Running Head: My Future Career Path
My Future Career Path
Ronald Rothstein
Western Oregon University
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My Future Career Path
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Introduction
When I first came into Western Oregon University five years ago, I had my goals
set to become a high school Social Studies teacher. I desired to get a History major as
well as a Special Education minor, so that my resume could look better and perhaps land
me a job in Special Ed if there were not History teaching positions available. However,
given the circumstances of working for a group home service that serves to hose
adolescent teens with intellectual and developmental disabilities, I’ve shifted focuses and
decided that I want to become a Special Education teacher for middle or high school
students. At this time, I’d say that I most likely like to work with students who are high
functioning, and may need assistance with behaviors and intellectual disabilities. When I
become a Special Education teacher, I think the most exciting thing I am going to do as a
teacher, is be a motivational factor for my students. I feel through my life experiences, I
have a lot of scenarios that I can relate to students who may need motivation or
encouragement. I’m also really excited to work with faculty, students, and parents on a
student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP), or a student’s Behavioral Support Plan
(BSP), because its something that I’ve had experience in my job of incorporating my own
opinions on for a resident.
This paper is going to exemplify what teachings I’ve learned from Moodle posts,
classroom lectures and guest speakers, about why I want to work as a Special Education
teacher.
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Textbook/Moodle Post
Throughout this course, I have been learning a range of topics like the history of
attitudes towards people with disabilities, how to assist a family who has a child with a
disability, how to go through the grieving process when someone is diagnose, etc. The
most useful topics I have learned about in this course that will make an impact for my
career, deal with principles and the inequality of schools. During the Moodle post, the
class went through and talked about chapter 15 from the book Psychosocial Aspects of
Disability: Insider Perspectives and Strategies for Counselors. Chapter 15 deals with the
Do’s and Don’t as a Disability Counselor, and most of the information that I got out of
reading the chapter, was learning about the 20 Value-Laden Principles and Professional
Ethos by Beatrice Wright.
The two principles that stood out to me the most were principle number 5 which
states, “The significance of a disability is affected by the person’s feelings about the self
and his or her situation” (Wright 467). This principle talks about the emotion of the
person you’re working with who has a disability, and how to listen to that person’s story
and encourage them to move past their own disability and to stride on working hard to
forgo any distress that their own disability may keep them from doing something. The
second principle that I thought would make an impact on me and my career was principle
number 16, “People with disabilities, like citizens, are entitled to participate in and
contribute to the general life of the community” (Wright 470). Just like the quote, I as a
future Special Ed teacher feel that it is my duty to encourage and inspire students who
think they cannot do something, into the concept that anything is possible, if your willing
to work at it.
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The second Moodle post that I reviewed and feel makes an impact on my future
as a Special Ed teacher, was a question asked in the chapter 5 posts. The question asked
was “how has inequality in our education systems affected the disabled community?”
(Jansson Week 6). Both the question asked and the answers that I saw from the students
in the class helped me identify that there is a problem in the schools. It may not seem like
it, but schools are segregated to an extent, where schools divide students up by disabled
and non-disabled. I personally understand that some students need extra assistance and
may need several teachers at one time; but I feel that for the non-disabled students, this
could be a time to make accommodations and teach students how to assist others and
maybe learn some personal integrity and embracing of the community.
Classroom Lectures
Not only did I learn things from student’s Moodle posts and the textbook, but inclass discussions and lectures were essential as well. One thing I learned from the
classroom was the three-model system that talks about how disabilities are seen through
different aspects. The three components are: biomedical which focuses on talking about
the condition and not the individual, environmental/functioning which talks about the
individual and not the condition and sociopolitical, which talks about societies view of a
person with a disability (Poage Week 1). Although it is my feeling that no person should
judge a person with a disability by this model, I am taking this opportunity to utilize the
information presented here and diffusing it from society, so that people only look at
others with disabilities by the content of the person’s character.
The second thing I learned from the classroom lectures was a person’s passion for
work. There was a picture on the presentation from the week the class was learning about
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passion for work. The quote was by JD. Bissonnette, which said, “Work should be
appropriate for you and serve as a vehicle of expression for your skills, talents, interests
and personal style” (Poage Week 4). For me this quote talks about everything you usually
put in a job, and the rewards you get out of it. For instance, the talents and personal style
I have going into teaching Special Ed range from my leadership as an athlete and the
multiple stories I have that go along the lines of motivating students to stride for their
goals.
Guest Speaker
Although I was only present for two of the guest speakers throughout this course,
the speaker that really taught me something about work was Malissa Larson, who is the
Director of the Office of Disability Services at Western Oregon University. For me, Ms.
Larson was a person that I saw and met who took a lot of time to find the right job and
now has the job of working with people everyday to make accommodations for students
in classrooms with disabilities. What I also got out of Ms. Larson’s presentation was
learning about a “handicrap” (Larson Week 8). At first I thought it was a misspelling for
the word “handicap”, but then I started to understand her intent to reveal to students that
everyone has a handicrap that makes them different from someone else.
Conclusion
Having had experience already with working with adolescent teens with
developmental and intellectual disabilities, I got the sense of what it was like to work in
the Special Ed field. I’m not trying to coat this in because I have to, but I did definitely
learn the things that I have stated in this assessment. Prior to the class, I only heard about
professional ethics in different fields, but reading the two that I stated about really got me
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thinking about why I am choosing Special Ed. I want to positively impact a field where
people are labeled with a disability; whether it’s physical, developmental, intellectual,
etc. I hope to overcome the labeling and not just be their teacher or staff, but I want to go
up and beyond, to where they can not only see me as their employer, but a trusted friend
who truly understands what they are talking about and what they want in their lives.
Reiterating about the inequality in schools, I not only want to make an impact on
the students in the schools, or the teachers; but I want to change an environment’s idea of
what schooling should be like. Society has already overcome racism and prejudicial
beliefs, but I still feel that some people need to understand that schooling is appropriate
and allowed to everyone, no matter what kind of disability.
The lecture about passion for working is a no brainer, “do what makes you
happy”; however, I want to make the people I’m working for happy as well. I want
everyone to get the sense that they do have a place in this world, whether you do or do
not have a disability, and that with the right push, attitude, and support, you can get there.
Although Malissa Larson and I may have different job titles and field choices, we
both still have the same desire to help others. What I saw in her presentation, was a
person who had stories from her job not because she needed something to talk about, but
because it had an impact on her from the sense of accomplishing something difficult. I
only hope to have as good as stories to tell people when I become a Special Ed teacher.
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References
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Jansson Kendra, (2015). Moodle Post Week 6 Moodle Question, “how has
inequality in our education systems affected the disabled community”
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Larson Malissa, (2015). Class Presentation Week 8 “Guest Presenter from ODS”
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Marini, I., Stebnicki, M., & Wright, B. (2011). Basic Do's And Don'ts in
Disability Counseling. In Psychosocial Aspects of Disability Insider Perspectives
and Strategies for Counselors. (Pg. 467-470). New York, NY: Springer
Publishing Company.

Poage Kimberly, (2015). Moodle PowerPoint Week 4 “Passion For Work”
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Poage Kimberly, (2015). Moodle PowerPoint Week 1 “Models of Disability”