Edward Cruz

EDU 214
August 24, 2020

Becoming a teacher

My name is Edward Antonio Cruz and I was born and raised right here in Fabulous Las

Vegas, Nevada. Both of my parents are immigrants to this country and came at very young ages

not knowing English at all. My mother is from a small ranching town from Mexico outside of

Mexico City. Her father was an American war hero from World War II, and her mother was a

granddaughter of a famous Mexican rebel general that fought to keep the churches up during his

time. Both her parents never went to college but supported her the best they could during her

academic career. However, my father was not as lucky as my mother, he came to America at the

age of sixteen not knowing any English and moved in with some of his relatives. My dad was

from Tegucigalpa, Honduras and when he came his family wrote him off as someone stupid and

told him he would never go to college. Although, against all odds my dad went to college with

zero help from any of his family and became the first college graduate from his family.

Knowing what both of my parents went through as they grew up, I understood the value

of a good education. My mother got a degree in Political Science and my dad got two master’s in

Foreign Language and Child Development and became a teacher. Thus, leading us to why I

wanted to become a teacher in the first place. Our family has been very successful in life because

being a teacher has given him many opportunities to make money from overtime and tutoring.

This has given extra income that we have invested in rental homes to bring our overall income

up each month. For that I want to become a teacher and become as successful as my father.

However, the reason I want to become a special education teacher is because I have some

experience in this setting because I have dyslexia and was sent to the resource room for extra
help. I need the extra one on one help that I couldn’t get in a classroom with thirty something

kids in it, thus sending me to the resource room helped me learn to understand what dyslexia was

doing to the words and how I could find little tricks to help me understand what I am reading.

With that being said, I know how it really helps for a kid to have that extra help and how it can

make a big difference for them just by teaching them one on one.

Although this is only my fourth year in college and I have never formally taught in a

classroom, I do have experience helping my dad in his and even teaching a science lesson for

him. Two years ago, my dad worked at an elementary school and every week between the four

fourth grade classes one teacher would host a science class. During my dad week I was able to

come in and help during the science time. He had me give the kids the full science breaks down

of a volcano and at the end we made our own with vinegar and baking soda. Although this

experience only covers a normal classroom teaching, my current job covers the special needs

part. I work for a company that watches teens with mental disorders. The clients we serve vary

from age to disability from behavior to educational problems. In Addition, if you have ever met a

teenager, you know they think they know everything. That is the same with the teens from my

work. We help them with everyday task such as school work, social behavior, public behaviors,

and much more. Nevertheless, just like teaching and helping teens, there is not a one size fits all

approach. This is why I want to learn all I can and find to strategies to help kids with special

needs succeed in life and go on to be independent on their own.