Professional Career Statement

Kati Schroeder
Working with students is a recently new concept for me. For as long as I can remember I

have always had a desire to work with children, but I could never find the correct place for me. I

tried many different careers and degrees before I found my way to becoming a resource teacher.

I started this path with a job working with Prevent Child Abuse Utah teaching students all over

the state of Utah what abuse is and how to report it. It was such an empowering position that

allowed me to reach so many students. I loved it.

On one such trip to a school to teach students, I had the opportunity to teach in a special

education classroom. At first, I was very nervous that my message would become lost with kids

that couldn’t understand. That was not the case. I was amazed at how much these students

understood and how interested they were. I could see those students in a very different way,

these kids were the same as all the other students I taught. The only difference is the way they

learn. I wanted to make sure that all students were cared for and made to feel special. I wanted to

be one of those people that helped these students feel this way.

As I continued to teach children about child abuse, I found myself enjoying more and

more teaching in any special education classroom. During one of these times teaching in a

special education classroom, I had one student ask a question that was very specific. This

question led me to discuss further with this student. Come to find out that this student was being

abused by an adult in his life. This is what brought me into my career field. I wanted to let that

student and other students like him know that they had an adult on their side. Children should

always feel safe and that they have a voice. All children matter and need an advocate for them,

and I wanted to be that advocate.

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 Many students need to be advocated for daily, this maybe the only time they receive this

special attention. While there are many teachers that are advocating for their students, parents

can be difficult to have on board. Many parents don’t believe that their student needs specialized

instruction, and view resource groups with a negative stigma. They don’t want to see their

student as “different” or “resource” and only perceive they as normal. These are the kids that

need more adult advocates for them. Without those great teachers, they may never receive the

special accommodations they may need to be successful.

While all my students this school year have brought me new challenges and questions, I

have enjoyed getting to know them in a personal and professional role. They like all their peers,

wanting to fit in, have friends, and to be successful. My goal with continuing my education is to

better recognize students that may need special accommodations during the learning process. I

would love to be able to help not only the student, but their teachers with helping them find these

students.