Is anyone else a teacher?

[JuniperBug]

I teach because I've always done well with young children. The age I'm best able to understand and teach is between around 2 1/2-3 years. Anyone above 5 or 6 is too old for me.

Socially, my current job has got to be one of the worst set-ups possible for me though. I am given time to plan in a collaborative staff room with 10 of us at one table (you can imagine how draining that is) in a room just large enough to hold that table. Instead of planning, I usually fiddle at work (can't focus with 9 other chattering people around) and plan at home and that seems to work for the time being. It cuts into my 'down time' but I honestly like doing written planning from the comfort of my home.

In the classroom, I'm expected to co-teach with 2 other teachers who speak limited English. The whole thing is very bizarre but I stay because it's overall a good job and I love the children. I like to reason that the continuous social 'practice' is good for me.

Eventually, I'd like to take my knowledge and experience toward a less collaborative and more planning/writing role, for example, designing lesson plans and courses, which I think I'd be better suited for. I think I could create and do a lot more with less energy being expended towards social interaction.

I'd like to know if you are a teacher and how you like your job. How does your Aspergers/Autism affect your work? Do you feel that it's easier to connect with children than with adults? What would you change if you could? Do you think you will stick with the same line of work and why?

Thanks for reading and answering!

 

[royinpink]

I'd like to know if you are a teacher and how you like your job. How does your Aspergers/Autism affect your work? Do you feel that it's easier to connect with children than with adults? What would you change if you could? Do you think you will stick with the same line of work and why?

Yes. It is misery, but I do like the students, and A-level psychology. It affects my teaching through anxiety, inability to plan, tendency to get overwhelmed, and problems being confident, assertive, or fake. Yes. I feel like despite how hard they are to manage and how much better I feel I'd handle being a professor, actually the 7th graders are closer to my maturity level. I would change...a lot. I wouldn't have gone into it. I hope not, but it is really impractical to leave right now for me.

On the plus side, it's taught me how to be a lot clearer in my communication and what to do for people who are having emotional trouble.

 

[Suzanne]

Yes, I am a teacher ------ of the bible! The first ever study I had, I felt soooo out of my depth it was funny, but the student, despite being my senior by many years, was brilliant and so it appears it was mostly in my head, for when I offered someone else to study with her, she insisted she was fine with me. I came to realise that I was the teacher and student as well and we worked really well together.

Strangely enough, when I am talking to others about the bible, I prefer to be on my own and prove that I do tons better ie a clearer brain etc. But at the same time, for anything else, I really am awful on my own. So I truly empathise with you having to work with other teachers.

 

[Wireless]

I work part-time in a nursery for 3 -4 year old children. I started there as a Lunchtime Supervisor and was encouraged to train as a teaching assistant because I'm good with children. I gained my Level 2 teaching assistant qualification. I would have trained for Level 3 but the course was changed at the last minute and it no longer suited me. I still work at the nursery as a Lunchtime Supervisor and occasionally as a TA if I am required. Very recently I was working one-to-one with a SEN child.

I connect well with the children, but not the adults so much. Maybe because I still feel like a teenager. As a TA I did not have to do any planning, which meant a reduced time spent with the adults. It also meant more down time at home. However, the noisy, fast-paced chaotic environment stressed me out. It was easier when I had a specific task to do and could focus on that. But, other times I was "floating" in the classroom, i.e. watching the children in their free play time and cleaning up after them etc. Those times where much harder.

As a Lunchtime Supervisor I get to spend time with the children, but with very little responsibility. This is a huge relief of pressure for me because I struggled to keep all of the goals, aims and targets in my head. Plus, I don't think I'm quite mature enough to be a good role model in some respects.

So, being a Lunchtime Supervisor is very relaxed in terms of what is required of me (I don't have to socialize much with the other adults), but is low income and the environment can still be stressful. Being an occasional TA provides me a challenge and it is good knowing that I am not permanently stuck in that role.

I could never be a teacher. My mother was a teacher at the same nursery and I saw first hand how stressful a job it is.

 

[Naturalist]

I teach... in a way. I supervise interns at the college level. Sometimes it seems they are more mature than I am, which makes me feel quite awkward. And I am having a lot of interpersonal issues with a few administrators at the moment. I have an office in the library which is where I go when I need to be away from others.

I don't feel I could teach below university level, even walking into my son's school makes my head spin. Too much noise and random activity--it makes me very anxious. He is 7, and his classroom is chaotic when the children are all there. Even when he has friends over it is hard to cope, although I like his friends and get along better with young children than with older individuals who have preconceived notions of things. I work in a quiet lab and have limited hours, so I can spend a lot of time in my office preparing work.

I also teach an art class in the evening once a week, with 4-5 adult students. It is an experiment, I am really pushing myself to do it because it gives me the opportunity to indulge my creativity and the extra pay never hurts. But often I just despise having to interact with others on a daily basis. I would be much happier if I could just get paid to write out all my ideas and let others learn them by reading!

 

[Progster]

Yes, I teach. I'm a private language tutor. I used to work in private language schools teaching EFL, and once in a state school, but I ran into a whole load of problems. I once worked in a kindergarten too, and I was told by the head teacher that I didn't have it in me because I can't connect with the kids. Actually, I can get on well with kids in ones or twos, but a whole classroom is a whole different story.

I wrote quite extensively about my experiences as a teacher on another ASD forum, so I hope you don't mind if I copy and paste from there - it would take me quite a while to write it all out again:

"I think that Aspies can be very good teachers, but the nature of the work and the classroom environment can be very stressful. I am a teacher of English as a foreign language. I worked for many years in private language schools in two different countries, and once in a kindergarten and once in a state school. I taught mainly children in groups of up to 15, but also adults. I now do private individual tuition only.

When I was teaching in the schools, I found the job very stressful, suffered a burnout and had to stop teaching. These were my main difficulties:

- classroom management / discipline. I was too hesitant and indecisive and had a low presence in the classroom. I was slow to pick up on things going on in the classroom. The kids picked up on it and exploited it.

- having to interact or talk for long periods of time with students: groups with large numbers of students: exausting!! Difficult to keep the students engaged and attentive. Didn't connect with students.

- noisy students and background noise. I was often unable to hear individual students over the noise and was easily distracted. I couldn't keep track of everything going on. I didn't have a problem with the lighting but others might.

- Staffroom politics and social expectations. I didn't fit in, was exhausted, spent my lunch breaks in the library.

- sudden changes to timetable - difficult to cope with, made me stressed and anxious. Also, changes from one lesson or group to another without a break were too much.

- planning and organization, extra-curricular activities, marking, etc, lack of framework. I was told I had X number of students and that I had to create a course and find materials for them, and then present a written course yearly plan. I found this too much at once and barely coped, I had to be helped a lot with this, which is ok at the very beginning, but at some point they expect you to manage on your own, but I still struggled.

- being observed. Way too stressful, I really couldn't handle this at all.

However, a lot of these difficulties are to do with the school and classroom environment, and not the actual teaching, so if you can work in an environment in which the conditions which create the problems are eliminated, for example background noise at a minimum, lighting down low, then you might not face so many difficulites. Also, a smaller school or private school will have smaller groups and be less demanding.

I still teach, but only individual private one-to-one tuition. That way I can teach in my own environment, at home, make my own timetable, choose my own materials, I don't have the discipline and interaction difficulties I had with the groups, I work for myself so no staffroom politics. Also, a teacher who is teaching a subject which is a special interest makes a very enthusiastic teacher who can more easily motivate and inspire his or her students, and those kind of teachers are the best ones, not the ones who are just teaching to take home their monthly salary but have no enthusiasm or inspiration."

 

[zurb]

I'd like to know if you are a teacher and how you like your job. How does your Aspergers/Autism affect your work? Do you feel that it's easier to connect with children than with adults? What would you change if you could? Do you think you will stick with the same line of work and why?

I have done a reasonable amount of English teaching. I like teaching, and I believe from what I'm told by others that I have good report with my students.
I like kids, but find them very difficult to teach. I struggle with classroom management. I much prefer working with adults who are there because they want to learn. Even better is one on one teaching of adults.
I think I'd probably do ok with preschoolers, but the requirements here for that now are overwhelming!
I struggle with the planning, but my wife often helps with this. I also sometimes struggle if the unexpected happens or the class goes too fast and I don't have enough material. So I always make sure to have one or two extra activities prepared as time fillers if needed.
I'm currently reviewing what to do next. I've just returned home from abroad and need to decide what happens now. If we don't return, I will consider English Teaching here as one option. I may also look at Tech Writing again too. Though long term we'd like to work for ourselves.

 

[red_dog]

I teach as a Kindergarten teacher. This is usually with 3 to 5 year old children - which I believe are the best age group - old enough to be able to talk well, but young enough to still want to learn & listen to their teachers. This year I have a new job with children from 1 to 5 years old, which is a bit more challenging for me.

Generally I relate really well with the children & love working with them. Not sure about crying babies though.

It is the adults that I find more challenging. I have improved my skills in relating with parents, and now am more certain about what sort of things I can discuss with them. I don't have a script as such, but usually I prepare before talking with a parent, or else I get too anxious & forget what I was going to say.

My big problem is relating to other staff members. I like Kindergartens as they have a much smaller number of staff to negotiate relationships with. Relationships with other staff has been my downfall for a number of jobs. As the teacher working with 1 or 2 assistants as their supervisor, I am required to negotiate & support them to do their roles too - which is difficult for me. I get really anxious when communicating with my co-workers, which makes it very difficult to say much at all. I often need a lot of support when starting a job to learn the new role & routines - which makes me look incompetent, even though I am not. I am working with an aspergers specialist psychologist to assist me with these skills - though she has not been able to visit me in the workplace.

I find planning at work difficult, though am usually in the office by myself, there is too much going on in other parts of the workplace for me to concentrate. I tend to do my planning at home.

I have tried high school & primary school teaching, but prefer Kindergarten. I didn't get diagnosed with Aspergers until 1.5yrs ago having already struggled through my studies & had several jobs that didn't end well. Although teaching is not an ideal job for me, I feel it is a shame to waste all my study and hard work so far. I am unable to think of any other job I would want to do. I really enjoy working with the kids and hope I find an employer who can utilise my skills and support me with the things I find challenging. Unfortunately it is difficult to get the support I need - as I am able to get jobs, so am ineligible for assistance from the government, even though my aspergers causes me many challenges & often contributes to me loosing my job. I am reluctant to ask for support from my employers as admitting problems may be a reason for them to terminate my employment.

Well done Juniper & other Aspie teachers for surviving your challenging work environments. Good luck everyone with finding positions that utilises your skills and interest in children, but is not so stressful for you.

 

[Jason]

I have been a tutor/clinical supervisor in the Health and Wellness Clinic at my previous college. It was my first experience of being in that role. I had never been one to tell people what to do (I had a few students who liked to mess around) so it taught me in that respect how to manage people. I think people with Aspergers make good teachers.

 

[paloftoon]

I work FT as a HS math teacher, but at a cyber school! People to me are still as social as they were in a brick and mortar school. The computer is just more of an "excuse" of why people don't want to communicate well. I don't think there is cyber school for Pre-K, but there definitely is for K-12. Many more opportunities for certified than non-certified.

 

[DC1346]

I was an elementary teacher for 17 years and spent the last half of that career working at private American schools abroad. After returning stateside in '99, I found that I couldn't readjust to teaching in the U.S. public schools. I hated the teach to the test mentality and especially hated the fact that my school required grade level collaboration for lesson planning so that we all taught the same thing. Doing this negated our individual strengths and forced us to dumb down to our weakest teacher's ability level.

I opted out of elementary teaching, went to culinary school and spent four years in the industry.

In 2007 I returned to the field of education ... this time as the chef instructor of a high school Culinary Arts program.

I didn't know I was an aspire until last year and only had my self diagnosis confirmed last April.

As a teacher, I mask myself behind the persona of a gruff chef instructor. My room is structured and I follow a set schedule with Monday being for whole class instruction and the rest of the week being for hands on production.

Before entering the kitchen, students have to pass a unit on food safety and sanitation. They have to learn how to read a recipe, how to measure, and how to clean, as well as how to set up and breakdown a work station.

Students who have problems with their behavior are handled with a progressive management plan which includes the option of sending them to the dean's office if they cannot be redirected and are becoming disruptive.

I have scripts for dealing with nearly every contingency and am now in my 26th year of teaching.

At day's end I go home and become a reclusive introvert. I need my privacy to recover my emotional equilibrium so that I'll have the patience and energy to face the world for the following day.

 

[Etzelaire]

I teach tennis to people from age 8 to 50. Obviously the classes I enjoy most are with the best players because you can vary the exercises in a way inimaginable for the beginners.
About aspie thing, I am very picky and have strict rules which have to be followed. Also, I always explain things like one point after another well separated and clear, take videos about the players, help them with the motricity... Hm... Sometimes I think I take my job too seriously.
About the interaction with people, I do well because I can talk in front of a thousand people if I know I know what I am talking about, if I am not a hundred percent positive then I wouldn't be so bold. People between the ages of 10-20 are the ones I enjoy most, I get their full attention and they like have me as their model. In contrast to people above my age who formerly look me like I don't know much just because I'm 21. But most of them change their attitude after the first class when they realize I spot all the problems they have.
Once I had a client who had an odd service technique and i say: your lower back has to hurt from time to time for sure. And he: yeah how do you know? Then I: because you are using the muscles of your lowe back instead of the abs and legs.
From that day the man does everything I say hahahahaha
It's funny how you can tell why people is in pain and their problem is solved without going to the physio.