Allow me to re-introduce myself...(I so badly want to break off into a Jay Z voice and sing PSA every time I say that)loll
Ok ok...Hello everyone my name is Tatiana, (tiana for short), I got my Bachelor's in CSD from Queen's College last year. I'm 23 years old, Colombian, Guatemalan, and Chinese but I am heavily influenced by American culture. I'm a first generation here, but my parents came here when they were 5 and therefore have no accent but are bilingual themselves. Their interests such as music and comics have influenced my creativity giving me a pretty laid back attitude. Along with my American pride, I do have my Latina pride as well and it shows when I order the good stuff (aka FOOD) loll. My Colombian grandfather pokes fun at me whenever he sees me stressing about Grad school, he says, "American girl not living American girl dream." lmaoo moments like that ease my tension and remind me that rejection is not the end of the world. I was always surrounded by speech therapists because my mother would force me to tag along with my brother making sure that he paid attention to the speech therapists. I was to report back any bad behavior..loll...Since then I have been interested in Speech but never knew what specialty I wanted to get into to. It wasn't until I started tutoring after quitting a bakery job that I obtained my first student. Emy was this shy thing that only spoke if she was told too, she was a 2nd grader when her parents told me she had a learning disability. I never knew what that entailed, I figured she learned just the same way as everybody did but then it became clear after each session, Emy would miss something even though it seemed like she knew it. I would explain X, Y, Z and she would know X and Z but always miss Y. The more that teachers wanted to put her in Special Ed, the more I felt she just needed resource room but it really wasn't her fault. She has a dad that works like a dog and a mother that is hearing impaired. Emy was a puzzle child that just needed to be solved and I took on the challenge to find her learning strategy and sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't. There is even more pressure on the New York State Tests since they have been changed and are more difficult but each year we've made it through the year. I like to work with children that have learning disabilities because I see their potential when others don't. When some teachers complain how much they lag their classroom, I'm the one that reminds them that they're still kids and that they're working as hard as they can. I remind the teachers, they are not a number but just a kid looking to please their parents and authorities because it's those kids that need the most confidence. I love working with them, they make me laugh and smile even when I get shitty days like rejections from school. It seems so illogical to say but I don't want to leave them when I go to grad school, I constantly worry about the next thing that will deter their confidence or the next test that will tell them they're not good enough. I don't want that at all, so I try to make the best of the time we have now so I know I left them somewhat prepared. I love them...like they were my own kids.