Anja Centennial

Background

About Anja Centennial

https://sites.google.com/site/anjascareerportfolio/I have been in the field of education for the past 11 years now. For the past few years, I have been a special education teacher/ special education case manager. I have led a team of four paraprofessionals. I have also participated in the Colorado Model Curriculum Project - a project where multidisciplinary teams write curriculum for the State of Colorado that is accessible publicly on the Department of Education's website. I have co-authored curriculum units in science, social studies, math, and English.Special education is the field of choice for me as it nicely connects with my initial studies in psychology. I have always been interested in learning and individual differences. Trying to figure out how a particular student learns best and helping that student make progress is truly a rewarding process.My interest in education and special education goes beyond my daily teaching tasks, however. I enjoy reading about how culture impacts education and learning. With regards to special education, I feel that there is huge room to grow. Specifically in the US, I find that we often label, for example, students who function on the lower range of average cognitive abilities with learning disabilities. From a philosophical standpoint, this is something that bothers me. If we determine an average range for intellectual functioning, then academics should reflect the abilities of this average functioning or at least provide avenues for the low average range students to pursue modified academic pathways without having to bear the special education/ learning disability label.