“The blended early childhood program allowed me to be a general education teacher as well as a special education teacher up to the third grade. It was the perfect program.”

Hometown

Kula, Maui

Department

Special Education

Related Degrees

• BEd, Early Childhood & Early Childhood SPED

How did your cooperating teacher impact your teaching practice?
My cooperating teacher was amazing. She explained how and why she did everything. She allowed me to run the class and only stepped in to do parts that I was not trained to do, such as ECRI. It felt as if we were co-teaching, and we made a great team.

Where do you teach?
I am currently a teaching assistant with a private preschool as I wait for a special education position with the Hawai‘i DOE.

Did you always know you wanted to become a teacher? Briefly describe your road to this career.
I knew I wanted to become a teacher since I was a child. I began with Head Start as a teaching assistant. I received my AA in 2012 and continued as a teaching assistant because I wanted a degree that would give me more teaching opportunities. The blended early childhood program allowed me to be a general education teacher as well as a special education teacher up to the third grade. It was the perfect program.

How did you become interested in special education in particular?
Throughout the program, my heart grew fonder of working with students with special needs.

What was the best part of the program for you?
The best part was working with my peers and learning alongside them. I also enjoyed taking what I learned and implementing it into the classroom where I was working.

In what ways do you hope to make a difference in the field of education?
I hope to teach students to fall in love with learning and to instill in them that everyone is capable of learning and that they can do it.