support. If not, you may want to enquire about that. The team you work with at your school will be another source of support and your school district itself as well. There are numerous workshops and trainings available in various areas, including many in ESE... some will be required. Most teachers take a number of trainings over the summer. The help is out there, unfortunately some new teachers have to search for it instead of it being automatic as it should be.

[tadita83]

I agree with DoulaLC, most school systems require new teachers to be paired with a mentor teacher. If not, find a teacher with a lot of experience and become buddies:) I just finished my second year teaching and I couldn't have done it without the older wiser teachers helping me and encouraging me. Oh and as a side note, we had a guy last year from Spain who got into trouble for some stuff he said or did that because of his culture he thought was acceptable. So spend the summer learning the culture and social don'ts. It sounds terrible that you may have to change the way you do something's, and normally I would say be yourself, but parents are unforgiving about certain things. So just prepare yourself and you'll be fine. Oh, and share your culture with them in every way you can. You have a great gift to offer your students that none of us native born americans have:)