My Education Journey: Teaching, Learning, and Seeing Literacy Through New Eyes

By Tara Strand-Balunis

Looking back on my childhood, it seems I was always preparing for a career as a teacher. I loved working with children, even when I was a child myself. I spent my summers entertaining the younger children in my neighborhood, and at just 10 years old, I worked as a “mother’s helper” for my aunt, helping to care for my two younger cousins. During high school, my after-school jobs were at child care centers. It felt only natural that I would major in Early Childhood Education in college.

At 21 years old, straight out of college, my first teaching position was as a kindergarten teacher in a small, remote town in New Hampshire. The school was tiny. It had only five classrooms serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade, with most classrooms combining multiple grade levels. Kindergarten was the only exception.

It was a wonderful place to begin my career. I had a small class, supportive families, and an administrator who trusted me to be creative and explore new ideas in the classroom.  I could implement all of the wonderful theories that I learned in college: play-based and project-based learning, hands-on exploration and lots and lots of socialization.  Piaget and Vygotsky were alive in my classroom!  

Fast forward 26 years, and I now teach first grade in a much larger public school in Massachusetts, where I have spent the past 25 years. (Yes, I only taught one year in New Hampshire. I missed my family and wanted to be closer to home.)

Teaching today looks very different than it did in that little schoolhouse. The needs of our students have grown tremendously—not only academically, but socially, emotionally, and behaviorally as well. Curriculum has become increasingly scripted, leaving far less room for creativity and teacher autonomy. Despite these challenges, I truly love what I do. Every day brings new opportunities to encourage, inspire, and help children discover their potential.

Although I teach every subject, I discovered early in my career that my greatest passion is early literacy. I believe learning to read is one of the greatest gifts we can give a child because it opens the door to every other area of learning. My goal is to help students become confident, capable readers who not only develop strong literacy skills but also discover the joy that books and stories can bring. Whether we’re building foundational reading skills, strengthening comprehension, or nurturing a lifelong love of reading, I strive to create meaningful learning experiences that meet students where they are and help them grow.

Throughout my career, I eagerly sought out new strategies, programs, and research to become a better reading teacher. I trained in Wilson and Fundations and later learned a variety of evidence-based programs, from ECRI to UFLI. (So many acronyms!) I immersed myself in research on phonemic awareness and phonics, facilitated intervention groups, and worked to stay current with the latest findings in the science of reading.  I kept learning and taking classes, obtaining my masters’ degree and later my Ph.D.

Then, 11 years ago, my greatest teacher entered my life—my son, Danny.

By the time he was about a year old, I sensed that something was different. His language developed much more slowly than what I knew to be typical. He showed little interest in books, being read to, singing, or nursery rhymes. In preschool, learning to write his name was difficult. In kindergarten, he struggled all year to learn his letter sounds.

In first grade, Danny was evaluated and diagnosed with dyslexia.

From that moment on, I became not only his mother but also his advocate. Every year brought new meetings, new challenges, and new hurdles. Even with one of the most comprehensive IEPs our public school could provide, his progress remained painfully slow. At home, I tutored him using every research-based strategy I knew. Still, the gains were minimal.

During his neuropsych reevaluation last year, the neuropsychologist said something I’ll never forget:

“I have evaluated thousands of children throughout my career, and your son is one of the most, if not the most, learning-disabled children I have ever worked with.”  

Oddly enough, those words didn’t shock me. They validated what I had witnessed every day.

Danny has double-deficit dyslexia, a specific learning disability in math, Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), and ADHD. I truly believe God entrusted him to me for a reason. There were many years that felt incredibly difficult, but today I can finally say we are making meaningful progress.

Danny now attends a private day school that has a special program for students with language-based learning disabilities. Together, his teachers and I are learning a new instructional approach called EBLI (yes, another acronym!), and we are hopeful it will provide the breakthrough he needs.

Just today, while we were working together, Danny independently spelled the word recreation. You should have seen the smile on his face. Moments like that remind me that progress isn’t always fast—but it is always worth celebrating.

Danny has taught me more about reading, dyslexia, and language-based learning disabilities than any professional development course ever could. Because of him, I have the unique privilege of viewing literacy through two lenses: as a teacher and as the parent of a child with significant learning differences. Those perspectives have shaped not only the educator I am, but also the person I continue to become.

Thank you for reading my post. Whether you’re a fellow educator looking for fresh ideas, a parent searching for ways to support and advocate for your child, or someone who simply shares a passion for education, I’m so glad you’re here.

I’d love to connect with you. Visit the Let’s Connect page to share your questions, your successes, or your own educational journey. Together, we can continue making a difference—one child at a time.