Michelle Hanley

Hiram Johnson High School

Special Education/Math 9
th
-12
th

Vision
I. Who I Am & Why Im Here
I grew up in San Diego, California in communities of color and generally
medium to low income levels. My mother emigrated from the Philippines and my
father grew up on a farm in Oklahoma, and although neither of them had gone
past an Associates degree, I was raised with the expectation that I would attend
and graduate from a four-year university. I attended schools that varied in
resources and funding, which led me to understand the inequities people faced at a
young age. I became a teacher because I wanted to help change the social
injustices I experienced while growing up.
I am a special education teacher because of the need for good SPED
teachers who will ensure that not only are the legal paper requirements of the
students IEPs met, but that students receive a quality education in the classroom
with appropriate differentiation, accommodation, and modifications. Many SPED
teachers are either good case managers or good teachers, but I wanted to try and
succeed in both areas in order to meet my students needs.
Although I currently co-teach math, I want to eventually teaching English
and Reading Intervention. While I also view math a necessity for general life, I
see literacy as a basic human right. Literacy is in even academic subject; it allows
you to access messages written across time, and it opens doors to deeper levels of
understanding and access to higher education. I took my literacy for granted
because it always came easily to me, but I have students who are grades behind in
their reading levels, which is frightening because they are already blocked from
accessing deeper content in their science and history classes, much less the
responsibilities that come with adult life, such as voting ballots and mortgage
applications. I teach to help ensure that my students will have the opportunities to
further themselves in higher education. I teach so that my students will have a
better chance at accessing the opportunities with which their more affluent peers
were born.

II. My Students and their Communities
My students attend Hiram Johnson High School, which is located in the
Tahoe Park neighborhood of Sacramento, CA. Although Hiram Johnson serves
the areas of Sacramento north-south from American River to Florin Road and
east-west from Florins Perkins Road to I-99, we mainly serve students from only
Tahoe Park and Oak Park because the students in East Sacramento tend to attend
the better-resourced St. Francis Catholic High School. 40% of Hiram Johnson
students are English Learners (EL) and 12% of the students qualify to receive
special education services. Regarding the ethnic and racial breakdown of the
Michelle Hanley
Hiram Johnson High School
Special Education/Math 9
th
-12
th

student demographics, 43% of students are Latino, 29% are Asian/Asian Pacific
Islander, 14% are Black, 7% are White, 2% are Two or More Races, 1% are
American Indian/Native American, and 4% are Unknown. Many of the students
families attended Hiram Johnson in their high school years, but the school still
suffers from a negative perception from many people stemming from its wilder
days. Much of the student population is transient, and the school gains and loses
students throughout the year.
One thing unique about Hiram Johnson High School is its Small Learning
Communities (SLCs). SLCs are themed communities in which students can take
part, which causes their classes to have one of the following three themes woven
into the curriculum: 1) Business, 2) Heath and Medical Science, or 3) Public
Service. If students are eligible and choose to do so, they can take academy
classes in their SLC which, in additional to meeting general high school
graduation requirements, will prepare students to work in the related field of their
SLC. Through the SLCs, some students are able to be taught explicit work-place
skills through internships, fieldtrips, and hands-on projects to help prepare them
for life after high school.

III. Ambitions for the Students
My immediate goal for my students is for them to pass Math 1 and
Geometry so that they can graduate. At my school, 2/3 of all students who take
Algebra I (now Math 1) fail the course and have to retake it. For my second year,
I would like 50% of my class to pass Math 1 and the Math 1 End of Course Exam
so that they can move onto Math 2. While 50% is still far too low an amount of
students succeeding, I want to raise that percent of students every year by 10%
until I have at least 80% of my students moving on to the next level of math.
Regarding my long-term goals, I want students to walk out of my class
with certain characteristics that they will have built throughout the year: I want
my students to have perseverance, so that they become accustomed to being
somewhat uncomfortable as they learn. The experience of being uncomfortable
forces us to expand our limitations, which is something I want my students to do
for the rest of their lives. I also want my students to advocate for themselves.
Many of my students are in special education and have legal rights to
accommodations and modifications that teachers must follow in the classroom.
Although IEPs are a legal document, some teachers do not give students their
entitled accommodations unless an advocate forces them to do so. I want my
students to ask and demand for the rights they are entitled to both in high school
and after they graduate, as they may only have themselves to rely on as they
transition to adult life.