I’m a Junior at Prairie View A&M University pursuing my a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Special Education. I am aspiring to become a High Functioning Life Skills teacher, where I plan to get some experience in the education field. I plan to go straight into Graduate school, while working, in hopes of completing my Masters in Education Administration. I have a 5-year-old daughter who just started Kindergarten, and every day with her is an awesome adventure.

As my life doesn’t consist of much, it is a struggle in balancing everything that I do. I first and foremost thank you for taking the time to read this and invite you to join along the journey.

Any career that you start in, you should get your mind to thinking of ways you will do your job, and what you can do to better your job. This is true even for a teacher. As an educator, you should constantly be thinking of ways to better yourself as an educator, and standards/expectations/beliefs that are in your classroom. These ideas are put together to form what is knows as an Educational Philosophy. In an article written by Alfred C. Thompson, he defines an educational philosophy as a “mission statement which in turn defines what subjects are taught, how they are taught and, perhaps more importantly, the values that are taught both implicitly and explicitly along with the subjects being covered”.

In my own personal educational philosophy believe that as a teacher you need to love what you do, and never stop learning. You must always be willing to learn new things to evolve as a teacher and to stay connected with your students. You need to learn information about your students and get an understanding of how they truly are outside of your classroom, and as you learn about your students, you need to provide an environment and classroom that makes your student feel safe and secure, important, and that they are cared for. I believe that teaching is more important than imparting knowledge – it is inspiring change, and that teachers make bigger impacts on the lives of students more than people would actually think. I believe all students deserve an equal chance when it comes to their education, as well as the quality of education they are receiving. As a future educator, I believe that it is important to keep the mindset that teaching is a lifestyle and not just a job.

Diversity, defined by the differences and similarities in people in ways such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion and/or traditions, and cultures, can pose a challenge for some teachers. In some majority of schools that have resource classrooms, diversity can even include the physical and mental abilities and capabilities that a student has. It has been researched that the United States of America is comprised of many different cultures, which often makes it difficult for a teacher. The difficulty is not for the teacher to teach, but it is more in the way of how the students learn, and their behavior. In order for a teacher to get and keep their students engaged in the lessons, the teachers need to know and understand the cultural differences within their classroom. The two main ways children learn are infused within the concept of cultural differences, which is contained in the idea of individualism-collectivism. The first idea, individualism, is when the families within the culture promote and expect independence and self-responsibility. Whereas the second idea, collectivism promotes groups and/or a collaboration of some sort within the culture.

Diversity allows a teacher to learn about different cultures, which can help them to better learn ways to reach out to the children to make sure that they are understanding and retaining the lessons that are taught. On the other hand, these difference are known to cause educational gaps within the classroom itself. Some students and teachers can overcome these challenges, while some schools may lack the resources to close the gaps.

When choosing to start your career in the Education field you need to know that this is a career in which you will impact many children. You are entrusted to inform and educate students, and give them knowledge that they will carry all through their lives. While in a General Education classroom, this may come as a simple task, but working in a Special Education classroom requires a whole new way of thinking. While in the SPED classrooms you will be working with students that have a wide range of learning and physical disabilities. You may have some children who are able to work independently, and then there are some students who require more assistance to complete some tasks. With the extra assistance needed, there comes some challenges that the teachers face.

People has the misconception that teaching is easy, and that is far from true even being in a General Ed. classroom. When teaching SPED, you have a variety of disabilities, and even if two students are listed under the same disability their characteristics could be completely different. This poses a challenge in the workload that SPED teachers take on. On top of their lesson planning, they know have to find ways to modify their lessons and test to accommodate for each and every students disability. There is even a lack of support from their fellow colleagues that may teach in a General Ed. classroom.

As school enrollments are expanding, and there are mire students being diagnosed with disabilities, there are problems with support and resources. There is high demand for special education teachers but until more are employed, the current teachers have more to do, but with less time and resources to do it. Not only are the resources and teachers limited, but the parental support is limited as well. Some parents do not really look into their child’s disability, and think it is all on the teachers to take on the role of preparing their children. It is important to communicate with your student’s parents on their role at home, and reinforcing the things they learn at school.

The use of special education classrooms is starting to decline, and these students are now merging with the General Ed. classes (also known as inclusion). Although this may be seen as a good thing, it can promote challenges for not only the teacher, but the student as well. The teacher has to take on the role of eliminating the judgmental environment that might surface while still making sure the student is reaching all their goals. Because the student might not be accustomed to working with General Ed. students this may cause self-doubt.

Being a Special Education teacher, and a teacher in general, is a very difficult job, and unfortunately without the support and resources students will suffer from it. It is very important that when going into a SPED career that you are aware of the challenges you will be faced with, and what you will do to overcome these challenges for the success of your students.

It is known without a doubt that college is hard, because if it was easy then everyone would do it. Imagine attending college while working a full-time job, seems pretty do-able right? Of course, people do it everyday, but let us add something more challenging to this scenario. Imagine attending college while working full-time, and being a single mother. This is my life!

I am a 25 year old female, in my Junior year at the greatest school (in my opinion), Prairie View A&M University. I am currently on track to received my Bachelors degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration of Special Education, in the Fall of 2019. I do have a wonderful, smart, independent and very adventurous 5 year old daughter who just started Kindergarten.

When I graduate high school, I planned to live the carefree college way, but that vision and planned was short lived when i became pregnant at the age of 19. Although having a daughter before I established myself career wise and financially wasn’t in the plans, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. Day to day activities and routines can be hard at times, and I’ve had to give up a lot of things for the benefit of my daughter but I do see it paying off in the future. Many researcher and articles state the hardships and struggles that single mother go through, especially those trying to further their education, and while this may be true its not impossible.

The first thing I have learned since going back to college is to not be or feel guilty. When I first enrolled back into college I spent hours on end at school and doing work, and less time with my daughter. This caused a lot of guilt and doubt into my head, as to what kind of mother would I be to “neglect” my daughter especially when she is hitting those milestones when she needs me the most. So with this thinking I slacked on my academics, and my grades certainly showed for it. After a rough first semester, I spoke with my parents and they drove into my head that I wasn’t neglecting her, but I was doing something beneficial for her and that this short period of time will make up for the rest of our lives we have together. I have picked back up my academics, and I always make sure that each and every Saturday is our day!

When it comes to my parents, they come into play on my second topic of support. Without my support system, my parents, I honestly wouldn’t have even gone back to college. Even with their own lives and jobs, they pick up with my daughter where I slack. When I stay after school or I am doing late assignments they make sure she gets home, does her homework, eats, and gets in the bed. When I have study/group activities they make sure she still gets to gymnastics, dance, and swim. I believe without this awesome support system I wouldn’t have gotten this far.

My third and final point about being a single mom is the misconception that people have about our lives. Some people think that because you have a child, your life is “over”, and this is untrue. I believe that my life is over because I have a daughter, but it has actually gotten better. I wake up everyday wanting to better myself and my life for her and because of her. It doesn’t happen overnight, but its not impossible. Anything is possible with the right type of inspiration, and I know for a fact that my daughter is all the inspiration that I need.