Personal Narrative: A Career In Special Education

Becoming a special education teacher has become a career path for me for the past 4 years. My first job was working at an after school program that gave me the experience of learning how to work with a diverse group of students. When I first began working for the Realizing Amazing Potential (RAP) Program as a Program Leader (PL). I began to fall in love with the school culture of working with diverse students. The responsibility of working for RAP Program was creating activities that implemented disguised learning with a variety of hands on activities. Students are constantly engaged in activities while learning something new as well. Within the program I have moved from being a supervisors assistance, which gave me responsibilities of working

As I grew older, I began to realize that students with disabilities have many significant obstacles to overcome. Seeing them get excited about learning things that we take for granted provided me with the desire to become part of their learning. For example, one kindergartner with Down Syndrome struggled daily to learn how to write the first letter of her name. It was such a joy for all of those involved when she finally succeeded. Working with these students furthered my resolve to not only fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a teacher, but I soon realized that special education is my niche. After 13 years of teaching in Glynn County, I still teach with the same fervor and enthusiasm as the first day I formally stepped into a classroom. My principal once said, “Teaching is not a job. It’s a profession.” I wholeheartedly believe in this philosophy. Education was never a back-up plan or alternative for me; being a teacher is who I am. As a special educator, I strive to

Time is passing and opportunities are opening for more students with special needs. Many students in college are getting more interested in Special Education as career that will allow more organization to have more workers with a big potential that will have an important impact on these kids with disabilities. However, this will require more training for the students that organizations around the country can give them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,“the career outlook for special education teachers should remain steady through 2024, with an increase of 6%, the national average for job growth in the United States. The median salary for this position is just over $55,000 annually,” (“Master in Special Education”) The approach the

Throughout my educational experience I noticed the discrepancies with regard to the advantages my peers possessed. In high school as I began exploring what career I wished to pursue, I experienced inferiority as my classmates who’ve taken the ACT three times, visited college campuses, and have had resumes ready since the 6th grade unintentionally mocked my lack of college-readiness. However, my ignorance wasn’t intentional, my parents never reached a high school education in Mexico, they couldn’t pass down SAT tips or acquire internship opportunities for me. I realized it's vital to pick up the pace to avoid being left in the dust akin to countless others in my situation. Henceforth, this statement resonates with my experience, I interpreted

Special Educators are greatly needed in our school systems all over the United States. It takes a special person to be a Special Educator. In most jobs you are in need of patience, but with this career a requirement is patience. Some people are cut out for this career and some are not. Emotionally and physically this job can take a toll on someone.

One of the reason people chose a career in special education is job satisfaction. Special education teacher perceived their job to be rewarding. They get personal fulfillment and gratification in teaching special need students. “It truly must be passion to continue working in special education because we all know it is a tough job.”(Participate 2010,”Motivational factor towards pursuing a career in special education”)They have the opportunity to make a positive difference in the students’ lives. When the student who is struggling in school graduate it brings great satisfaction to the educator. The most important part of this field is to help a child develop to their highest potential.

Speech Pathology is a field that is broad in the since of job opportunities, but narrow when it comes to specialization. Working and providing therapy for people with ASD is not a rare occurrence for an SLP. I know for myself I have worked with numerous places and people were ASD is not uncommon for me. After working at Arts ‘n Autism it gives me motivation to dive deeper into this specialization and to learn all that I can about this special population. ASD can come is various forms and no two people have the same deficiencies or sensory preferences, and that is intriguing to me. As a SLP I want to know the ins and outs of my field and also my clients. I want to know the best way to treat and care for them why they are in my session. Their goals need to be tailored to them and not just for the whole ASD population. Working at Arts ‘n Autism has shifted my perspective on how to work the most efficiently to improve my client’s capabilities and ultimately his or her quality of life. I want to be an advocate for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and serve them to the best of my ability. I have seen how professionals must handle hard conversations with parents that are always for the best interest of the child. Also, I want to undergo all of the training to learn the legal and correct actions when restraining a child and things of that nature. I just realized that I was not equipped to do that, so I want to be able to all that I can in places like Art ‘n

As an early educator my professional goals and aspirations have change since I read the interview conducted by the author, Denise Scott. As I read this article, I been inspired to reach out to my community, families, students, and peers in order to become a better leader. To make a difference I desire to be a leader in my community. In my community, it is important to connect to students that are entering the childhood field, however to create an atmosphere that encourages mentoring and learning (Rodriguez, 2005). As early educator leaders, we have to promote students by being a positive role model, therefore this would allow them to see the character within us. To work with children, leaders should exhibit good qualities, passion, leadership abilities as well as understanding for others. We have to create an environment that leaders can thrive (Scott, p.1 2005). As educator, we should lead as well as follow to be an effective leader in the early childhood field, however this mean continuing growing. The prospective students need to be aware that this field has no ending. The field of childhood studies is always changing and we have to stay embrace for the future There are challenges and should know where your strengths are as well as your differences (Scott, 2005)

As a Speech-Language Pathologist major my job setting of interest is working in a school system. To be more specific I would like to work with special needs children in a school site. This setting is the most attractive to me because for the past three years I have worked in this exact situation. I was a paraprofessional/teachers’ assistant at a middle school in a life skills classroom. My job allowed me to work alongside a speech language pathologist, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist and a music therapist.

When I first think of education making an impact on my life, my immediately goes to the teacher that inspired me to pursue the field of education: Mr. Quesenberry. The truth is, I never expected to enjoy his 8th grade Civics class. Though I had many wonderful social studies teachers before 8th grade, each year history was always one of my least favorite subjects, and I expected Civics to be the same. Before I took his class, I thought that the government was just a bunch of old rich guys who made laws and ran the country, and I didn’t have the slightest idea about the many complicated issues that the United States was facing or about what I could do to get involved and fight for my values.

In my world, I want to change the perception people have about children with special needs. I am passionate about helping children with any kind of struggle, just like the aide that I watched as Robbie received therapy that ultimately allowed him to acquire the skills to function, for example, the aide taught him how to speak correctly, as well as showed Robbie how to use his body correctly. I have always wanted to be a special education teacher, due to the simple fact that I feel a need to help and motivate children like my brother, that they can truly overcome their challenges with persistence. Not only do disabilities impact the child, but their families as well. Educating and supporting each family will aid in their progress to overcome the hardship of having a child with disabilities. “Never give up” this is what my brother taught me growing up; even though he is my “little” brother, he has inspired me. He has taught me that no matter how hard it may be to achieve my goals, I will always persevere with motivation and

Ever since I could remember I had been labeled the learning-disabled child and asked myself what if I challenged that label. My story begins sometime around the end of my seventh-grade year when my band class had been offered the opportunity to march as an eighth grader in high school marching band. Where that small opportunity would challenge me academically and mentally eventually leading me to be the person I am today. Beginning what I now know was the first step to accomplishing my personal goal getting off an I.E.P. (Individualized Education Program). Soon after receiving the news that I would be marching flute that year I learned that everyone was responsible for learning their own music and drill. At first, I thought this was going to be a

I am majoring in child education because when I was little I loved to teach. I was born with Cerebral Palsy: that’s a disorder in my brain that lacked oxygen when I was born, it only affects my legs to drag. I also was diagnosed with spinal bifida and that is a dysfunction that made me have a hole on the bottom of my spine and you can see it on the very bottom of my back and that The first thing I have ever taught was when I was five years old and my sister was a little as eight months old when I taught her how to walk. The next thing I taught was myself how to ride a two-wheel bike. I also have been teaching my brother math since he was three years old. Throughout elementary school, I was bullied because some

Middle school has proven to be an unpredictable time in the lives of many teens. I found this to be the case for myself as well as many of my classmates. Although, it is also a time of self-discovery and trying to figure out where one fits in. Throughout my first year, I noticed some kids were being excluded. These were kids who had disabilities. People that went to my middle school were neither accepting nor pleasant towards people who differed from them. I decided to make it my mission to befriend the kids with disabilities and try to change the bullies' perspectives. I got involved in a program called peer insights which gave kids in the program a chance to get to know kids that might not be in their everyday classes. The 'mentors' (this

Developmentally appropriate practice as already influenced my career in relations to working with children. I have worked with special needs children from different cultural backgrounds for several years and have always been able to modify any work presented to me to that of the child’s ability plus adding a little more challenge to the work at hand after they have mastered the basics of the work presented.