Josh Wiles, (Printmaking and Art Education) is currently a New York Teaching Fellow. Josh was accepted and started this competitive program in the summer of 2008.  The program’s main goal is to prepare all of its fellows to be ready to handle the diverse educational environments of the five New York boroughs.

Each fellow must choose a concentration from the following: special education, math, science, or English as a second language (ESL. In addition, each candidate must also choose which borough in which s/he would like to teach. Josh chose to teach special education in Brooklyn. Josh who was assigned to the PS721k Roy Campenella Occupational Training Center, states, “The first year I spent at the school, I taught in a classroom for children with multiple disabilities. Half of my group was in wheelchairs and many of my students were medially fragile”. This year Josh, an avid and competitive cyclist piloted a unique program teaching students with moderate mental retardation how to maintain and fix bicycles.

Josh also teaches in district 75, which is not based on geography, but is citywide. Its students all go to self-contained schools throughout the city. The reason for this particular program is to better meet the individual needs, which cannot be met in a general education classroom or resource center. Josh will graduate with a graduate degree in special education.