TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

Assignment to add to BlogSpot from Clara De La Rosa-Blackman, who is at present in the M Ed. Reading Programme (2009 – 2011)

DATE: Wed. 16^th June, 2010

WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO BECOME A READING SPECIALIST?

At present, I am a Home Economics/Technology Education teacher at the Diego Martin North Secondary School. I have been at this school for over 13 years (and I have been teaching for 25 years), and over the years I have had the experience of encountering students who have great difficulty managing the content necessary to excel in my content area. Since I view my content area as a vital part of any individual’s existence, I became increasingly alarmed at the complacency with which this issue has been dealt with by the parents/guardians of these struggling students.

Over the years, I have tried desperately (and will continue to try desperately) to equip these struggling students with the necessary literacy skills that would better help them better cope with the demands of the Home Economics/Technology Education curriculum and by extension, enhance their self-confidence so that they are better able to face the world. I am ever concern about these struggling students, more so now, because they would have to function in the 21^st century, information explosion, and technocratic learning community. Hence, when I became aware that there was a programme which aimed at training teachers to become Reading Specialists who would ultimately “make the nation’s secondary students proficient readers so that they will be able to function effectively in the world of work and their personal lives” (Master of Education in Reading Handbook 2009 – 2010, p. 1.), I could not help but embrace the opportunity to become a Reading Specialist. I welcome professional help anytime.

I am of the opinion that in this way, I would contribute to enhance my country’s ability to compete in the ever increasingly competency-based global market (UWI, School of Education), which is characteristic of our world today