About Me

I am a Special Education Educator who gets to also teach English among other things in Resource Room 220 – hence my blog’s name.

I was out of education for 15 months, while working in a State Government job – the Maine State AmeriCorps Grants Program Officer, the finance guy and Emergency Response Coordinators for the office I was in and through that experience found out how much that I missed teaching and how much I dislike being an “administrator”.

I am originally from Newport, Maine and grew up that small town atmosphere. I have a small town attitude towards many things in life — including two important attributes self sufficiency and resiliency. I know we can do more than we think we can and believe in challenging others to what they can with a good dose of reality.

I graduated from Nokomis Regional High School a long time ago. I guess that throughout school, I hated it a lot or at best just put up with it. I was an mediocre to average student, who cared a lot more about sports and being outside, than I ever did about academics.  Which to be honest back them mostly bored the hell out of me. I was what was considered a “hyper” student and just barely got by in the sit down and be quiet classroom, especially in Math, which I still dislike.

I see the many of my traits and attitudes that I had in school, in many of my students. None of my teachers would have ever thought that I would be a college graduate or a teacher. Most of my teachers looked at my lack of interest in academics and family background as “another kid bound for the factory” and probably expected me to be like so many others from that area to stick around, work in a local mill or store, have kids and ensure their “job security”.  I believe that I have surpassed many of those teacher’s and my Guidance Counselor’s expectations of my future (except maybe one that believed in me – Mr. Ken Smith).  Therefore I don’t let a student’s current interest/lack of interest in academics or family background influence the way that I attempt to teach my students, I  believe that many of my students can and will surprise us if given the opportunity and support they need.

I went in the Coast Guard when I was 17 and made a career of the military for almost 21 years, eventually getting promoted to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer (W3) – Personnel Administration. It took me 19 years to earn my Bachelors Degree in Liberal Arts. I learned the value and necessity of education and training while in the military. That is where I became a long-time advocate of the need for continuing your education and the realization that it can be done in non-traditional ways. I also learned that “learning” didn’t necessarily mean being in a typical classroom to get a good education. Due to this experience, I try to teach my students differently than they probably have been taught in their past.

After my retirement from the military, I had a choice between going to work in the computer industry or working with kids. I fortunately chose the social services career as a Behavior Technician in a residential facility, which eventually led me to being a Certified Special Education teacher through Maine’s alternative teacher certification program. I am still a geek and I strongly believe that our students need to learn how to use technology, not be afraid of it, and be able to transfer their knowledge to different applications. I just as strongly believe that technology needs to be embedded into the curriculum not just be a nice to have thing because it a big part of these student’s future.

I take the position on all issues that we can agree to disagree, but we must do it respectfully and do no harm to each other in our disagreements.

I hope that you will enjoy reading Resource Room 220 and here is to meeting many more wonderful people through blogging and Twitter (hshawjr).

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this blog and this post in particular are my personal opinions. They do not reflect the opinions of my employer or anyone else and do not provide any official or unofficial interpretations or guidance on what is being written about. They are simply “my thoughts”.