How teacher Janice Armas found her calling in special education

By Maricar CP Hampton

Janice Armas remembered how one student with autism tried to grab her hair and punch her in the face.

She reached into her skill set of how to  “respond appropriately” keeping in mind always the safety of both the student and the teacher.

Pangasinan-born Janice Salinas Armas is an education specialist, Life Skills Class at Terra Nova High School  in Pacifica, California, hired in 2019. At the time, she was confident of her 15 years’ experience as a teacher at Commonwealth Elementary School in the Philippines  where she was exposed  to students with autism and all kinds of  learning disabilities. She is also TNHS’s Special Education Department chair and Moderate-Severe case manager.

She remembers her first day at Terra Nova, which has a 59.6 percent minority enrollment, according to USNews.com.

“There is no difference  between the students  I worked with in the Philippines, except for the race, the place, and the language,” she said when interviewed by The FilAm.

Janice teaches grades 9-12 students  and  takes care of about a dozen “self-contained”  children or those with learning disabilities, plus two kids in virtual classes at any given year.

She is among the foreign educators who help address the shortage of  special education teachers  in  California where the growing enrollment of students with disabilities is not being met by a shrinking number of special education teachers.

A “severe drop in teacher education enrollments and…high rates of attrition” have worsened the shortage, according to a 2020 study on California’s Special Education Teacher Shortage by the Learning Policy Institute and the Policy Analysis for California Education.

“Between 2014–15 and 2018–19, the number of students identified with disabilities increased by 13 percent—from about 642,000 (10.3 percent of the population) to about 725,000 (11.7 percent of the population),” according to the study. Budget cuts, teacher layoffs, and reduced class sizes have only deepened the issue.

Like my own child

“When I teach I treat every student as my own child. I treat  them with respect,  care and love,” said Janice.

She would craft individualized teaching plans tailored  to her  students’ needs. As a mentor, she uses positive reinforcement with constant support from her school district. She imparts life skills, such as meal planning, budgeting, social interactions to  prepare  the students for independent  living. She finds deep fulfilment  seeing her students improve.

“There is a way for these kids to learn to do things,” she said. “They will succeed if the help enables them  to create activities as part of daily routine.”

She  said every  child regardless of limitations deserves a chance to learn “but the only way we can do that is have more teachers.” She believes Filipino teachers are ideal around special needs youngsters because they are “innately  patient, caring and hardworking which is important in this field.”

Her dedication has not gone unnoticed. She was  honored as a Dakilang Filipino Awardee (Great Filipino), recognized as a “Woman of Substance, Dedicated, and Exemplary Special Education Teacher of the Year’’ by the Dakilang Filipino Awards Media Group in the Philippines. A year earlier, she was a recipient of the Outstanding Special Education Teacher in her school district.

Her community  involvement includes time spent with the Resources for  the Blind, an affiliate  of the Perkins School for the Blind. She is also a Sunday  school  teacher  at a Filipino  community Methodist Church in Daly City.

Born and raised in  Manaoag, Pangasinan,  Janice possessed a deep curiosity and empathy for the underprivileged and those facing unique challenges early on. As she journeyed through her own schooling, she  marveled at the way teachers nurtured young minds and instilled a love for learning.

Inspired by these educators, she dreamed of one day becoming a teacher herself. “I always looked up  to my teachers and how they shape  our minds enriching us with knowledge.”

Her father Esteban was a farmer, her mother Veneranda is a housewife. “I have seven siblings,” she said.

Her years at the University  of the Philippines took a transformative turn when she was assigned to visit a special education school as part of her studies. It was there that she witnessed the resilience and potential of students with learning disabilities.

“While observing the students, I thought about the undiagnosed kids in our province  who were labeled as ‘crazy’ or  belonging to their own world. A year later, I made up my mind  to switch majors  from Math to special  education,” she said.

Janice and her husband Frederick, a Math teacher, are parents to four children Crike, 17; Xanji, 14; Alfredo, 11;  and Princess Ericka, 5. The family lives in Daly City where they enjoy watching movies.

© The FilAm 2024