Through my experience teaching for twenty-three years in public education, I have honed and mastered the ability to understand learning styles and implement curriculum and researched-based programs to meet individualized learning needs.  Most of my career as a teacher was teaching special education.  For eighteen years (18), I taught special education students from the ages of 5-21 years old and five (5) years teaching sixth (6th) grade regular education.  I broke barriers every step of the way with my approach of melding programs, curriculum, and the students’ needs and interests. 

After years of extensive training and implementation with fidelity of every program taught, I discovered that programs truly do not meet the needs of individual students.  From there, I began pulling pieces and parts from written expression, reading comprehension, reading decoding, and vocabulary that each individual student needed in order to grow academically. I no longer implemented programs with fidelity, but with the individual’s needs from each program that matched each students individual needs.  Each “formula” was different as I created individual lessons plans on a weekly basis for twenty (20) to thirty (30) individual students, which is truly what IDEA requires of special education teachers, yet few teachers can rarely master and implement.  My students grew at exponential rates.  I cannot guarantee growth, but, I promise to teach every student at their ability level, their interest level. I truly believe that, with my approach, they will make educational gains.