Alexander Gardner, BSE

SPED 510-01
Fall 2020
Reflection of My K-12 Experiences

Reflection Essay

Going through school was challenging for me, as I have a learning disability (ADHD and

Aspersers) and was overweight so when my parents first approached taking me to school, they

almost held me back from my age group. But the teachers and principal at my first school

insisted that I give it a shot and see how I would react. Even though I have a learning disability, I

was still able to accomplish school and graduate with my age group, and I owe almost all of it to

my drama teacher and my special education teachers. When I entered middle school, it was then

that I begin to see school as more like a prison than anything else, but it was the special

education teachers that knew what to say and how to get help me understand the classrooms.

When I entered high school, I first started off not even caring anymore and I almost even fully

dropped out of high school. But then when I had to take an acting class for a fine arts credit, the

drama teacher really showed me what it was like to be in his class and he even encouraged me to

try-out for a few plays and I really enjoyed it. My fondest memories of school would have to be

when I was in his plays for school, since it was because of him that I stayed in school.

My two separate math teachers almost made me not want to take math anymore, due to

how they both talked down to students and belittled them. The first math teacher would teach

one way to get to the solution but if a student used a different method, he would get made and

would publicly speak his “disappointment” about the student to other students. He would also

offer no help to students that were struggling with his assignments and even got made when a
substitute “handed out the assignments wrong” even though they were the exact assignments he

left for the substitute. The other math teacher often played “favorites”, which is where the

teacher collectively just asked their favorite students the questions and never asked anyone else

and were the first people to be given permission to use the restroom. She also bad mouthed a

student once but said that the whole thing was started by the student and not her. The only thing

that I can accurately recall from these teachers are what not to do when I become a teacher and I

believe that they could have been more caring about the students and understand that not all

students will get the hang of it and that they need more help than others.

My drama teacher really made an impact in my life and made me challenge myself in

what I wanted to become in the future. He was the first teacher to sit me down and get me off my

self-destructing path that I was on and showed me the door of endless possibilities. We basically

have similar personalities, being the only difference, he knows when to be loud and when not to

be, I on the other hand not so much due to how loud I can get without realizing it. It was through

him that I was allowed to be his stage manager for his plays and allowing me to instruct people

on what to do and when to do it and with that I can accurately say it was this experience that

made me want to become a teacher.

Around going into middle school is when I realized that everyone else doesn’t get

redacted testes or shortened assignments but rather it was me. Alongside that, not everyone had a

child helper while going through grade school just to help them learn how to tie their shoes or

how to spell words and do simple math. Upon realizing this, it took a few years for me to come

to terms with the fact that I am different because I always viewed that being different meant that

I was a freak and that I just didn’t belong where I was. What took me to finally accept who I am
was my friends, as most of them are different like me and understand what I am experiencing

and helped me relate to others and how they are different from me.

Whenever I think of teaching and what the future may hold for me in this profession, I

start to think about “How the heck am I going to get into this field successfully?” or “What do I

need to do my first time teaching?” and its questions like these that make me think about

everything that I could possibly do wrong. I know that the first day of teaching is going to be

stressful as anything can go wrong, but I am confident that I will make a great impression on

students that enter my classroom. The biggest difficult that I may face is how to help students

who learn in different ways than the rest and how I will approach a student who needs help, but

the help is not for my class. No matter what though, I will always be there to help them to the

best of my abilities and skill set and will get them through it all to the end.