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Ultimate lesson

Cerebral palsy has taught Albertson to teach in many ways

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Payton Boone, 7, of Fort Dodge, front, gets some help from Carrie Alberston, first grade teacher at Community Christian School, recently.

At the start of every school year, Carrie Albertson explains to her students why she can’t effectively use her right arm.

Albertson, the first-grade teacher at Community Christian School, was born with cerebral palsy. It primarily impacts muscle movements on the right side of her body, including her arm and leg.

She walks seemingly without any trouble and is able to complete the same daily tasks as everyone else.

Sometimes cerebral palsy affects people’s speech; it does not affect Albertson’s.

But her right hand and wrist are limited.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Carrie Albertson, first grade teacher at Community Christian School, works on her lesson plan at her desk recently.

“I can’t move my fingers or wrist at all,” she said. “My elbow and shoulder moves, and that’s about it.”

As a result, Albertson has had to train her left hand to do the bulk of the work.

“Some kids ask me if my hand is broken,” she said.

Albertson, a 2002 Boone High School graduate, tells students she may not be able to do some things on her own — and they understand.

“These students are very eager to help,” she said. “If I need help they say, ‘I can do it.'”

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
A thank you letter to Carrie Albertson, first grade teacher at Community Christian School, is shown here.

For the most part, though, Albertson does not need much assistance in executing a lesson plan for her students. She has taught full time for eight years.

This, however, is her first year at CCS.

Before coming to Fort Dodge in August, Albertson taught kindergarten for three years at Siegel Christian Academy in Siegel, Michigan.

Throughout her career she has taught first and second grades at an elementary school in LaSalle, Illinois, and second and third grades at Saipan International School. She has also worked at two day cares.

At CCS, she teaches eight students.

Albertson has mostly had classrooms of similar size, she said. Her largest was 20 students.

She’s comfortable in her classroom.

“I love it,” she said. “I love the students and staff. I feel like we communicate really well. We help each other out as much as we can.”

Albertson particularly enjoys teaching younger students.

“They are so eager to learn,” she said. “You can do anything with them and they are excited about it.”

Helping students improve their reading skills is a highlight. She teaches using phonics, which is a method of teaching reading and writing using sounds.

“I can see it work,” Albertson said. “When we teach the different sounds and see that light bulb go off in their head — that’s why I like it.”

Teaching runs in her family.

“My mom was a teacher, my grandma was a teacher, my cousins were teachers,” she said. “I always knew it was what I wanted to do.”

Her grandma, Sunny Powers, inspired her.

“She always told me I could do anything I set my mind to and was always finding new ways or contraptions to help me,” Albertson said. “Things that would work better.”

As a child, physical therapy benefited her.

“When I was younger my parents had physical therapists come to the house,” she said. “We worked on dressing myself and walking — jumping and using my hand to manipulate stuff and put it back down.”

“We worked on grabbing, trying to see if we could get those fingers to move at all.”

As she grew older she became more independent.

She wore a brace on her leg until high school.

“I could probably keep wearing it because it does help,” she said.

The brace allowed her to put her heel down.

“My mom used to always tell me, ‘don’t walk on your toes,'” Albertson said. “But I would walk on my toes.”

Through the years, Albertson said her condition has probably worsened. About five years ago she underwent surgery on her right shoulder after she couldn’t pop it back into place, she said.

“I don’t have range of motion like I did before my surgery,” she said. “It’s very frustrating.”

She added, “I have had to just learn to live with it.”

Her biggest challenge is not physical, though.

It concerns reaching all of her students.

“Getting to know the students and their different learning styles and abilities,” she said. “Coming up with ways to incorporate all of their learning styles with different activities for them to achieve their best.”

But the thank yous she receives from them makes it all worth it, she said.

“I have several things hanging on my desk that I’m the best first-grade teacher ever or thank you notes thanking me for teaching first grade,” Albertson said. “If they are thanking me, that’s the best compliment a teacher could have.”

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