My Dream Job

              My dream job is to be a special education teacher.  I have wanted to be a teacher since the first grade.  This past summer has made me ten times more passionate about wanting to be a teacher.  This past summer I work in summer school program as an aid in a special education classroom.  I was assigned to high school classroom and the first day I walked in I was terrified.  I was expecting to work with an elementary school student and my student was taller than me, but by the end of the summer I was so glad that I did the program. 

            Through the six weeks of the program I learned how to work with the student and how to communicate with him.  This student taught me so much.  The student I worked with was non-verbal, which means they are unable to talk.  The thing that I learned most this summer is that you do not have to say words to communicate because there are other ways.  The student loved having his head rubbed and the way he would communicate this to me is by grabbing my hand and putting them on his head.  I thought this was pretty clever.  If he needed help tying his shoe he would point to his shoe.  

            I learned a lot through the other teachers I worked with as well.  One of the big ways that the students were able to communicate with us was by giving them picture tiles with words on them.  We would ask them a question and then they would have to pick one of the tiles.  This was an amazing experience for me.  One of the students I worked with did not seem to be paying attention during the lesson, but then when he was asked a question he always knew the right answer.  It showed me that saying don’t judge a book by its cover is so true.  Working with special education students has taught me that each child has something to bring to the classroom.  Each one of them will teach you something if you let them.  One student in the classroom taught me that they needed prompts to stay on task while working.  They had the ability to do the work they would just get distracted.  Another student would try to trick me into thinking they had done their work, but really had not, so I would get them to do there assignment.  I am so glad I got to have this experience this summer.