Back Again With Some Good News

Greetings, I have decided to come back AGAIN after another one of those unannounced hiatuses of mine (Jesus, I am such a bad blogger).

Since September, I have been working as a paraprofessional at for teenagers with behavior disorders for a school in Kansas.  In addition, I have had an evening job working as a tutor for reading and math skills.  I have worked these jobs with near-complete enjoyment, but always with the main goal of obtaining another full-time teaching position.

The reason for this most recent hiatus, quite honestly, was the stress of looking for a new teaching job was getting to me (again).  I slipped into that unhealthy, depressed state that I had last year while looking for a job.  Self-doubt became my closest frienemy.  I started smoking again, I was not sleeping very well and all I could obsess on nearly every minute of every day was whether or not I would ever teach again.

Before I go any further on that issue, I would first like to give an update on a student I spent a lot of time with, and blogged about during my paraprofessional work experience.  I continued to work with this particular student throughout the school year, but with a month or two left, the student was getting in trouble so often that his parents were afraid at some point, he may end up getting himself in trouble with the law at school.  He exited our program, and entered another program with less emphasis on academics, and more on behavior treatment.  As unfortunate as it was that he reached this point, I know it was the right thing for this young man.  I can look back on my work with him, and know I did the best I could.  I do question whether he got anything academically out of this program, but I know for a fact that both he and his parents were satisfied with job that I and the other staff members did in working with him. 

The other, much more positive news I wanted to share is that I WILL BE TEACHING AGAIN!



A small school district on the Missouri side of the Kansas City border has hired me to work with middle school students who have behavior disorders.  In addition to an impressive interview, I can also give credit to this most recent employment news to the experience I obtained this past year as a paraprofessional.  Even after I accepted the offer, I continued to receive phone calls for other job interviews.  All of these were with fine school districts, but I knew the opportunities afforded to me with this position were too numerous to turn down.  The administrators of the school informed me that I would be given a lot of freedom and responsibility for what happens with my students at school.  In addition, I am in charge of only a half-dozen students, I have very little paperwork, and I can set my schedule as I please for most of the day.  Translation: I get to spend more time actually helping students.

This, as well as some other things going on in my life, has me feeling more optimistic about my future than I probably have ever felt in my entire life.  What better time than now to start up my blog again? 

For readers of this blog (what few of you currently exist), let me reiterate (as I have in the past) that this may not be the last hiatus my blog ever encounters.  Ongoing events in my life - both personal and professional - will dictate the volume of activity this blog will see.  In the meantime, I hope you will read and enjoy.