Allow Me To Introduce Myself

Ed Note: Those who are most successful in achieving academic success are often proactively involved in developing a good rapport with their teachers. We often think that as parents, this is our responsibility and, of course, to a large extent it is. But we also know it is best to teach our children how to be advocates for themselves. Andrew and his parents gave us permission to share his letter with you and it is a wonderful example of what he did to not only introduce himself to his new teacher before his next school year started, but how he shared his strengths and weaknesses with his teacher so they would get off to a good mutual understanding. Drew's learning disability was Dyslexia, but this approach would likely have worked very well if he had Attention Deficit Disorder. Just imagine what your reaction would be if you were going to be his teacher. If you received this letter, would you appreciate it? Would you think that Drew was thinking ahead? . . . going to be a good student genuinely interested in having another successful year? Would you appreciate knowing about his learning style, his needs and how to help him learn most effectively?

6/23/97

Dear __________,

I am writing this letter to inform you of a truly amazing student that will be attending your class in the coming year. My name is Andrew Dischinger but people who know me call me Drew and I am a learning disabled child with Dyslexia. I learned that I was learning disabled in my third grade year. I have been an extremely hard worker and have done extremely well in and out of school life.

There are a few things that I will need from you in order to have a successful sophomore year. Because of my disability, I have been given an IEP, an Individual something or other which gives me certain privileges to help me to work around my problem. The first thing that I will need from you is a list of any and all books that we are going to read in class or go through during the year so I can order them on tape from the National Library of Congress.

I will also need from you, as we study a topic, a copy of your notes that you will be going over in the class. The reason for this is it is extremely difficult for me to listen and take notes at the same time and I am extremely slow at taking notes due to a problem transferring notes from one place to another. This would include notes while watching any type of film or when listening to you. It is a lot easier for me to just listen. I would also request of you not to ask me to read out loud to the class unless I ask to because of my slowness in reading. Also spelling for me has been waived and should not count for me even as a spelling test.

Anything else that I might have missed I will inform you of at the beginning of the year. I am looking forward to another successful year and hope it will be one for both of us. If you have any questions or problems or would like to know more about me, you can call me at XXX-YYYY or you can talk to Mrs. ________ in Resource.

Enclosed is a self-addressed stamped envelope for your convenience to send me the titles, authors, and publishing companies of any text or books I will be required to read.

Your ever so faithful student,

Andrew W. Dischinger (Drew)

cc: Mrs. __________ (in Resource)