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A Little About Me ...
Hi!
My name is Cindy and I'm a Special Education teacher and I love it!! I can't imagine having another occupation.
The burnout rate for a Special Education teacher
is supposed to be about 3 - 5 years ... well, I'm still going strong after 24 years! However,
I must admit, some of the new regulations and "No Child Left Behind" have
increased the stress level and paperwork, among other things, and I'm not
quite so excited about certain aspects of teaching anymore. The sad
thing is that it doesn't have anything to do with the lessening of the
joys of teaching, the children, or the parents. It's all due to
paperwork, politics, and stress. And it's hard sometimes to go in
and try to "give it your best", when you know what you're having to do
isn't what's really best for the child (in your opinion). So I am
now starting to glance towards retirement sometimes, when before I
wouldn't even think about it. After this next year I'll be eligible
to retire, but with the new house I'm shooting for 28-31 years.
Plus, what will I do at home without school stuff to do???? :)
In the
latter years, I've enjoyed teaching more than I did when I started and
part of this was due to all the wonderful ideas and sharing between
teachers that goes on here on the 'net. That's one of the reasons I
built this site; to help share the wealth of ideas and to give something back for all that I've received.
I have a BS and a
Master's degree in Special Education and I'm currently teaching
Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders in Mississippi. I have an
assistant and together we provide Inclusion or tutorial services for
kindergarten, first, and second grade or our Behavior class. In the past, I've taught
3rd, 4th, and 5th graders as well. I've taught students with Learning Disabilities, Developmental Delays, Educable Mental Retardation, Language and Speech Impairments, Multiple Handicaps, Physical Disabilities, ADD/ADHD, Spina Bifida, Cerebral Palsy, Asperger Syndrome, Bi-Polar disorders, ODD,
behavior problems and Emotional Disabilities.
But, teaching isn't my WHOLE life. I've been married to the same man for 27
years and we have a spoiled rotten Jack Russell Terrier named Bailey. We
also have a wonderful, 23 year old daughter, Brittney.
Brittney's in her
senior year of college majoring in Graphic Design.
She's been married for
three years, so now we also have a sweetie-pie son-in-law and our first
grandchild, Dakota. So now I'm
a CiCi and boy have we been waiting on her!! Dakota is IT! :) We
also recently sold our home that we'd lived in for 20 years and bought a
new home that had just
been built. Wow, what a lot of stress!!! But we made sure to
buy one big enough with a room for a nursery! :) I recently added an
online photo album
to the site, so you can stop by there to see pictures if you're
interested. I also have another website,
The
Teacher's Bookbag, that's my online "hobby" where I sell teachers'
resource materials. So I have PLENTY of things now to keep me busy!
:)
Well, I hope you've enjoyed visiting The Virtual Vine and I hope you've found some things that you can use in your classroom. Come back and visit often ....
Cindy
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Mar/2001
last updated 5.31.08
visitors since 11/11/03 |
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