SWOT Analysis of Teacher: Special Education Teacher Marcos Hernandez

 Marcos Hernandez teaches Special Education at Benito Juarez Community Academy High School. Its current demographics of student population is 1,805 with 94.2% of the school population from low-income households and 1.6% of the student population homeless. The student population is 94.2% Hispanic, 2.2% Black, 1.4% Asian, and 1.2% White. I had my first initial meeting with Mr. Hernandez to do a SWOT analysis of his teaching experience. Benito Juarez Community Academy High School has a large population of Hispanic students and I noticed Mr. Hernandez had been a great role model to many students. After analyzing the SWOT analysis, I learned that Mr. Hernandez can relate to his students and hold them accountable to his high expectations. Mr. Hernandez is not only watching his students grow, he’s there as a first hand of help. Being a high school teacher, Mr. Hernandez realizes that he students who eventually be the leaders of tomorrow so he encourages them to be independent but intervenes when necessary. He’s good at making technology an available resource for his students. Mr. Hernandez works hard to make sure that his students’ goals are met.

  When we got to the topic of weaknesses in the classroom, Mr. Hernandez found his inexperience brought a lot of obstacles. His biggest two weakness in teaching was classroom management and planning. Both are critical for the process of teaching and learning. It takes a great deal of time and effort to established effective classroom learning and by Mr. Hernandez being a first year teacher, he’s still struggling with the do’s and don’ts and what works and what doesn’t works.  Another major obstacle is delivering instruction to students who are legally obligated certain blocks of time due to their IEP (Individualized Education Plan).

  There are some opportunities available for Mr. Hernandez. The Special Education Team is working on a plan to boost the utilization of resources and support to students who need it most and encouraging more collaboration while also utilizing a strong support base from parents.

  However, Mr. Hernandez still sees as threats that are effecting his teaching. The current funding and lack of funding is not adequate to helping Mr. Hernandez and Special Education teacher like Mr. Hernandez deliver quality instruction. Their caseloads are increasing and time limited so it is hard to go above and beyond when time and resources are limited.