Writing is an important tool to discover who we are. Through writing down significant events or experiences in our lives, we are able to see ourselves in a more objective manner. Through the text we write, hear our own voice narrate our own stories. It is not surprising that Hart & Waisman (2005) in “The Leadership Training Activity Book,” notes that writing and storytelling is “a useful leadership competency” (p.
25) because it allows individuals to reflect on the things they have done and the people and places they have encountered. Undoubtedly, the writing process involves not only passively recording events in our lives but also actively digesting, rearranging, and constructing our own conceptions of reality to make sense of our experiences and to learn from these.Through writing, we educate ourselves not only about our environments but also about ourselves: how we perceive and act based on our beliefs. In the process, we also learn more about where our motivations come from and where they are bound to take us.
I think that the writing process entails a journey both for the writer and the readers of the end product of the process.In fact, writing and compiling these narratives was in itself an immense educational activity for me both personally and professionally. It made me discover different aspects of myself that I was not that aware of while highlighting the more obvious facets of my personality at the same time. Thus, I would like to think that this text would be beneficial to my fellow teachers, educators, and readers who would like to know a teacher’s experience in attempting to make learning accessible to every child, including her efforts to adapt and create a teaching style and a kind of educaton that is responsive to the concrete needs of her students.In reading this text, the reader will find that it is divided into several parts.
The divisions are based on the topics that each part discuss, and will inevitably form a significant contribution to the concluding part of the text. The reader will also find that the content of the texts can be read alone and provides enough material and information on their own, however, I greatly encourage him or her to read from the beginning to get a full view of what the purpose of the text is for.This text outlines my experience as a special education teacher. Specifically, it narrates the process I went through in an attempt to gain an understanding of the complex roots of some of my student’s learning problems and the results of using specific interventions and strategies to improve their school performance based on their specific needs and taking into account their diverse backgrounds and different interests and capacities.
The first part tells of my background and how my experiences when I was growing up contributed to my decision to become a teacher. It narrates the significance of having a dual identity on the development and growth of my personality, particularly the cultural values from both the Korean and American culture which have impacted my personal beliefs, motivations, and aspirations in the pursuit of a teaching career.Moreover, the first part serves as a context from which the reader can glean into my past, and how these ultimately influence my personal concepts of the kind of education I would like to be a part of, including what a teacher is, how learning should be judged and measured, the role of classroom environments, or the relationship between the teacher and his or her students. I have tried to tell my story as honestly as I can, and to determine the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities afforded to me by my experience as an immigrant and the constant struggle of being caught in-between, and sometimes, in both, the Korean-American cultural landscape.
The second part features case studies of five students who were encountering problems at school in terms of academic skills in language, written word, and mathematics, and how these were further complicated by the students’ deficiences in social skills and behavior. The case studies were formulated to demonstrate the significance of having adequate knowledge about student’s background in assessing their needs in terms of learning outcomes and the necessary in-school and after-school support to improve a student’s performance. Likewise, the students’ case studies show that for the teacher to be able to effectively assess the student’s needs and formulate an appropriate plan of action, he or she must look at the student from different dimensions and try to know the factors which are contributing to the problems, on the one hand, and the things that keeps the student in school despite his or her struggles with writing, reading, language, or mathematical skills.The third part describes the over-all school campus environment, including both the internal and external factors that affect the school’s ability to meet student needs and the student’s ability to maximize the school setting as a venue for learning.
This part discusses internal factors in the school environment such as the school population, location, and ethnic composition, existing school policies and how these are formed and implemented, the schools’employee and teacher retention and promotion programs, and how the school effectively enables an inclusive education in its jurisdiction through the implementation of various programs for students with special needs. A discussion of the external factors that affect the school and its students is also given attention, such as the federal and state-mandated standards for education and how these impacts school planning of activities, lessons, and curriculum, and the school’s immediate environment and how this affects the students and their parents in terms of traffic or physical risks encountered on the way to school.I then move on to describe the city in which the students’ learning is located. Underlying the need to understand the student’s location vis-à-vis the entire city is the need to consider the varied and diverse realities of the students in order to gain a concrete understanding of their learning. The city’s culture, which results from its history and its people, plays an important role in shaping the students’ expectations and motivations in school.
More importantly, the culture and social structure of the city wherein the students and the school is located forms the bulk of the students’ experiences and outside learning, which impacts the nature of their learning inside the classroom environment in very much the same manner that the students’ household and background has an effect on his or her development. The bigger social, economic, and cultural condition of the city also determines the availability of support that students have in terms of basic needs as well as access to social services that enhances their ability to cope with their academic and personal struggles.Next, I discuss the results of the intervention plan for the five students whose case studies were previously discussed in the second part of the text. I also utilize the knowledge of the student’s socio-economic and pertinent backgrounds as well as their school and city environment to assess the results of the action plans and the impact of the intervention on their learning outcomes. This part also highlights the challenges that the educator faces in planning intervention mechanisms for the students, and illustrates the fact that the learning outcomes from the intervention does not depend solely on the teacher’s efforts but is affected by the internal and external factors that play upon the student’s development and behavior. The last part of the text shows the outcome of these experiences on my own learning as a teacher, including the learnings and insights that have had a significant impact on me as an educator, a Korean-American, and a special education teacher.
Hence, this part of the text focuses on the things that I have learned during the entire course of learning and knowing my students, their background and degree of parental support, the school environment, and the general landscape where we live and exist. I also draw some lessons and conclusions from these experiences based on what I have learned through my experiences as a teacher in the classroom and through independent research which detail the learnings of others from their own experiences.I would like the reader to know that the most important thing that I learned in completing this text is to learn to acknowledge both my strengths and my weaknesses as a teacher and educator, and that this text is a testament to my continuing struggle to provide the best education that my students deserve by learning as much myself and trying to improve myself with the same effort and diligence that I expect from my students in their learning. A teacher is a leader, a role model for many students. As such, a teacher and educator must always take her or his own learning seriously in order to motivate and be able to support students to succeed both in their academic and personal learning endeavors.
Lastly, the activity of writing down everything not only helped me organize the learning process so that it would make sense and be useful to others but it made me get to know myself a little better. In the same way that we learn from other people or from things and places, we can also learn much from ourselves if we really wanted to. Indeed, teaching is not an easy task. Like our students, we also evolve and develop based on how we make use of the opportunities for learning that comes our way and in the process enhance our capacity to understand more of ourselves, and the way that we are very much like our students, grappling and making coping to make sense of a hugely changing world.
