Joan Erickson

Special Education

I knew I wanted to be a teacher since I was four years old. My first classroom was in the hayloft of our barn in rural Nebraska. My students were dolls, stuffed animals, and dogs (when I could get them to sit!). After earning my special education degree, I taught for 12 years in middle and high schools in Nebraska. While teaching, I continued to take classes to learn more about why learning was easy for some students and difficult for others. I eventually completed my Ph.D. and began training future special education teachers, first at the University of Nebraska (Go Big Red!), then at Aurora University in Illinois. I retired from academia in 2016 and we moved to Colorado. After a couple of months of climbing the walls, I realized I was not done teaching. I was incredibly lucky to end up at Jefferson High School where I get to work with the best students and staff in the school district!