Eleventh Classroom...

Out of curiosity, since I know you had trouble logging into AO3, are you the commenter on my fics that just goes by 'a'? Because I know when I changed to a logged account I would sadly see your comments less

Yup. Real creative, I know. Now I'm even more 'creative' I named myself after my favorite Netflix show! LoveDeathRobots.

Adventures in Spec Ed...

No, they’re my shinies!

Meow, meow nuzzle cat.

Yum tater tots, yum.

Eighth Classroom...

After a long painful summer of no luck…

I finally made it as a teacher…

Kind of…

Their usual teacher just popped out her 3rd kid…

Hey, more power to ya…

I was a long-term substitute for 5th grad math…

But I have a BA in Literature…

And an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language…

What the heck do I know about 5th grade math?!

Surprisingly it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be…

The morning kids were wonderful…

Low energy, just like me…

The afternoon kids were naughty…

And so, so hyper…

But I loved their individual personalities…

And their general mischievousness…

So adorable…<3

I’m a magpie...

You can become a child’s hero in surprising ways…

While I was waiting for names to be called at Parent Pick up, a little boy named Dell dropped the shiny silver bead he had found.

He became really upset…  

It was going to be yet another surprise gift for his mom!  Dell usually tends to pick her (and his teachers) flowers and draw pictures full of hearts.  So when he lost his bead Dell began to panic and crawl around on the floor.

I make beaded jewelry for fun…

It took me 3 seconds to find what he was looking for.  I picked it up and gave it to him…

I got the biggest smile…

And since that day, I’ve gotten a couple of hugs as well…

Erase the stigma and ignore inaccurate depictions in the media.  I’ve said it a couple of times now.

The sweetest boys have Autism!

Third Classroom...

My third classroom…

I taught Shakespeare.

I was fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen-years-old.

My classroom was chaotic and stunk of school lunches.

Once again, the ‘weird’ kid was the center of attention.

Seriously though, how hard is it to read the footnotes?

They hold the keys to the wonders of the world!

Oh Dear...

“Give me your phone number!”

It does not seem to matter to her that she is six and I am…not.

Yes, I started my teaching journey rather late…

Secretarial work just wasn’t cutting it anymore…

Again, it didn’t matter to her that I am several years older…

I am the ‘fun’ teacher…the ‘nice’ teacher…the ‘pretty’ teacher.

What I lack in classroom management (since this is my first year), I make up for in enthusiasm, kindness, creativity, subject knowledge, and yes…fun.

This was not fun…

I had to leave a note with her ‘every day teacher’ that little girl insisted that I give her my cell phone number.

I did not, for the record…

I am weird and admittedly a little immature, not predatory!

Certification Pending...

This is such a depressing thing to see when you have studied for what essentially amounts to three months straight.

Sadly, I only have myself to blame considering I let my background check slip. Now I have to get in touch with people to have my work email unlocked.

It has been a long and winding road already…

No one at grad school said anything about additional certification…

The program was geared towards preparing student to teach adults, not kids.

Then again, when I asked the ‘teaching career’ guru if I should get certified in general education or special education…she said ‘no’.

Do yourself a favor, if you are going to specialize in ESL, special education, or any other area…go for additional certification in general education. There are more special education jobs than there are ESL (in my State, anyway) and there is WAY more general education jobs than there are both ESL and special education combined.

Get it while you are still in college!

It will open up three times as many doors for you!

Start in general education, get that experience, then work towards the subject or kinds of students you actually want to teach.

Get your foot in the door!

Nothing ever changes...

Bureaucracy is a tumor on society’s ass that will never go away…

Government…fueled by greed and money…one of the worst necessary evils…

All I wanted from Biden was student loan forgiveness for my admittedly incomplete education.  Did I get my diploma?  Yes.

Did I graduate feeling confident and ready?  No.

My student teaching was interrupted by Corona.

This may not seem like such a big thing to you…

But when you have anxiety and are faced with a new experience, a new challenge, a new career…  It is terrifying to feel ill prepared.

Teaching well behaved adults who want to learn English is one thing but teaching children who are a million times more hyper, sociable, and sneaky than you are is an entirely different matter.  I am happy to say that I am finally on the right track to becoming a teacher…hopefully a GOOD teacher.  But at the same time, I am very disheartened that it took so long and I had to jump through so many rings of fire to do so.  You’d think that someone at some point in the educational food chain would know how to organize things better…streamline the process.  Make things easier.

No.

First I get told that I need to have three different certifications…

Then I’m told that the school district that just hired me needs me to do yet another background check…

I’m working in the same State!  Why do I need to get another background check when I just got one done last month?!

Tired...

No energy

Still rather depressed at times

Creativity.

Here we go Again...

Oh no, another

Praxis test to take

I must prove my worth.