A little about myself

So I go back to work in a couple of days and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to start a blog.  Where do I even begin? Well after looking and reading everyone else's awesome blogs I thought I should start one.  I have not seen too many that focus on high school special education.  

Well let me start by giving you a little information about my past and what led me to where I am today.  It all started after high school.  I had no idea what I wanted to do so I just basic classes in college and found a job working in an after school program with children with special needs.  After the first day of working in the after school program I realized that I want to be a special education teacher.  I loved how much energy the children had and how happy they were despite their disability.  I decided that I want to help make a difference in their life.  I worked in the after school program for about 5 years learning about the different types of disabilities.  In 2006 I graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in special education. I was accepted into a special class during my student teaching that let me take a graduate class.  This class was amazing.  There were only 6 of us and we collaborated on a paper on co-teaching.  Because of this paper we got to travel around to New York and San Diego to speak at conferences.  Well this experience made me think about going to graduate school and I decided to just continue with it.  I graduated in 2008 with my masters in special education and an emphasis in consultation and collaboration from Arizona State University.

After graduating in 2006 I was offered a job at a public school teaching 3rd and 4th grade students with autism.  I taught for 7 years in the same school.  During the 7 years the district I worked for sent me to North Carolina to get trained in the TEACCH Model (Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children). The training was amazing and loved it.  I loved using this model in the classroom.  I would one day love to be a trainer for this model and train others on how great it is.

After 7 years I felt that I needed a change. I came across a private school that I have always wanted to work at but there was never an opportunity or an opening.  Well, it must of been meant to be because they had an opening for a high school teacher.  I applied and got the job! I am so excited to get started.  As of right now I have 5 students with different disabilities.  I have never worked with high school before, but I am excited for this opportunity.  I can't wait to teach them, but I want to give them different opportunities that they have never gotten to do before.  I have so many ideas and can't wait to share them with everyone on this blog as I put them in place.

I am excited about my new adventure not only at work, but with this blog!