All+About+Me


 * All About Me**

I am a single mother of four children, Ryan 24, Cindy 22, Jenny 20, and Vicky 18. Being a mother is the hardest, most rewarding job a person can have. I also feel it is the most important job. I have instilled an excellent work ethic in all my children. Ryan is a construction superintendent, Cindy is attending ASU in Arizona to become an elementary teacher, Jenny is at UNC studying special education as is Vicky at CU Colorado Springs. All three girls not only attend college but have jobs to pay their cell phone, insurance, gas, and spending money.

Being a new teacher I have found my 10 years experience in the classroom as a Paraprofessional has been a great learning experience. Working with special needs students has given me knowledge, understanding, and patience not only as a teacher but also as a person. I have a great understanding for the different ways students learn and will adapt your childs curriculum to fit their style.

Below is a story I read several years ago that inspired me to work with special needs students. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have over the years.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.