Introduction

My name is Vanessa Armendariz, a recent Grand Canyon University graduate. I was able to dual major in Elementary and Special education. While my teaching career has yet to begin, I have some years of experiences in a school setting. I have worked at a charter school in south Phoenix for five years. Though I started as a dance teacher, I eventually became the after-school coordinator at the school. There I worked with teachers, students, and parents to create a run an after-school program serving about 200 students. Additionally, I have run two summer school programs in collaboration with From One Hand To Another (FOHTA). All of these roles have allowed me to work closely with teachers, students, administrators, and parents in order to serve our community to the best of our ability.

I pride myself in serving the community that I grew up in and place the same expectations others had on me towards my own students. Within any classroom, it is important that the environment is friendly, welcoming, and one where mistakes can be made. Mistakes are proof of learning and are simply part of any classroom. Additionally, I am a firm believer that students will not care how much you know until they know how much you care. By creating a welcoming classroom environment, all students are more likely to succeed.

I fell in love with the special education resource setting, but within my community, I feel a disconnect and know that it is still a bit strange to acknowledge mental disabilities. My hope is to enlighten and bring awareness to these disabilities. The process of getting a child diagnosed, writing an IEP, implementing it, and much more can get confusing fast, but my goal is to bring comfort to parents and students. Being bilingual, it makes me feel that much closer to the community I serve. While I may not have all of the answers right away, I will attempt to bring comfort to the parents and students I serve during the process.