Who am I?

I am Julia Fröhlich, 23 years old and come from Austria.

Since I was little, I knew I wanted to work with children, which is why age 14 I decided

to attend a high school that allowed me to receive additional training in becoming

a kindergarten teacher. The year after graduation I was able to travel, work in camps,

meet people from all over the world and explore further my passion for music and

painting.

Fast forward to today, attending my fourth year, studying International primary school education

in Meppel, Netherlands. This study allowed me to do internships at 3 different primary schools, in Germany, Austria and Greece, teaching children aged 5-13.    

Working with children in the past has often opened new challenges for me. I worked with children from different countries, with different backgrounds, cultures, values, and needs, including a class of students within the autism spectrum during my second teaching practice. Before starting my second internship I knew hardly anything about how to support students within the autism spectrum. I did a lot of research before meeting my students which helped me become familiar with different strategies that allow the students to feel most comfortable in taking part in the learning. Meeting the students, for the first time I realised how different each student is and that the students in my class have interests, a motivation to learn and a need for social relationships just like any other student I taught before. This internship taught me the importance of differentiation and teaching based on the students’ interests, which is a skill I will need for any future classroom.  

All children I have taught in the past have shown various strengths in different areas, and I want to encourage and support each student to reach their potential. The use of UDL has supported past students of mine to engage in the learning based on their own abilities and needs. Experiences in my own education have shown me how schools can create handicaps for students instead of ensuring that every student has an equal chance to participate and pursue individual learning goals.
This is why this year I chose to attend the “Inclusive Education” elective, to help me learn how to lift barriers in education and improve my knowledge of how to meet the various needs of my students.

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I would like to invite you to join me on my journey of growing as an inclusive educator.