At the beginning of the school year, I had the privilege of teaching about nine precious students in a life skills classroom. Two were medically fragile and had full-time nurses. It was a joy to be able to teach them. The job had its ups and downs for reasons other than the children. The paperwork, for one thing, was overwhelming at the beginning, but I got the hang of writing IEPs fairly quickly. With the help of an autism specialist, I was able to see how a life skills classroom in elementary school can be run successfully. I got to experience a glimpse of it once they gave me two paraprofessionals. We still had a long way to go, though.
Eventually, I realized I had no extra time to finish my certification, which was required to keep the position. After much thought, I decided to return to a less demanding job while I finish my teaching certification. Thankfully, my boss at the ABA clinic, where I had worked as a behavior therapist, hired me back immediately. Just before I transitioned, a tutoring job fell in my lap, so to speak. I had not planned on tutoring since I was so busy, but I decided to help out a friend anyway. I suddenly remembered how much joy one-on-one tutoring brings me. My dream would be to do it full-time. However, in the meantime, I will continue to finish my certification and see where things go.
