Worth It

Does anyone hate adulting as much as I do? Having a career and balancing personal life can be quite stressful, especially when you are a teacher.

I'm a special education teacher for children with severe disabilities in a 12:1:4+ setting (12 students maximum, one teacher, four plus teacher assistants/paraprofessionals). All of my students are nonverbal, most of them are in wheelchairs, and a few of them have a private one-to-one nurses with them 24/7.

I love my students, but I struggle with working with the Common Core Learning Standards, and I absolutely abhor giving my students local and state exams that are most definitely not suitable for them. It's so frustrating for my students, and for me as a teacher. Sometimes I just wish I could go back to my care-free college days where I didn't have to worry about what my teacher rating will be (based on testing), health insurance, and my pension, however, there are those moments that make teaching worth it! 

Today, a nonverbal student of mine with multiple disabilities generalized a skill across a different setting! After my student drank a sip of her water in the cafeteria during lunch she manually signed "cold" AND vocalized "cooo" because of the icey water temperature! We work on understanding the weather and seasons every single day during our morning meetings in the classroom, so I was thrilled to see her apply this skill into another environment. I didn't even ask her a question, not did I prompt for a response, she just naturally commented. It's such an amazing feeling to have knowing that when she is cold she will be able to express that and gain what she needs, whether be a blanket or a jacket. This is an incredible milestone and I couldn't be more proud!

What I'm discovering now is that even though the lows can be very low in this strenuous career I have chosen, I must admit that the highs are extremely high. 

I'm currently floating on Cloud 9.

Happy adulting! :)

Keep smiling,

Kimberly Malka