September 20, 2010

My first week

September 15th I arrived dressed as if on a job interview –nylons, etc. I arrived at the front office of the Ezra H. Baker elementary School. The weather was not really conducive to such formal attire, in other words, the heat made me hot and uncomfortable.

The secretaries expected me, but not my cooperating teacher. The principal, Kevin Depin, had neglected to tell her I was arriving today.
Mr. Depin had assigned me to the STAR room. This program has been an initiative created by the Superintendent, Carol Woodbury, several years ago as a means to contain special education costs.

“Why did I become a teacher?” is a question every student teacher gets asked at some point the first week. For me the desire to teach came out of my experience as a day habilitation instructor. Starting in 200, I was employed by Habilitation Assistance Corporation as an instructor in their communication classroom. Three professionals supervised me: a speech pathologist, an expressive therapist, and an art and music teacher. From time to time each professional worked with my con-instructor and me to create curriculum.

After two years assigned to this group, the agency started to accept young adults who had just passed their 22nd birthday, the birthday when students age out of their public school funding. I started working with consumers who had the benefit of a public school education that met their needs. The difference in the level of functioning of these young adults was startling. Individuals with the same diagnoses of consumers I had worked with extensively could read, write, and express themselves much better. Thus their quality of life was far greater than the other consumers I had experience working with each day over the past several years.

The only difference between these two groups I could perceive was the younger adults access to education and training.

I decided to gain a teaching degree to ameliorate future consumer’s situations. I never wanted to see another person’s life compromised due to their lack of access to an education.