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Achievement Unlocked: Career Jump

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  • Achievement Unlocked: Career Jump

    I just realized I never posted this here, or shared it all really.

    Back in September I quit childcare for good. After teaching preschool aged kids for 7 years, I was ready for change. And I got one.

    I got hired as a special education teacher at a private residential school in the area. This school works with kids that have a variety of emotional and behavioral needs, many of whom live on site. I teach a class of 9 12-14 year olds, a huge jump from the 4 or 5 years olds I have been working with.

    And...it's amazing work. It's tough love, really. I never know what could trigger a behavior, from one day to the next, and anything can happen on any given day. But I'm lucky that my group is vocal enough to say "This is triggering me, I need to take space" and we work together to overcome whatever is bothering them. But, in the short time I've been there, I've seen progress. I've seen kids that I've been warned about for being aggressive settle down and relax. I've seen kids who refuse to do any work or participate in class actually get involved. I come in every day ready to go and leave for the day feeling amazing. I had a friend tell me over dinner once that I even looked happy, when I wasn't before. And, I'm finally putting my teaching license to good use.

    I love every minute. These kids need someone to tell them "Hey, this isn't your fault, you can do this, there's hope", and that's what I do every day. And it sticks.

  • #2
    Quoth Nashida View Post
    I love every minute. These kids need someone to tell them "Hey, this isn't your fault, you can do this, there's hope", and that's what I do every day. And it sticks.
    I just need to say 'thank you' on behalf of these kids.

    I have mentioned my really shit time through all of my school years on this forum frequently. I only had two good teachers that actually tried to help. But I will never forget those teachers. Sometimes all a troubled kid needs is someone to say 'you can do this, you can succeed'.

    One of my friends is a teacher. (This is the only person from my school years that I still speak too.) She occasionally had a rough time at school, but most teachers liked her. She teaches in a mainstream high school, but she has the worst students in her class, the one's everyone else has given up on. Since she took on that class, the pass rate has tripled. And the students have improved across all of their subjects. She has told me that her success is because she does the opposite of everything that was done to me by teachers.

    So thanks for saying it, thanks for trying to help them work through their issues and thanks for helping them fight their demons. Hopefully, with your help, these kids can go on to succeed in their lives.
    A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. - Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

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    • #3
      A friend of mine started with that career trajectory, then transitioned into managing an IT department at NASA. She said that teaching the two-year-olds was the best possible training for managing an IT department...
      “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
      One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
      The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

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      • #4
        I've joked on occasion that the kids I work with now are the same as the kids I've worked with in the past....just supersized. That being said, since they exhibit so many of the same behaviors it's easier to get on their level and go "This is really bothering you, how can we make this better?"

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