Sean Uesugi thinks the “leg up” he got at the Beginning Teachers Summer Academy was just what he needed as he takes on his new role as a special-education teacher.

“It really helped a lot,” said Uesugi, who used to work as a skills trainer with individual students and starts today as a science resource teacher at Aiea Intermediate School. “I know science, but I didn’t know how to run a classroom. … They touch on a little bit of everything, so for me it was awesome.”

Uesugi is one of about 13,000 teachers reporting to public schools across the state today, getting ready for their students’ arrival on campus next week. Judging from previous years, more than 800 are new hires, both fledgling and experienced teachers, though official numbers are not yet available.

This year Beginning Teacher Summer Academies were offered in 14 of the 15 complex areas across the state, more than ever before. Altogether, 280 teachers took part, up from 90 participants in 2014 when the academies were first offered by the Department of Education’s Hawaii Teacher Induction Center.

The goal is to to help ease the way for new teachers entering the classroom and improve the odds that they’ll stay on the job. They are offered for regular-education teachers and, in some areas, for special educators as well.

Jerrold Yashiro, district education specialist for the Leilehua-Moanalua-Waialua complex, said “we jumped at it” when they heard that a special-educator session was available for his teachers.

“Special-education teachers have a difficult enough job,” he said, pointing to all the federal regulations, paperwork and meetings with other teachers and service providers required. “We are always short of special-education teachers, so this is a way to try and assist them so that they know what to do and they’ll stick with it longer.”

The two-day session at Leeward Community College last week was geared to special-education teachers entering their first or second year. It attracted 41 educators from two complex areas spanning Aiea to Waialua.

“Something like this definitely would have helped me kind of hit the ground running with my classroom,” said Makayla Fitzpatrick, who began teaching special education to preschoolers a year ago at Shafter Elementary School.

She credited her mentor, Tracy Muranaka-Ng of the Hawaii Teacher Induction Center, with whom she met weekly during her first year, for giving her the strategies she needed to succeed.

“Her input meant everything to me, and honestly, if she wasn’t my mentor and given me the resources that I needed and went above and beyond, I probably would have burned out within my first year of teaching,” Fitzpatrick said.

About half of the new teachers attending the session last week were from the mainland, and about half were local. There were regular-education teachers trying special ed for the first time, new teachers fresh out of college, and educational assistants ready to take on greater responsibilities.

Lilian Reynolds, an experienced teacher from St. Louis, said she appreciated the chance to meet other staff members in her new school district and get oriented.

“I just moved here a week ago, so I’m very excited,” said Reynolds, who will be a preschool and kindergarten teacher for the deaf and hard-of-hearing students at Waimalu Elementary. “I knew there was a need for educators, especially special educators. … I like to go where I’m most needed.”

The lively, interactive training sessions covered classroom management, rules and routines, communicating with families and colleagues, school culture and instructional strategies. And, of course, they learned some of the ubiquitous acronyms used at the Department of Education.

Michelle Palafox, state resource teacher for the Hawaii Teacher Induction Center, led the development of the special-education curriculum, which was piloted last year. She said focus groups with new teachers helped shape the training to their needs.

Matson Foundation sponsors the program. It funded the First Year Teacher’s Survival Guide, as well as classroom resources such as carts and educational tools, along with lunch and refreshments at the academy.

Thursday’s session included a short but touching video that focused on individual animals and how their experiences in “school” shaped them.

The duckling excelled at swimming but was a lousy climber, and wound up being tutored for hours in climbing to no avail. The eagle had his own style of doing things, and although he didn’t do anything wrong, he was labeled as a troublemaker. The zebra had a hard time because others made fun of his stripes, while the kangaroo became discouraged after his teacher kept saying he had to run on all four legs.

Its aim? To help teachers recognize the unique gifts of each child and individualize their instruction to build on the student’s strengths and help them succeed.