My life story is one of hard work and perseverance. In the third grade I was diagnosed with a type of learning disability know as dyslexia. For me, I had trouble understanding and processing language because my reading and writing skills were not yet where they needed to be. I knew before I was even diagnosed that I was different than most students. Most students were reading at or above our grade level, whereas I was reading at about two levels behind where I should’ve been. My writing skills and penmanship was also very bad. Often times my teachers couldn’t read what I was writing and sometimes I couldn’t even read it. I have always been subconscious about my writing and never wanted others to read my papers, so I never got the feedback that …show more content…
As a child it was hard for me to except the fact that I had a learning disability, so I chose not to believe it. Being categorized as a quote, “special student” pushed me to try harder and perform better in school. I wanted prove to everyone that I didn’t have a learning disability and that I didn’t need any special treatment to help me. I was put in resources classes all the way up until High School to help improve my reading and writing. I would be pulled out of my regular class to go to a different class with other students that also had learning disabilities. My classmates would ask me about my resource classes which I never wanted to talk about and to be completely honest, I was ashamed if it. Although I hated going to those resource classes, looking back I am thankful that I did. It was the best thing to every happen to me as far as enhancing my education. It had significantly improved my reading and writing skills that I would need before entering High School. Once I entered High School I was faced a whole different set of problems. It was not my reading and writing that caused me to perform badly throughout high school, but rather it was a lack of
Culturally and socioeconomic diverse students already have to overcome one stigma, but when they are placed in special education, they find their selves struggling to overcome another. If they need the support of specialized education then the eventual outcome is more beneficial than the label. One the other hand, when students are placed in special education services they do not need i...
While reading The Social Construction of Difference and the Quest for Educational Equality I was surprised by some of the information. According to Banks (1987), “Before the Civil Rights Movement, many students with disabilities were isolated in special schools and classes, stigmatized, viewed as the other, and sometimes denied the opportunity to attend their local public school”. This sentence
I went to the ice cream social and invited my cousin who's deaf, she lives in Turlock and her name is Nery. Her boyfriend, Robby, wanted to come along but he got busy cutting hair, he's a barber. I mention him because he is also deaf. He's been using a hearing aid since he was small and took therapy sessions as well which makes it seem like he's hearing. He does say his words a bit cut off but we still are able to understand him. He's always laughing and being very sarcastic. My cousin Mary on the other hand is not able to speak. A little background about her: she was born in Mexico and when they moved to California that's when my aunt, Amalia, and uncle, Jose, put her in a school for deaf people. She was later transferred to high school where she
My personal philosophy of special education drives not from teaching in the field, but from, observations, and personal experience, and the workshops I attended. I have had the opportunity to work with individuals with special needs in many different settings, all this help cultivate my knowledge in handling the needs of the special needed student. Special needs students have the ability to learn, to function, to grow, and most importantly to succeed. The difference comes into how they learn or how they need to be taught. There are as many beliefs about the "hows" as there are teachers and each of us forms our own philosophy through our experiences and research. As a student in a special education teachers’ program, learners with special needs includes all students in special education programs in the public school system or other appropriate settings. However, the students I would like to focus on in my career are students with learning disabilities and therefore when thinking about learners with special needs, my mind focuses on this population.
When I was growing up, I struggled a great deal in school! In third grade I started a new school. They had three tiers of classes. One with the regular kids, another with kids that needed a little bit of help in math and reading, and thirdly, a category that had mentally retarded children learning life skills. I was being placed in that third tier. I absolutely loved school before they had placed me in that class. All that
Over hundreds of years, the deaf have surpassed criticism, dubiousness, and many rights that hearing people had that they did not. Through great controversy with the hearing the deaf were able to interject themselves into the hearing world over many years. Deaf went through a time when they were known as ‘retards’ and put in asylums for their hearing disabilities. But when sign language was finally discovered by Thomas Gallaudet and brought to the united states by both him and Laurent Clerc, the deaf became better understood. But, it took many years for the Deaf to earn the reverence they have today.
My family and I discovered I had dyslexia when I was in the second grade. Honestly, it was quite a traumatic event. What was an eight year old little girl to think about a doctor telling her “she was retarded” (that she had dyslexia.) I pondered long and hard about the diagnosis, but soon learned to accept it. I made it my goal to overcome my dyslexia. That’s the amazing thing about me and actually one of the few factors that drives me to work harder and not be a dyslexic statistics. I knew was an anomaly. I was called out to be different and took pride in the fact that I blossom with every challenge I encounter. My goal now was to always be different: someone who proved the expected failures of dyslexic wrong. I wasn’t “retarded” and I
My personal philosophy on special education begins with this firm conviction, I believe all children are “uniquely and wonderfully” made, and regardless of their disability, posse unique gifts and talents. My philosophy of special education has developed, not from just being a general education teacher for many years, and a graduate student in special education, but also from being blessed to be a parent of a special needs child. I believe that every child deserves to have the best possible education, regardless of their disabilities or challenges. It is our responsibility, as special education teachers, to not focus on a student’s disabilities and challenges, but rather focus and develop their personal gifts and talents, in an environment
When I received special education services, peers and teachers were bothered. Peers acted diffidently because they knew I was “special”. The reason I used “special” is because to them, I was one of many special students in the school. Teachers looked at me diffidently rather then treating me like one of the other peers. Yes I had a disability, however they did not need to treat me diffidently. Robert was treated different in the story, the narrator was scared at first, he asked stupid questions, although Robert went along with it. Some of my peers and teachers were never supportive, I was known as one of the emotional students, because I was in the Emotional Impairment classroom. Just having that label was difficult to live back. It like how the narrator said “the blind move slowly and never laughed.” (Carver, Cathedral). Peers always thought EI students were unstable and violent, my thoughts as well. In sixth grade, a EI student bit the EI teacher, that is why I thought the same as my peer. Although now I was an EI student and now they thought I was that kid. By junior and senior year, I never was treated diffidently. The teachers and students understood that I was not emotionally impaired, I was just placed there on mistake, which I was. Although, I still had the label, which caused many opportunities to not become available to
The most common learning disability in children does not affect only one aspect of their lives, but alters nearly every measure. Dyslexia inhibits one 's ability to read, write, and spell. About 5 to 20 percent of children attending school have some sort of a disability involved with reading. When thinking of a condition that contains no cure, such as dyslexia, you may imagine a lifetime of complications and difficulties; although, dyslexia does not damage a person’s ability to learn, it merely forces them to grasp ideas and think in their own original way. Multiple obstacles can potentially arise, but successfulness and intelligence tends to prevail, and has in multiple situations. Numerous well known people have personally suffered through
In 2006, at the age of 41, my father was laid off by his machinist company. With my mother, brother, and I to support, we were forced to empty out my father’s retirement savings just to get by. Luckily, he later found another machinist job, but was sadly forced to quit in 2012 due to chronic back pain. This left my father to be put on disability at the young age of 47. Even this was not enough to get by, for my mother’s job as a medical assistant did not make a sufficient enough income either.
My ability has shaped my campus experience in many ways. As a physically able person, I have realized how difficult it may be to navigate campus if you face a disability that alters your mobility. I notice that routes specifically designed for the physically handicapped take longer, and are often out of the way, or that elevators often fill too quickly to accommodate a wheel chair. There have been several occasions where elevators in different buildings have stopped running. I find myself wondering what one with a physical handicap would do in that situation. I also notice that in the restrooms, the accessible shower stalls or bathrooms are often occupied by people who may not need to use them. This would present an extreme inconvenience to
In middle school I was diagnosed with a disability with the way I expressed myself through writing. Ever since, I have gained multiple values and learned several lessons about self confidence. I was taught to push past my limits, in order to be successful in reaching my goals along with my dreams. Today I am a senior in high school who was once thought to struggle, but was able to succeed beyond expectations. To some, a disability may seem like a setback from achieving goals, but to me I used it as a challenge for myself. I accepted myself for who I was and looked at my disability as a unique trait of mine. I was able to provide a message to others that anything you set your mind to is possible with dedication and hard work. It might take
Until that time, I loved writing just as much as I loved math. It was one of my strengths. I was good at it, and I enjoyed it. If anything, I thought I might fail citizenship. How could I have screwed up writing?
As a prospective secondary mathematics educator, I felt that it was unfair that I would have special education students in my classes. I would rationalize my attitude by saying that I signed up to teach “normal” students, and that the special education students were not my problem or responsibility. I did not want to deal with them. I did not see them as individuals who seek meaning through learning.