"For me it was the beginning of a long journey. Long journey, oh how those words don't even begin to convey the truth...exhausting, challenging, overwhelming, lonely, intense, and long, yes, it's been a LONG journey!"
That writing above is from my last post. I reviewed the post, hit PUBLISH and immediately realized the 'exhausting, challenging, overwhelming....' part gives a false impression. The journey WAS all those things, but mostly... it was an unknown, lonely and alien path.
Have you ever been on your journey of life and in the back of your mind thought everything was hunky-dory or normal; on autopilot? Yes, I was on autopilot until W H A M! I slammed head first into a MAMMOTH wall.
Simply put, the path of my life suddenly diverted from autopilot to grad school for a master's degree in special education. Meanwhile, life took a thousand twists along the mountainous path of raising my four children by myself. Here you can insert EXHAUSTION!
At one point I quit grad school out of frustration. Learning the history and theories of education didn't seem relevant anymore. Eventually God turned my heart around and I was back in school. It took me more than a few years to get that master's degree, but I did it! Before the ink had dried on my diploma my phone was ringing and I had a request to interview for a special education position. After one interview I found myself heading to the classroom, this time as a teacher!
I'm forever grateful for that opportunity to work in elementary education. It was a new road to say the least (after all my bachelor's degree is in applied science, agriculture, emphasis on horticulture, where my favorite saying was, "I like working with plants because they don't talk back! HaHa!)
Working on a master's degree, holding down at least one job and substitute teaching pre-school through high school, raising my kids by myself, while maintaining a house and eight acres was absolutely exhausting but oh, so worthwhile.
You see over the years I knew my kids learned in a different way. My true journey had begun with my own children when I realized their strengths and weaknesses in learning. Finding the best way for them to learn to read, write, do math, had been my first goal. DYSLEXIA back then was not an unheard of thing. Unknown no: forbidden describes it more clearly.
Finding myself as a teacher would mean that for the first few years I'd be back on autopilot, until I couldn't stand it anymore!
2 comments:
I have been teaching dyslexic children for more than 10 years. Throughout my teaching career, I have observed dyslexic adults can teach and understand special needs children in a better manner. Dyslexic children need more time to learn things. High concentration is required by them to complete tasks. You know these all facts because you have gone through all this. And I am sure the methods you'll follow to teach them will be far better than any other non-dyslexic teacher. Understanding these gems is important. A few small gestures and a little bit of thought can make all the difference to the way a dyslexic child handles tasks. I have been breaking activities down for my dyslexic students so they understand them more clearly.
Kelly Miller
Retired Special Education Teacher
Winston Preparatory School
http://www.winstonprep.edu/
Hi Kelly! Thank you so much for reading my blog. I really appreciate your interest! I do feel that having dyslexia myself is helpful in understanding my clients. Have you read Ron Davis' book, The Gift of Dyslexia? It helps people understand how those of us who are on the visual-spatial spectrum think. What's interesting is that many dyslexics or 'picture-thinkers' don't even understand it themselves! Their brains are working so fast! One of the tools that we teach a client in the beginning of a program is how to focus. I find that when I'm teaching them how to focus many of my students catch on almost before I've finished talking about it! Again, thank you for reading my blog and please let me know if have any questions about the Davis methods.
Have a great day!
Cathy
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