For those who don’t know, Mrs. Roman is a reading therapist at New Way who helps people with dyslexia learn how to read. She is always located in the Wonderspace. She helps people read through a series of books called Wilson, a reading curriculum for students with dyslexia. You start at book 1, then work your way to book 12 as the years go by.

Mrs. Roman has traveled a lot of places when she was in college; she has been to China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, India, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, and Venezuela. She spent most of her time in Africa in Rwanda, working in a school to help the students read. While she was there, she also saw the silverback mountain gorillas and swam with great white sharks. When she was in college, she did something called a semester at sea, where she studied on a ship for 100 days, and that’s how she traveled around the world. Even though she traveled around the world, she does not teach or is not very fluent in the languages.

She was always able to read well, and she was able to use her reading skills to teach her students to read. When growing up, Mrs. Roman always wanted to be a teacher because she wanted to teach reading to her students. Before she taught us, she lived and taught in Washington, D.C, taught fourth graders, where she got her master’s in reading instruction, before moving here. Here, Mrs. Roman teaches students at any grade level in Wilson. She teaches the basics of reading in each level of the Wilson program.

 I had the chance to get an interview with one of her students, Ryan, with whom I have a class.  Ryan learns a lot from Mrs. Roman, such as knowing what prefixes and suffixes are. He also knows how to scoop the sentences correctly. Ryan and I have known each other since 7th grade. We are always in the Wonderspace. Furthermore, we used to have her class in the hallway of the Wonderspace, but now we are in the main room. To me, she is very kind and helpful, and she teaches us the stuff we need to learn well.

I am learning all the ways to say the vowels, find ways to read words, and know ways to spell out words. She also has two daughters whom we sometimes see in class. They are sometimes in there because of school reasons or just because. She has a dog that she got in Africa. If I remember correctly, she told me that it is a mixed breed. When she brings her in here, I can’t help but like how that dog looks. Currently, we are in Book Six in our class, and we are going to learn more as the year goes on. We are almost done with book six, and when we know enough information, she will test us to see what we know. When we are done with our lesson, we sometimes have enough time to read a book. She has taught many students in her years of teaching, and she has made an impact on those in need to read. She finds many ways for us to read, like spelling it on the table, scooping the word, or any other ways that are available. Not only that, but she is very sweet to us and knows our problems and helps us to do normal reading things.

I have known her for three years. I have learned a lot from her, and I try my best in reading. When we complete a book, we take a photo to celebrate. If we can’t focus during the lesson, she has fidgets to put in our hands to focus more. We can get gum or mints if we need to, but they cost points, though. If she is absent that day, we will read a podcast episode for the day. When one of us does not show up, it will be a quick lesson for the day. One of the ways she wants us to read is to read a story as quickly as we can, but as accurately as possible.

Reading therapy is not always easy, but even after all of that hard work, we are doing well, and I like what she does. She helps us try our best, and if we fail at something, we just try again. After all, she has helped a lot of students over the years. We joke about stuff, we play games with each other, and we do what we need to do. Once book 6 ends, we will

learn a lot more through the next books. So if there’s anything I have to say, I want to tell her, thank you.