AUTOBIOGRAPHY
My name is Whitney Smith. I am currently pursuing an All Level Special Education Certification from Texas A&M Commerce. There were many influences in my life that led me to want to become a Special Education teacher. The most memorable was in seventh grade when they made an announcement in my school inviting students to work with the special education Life Skills classroom as an elective in the eighth grade. This sounded like a stimulating challenge to me so I signed up for this elective. I met two students that had a lasting impact on my future: Clint and Joe. Clint and Joe became my friends and I was called to continue to work with the Life Skills classroom continuing into high school. However, this was not allowed in my high school until my junior year. I thought it unfair to allow the general education students to bond so closely with the special education students in the class and then shut us out of the class our freshman and sophomore years. So I approached the administration and asked them to change the system to allow those who had signed up for the new elective in eighth grade to be allowed to continue in ninth and tenth grade and they sided with me. Therefore, those of us who had chosen the elective in that first year were able to continue to work with the same students and I was able to stay with Clint and Joe until graduation. Ever since the impact that Clint and Joe have had on me, I have wanted nothing else but to see special needs children learn in a motivating and nurturing environment that provides the best possible styles of learning suited to their individual needs.
My work with students did not cease in the Life Skills classroom. I began work outside of school at Jack & Jen, Too in May of 2001 and continued working there until April of 2003. Jack & Jen, Too was, and still is, an after-school and full-day daycare system for age’s preschool through twelve years old. I worked there after school and throughout the summers. Also while I was at school, I participated in the student teaching program in both my Junior and Senior years. When I moved onto college at Texas A&M College Station the experience at Jack & Jen, Too allowed me to get hired at the TAMU-Children’s Center: the daycare where the professors and students enroll their children. I worked there from September 2004 until April 2005. While studying at Collin County Community College I completed sixteen hours of observation in both the fall and spring semesters of 2010 and 2011 in a public school setting, this totals thirty- two hours of observation in the public school setting. And last but not least, I am a volunteer with the Junior High at my church and have been since 2009.
As you can tell from my experiences with children, my work history is a little scattered due to where I have attended college. I started out at Texas A&M College Station and went there for one year in 2004-2005. Then I decided that I should be closer to home, which at that time in my life was Sherman, TX, and decided to transfer to Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, OK and went there from 2005-2006. I then got married and had my two beautiful children. Became a stay at home mom for a few years, worked full time as an Accountant's Assistant and Office Manager for a CPA firm in McKinney, and finally moved to Melissa, TX, and enrolled in Collin County Community College in 2010-2011 after deciding to finish my degree at Texas A&M Commerce. I will be finished with my All Level Special Education Degree in December of 2012. My focus is middle or high school Special Education with my main focus being first the children classified with emotional/behavior disorders and with my second focus being children classified on the range of the Autism Spectrum. These particular children are the ones that I find to be the most amazing and also I personally feel that my set of skills are best suited to help these very amazing individuals overcome the many obstacles they may face.
I am very dedicated to special education students. I have always loved them ever since I first met Clint and Joe. I now have a family of my own that consists of my husband of almost six years, Brent, and my two beautiful daughters, Britain and Rylan. We now live in Melissa, TX. We have a parrot named Tango. And although I have since lost touch of Clint and Joe, I still want them to know that they have inspired me to be the best teacher I can possibly be to my future students and the best mother and wife to my children and husband.
Teaching Philosophy
I believe that each child is unique…
Children each possess a quality that is uniquely their own and only their own. The most important goal, for me, as a teacher is to help each child find that unique quality that they alone possess and develop it into a successful and unique position in life. Each child has a gift that is designated by God and each child must come to recognize that spiritual gift and use it to determine their character. A teacher is meant to help that child realize that spiritual gift that is unique to each child. Whether or not you can come right out and say that that is from God is unimportant in how the child learns to use the abilities that were given to him/her.
I believe that each child has a unique learning
style…
Each child has a unique learning style that needs to be realized by their teachers. My goal in the process is to identify and address that learning style in everything that I wish to teach that child, whether it be mannerisms, societal issues, or subject material. I think each child is designed to learn in the way that their brain comprehends and that every child can learn if the child is taught in a way that they can understand. Each child is developmentally and physically different from the child sitting next to him/her. I will be a teacher that teaches according to each style’s unique way of learning.
I believe that each child needs unconditional
love…
Each child learns only in a nurturing environment where they feel unconditional love. Every child deserves to feel safe and loved regardless of size, race, learning disability, etc. Only children that feel appreciated by their teacher learn to respect that teacher and only a teacher that is respected is most influential in the teaching of a child. Therefore, every child needs to be shown love unconditionally. Teachers do not need to show love expecting anything in return from the child. When a child realizes that the environment he is being taught in is safe and he is being loved that child can relax and open his mind to all that the teacher is trying to convey to him/her.
I believe that children are the fabric of our success as a
nation…
Children are the determining factor in the success of our country. If we focus our efforts on raising up a successful and bright future generation than those future leaders determine how our country will be ran and how our country will interact with foreign countries in the future. Better rounded individuals are more likely to make wise moral decisions. A teacher who spends a majority of their time with a student is entrusted to teach the student how to make critical decisions and logical choices. Hasty generalizations made by the student are more likely to be avoided in the future when the student is taught rational thought and critical thinking skills.
My own personal commitment as a teacher involves utilizing my teaching philosophy in a way that helps my students shine in all aspects of their character, not only academically, within their future communities. This is a high moral responsibility, not only for myself but also for students to attain, but will continue to be the goal that I am striving toward when working with students.
Educational Background
May '11 - Present Texas A&M-Commerce Commerce, TX
Topics in Math Elem Tch II, Introduction To Teaching (ELED 300), US-Intro to Literature, Lrng Processes & Develop, Reading and Literacy I & II, Intro Exceptional Child, Special Populations in the Community, Science Inquiry I & II, Word Analysis Skills, Middle School Reading: Theory & Practice, Learners with Special Needs in Restrictive Environments, Assessment and Evaluation of the SPED Population, Managing Special Needs Populations, Special Populations in the Community, Collaboration Accommodation and Modification, Physical and Medical Management of the Special Needs Population, Allen ISD Student Internship
Completed one-hundred and fifty-one total hours
Aug ‘10 - May ‘11 Collin College McKinney, TX
American Government, Beginning Weight Training, English II – Composition & Rhetoric, Philosophy – Introduction to Logic, Education – Introduction to Special Populations, Abnormal Psychology, General Psychology, Introduction to the Teaching Profession, Fundamentals of Mathematics for Education Majors.
Completed seventy-three total hours
Jun ‘05 - May ‘06 Southeastern Oklahoma State University Durant, OK
Business and Professional Speaking, World Geography, Art and Visual Communication, Wellness and Positive Life, Humanities, Math in the Liberal Arts, College Algebra, Technology Integration in the Classroom
Completed forty-eight total hours
Aug ’04 - May ’05 Texas A&M University College Station, TX
Business Math I and II, Zoology, Chemistry, History I and II, American Government
Completed twenty-one total hours
Aug ‘99 - May ‘04 Sherman High School Sherman, TX
High School Diploma