Hi! I'm Jennifer Jacobsen!
I knew I always wanted to be a teacher, so when I entered college, there was no question what field I would study. Fast forward a decade and a half after college graduation and I found myself in the principal's office.
Am I the only adult who gets nervous to be called to the principal's office?
This particular late May afternoon, I stepped into the office and sat down. I wondered what was going on. My principal, who was always kind and supportive of me, pulled out a chart of scores.
YIKES!
The scores were my own student's reading scores across the entire school year. The principal asked me why my student's scores were not much of an improvement from the beginning of the year to that day. My students were not reading much better at the end of the year than they were at the beginning of the year.
Boy did I feel like a failure!
I felt like I had failed my students.
I was afraid I was going to lose my job.
I felt like I had failed myself.
As all other years, I had worked my tail off. I gave 200% each day.
BUT WHY WERE MY STUDENTS SHOWING LITTLE READING GROWTH?
I knew I had done my job everyday. I knew my students gave it their all.
That May afternoon sitting in my principal's office I had an epiphany. I realized what I was teaching was not the instruction my students with Dyslexia needed in order to learn to read; to make those reading score gains. I had to find out how to teach students with Dyslexia because the traditional instruction techniques I was taught in college to teach, and that I taught every school day, were not working.
So, I took it upon myself to read multiple books, watch hours of webinars, take college classes to earn a certification in Dyslexia, and read research reports to learn all I could about teaching students with Dyslexia. I went as far as to earn my Certified Structured Literacy and Dyslexia Interventionist (C-SLDI) certificate through the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) affiliate, the Center of Effective Reading Instruction (CERI). I completed LETRs and Wilson Reading trainings.
What did I learn through all my extended study?
I learned that...
- In college I was not taught how to teach students with Dyslexia.
- Today's teachers don't have the resources and background knowledge to teach students with Dyslexia.
- The research for teaching reading to students with Dyslexia has been out there for decades, but has not been taught to teachers.
- Teachers are not to blame for Dyslexic student's small growth.
- There is a specific, recomended system that struggling readers need to be taught with.
- My passion for teaching had shifted from teaching students to teaching teachers how to teach students with Dyslexia how to read.
