A New Beginning

I am, again, going to start to attempt to write in this blog regularly, or at least as often as I possibly can. But aside from teaching at the university level, mentoring at the college level, running an emotional behavioral program at the elementary level, attempting to get my doctoral degree and still being present for my family it will be difficult to find the time this will not be an easy task. However, I realize I need to establish some sort of a online presence to promote my research. I believe my story as an LD person who cannot claim I've overcome my disability yet somehow has ended up living successfully in a position of maximal writing responsibilities, all while trying to demonstrate that you can develop intelligence in more ways than just writing, could be an interesting read and is an important story from a research perspective.

I am going to focus this blog on my experiences and general thoughts on teaching and science. It is not going to be subject to my usual rigorous editing team. It is going to be a space for me to simply put out ideas. I hope you will forgive me of any of my dyslexic shortcomings, as there will be a few. I am dyslexic and ADD, and I will make spelling and grammatical mistakes.

​I assure you I will be as vigilant with editing as I can, but I am perpetually trapped between the formalisms of writing and expression. Recently,  I have noticed that it is fear of this that holding me back. Fear that I will be judged solely on the qualities of my disability, and not the rigor of my ideas.

I feel this way, partly, because I've heard horror stories about how PhD's pick apart each other's writing simply to destroy each other's career. Partly, it is because of a lifetime of psychological baggage and humiliation because of my disability. However, it is precisely because there is some kind of difference in the way I learn that makes my perspective, at the very least, interesting

So this is my disclaimer. My disability will most likely result in problems with certain surface features of my writing in this space, like my spelling or grammar. This could possibly be enough to draw the consternation of some, and I am truly sorry for that. I have tried my entire life to get over this thing. But, I can no longer wait for the day when I overcome this thing. It is not happening. However, I think my ideas are valid and critically important to the discussion of learning and education. I must start expressing them. I would not have staked my life on getting a PhD if I did not think that what I have learned about metacognition was not of extreme value.

As a person with a learning disability I can confidently say metacognition save my life. As a teacher I have used it with many LD students and seen it make a lasting impact on their lives also.  From a policy perspective, I believe in the egalitarian and harmonizing potential of a metacognitive education for our broader society and specifically our system of public education. Finally, I as a researcher, I would like to present my investigations into the hypothesis that metacognition itself represents a fundamental activity of learning that is critical to problem solving. Most of what I am going to be doing here is focus on the thoughts, facts, feelings and experiences of a LD teacher perusing their doctoral degree. As I have gotten older I have come to believe my work is incredibly important, and for most of my adult life I have not been sure how to contribute my ideas to the broader discourse. As a public school teacher I am watching conditions in our educational system deteriorate. The time for change now, and I believe there is a clear recipe for change that I would like to share if you are willing bear with my shortcomings.