Hi, My name is Jennifer Kretchmer I am currently a student who is majoring in education. As an assignment for class I am suppose to get insight from a parent who has a child with a learning disability, I am trying not to be intrusive and was wondering if anyone would be willing to tell me about their experiences. No names are used just general information for a paper so I can better my understanding and get a different perspective. Just wondering if there was anyone out there willing to share any information with me. Thank you for your time,
Jennifer Kretchmer
Maybe I can get this ball rolling for you and give you some things to think about as you begin your career in special education. First, I think it is good to have a regular ed perspective so that you can see where your students need to go. What skills they need to have so that you can teach them those skills. Then in order to teach, you need good training and support to implement the skills you have been taught. You want to work in an environment where your students are valued and you are trained and helped to teach. Now there are many areas of special ed so you need to do some investigating about where your interests and strengths lie. Wow, I sound like I’m giving you input as a teacher and you asked about parents. But I can’t really separate the two, because I am a special ed teacher and I have a son in special ed. He is both gifted and learning disabled - wonderfully bright and verbal, but he has a lot of trouble reading and spelling. I had always tried to be a good teacher to my 8th grade students, but I didn’t really understand how they got to me unable to read. It took the lessons I learned with my son to teach me that! Many professionsals are quick to diagnose, many teachers are there to criticize and special ed teachers just want him to like school - ah, but a teacher who knows what to do…. A teacher who has some training in brain research, some training in specific programs to teach a child to read. People who started teaching when and where I did were taught to “slow down, do it again and be nice”. Period. End of training. Attend a college, work for a district that teaches you how to teach reading and spelling. Push yourself to use those methods and get better and better at it. Get help to teach the next step, the next level. Teach your students to use their strengths. or DON’t WASTE MY TIME. You may stay in first or third or fifth grade for a while, but my son is growing and moving on. If you don’t teach him who will. I promised him we would do the best we could to teach him to read and if we couldn’t we would teach him to be successful anyway. I have had only a few helpers along the way, and only a few of them were teachers. As you can see, it doesn’t take too much prompting to get to angry and bitter. We were not treated well by “the system”. But we have not let ignorant people get us down. Be smart …learn…treat each child as if they were your own.