Introduction to this Space

Hello! I talk about my positionality as a special education educator. I talk about my own educational journey and my current teaching philosophy.

Text Transcription for this episode is Available here
https://inclusiveeducationirl.buzzsprout.com/

Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:07  
Sergio Rivera. This is my first podcast that I'm using with the magic of the internet. I want to talk about special education, because I've been in the field for five years, and I've taught in the elementary, middle school and high school levels. So I feel like I have a lot to share about that. And I want to kind of share that with parents and other educators, and just practice my own skills of speaking. So, with that being said, I would like to talk about my positionality, which I think is super important. And that's like the main thing I want to talk about today. So for the most part, this term, positionality is something that I've come across for the last couple of years. I'm 30. I have a bachelor's in English. I have a master's in special education. So I'll come in, like I read a lot. And I read for leisure, I read for fun. So I come across a lot of different words. But I'm always trying to look for new stuff. That kind of explains the way that we explain things. That's something that's super interesting to me as an educator, because I often teach people that don't know, don't have any relation to anything, then we have to build that up within our students. So I think for me, positionality is actually really important. And what that really is, is how we stand in relation to that, that dynamics of power and privilege, like as a person. So whatever I say, is informed by who I am. And our students, they, they can tell pretty quickly and or they just make up their own judgments of who we are. But in terms of this podcast, you might be judging me by my voice, the way that I pronounce things, the words I use. But I kind of just want to lay things out in the clear before I start so you know who's talking to you during this whole journey. So my identity is I don't really identify with like race as much. But my parents are definitely Central American. So I guess that would make consider me Latino, or Latin X or Hispanic, I don't really understand too much. The dynamics of that. Definitely indigenous. Definitely a mixture of like European and African as well. So the some of that. My class who? Well, my parents were both first generation immigrants. So that definitely informs my upbringing in Los Angeles. We grew up in Pico Union area with city so everyone around us was in the same situation. So I have that view. So when people wanted were trying to warn me about being a teacher, I was like, Well, I know exactly how it is the worst case scenario because I was a student in the district school. I'm in terms of religion, I think this one kind of stands out. For me, a lot of people I've heard people kind of assume that I'm either Catholic. That's my race. But I am a high which is a new religion in the world comparatively to the other well known religions. But Bahais believes that all religions are from the same creator and that our purpose in life is to create unity and to work towards peace. So that definitely informs me as a individual and in the work that I do. And in terms of gender, I definitely consider myself male. But I don't like to be constricted in those roles. Obviously, I'm a teacher, which is a field that is dominated by women, usually historically. So like to be in touch with those we feelings, my sexuality, I am

Unknown Speaker  5:06  
attracted to women, if that's important to everyone, I am also married to white presenting Latina woman as well. Nationality I was born in the United States, so I had all the privileges of being able to receive money from the state for school and all that good stuff that comes along with that, which I understand allowed me to get to this point of my life where I can have a bank account and do things of that nature. And I am able bodied, that's my ability. So I have full range of things that are considered to be normal, but not a lot of people can do. For like two years of my life, I lost sight in one of my eyes to a freak accident, or my body was like your retina will be detached now and started attacking it. And I had to get several corrective surgeries, because it did not understand why that was happening. Or why my body would do that, but it did. So I definitely have that perspective of not being able to see, and having something happened to me that I have no idea what is happening and what I can do about it. And I actually wish that I would have known a little bit more about special education during my community college days, because that's when I that happened to me. And I actually went to the office of students with disabilities, and was kind of denied any services because the clerk, which was also a student, she had no idea what she was doing. And if I was her boss, I will be very upset, but she was like, very rude with me, and she wanted to know if I had an IEP, and I was like, what's that? I've never heard about that. And she was like, Well, you can't receive any of these services if you don't have an IEP. And I was like, what? Okay, but what is that? And then she I think she thought I was rude at that moment. But um, I was like, I have no idea what that is. I can't see out of my eye, like I need support. And she's like, huh, yeah, but you need an IEP. So if you don't have one, you need to come back and get one. So that's completely not useful at all. So I kind of gave up there because I was like, overwhelmed with my current physical situation. And just the mental stress of having to try to explain that to someone that really didn't care and have no idea how to access any supports. So I didn't actually receive any of those supports. During Community College was also made it very difficult. But I made it through and I'm here now and maybe I'll talk about that at some other point. But yeah, that's my positionality. And I wanted to share that with you guys. And I'll speak about my educational journey next. So my first kind of I want to talk about my journey through school because I think it informs why I want to be a teacher based on my experiences and based on some of my beliefs that I'll touch upon. So I had a hard time adapting to school as a kid I remember, like kindergarten and pre K, I did not know that I did not understand the rules of engagement. I did not like I did not enjoy being around other children. For the most part. I was like why are we here? I rather be at home. Not that there was a lot going on there either. This Well, I guess my sister and cousins were at home. So that was interesting and fun. But for elementary, you know I was actually pretty on top of things. Things came naturally. I had some good teachers. We did a lot of fun activities. Everything was really structured. Still a child.

Unknown Speaker  9:55  
I think when I got into middle school, you know puberty happens and Our minds kind of grow in capacity during that time. So I was not more distracted with different thoughts thinking about like political things. I remember 911 happened during that time. So that was, you know, I'm not sure it affected all of us somehow, and definitely affected the school year, because our teachers were affected. But during that time, did not have good grades. I was like, why would why should I do any of this, those my kinda thought would just have to listen to the lectures and, or when the teacher was talking, and then I will be able to like, write it down during the test, because that was like the majority of the stuff that we did. During class, I was definitely weren't interested to just talking to my classmates. I think that was something that I was learning how to do in middle school, just speaking to other people. And that was like, super interesting to me. So I got bad grades through middle school, or my parents tried to put me into like a nicer high school start off. The problem was that I had to commute on the bus, like an hour to get there on the regular MTA bus, what we used to call them back then. So it was really easy to just like, not go to school. So and it also didn't really change anything for me, or my experience there. Because it was, it was not good either. For me, still really interested in just doing whatever I wanted to do. I didn't see the point of school or whatever. And then like an interesting bit about high school for me was that, I realized I couldn't do any homework. Like, that was not my concern, I would instantly forget about the homework as soon as the class was over, or whatever. I did know that I needed to pass the classes to get a diploma. So I was concerned with that I did want a high school diploma. But I wanted to do the least amount of work possible to get it. And I was like really banking on my own skills during college. And I didn't know what I wanted wanted to do. I had a feeling that I wanted to go into marketing or something like that. But I did, I wasn't really sure I didn't really know, anyone that had gone to school or anything of that nature, that could give me any advice. So I mean, there was some people that were like guiding me through that. But my skills. Compared to my grades, my skills were like way higher than what my grades reflected at that time. And I even spoke to my counselor to change my classes. So I would have to do the minimum amount of coursework to receive a California high school diploma. Because I was so sure that I could just pick up advanced math and writing skills. The first time I saw them in community college. And let me tell you, that was a mistake. Because when I got to school community college, it was like a review for everyone else. And I was trying to learn it for the first time. And I don't think that's something that I understood

Unknown Speaker  13:51  
well, until I was there, and I was like, Oh, I made a mistake, like these people are just reviewing this stuff. And I'm trying to learn it for the first time. So that was basically my whole experience at community college, just learning things for the first time while everyone else was reviewing it. And the courses are created with certain assumptions that you already understand the material for the most part, or have a base set of skills, which I did not have like studying and managing your time to review chapters on your own and completing homework. So those were things I did not develop during my K through 12 years. Which, you know, as a special education teacher, I definitely are a teacher in general, I would have definitely recommended me for services during that time because that's one of the things that we try to look out for is for students that ability is way higher than what their grades are reflecting. So I definitely needed somebody to kind of build a relationship with me and kind of steer me to where I should be, because I was steering myself at that point. As, as a child, you don't really know what's going on. So someone older can really, really steer you into the right direction. Especially when it comes to education because my parents a lot of like, first generation Latino parents are just like, oh, just do your work. So trabaho like, Aslam, like just try harder, like porn, Lamaze ganas, like just try harder, basically. But like, when you need it broken down for you, they have no actual practical solutions or creating spaces for students to actually do their work. Or minimizing distractions is not a is a luxury really, and a lot of families don't even understand that that's something that they should strive for, for their students that they want them to be successful. So that's something I learned from experience, you know. So, when I got to community college, I was like, I made a mistake, like, I don't want to be here. Like, I don't know how to get through this. Luckily, I had a lot of friends that helped me out. And at that point, I had made some older friends that had gone to college, through the BI community, and some of them really encouraged me to kind of stick with it. Because I could do it, they're like, you're smart, she's got to do it. So I had to just develop these skills of turning in work and stuff. At that time, I feel like I did know I wanted to go into education, just because I valued it so much. And that was definitely from some of the behind writings that I had been reading and studying and I thought were interesting. Or I really based like my whole educational like Outlook on it. So I would like to share that with you at this moment. So the quote says, regard man, as a mind rich in gems of inestimable value, education, can alone cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit they're from. So the idea in our current educational system is that the teacher knows everything, and they are going to tell the student exactly how it is. And that is how it's been up to this point in the United States, for the most part, and a lot of teachers say like, oh, I don't believe in that, but they were taught in that manner. And it takes a lot of work to kind of like internal work for the teacher, to kind of realize that that's not true and then changing the their actions in their classroom to reflect that. So to me, like regard man, as a mind rich in gems.

Unknown Speaker  18:35  
That means that everyone is rich in jumps, like every single person, and the only way that we can reveal that is through education, and mankind will benefit from them. So no matter that person's capacity in a given subject, like they can contribute to the well being of mankind. So I take that very personally, and that informs the way that I try to teach and talk to people, but definitely grew up in a system or went through an educational system that did not have that at heart. So I definitely have to decolonize my mind from those other thoughts and try to build up practices that reinforce helping people uncover these gems of inestimable value within themselves so they can contribute to their communities and to their families, and to mankind as a whole. So I eventually figured it out through mutual support with other people, other students, I picked up skills like creating study groups with Mike classmates that really helped. Because they were able to keep me accountable. I learned that I needed people to keep me accountable consistently. Because I still could not remember to turn in assignments or to get started on them on time. I transferred to Cal State LA. And at that time, I was thought I was going to be an English teacher. And that was, I mean, I love English. I love reading. I love rap music because of being able to close read the, the poetry of it. And a lot of people kind of dismiss that as like, ah, that's stupid. I'm like, some of the best poetry is definitely rap at this point. So that sounds Oh, so actually, here's another thing. So when I graduated, for my English degree, I thought I wasn't an English teacher program. But turns out that I still needed to go to school for another additional year to actually become a teacher, which was not my understanding up to that point. So long story short, I had to I was upset. And I needed to find another way to get my credentials. And by that time, I had been working with a lot of middle middle schools, age students like wide spectrum of them. And some of my favorite students were definitely students that needed additional supports. So they probably had IEPs. But I did didn't really understand what that was at that point, either. So I actually ran into this program that was training teachers quickly in special education. So I joined that program, and I got my masters through it. I was able to start, like volunteering basically in that field at a school while receiving a living statement style stipend, and understanding how that worked. And then the while taking classes and then the following year, I was able to like work full time. So that is how I landed into being a special education teacher. And I love it because I think we work with the best students. I've been in charge of like general education, classrooms, like something that they call advisory. Nowadays, back in the day, we used to call it homeroom. And also, like subbing for teachers when they don't come my coworkers. So even within those settings, like my favorite students, are still the special education students.

Unknown Speaker  23:20  
Because I feel like they just force you to be a better teacher, like you have to make sure that everyone is being included and understanding. And they force you to teach in a way that is more accessible to everyone. And it actually helps everyone at the same time. So that's it. I love it because you don't have to do the same thing every single time. When you come into work. Sometimes when I've been in charge of regular classrooms, I felt like it's kind of boring when everyone just kind of does what you tell them to do. In my experience, and I know it's more nuanced, nuanced than that. But definitely Special Education is the niche of education that I love and including others and being inclusive is one of my favorite things to do.