Hi, I’m Gwen. I’m your Special Education Assistant (SEA) blogger. I wanted to tell you a little bit about me and why I chose the SEA program at Stenberg College.
I’m a single mom of a 9 year-old son with Autism and Epilepsy. I have seen firsthand the difference that a skilled SEA makes in the education of a child with exceptionalities. I strongly believe that all children can reach their fullest potential if they have the help that they need in the classroom. I wanted to be able to help other children the way that my son is helped.
I had volunteered for 2 years in a grade 5 classroom prior to applying to Stenberg College and knew that this was definitely the career change that I wanted to make. The reason I chose to do that was that I wanted to make sure that this was the career for me. With my volunteer work, I had the opportunity to do some one to one work with students helping them with their work, participate in small group activities, I read with students, and I helped the classroom teacher with whatever she needed doing. Sometimes this meant I did some marking, helped put up bulletin boards or set up for activities. I got to do some of the things of things that an SEA actually does on a day to day basis. I LOVED it! My son was ready for me to go back to school now and everything fell into place after much work on my part`
I had researched other schools and was attracted to Stenberg College for various reasons. The first reason was that one of my son’s SEAs was a Stenberg graduate and I saw firsthand the quality of the work that she did with him. The other reasons were the extra training that we receive at Stenberg in things like POPARD, sign language, PECS. These extras are things that other Colleges do not offer and that you can only acquire after you work for a district for quite a while and they then have to pay for you to take the courses. This makes me much more employable as an SEA right from the start. I also really liked the fact of the condensed program. Being able to do the course in 10 months instead of 2 years. This allows me to be out working in the field so much sooner than with other courses. The final reason that I chose Stenberg College was that when I called around to various school districts Stenberg College had an excellent reputation and is preferred among districts.
The first few weeks were definitely a challenge but very exciting. I can only say that I am loving the course and the instructors are fantastic! I look forward to keep you all updated on my adventures in this program. I will tell you more about my transtion back to school in my next blog. That has been an adventure all on its own.
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Check out a video of our Education Assistant Diploma Program.
