Being a teacher was not always a dream of mine. People tell stories where they talk about how they knew their whole life they were going to be a teacher and how everyone else knew too. They spent their childhood playing school and playing teacher. That was not a dream I had as a child. If I were to be completely transparent, I did not know my dream job in my early childhood. However, I am beyond thankful to have found the field of education, and I understand why some dream of the day they get to be a teacher. While I have only been teaching for four years, those four years have contained eye-opening experiences that have, in turn, opened my eyes to avenues in the field of education that I want to pursue further and explore. Upon graduating with my master's in the Spring, I want to study to take the Illinois examination to obtain a Reading Specialist Endorsement on my teaching license. I would then like to begin the Wilson System of Reading training courses and become fully certified to teach and instruct using their program. My final goal is to go back to school and receive my doctorate or a certification in a program focused on the Science of Reading.
My first goal for future study is to take the examination in Illinois to add the endorsement of Reading Specialist onto my teaching license. I want to obtain this endorsement to boost my resume and qualifications for future jobs. In the next three to five years, I would like to transition away from being a general education teacher and move into a role as a Reading Specialist. In order to obtain a Reading Specialist endorsement, I must hold a professional educator license in a teacher field, present evidence of two years of full-time teaching experience, hold a master’s degree or higher, complete a K-12 reading specialist program from Illinois or out of state, and pass the Reading Special test (221). Several of these requirements have already been completed. I hold a professional educator license, I have evidence of more than two years of full-time teaching, and I will have completed a master’s degree come May. After graduation, I plan to enroll in a program through DePaul University Chicago, which will go through the courses I have completed and help me decide if there are any remaining courses I need to complete to meet the requirement of the courses in a Reading Specialist program. Once I have completed the course check, I will register for the examination and begin studying. To help prepare for this examination, I plan to use the resources provided by study.com. This site has practice questions, study guides, and a practice examination.
My second goal for future study is to obtain a Level 1 Certification in the Wilson Reading System. The Wilson Reading System, Fundations, is a multisensory approach to reading, spelling, and handwriting instruction. This program can be utilized as a phonics instructional program or as a tool for intervention. While there are different options and avenues to look at when thinking of exploring a multisensory literacy program to become certified in, I have had the most exposure and practice with the Wilson Reading Systems Fundations program. I was first introduced to Fundations in my student teaching placement. At this school, all teachers were certified in Fundations, and the school used the reading system as their phonics instructional program in all classrooms. My current school's Reading Specialist is certified in the program, and she uses the program as a tool for intervention with identified students struggling with reading and spelling.
My third goal for future study is to complete a doctorate program or receive certification in the Science of Reading. I grew up in a generation where each week, a new list of words was sent home to be memorized and spelled on a test the following Friday. While there is nothing wrong with that, my brain's way of learning is not memorization and recall. There has been a shift in literacy and phonics instruction in the last several years, promoting the reasoning behind spelling being taught to kids. Essentially, there are rules in the English language that we can follow when spelling instead of just memorizing. With the Science of Reading becoming more prevalent in the classroom and being discussed, several colleges and universities are beginning to offer training, degrees, and certifications. Through my understanding and small group work, I have seen that this approach to instruction helps students who may struggle with decoding and encoding. In order to be the best Reading Specialist I can be, I would like to enroll in Mount St. Joseph's Doctorate or Certification program in the Science of Reading. Ideally, I would complete this goal after obtaining my license endorsement and certification in Wilson Reading Systems Fundations.