From the moment I enter the classroom in late-August to set up to the last few days after fifth grade graduation cleaning up, my teaching comes from the heart. I connect with each of my students as they were my own children, advocating for each of them as my family and service providers advocated for me in my young life. I grew up in a single-parent household in Paterson, NJ with a "village" of grandparents, aunts, and uncles to help raise me. To add to the complexity of my living situation, I grew up with many delays and difficulties including my physical development and my speech development. Though my physical delays weren't delays anymore once I hit kindergarten-age, I still struggled with major speech disabilities, which required me to receive daily speech therapy from when I was a Head Start student up until grade 6. I believe I was able to progress past any of my disabilities growing up due to the work of my wonderful family and the numerous service providers I had...
