Personal Narrative: My Experience As A General Education And Special Education

I currently work for West Point Public Schools, I will be starting my seventh year with in the district. During my time at West Point, I have been involved in several different roles. I have been a sixth grade teacher where I taught the lower level reading, and language arts classes. All of the sixth grade United States History, along with being the sixth grade special education case manager, and served as one of the upper elementary reading coaches along with being a special education behavior teacher.

I have been working with the Coweta County School System since August of 2000. I began as a paraprofessional working with students with Autism through the Emory Autism Program. I enjoyed working with special needs students so much that I entered the TAPP program to obtain my teaching certificate. I began working at East Coweta Middle School in the fall of 2002 and am still currently working there as an interrelated special education teacher. I have taught resource, collaborative, and co-teach classes. I have even had one year where I worked one-on-one with a student that required specialized instruction.

I am currently a Kindergarten teacher at Our Lady of Trust Academy. Although it is a wonderful private institution, my goal is to teach at a public school. I have chosen this career path because I am passionate about working with children, while they are developing their foundational skills. I believe that by receiving a high quality education; that goes beyond remembering and understanding, students can master the core material through analyzing and creating. This will give learners a strong base to build upon, setting students on the path to be successful in high school, and go on to be career and

My journey to become a teacher started ten years ago. I earned my associates degree from Chemeketa Community College, while supporting myself financially with both part and full-time work, and also serving in the Oregon National Guard. Over the next two years, I obtained my bachelor’s degree from Warner Pacific College, and worked as a substitute para-educator in multiple school districts. I am now on track to earn my Masters of Education in Elementary Education from Grand Canyon University, which I am currently enrolled. I have maintained a 3.97 GPA without incurring any student loan debt.

I have been teaching for 13 years. I wanted to be a teacher as a little girl, but life happens. After I received a BA degree, I moved back to Texas, I got married, and had children. I wanted more time with the kids, so I went through Region 7’s Alternative Certification Program. This gave me evenings, weekends, holidays, and summers with my children.

I interviewed several service providers in my school, Stephen Knight Center for Early Education, that included the psychologist, special education teacher and a general education teacher. I interviewed Ms. Iris, the school psychologist, Ms. Kathy, the special education teacher, and Ms. Hilary, a general education teacher. Ms. Iris’ responsibilities include working with students who have social emotional needs. This can include behavior challenges, learning new social skills, managing grief, etc. She works directly with parents and teachers to provide resources regarding the child’s well-being, and ensure good attendance by setting up plans. Ms. Iris works with children in general education, counseling groups, and one-on-one situations, including special education minutes. Ms. Hilary is a general education classroom teacher. She is responsible for the well-being of her students academically, socially, physically and developmentally. Ms. Hilary also advocates for families and students to receive the support that they need to feel successful in their first years of school. Finally, Ms. Kathy is the staffing

My education began 30 years with an associate’s degree in Early Childhood. I had my first internship at a daycare/private school, where I was introduced to Daniel who was autistic. It was my first time with an autistic student and I learned a great deal by watching the head teacher work with him on a daily basis. I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher. I finished with my Elementary and Early Childhood, Bachelor’s degree in 2012. I am certified in Early Childhood N-3. Currently, I am enrolled in Wilkes University for Special Education and will finish with a Master’s degree. I am

My name is Frederick Isler, I am 20 years old and I am currently enrolled in the Elementary Education bachelor program at Buffalo State College. I am a white male therefore I have never really faced many ethnically or sexually diverse situations where I was treated poorly or differently. I am a Roman Catholic and this set some of the stepping stones in many cases for certain views on things in life. I taught at the catholic program that my church offers for a couple years and am very involved with helping the youth in the parish. This is where I believe my love or passion for teaching came from. While being at the youth group I learned being involved in our community and helping out others truly lead to success in life. I believe that children are our future and deserve a voice and I strongly believe that it is the teachers who give the students the power to strengthen that voice with knowledge and education. I played sports growing up with two younger brothers, this gave me a competitive spirit that made me believe in myself in order to do things if I put my mind too it. I have coached basketball and softball for over four years and just recently won championships in both respected leagues, one being a youth basketball league and the other a church softball league. Teaching these kids and watching them grow really gave me a passion for wanting to teach for a career. I firmly believe that every single student

Tuesday was my first day in my general education classroom. When I arrived, there was a substitute in my classroom for the first half hour of the day, because Ms. Keane was in an IEP meeting. The substitute and the paraprofessional showed me around the classroom and told me about some of the students. There are 20 students in the classroom, and two of them are English language learners.

Going into the teaching profession has been my passion for quite some time now. Although teaching can have many different stereotypes and misconceptions, I still choose to continue towards this career. Every job has it’s own stereotypes and misconceptions. I currently work at a school, which has offered me a lot of on the job training for my future career. My current job has allowed me to see the different stereotypes and misconceptions that come along with the teaching career field. I am fortunate to already be working in my career field so I can prepare for the future stereotypes and misconceptions when I am a teacher of my own classroom.

I have taught students ranging from five years old to nineteen years of age. Hence, being an educator, I have learned that learning is always shifting, therefore I must keep improving with the incessant changes. As a little girl, I have always dreamt of being a teacher and I have carried out that dream. My career journey started as a substitute teacher, a floater between classrooms, an assistant teacher, a teacher, a center supervisor, and an educational supervisor. I presently work as an Educational consultant for Danya International LLC. As an Educational Consultant, I able to review and aid with the learning environment of teachers and educational management in a school

Public school systems need to be more sensitive to their students. Parents play the major role in determining a child’s academic outcome, but the school system needs to notice children who don’t necessarily acknowledge their gift. These children need guidance -- I believe it is the schools’ responsibility to provide it to them. I have been through a situation that makes me feel strongly about the subject. My example is an indisputable case in point.

The biggest obstacle that I have encountered in my ability to read and write are my learning disabilities. I’ve went through 18 years of my life before they were identified, and they have caused me so much frustration. I couldn’t understand why other kids could read out loud so well and I couldn’t. I couldn’t understand why it took me so long to read only a few pages of a book when other kids were at the end of the chapter. I had no idea why I couldn’t even sit down to write a single paper when other kids were doing their essays in a span of a couple hours.

During my last thirty years of my working life, I have only spent the last nine in education. I spent most of this time working in the oil field, traveling and living life as a “company man”. It was a divorce that shined a light on the possibilities of a career in education. I was now a single father with a three-year old little girl. I could no longer dedicate myself to call hours, weekend commitments, and travel demands of the oil industry. I took my first teaching job working in a private Christian school in Katy, Texas. There I developed and taught a new Computer Literature curriculum. With a bachelor of science degree in Information Technology and Networking Management I attend an alternative certification program to teach in the public sector. I took my first public teaching job at an alternative school call Compass, teaching eighth grade math. To say that I went into education heads first with this school is an understatement. Compass is a transition school for kids either coming from or the last chance before a child detention center. I was able to interact with many students having ADHD and/or behavior problems. There were times when my entire class had a BIP, IEP or both. The processes,

I have been a preschool teacher, teaching mixed age children from 18 months to 5 years, for over 10 years. I started as a work study employee, while attending the Community College of Philadelphia in 2006, to a part-time teaching assistant while attending Temple University in 2010. This led me to a lead-teacher position after graduation and then to a program coordinator. I have developed effective working relationships with children in the past years. This position has helped me improve my teamwork and interpersonal skills by cooperating with other teachers in planning teaching materials according to the Reggio Emilia approach and by sharing teaching resources. I decided that working with children, understanding and assisting in their education,