Austin Thompson
Editor's Note: Austin wrote this essay in Writers' Workshop and was willing to share it with our community.
When I was ten years old, I was told I had dyslexia. At that time all my academic problems were explained to me so that I could understand them. My mom then discovered Trident Academy, a school for students with learning differences. The first year I went to Trident, I was in 5th grade, and I could hardly read. I would do anything to get out of reading in front of anyone. It wasn't that I did not want to read; it was that I knew that I would mess up, and I would be embarrassed.
Editor's Note: Austin wrote this essay in Writers' Workshop and was willing to share it with our community.
When I was ten years old, I was told I had dyslexia. At that time all my academic problems were explained to me so that I could understand them. My mom then discovered Trident Academy, a school for students with learning differences. The first year I went to Trident, I was in 5th grade, and I could hardly read. I would do anything to get out of reading in front of anyone. It wasn't that I did not want to read; it was that I knew that I would mess up, and I would be embarrassed.
However, Trident changed that. For the first time I was beginning to not be embarrassed of reading out loud. I started to become better at reading out loud. We would read out loud in class, and if I accidentally skipped a line or could not read that word, I was not made fun of. No one made a big deal about it. It became easier and easier to read out loud. Finally, I started to enjoy reading. I was becoming faster and faster at reading.
I also had problems in math, because of my dyslexia. Sometimes I would change a 6 into a nine 9. Sometimes I would mess the whole problem up. I still do sometimes, but if I ever make a mistake, a teacher will go over it with me and find my errors. I have learned that I can not get rid of dyslexia, but I can use techniques to help my disadvantage in learning.
Trident Academy is not an ordinary school. There are only nine other schools like it in the United States. Trident is a specialized school for k-12 students with learning differences, such as dyslexia. One of the things that makes Trident so great is their approach to teaching. Trident uses the Orton Gillingham approach. Orton Gillingham teaches you how to read phonemically and how to decipher words. Trident also has small classes, so if anyone is having trouble with a subject, the teacher can help them individually and still have time to help others. There is not a great number of students at Trident, so you know everyone, and that makes it a much more relaxed place to learn. The teachers really care about their students at Trident. If they see that you are struggling, they will ask if you need to come after school, or work with students during recess. As you can see Trident is not an ordinary school, and I believe is the perfect school for people with learning disabilities.
I also had problems in math, because of my dyslexia. Sometimes I would change a 6 into a nine 9. Sometimes I would mess the whole problem up. I still do sometimes, but if I ever make a mistake, a teacher will go over it with me and find my errors. I have learned that I can not get rid of dyslexia, but I can use techniques to help my disadvantage in learning.
Trident Academy is not an ordinary school. There are only nine other schools like it in the United States. Trident is a specialized school for k-12 students with learning differences, such as dyslexia. One of the things that makes Trident so great is their approach to teaching. Trident uses the Orton Gillingham approach. Orton Gillingham teaches you how to read phonemically and how to decipher words. Trident also has small classes, so if anyone is having trouble with a subject, the teacher can help them individually and still have time to help others. There is not a great number of students at Trident, so you know everyone, and that makes it a much more relaxed place to learn. The teachers really care about their students at Trident. If they see that you are struggling, they will ask if you need to come after school, or work with students during recess. As you can see Trident is not an ordinary school, and I believe is the perfect school for people with learning disabilities.
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