When I was in middle school, I became interested in how the mind works and how people learn. My mom taught emotionally and intellectually disabled high school students, and when I was in the 8th grade, I shadowed her for a day. I was previously well-aware that teaching is a challenging career, but that day I realized the immense challenge of teaching children with special needs. In her math class of about 12 students, she had a broad range of academic abilities from students who could not count to students who were able to do simple multiplication. Therefore, I learned that it is difficult for these students to receive the instruction they need because they are all on different levels. During that same day, my mom introduced me to the school psychologist. She discussed her role in placing children in special education and her background in psychology. I became intrigued by school psychology as a career and the impact their decisions could have on students’ academic success. …show more content…
I spent a semester working with children with Autism and witnessed the positive impact psychology has on all aspects of a child’s health.
My senior year I knew I wanted to continuing studying psychology, but I was not sure exactly what type of psychology. Therefore, I decided to spend two years working with data and teaching at a middle school. This experience taught me about children, demands placed on teachers, educational policy, data-driven decision making, and many other facets of education. The two things I enjoyed the most were working with 6th grade math intervention data to identify trends and to make instructional decisions and working with small groups of children in my math intervention