Post by title1parent on Aug 19, 2010 5:26:08 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/schools/2614172,6_5_NA19_TEACHER_LAUREN_S1-100819.article
'I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else'
August 19, 2010
Lauren Winiarski, 24, is a Metea Valley High School special education teacher. She has been a teacher for two years. She grew up in Bolingbrook, but moved to Romeoville about a year ago.
Education: "I have a learning and behavior specialist degree in special education from Illinois State University."
Inspiration for becoming a teacher: "Two things: I got into special education because my uncle had a cognitive impairment, and I always had a really special connection to him before he passed away. Secondly, my mom is a special educator, and I fell in love with the field of special education when I used to shadow her in her classroom during Take Your Daughter to Work Day when I was a kid."
What keeps you teaching? "Easy -- the students. I feel blessed to work with some of the best students there could be. They put a smile on my face every day, and those days when you see growth makes the job so rewarding. They are so endearing and pure; sometimes I feel that they teach me more than I teach them."
Craziest thing a student said: "When I taught at Neuqua Valley my first year as a support teacher, a student told me during my hallway supervision that she had seen me shopping at Kohl's over the weekend, 'in the JUNIORS section! You're younger than my sister!'"
Favorite moment as a teacher: "(It) was last year when one of my students who has multiple disabilities asked another one of my students in the class who has autism to the Turnabout Dance. The female student is nonverbal and nonambulatory, and when I suggested to her mom that she should ask this male student to the dance because he had developed a special connection with her over the course of the year, her mom made a sign out of scrapbook paper and wrote, 'Will you go to the Turnabout Dance with me?' on it. We recorded the message on her voice output device so she could ask him herself, and when she did, his face lit up, and he was so excited and screamed 'Of course!' They were the sharpest couple at the dance!"
Best advice: "Find something that makes you happy, and makes you want to get up and go to work each day."
Favorite topic: "I love the community-based component of the curriculum in which we go out 1-2 times per week into the community to generalize the skills we learn in the classroom to real-world contexts. We go to the bank, to the grocery store, out to eat, etc., and practice functional skills like purchasing, budgeting, and social skills."
Interesting project: "As a community-based component to an interdisciplinary unit that incorporates consumer math, life skills, and vocational skills, the students have opened checking accounts at Harris Bank in Aurora (where) they practice depositing the paychecks they earn through the Student Work Program, a district stipend in which they are paid for the jobs they perform during the school day for vocational work training. The students LOVE the day when their paychecks arrive, and they cannot wait to open them and see how much they've earned, and they take so much pride in being able to deposit or withdraw from their own person bank accounts. The staff at Harris Bank have been so incredibly wonderful with our students, and are so welcoming every time we visit."
Parting comments: "The field of special education is a difficult but very rewarding field in which to work. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else."
Who nominated her: Co-worker Jaineen Kelley says: "I've worked with Lauren at Metea since last fall and in that time she's impressed me as an incredibly warm, caring and enthusiastic teacher. She teaches her students the necessary skills to be successful inside the school as well as outside of the school setting. She meets everyone with a smile, works with everyone with patience, and treats each of her students fairly and respectfully. She shows genuine caring towards all of her students, some of whom can be very challenging. In addition, the life lessons she teaches are as important as her academic lessons. "Lastly, her dedication to her students is phenomenal, and I've never seen a teacher exhibit such exuberance for teaching or for students. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, 'She has the energy of 10 teachers, plus two!'
'I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else'
August 19, 2010
Lauren Winiarski, 24, is a Metea Valley High School special education teacher. She has been a teacher for two years. She grew up in Bolingbrook, but moved to Romeoville about a year ago.
Education: "I have a learning and behavior specialist degree in special education from Illinois State University."
Inspiration for becoming a teacher: "Two things: I got into special education because my uncle had a cognitive impairment, and I always had a really special connection to him before he passed away. Secondly, my mom is a special educator, and I fell in love with the field of special education when I used to shadow her in her classroom during Take Your Daughter to Work Day when I was a kid."
What keeps you teaching? "Easy -- the students. I feel blessed to work with some of the best students there could be. They put a smile on my face every day, and those days when you see growth makes the job so rewarding. They are so endearing and pure; sometimes I feel that they teach me more than I teach them."
Craziest thing a student said: "When I taught at Neuqua Valley my first year as a support teacher, a student told me during my hallway supervision that she had seen me shopping at Kohl's over the weekend, 'in the JUNIORS section! You're younger than my sister!'"
Favorite moment as a teacher: "(It) was last year when one of my students who has multiple disabilities asked another one of my students in the class who has autism to the Turnabout Dance. The female student is nonverbal and nonambulatory, and when I suggested to her mom that she should ask this male student to the dance because he had developed a special connection with her over the course of the year, her mom made a sign out of scrapbook paper and wrote, 'Will you go to the Turnabout Dance with me?' on it. We recorded the message on her voice output device so she could ask him herself, and when she did, his face lit up, and he was so excited and screamed 'Of course!' They were the sharpest couple at the dance!"
Best advice: "Find something that makes you happy, and makes you want to get up and go to work each day."
Favorite topic: "I love the community-based component of the curriculum in which we go out 1-2 times per week into the community to generalize the skills we learn in the classroom to real-world contexts. We go to the bank, to the grocery store, out to eat, etc., and practice functional skills like purchasing, budgeting, and social skills."
Interesting project: "As a community-based component to an interdisciplinary unit that incorporates consumer math, life skills, and vocational skills, the students have opened checking accounts at Harris Bank in Aurora (where) they practice depositing the paychecks they earn through the Student Work Program, a district stipend in which they are paid for the jobs they perform during the school day for vocational work training. The students LOVE the day when their paychecks arrive, and they cannot wait to open them and see how much they've earned, and they take so much pride in being able to deposit or withdraw from their own person bank accounts. The staff at Harris Bank have been so incredibly wonderful with our students, and are so welcoming every time we visit."
Parting comments: "The field of special education is a difficult but very rewarding field in which to work. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else."
Who nominated her: Co-worker Jaineen Kelley says: "I've worked with Lauren at Metea since last fall and in that time she's impressed me as an incredibly warm, caring and enthusiastic teacher. She teaches her students the necessary skills to be successful inside the school as well as outside of the school setting. She meets everyone with a smile, works with everyone with patience, and treats each of her students fairly and respectfully. She shows genuine caring towards all of her students, some of whom can be very challenging. In addition, the life lessons she teaches are as important as her academic lessons. "Lastly, her dedication to her students is phenomenal, and I've never seen a teacher exhibit such exuberance for teaching or for students. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, 'She has the energy of 10 teachers, plus two!'