Washington, DC

United States

20016

Reading Intervention Specialist- Lower School

Capital City Public Charter School

I am the reading intervention specialist at a public charter school in Washington, DC. I am also a Fund for Teachers Fellow, and have spent my fellowship funds developing a more nuanced understanding of trauma and learning tools and techniques that I can utilize in my own teaching space that will support the learning of my students. Below is an excerpt from my fellowship application that explains my interest in ACE concepts. "In August 2014 I began a new role as Reading Intervention Specialist. Working with struggling readers in grades K-4, my energy and attention is devoted to identifying barriers that are keeping a student from reading, teaching new skills to dismantle those barriers, and, most importantly, empowering the student to truly see him or herself as a reader. My position rests in an autonomous space between the general education classroom and special education. I serve as a resource and mentor for both teams, and work with those students who have been a “puzzle”. For some of my students, this intervention is the last step before a referral for special education testing. While aware that some of my students may have a learning disability, and may benefit from special education services, I have had a paradigm shift since Jonathan’s meeting. But, what if a student’s struggles in learning to read are not cognitive, but instead, or in part, are due to unresolved trauma? No amount of additional training as a reading teacher will enable me to provide adequate supports to this student. While I know I need to create a trauma-sensitive learning space that will benefit all of my students—those whose trauma history is known, those whose trauma may not be identified, and also those who may be impacted by their classmates who have experienced trauma—I don’t know how. And so, it is the experience of the last 10 months since Jonathan’s meeting*, and my initial research, that have led me to decide that this is the next step for my professional development. Through my fellowship I will learn to: 1. Expand and deepen my understanding of trauma’s impact on a person’s body, brain and behavior 2. Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma within the students I work with, 3. Respond by appropriately integrating knowledge about trauma into procedures, practices and activities within my classroom and other relational spaces at my school, and 4. Share the basic concepts and understandings with colleagues so they can do the same." * Jonathan is a student who was determined ineligible for special education because of the history of trauma in his family. I describe my experience working with him earlier in my application.