AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

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Autobiographical Essay

Eli Chase

Jen Lund

EDUC 201 Foundations of Education

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Autobiographical Essay

Educational Background When I was 3 years of age, I attended a preschool. I dont remember much but I know I enjoyed being there. My parents attempted to enroll me in kindergarten at Coyote Valley Elementary the following year, but the school would not allow me to come until I was 5 years old. So when I turned 5 in April I was placed in a kindergarten classroom. I was advanced for my age, so after two months of kindergarten the school allowed me to enter first grade the following year. I have always agreed with the decision even though it meant I was about a year younger than any of my peers. Because I was an early bloomer I had no trouble keeping up academically.

After Coyote Valley, I went to Middletown Middle and High School. Around 10th grade my early advantages had all but disappeared. Up until that point I never needed to study to ace tests and all the academic concepts came easily to me. I was praised for my accomplishments despite never putting in any effort. I felt that I could do anything without trying. Imagine my shock when the content began to surpass my innate abilities. The strategy that had worked for the past 10 years was no longer effective. I had not learned any study skills or the value of hard work, so my grades slipped. I got through high school with Cs, Ds, and distaste for the school system. I hated school and I had no desire whatsoever to pursue further education.

Work History

Rather than go to college, I began to look for work. I happened upon a substitute job as a para-educator for a primary school in a different district. I walked into the portable building at the edge of campus as a 17 year old boy, not sure what to expect. I met the teacher, a confident

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young woman full of energy and exuberance. Well this can't be so bad I thought. She led me to two students playing in the corner of the classroom. They were both kindergarteners, one with Down syndrome and another with autism. I didn't know that at the time though, as I had no experience whatsoever with these kinds of disabilities. So there I sat, unsure what to do. I watched as the student with Down syndrome began hammering the table, loudly, with a plastic hammer. It was clearly agitating the autistic student. But, as I was completely overwhelmed and inexperienced, I sat and did nothing. All I could think was, What the heck have I gotten myself into? The teacher would later describe me as a deer in headlights but I improved by leaps and bounds in the weeks that followed. I was a substitute paraprofessional at a small K-2 school in California. The plan was for me to be a long term sub while the permanent aide was recovering from surgery, but it almost didn't get that far. How was the new sub? asked the special education administrator. Um lets give him one more day and see how he does, replied the teacher.

It wasn't long before the teacher realized how easily I could be taught and molded. I gained confidence and skills to work with the children. I was taught the basics of Applied Behavior Analysis, where consequences are carefully defined to increase desired behavior and decrease undesired behavior. I learned to be an actor in the classroom. Students who have trouble with language are mostly cueing off tone and gestures, so tone and gesture becomes supremely important. I learned how to run Discrete Trial, a style of direct instruction in which materials are presented in a very structured way and progression is completely data driven.

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It was here that I saw schooling and education from a different perspective. I felt like a sponge in my new world, soaking up information and applying it to real situations. Once again concepts came easily to me, but this time there was a reason to work hard. In school, getting an A is the best you can do. If you reach this maximum, there is no reason to put in any more effort. An educator has no such limits. There is always a reason to work harder and to try to do better. And often an educator is rewarded for his or her extra efforts. So I worked hard. I worked very hard. I developed a work ethic that I had previously been lacking. And I became addicted to the rewards.

As time went on, my temporary substitute position became less and less temporary. The previous aide was not recovering to the point of being able to return to work, and after a little over a year I was officially hired by the district. I learned more as time when on and new students came in. I learned about the prompt hierarchy, where the different types of prompts are sorted from most invasive (full physical) to least invasive (natural cue) and how to always use the least invasive prompt possible to promote independence. I learned that building relationships with students is the most effective way to help promote desired behaviors.

I also learned to work hard. The position of special education administrator was removed, so the new superintendant was given that job on top of everything else. Issues that should have been passed on to him were simply ignored by his gatekeepers so serious problems were never brought to the attention of those who could fix them. It seemed like the school would rather spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting and losing a lawsuit than to spend just tens of thousands to hire adequate staffing. One year our classroom had eight extremely demanding

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students and only two and a half staff. We worked hard every day and fell asleep when we got home. It was a good experience for me if only because after that everything else seemed easy.

I worked as a para-educator for several years. I've been in two classrooms since moving to Idaho two years ago, and I always felt that I could do more. If a para-educator is not happy with the way a classroom is, he or she cannot do much to fix it. Teachers, however, have the power to change a classroom to make the best difference in the lives of their students as is possible. I recently resigned from my position as a para-educator to go to school full time in pursuit of the ability to make a bigger difference. Over the last 7 years I went from a deer in headlights to a confident and knowledgeable special education paraprofessional. After moving to Boise, I could not find a classroom in which I was very happy. The teachers seemed to know less than I did and the students were either learning nothing or treated miserably (or both). I decided that the time had come for me to become a teacher myself so I could create a classroom that met my own exceptional expectations.

Service and Extracurricular Activities

My favorite activities tended to be indoor activities as a child and still today. In grade school, this meant that I did not participate in sports after school. Instead I would go home and spend as much time on the computer as I could. Mostly I played video games, but some of my time was spent on fixing computer issues. This continued all through high school and even to today. Once I began working as an aide at a school a new world was opened to me. My wife, a teacher, helped me participate in activities I never would have considered in the past.

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When I was in elementary school, I mostly played educational games like Number Munchers or Oregon Trail. The more time I spent with computers, the better I was at fixing little problems. It wasnt long before my parents would call on me to install a new printer or fix a problem. These experiences helped me become very tech savvy. Now I can look back and realize how helpful those educational games were.

In high school, game developers realized that a social experience is just as important as a gaming experience. Enter World of Warcraft, where I spent most of high school. Here I joined a guild and made some friends. For a few years I was part of an unusual guild. In World of Warcraft there are different classes, like warriors, rogues, and mages. These classes have strengths and weaknesses and usually need to work together to achieve goals. My guild was unusual in that it only allowed a single class, druids, to join. Because we were all druids, we were a wealth of knowledge for new druid players. I spent a lot of time teaching and learning from my guildmates and even still maintain a few friendships after having quit the game. Another hobby of mine involving video games is speed running. Speed running is beating a video game as quickly as humanly possible. I currently hold the record for Dragon Age: Origins, Baldurs Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, and Baldurs Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal. These speedruns take months of planning, and as new shortcuts are found, routes must be optimized. In planning, I use to forum for other speedrunners where we discuss ideas. This experience has impacted my development as an educator because it is a great example of how anything is possible when multiple great minds work at it. Often I will be stuck on a problem and someone else will easily find a solution, or vice versa.

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After high school I went to work in a special needs classroom. I met some really neat kids and a wonderful teacher. One of the students in our class was participating in Special Olympics Baseball, where kids with a wide range of disabilities are invited to play non-competitive baseball. The teacher had volunteered to coach on Sundays, and I agreed to help. I met lots of kids with all kinds of different disabilities. I learned a lot about how each child needs different approaches to be successful. Most importantly, I realized how annoying parents can be. Even as a volunteer, some parents felt I owed them something. Some parents wanted the game to move quicker, others wanted it to last longer. Some parents smothered their children, others dropped them off in the parking lot and left without a word. The teacher told me it is not all that different from dealing with parents as a teacher in a classroom.

My work with computers when I was younger has helped me become very tech savvy, and I realize what a great teaching tool computers can be. As I grew older I found, through gaming, that two heads are better than one, and that almost no problem is insurmountable with enough effort and support. In coaching baseball I learned that parents can be harder to deal with than their kids. This experience has helped me be realistic about the challenges I face in becoming a special education teacher. Overall I feel my experiences have helped me become ready to tackle challenges and pursue my goals of becoming a professional educator.

Reasons For Choosing Education As My Career

I first considered a career in education several years after beginning my work in the classroom. The main reason it took that long is that I was very aversive to college. My experience in high school was unfavorable, and I was very happy to be making a living without going to school again. Though I am not expensive to take care of (I eat cheap, I live cheap, my

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hobbies are cheap), my life changed when I got married and I had to think about the welfare of others. My wife very much wants to stay at home, at least part time, with our future children and so I needed a larger income to support a family. Since college was the main way to increase my income, I decided that teaching was a way to go. When I was in my wifes classroom, I felt like I didnt need to become a teacher and I could still have a positive impact on the lives of children. When we moved and no longer worked together, I found myself in classrooms under different teachers. My expectations were very high, and I was sorely disappointed by the classrooms I was in. In one, the aides were in charge of creating and implementing curriculum. Though I felt I was experienced in the field, I knew I did not have the education to be able to effectively do such without any guidance. The result was that each aide taught whatever they wanted however they wanted each quarter. The students often did worksheets for most of the day. The aides did not create a positive learning environment. The teacher was much better, but she did not guide the aides to make a productive classroom. I would never allow my child to be placed in that classroom after having worked there.

I quit at the end of the year and went to a different classroom, and my problems got even worse. Rather than ineffective learning and general disrespect towards children, my first day at my new classroom involved watching the teacher restrain a student five seperate times. None of these were justified (we were all trained in Right Response to know when and when not to restrain). At one point I had to tell the teacher I did not feel comfortable with what she was doing and she needed to stop. Remember, this was my first day on the job. The teacher was doing an illegal and dangerous restraint on a blind, disabled 6 year old. The reason? She had taken her shoes off at recess. I nearly quit that day, but instead talked to the teacher about my concerns.

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She seemed to take it well, and the student was not restrained for the following months that I remained at the school. I only lasted a few months at this school. Though I was able to keep the kids safe, it was clear that the staff did not know how to work with special needs students educationally, behaviorally, or professionally. Through all this, I realized I could be an incredible teacher and if I wanted to work in a classroom, I needed to be in charge of that classroom. With the support of my wife, I think I can become one of the best special education teachers in Boise.

Professional Goals

My long term goal right now is to become a Special Education teacher in the Boise School district. I plan on having children with my wife in the not-so-distant future, and I need to make enough money for her to be able to stay home at least part time. Without a college degree it is difficult to make enough money to support our current lifestyle. It would be even harder to support a child as well. I want to be a special education teacher because I have worked in that field for a few years now and I really enjoy it. My wife is currently a special education teacher, so she would be able to consult me while I am getting the hang of things. A big part of my motivation is that there is a dire need for talented special education teachers. I have seen more than a few teachers who fell in to special education because they did not succeed with their other goals. This by itself does not mean a teacher is bad, but statistically it yield more teachers who are less qualified or less motivated to go above the minimum requirements for their job.

In the short term, I plan on continuing my education at CWI, then transferring to BSU when I need to. My wife is supporting me while I take classes, so I am able to take lots of classes and not be overwhelmed by also needing to work. This is my first real semester at CWI, though I

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did take two classes after work in the fall of 2012. I plan on taking a full schedule of online classes this summer and completing my credits at CWI in a few more semesters. Right now I am having the privilege of working with my wife a couple days a week in her classroom. I am learning a lot about what goes on behind the scenes, such as how to create a task analysis, how to find curriculum, how to train aides, how to create IEP goals, etc. The observations in her class have probably been the most valuable part of my semester here at CWI, and I am happy to know that she will be assisting me when I do become a teacher.