ALL CHILDREN CAN LEARN

This I believe: All children can learn

I believe in the power

to make a difference, and so, I believe in discovering.I believed so much in

myself and that I could  work with children with disabilities and that I could
make a difference to them that I only applied to colleges that offered Special
Education as a major.  I only looked at
the colleges that I got into that had Special Education. I attended school and
majored in Special Education and minored in Psychology.  I believed the work would be tough,
difficult, challenging and extensive. I was right. It was a lot of hard work
during my years at school.  I was taught
how to modify the curriculum. I believe I should have been taught how to read
the curriculum. I had to relearn how to read the curriculum. Minoring in psychology,
I believed that this would show me a deeper view of why children with certain

disabilities act the way they do. I learned the imperfections of the brain.After graduating in

four years, I believed this is what I wanted to do with my life-work with
children and people with disabilities. Once I graduated, I was afraid to go
into education, so I believed I should work in an institution and that is
exactly what I did. I did not go right into a classroom with my certification
in grades K-12. I had the desire and belief to create programs for the
adolescence. This is where I felt comfortable. I did not last long in the institutions
because I finally felt the urge to experience a classroom of children with
disabilities and believed I could help them. When I got into the classroom, I
felt the teacher was not doing things right. I decided to get my own teaching job. Ten years later, I believed in myself and went back to school for my
Masters in Education Administration.  At
some point during my teaching job, the State Superintendent of Education came
into my classroom and could not believe it was a behavioral disorder classroom.
He told the principal that he wanted all of the classrooms to look like mine.
This is where I am today. I do what I am good at and what I worked so hard for.
I do what I love to do. I teach other teachers how to teach, how to deal with
specific behaviors, and how to make classrooms function with structure.

Unfortunately, I believe that Special Education teachers are not looked at as real teachers.
I believe that it is hard getting other teachers and administrators to see the disability
first and then to teach the child properly to help that the disability be less
noticeable.  I hate to believe that there
is a lack of parent support, but the lack of parent support does indeed exist.
There is even lack of district support. Special Education classrooms are the
last to get materials. Often in districts, the children in Special Education
are segregated in the wing in most schools or in their classroom for eating at
lunchtime.

I believe in classifying children and returning them to the general population. I
believe that each district should have an administrator who understands, that there
should be parental support, and that kids can achieve. It joys me to see kids
develop and to achieve and to learn. The only thing that I wish for the future
of children in Special Education is that, since children are being classified
at an enormous rate, classifying so many children and only because they cannot
read, my dream is to make sure all teachers are properly trained and educated.
I believe that the time studying and student teaching in the Special Education
classroom was the most valuable for me. I loved the first-hand experience and I
believe that every student studying Special Education and person who works with
children and people with disabilities and/or Special Education should learn
their craft because you could be put into any classroom.