Juliana Robinson

Juliana Robinson is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist currently working as the Park County Special Education Cooperative School Psychologist for rural schools within Park County, Montana. She is known for her dedication and compassion for supporting the needs of students. Here are some of her recent thoughts.

I’m at the Shields Valley, Gardiner, Arrowhead and Cooke school districts and work in the PreK-12 grade levels. We have just under 530 kids in our school, and the last time we ran the report, it was about 58 students in special education. Obviously, all neurodiversity is on a spectrum, especially with dyslexia.

How do you describe it to someone who may not know anything about it? To get me where I am today in college, I took a lot of extra time to make sure I was reading everything and writing things down. I used flashcards, put in the work to do it, and kept pushing myself and paying close attention to the oral lectures.

My husband jokes he’d call me up and say, “Hey, it’s Saturday. What are you doing?” And I’m reading a textbook. What do you mean what I’m doing? He’s like, “It’s Saturday. You should be having fun”. Then I’d say, “Nah, I’ve got a test, and I have to read this. It just takes me longer”. Even now, with my students, I’m open about it. If I screw up a kid’s name or I can’t spell it on the whiteboard, I’ll be like that’s just my dyslexia. Sorry about that, and make a joke and not be embarrassed about it.

My advice to young people is do not give up and keep trying, it’s okay to ask for help. And it’s okay to change things up. Don’t be embarrassed about anything. We all have our needs, and people are always accommodating. It’s okay.

I use a lot of humor to make things relatable. I like to see people laugh and smile. You know there’s a time to be serious, but you can be too serious. Life should be enjoyable. Learning should be enjoyable. When it’s hard, you can make it more enjoyable. And that’s what I try to do. Live my best life and enjoy it.