Teachers?? Partway through program, discover have AS...

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Any AS teachers here, of whom you know??

I did not know about the AS when I applied to and started a teaching program. And I intend to finish it, of course... I'm busy in the midst of it!

One source cites that as a BAD job for aspies-- but on the other hand, perhaps I could really be helpful to aspie students! Who knows, but it was weird to find out at this point.

Anyhow, I am curious on your thoughts.

I teach at a university, and that works really well. Although my courses are quite interactive (they include supervision of teamwork, workshops etc) I'm able to manage the two arenas well (the teaching of the topic, and the leadership of the students).

A couple of decades ago, I worked as a troop sergeant - that was a very different experience. My job was to instruct (a he-man synonym for 'teach', right?) enlisted private soldiers, and I first believed that the teaching actually was the core of this job. I was wrong. I learnt that it was the leadership that was the major work, as I constantly needed to set the teaching aside and deal with the challenging, informal leaders among the soldiers. I ended up with hating my job, and left it for a civilian career. If I had been aware of my diagnosis back then, I might have been able to develop some coping strategies.I was not, and I didn't understand the social game - well, I didn't even understand there was a game.

So, is there a useful theory in these two cases? Yes, I am convinced that we (our diagnosis group) are great at learning and theorizing, and that is a core competence in teaching. However, we tend to fail at simultaneously managing a social arena consisting of restless and challenging kids/students. We like to do one thing at a time, and we're great at it.

So, to conclude, my guess is that you have the ability to become a great teacher if you know yourself and choose your workplace accordingly. You might not want to work with the most challenging students. On the other hand, there are teaching positions were the students are very motivated. Good luck with your studying!

Gee, thank you. Coincidence-- I was a sergeant, too! And I probably wouldn't have enlisted had I known about AS.
But thank you for your thoughtful answer. (Yes, I was just reading yesterday yet another article about how universities seem to be ideal havens for AS types... Get to go on about favorite topics, and get paid/respected for it; quirkiness tolerated fondly, etc.) It definitely is the thought of many NT kids (precollege) onto something around me that I don't pick up on that would make me worry I'm not doing everyone justice... Well, I meet with advisor soon, so we'll see!

Teaching for AS refers mainly to teaching high school and below. I teach high school Geometry in a challenging urban environment. I dislike the environment, the support, and figuring out and dealing with the situations. There has been overwhelming pressure from friends and family to take on a job, and this was what I could get. College is much different because students are motivated or you can tune them out and they can tune you out all the same. In high school and below, there is classroom management, communicating with parents and students, dealing with colleagues (who should be on your side, but not necc. or they might be completely neutral) and admins. Most people I know with AS if they are working tend to have a PT job like grocery bagger or movie theater cashier. So, I think it is a little bit less likely to find FTimers for now.

I think that we could be good teachers for other aspies, but pretty much any special ed school will not just have particular types of aspies. Many will have vocal needs and be much more extreme in a way that's hard to handle and figure out. Some others will not even be aspies, but may be a variety of other things like bipolar, OCD, etc. So just keep that in mind when you want to teach Aspies in particular, because I don't think you can easily if at all get that specific type of job. There's so many different types of special education that you can't just be serving one type.

I taught math about ten years ago. I concentrated on lesson preparation, an area in which I excel, at the expense of other areas.

I didn't have enough other positive things going on in my life, so I overdepended on the teaching job, hoping for friendship with colleagues, being a star, feelings of achievement from clear positives, etc.

Whereas in fact, in a negotiation situation, the person who cares more typically loses. And it definitely is a negotiation situation with the students! I'm available if you need help. That's basically it. I can maybe, maybe do 10% of it. But 90% of it is up to you, the student. I can help by not being an ogre, not being one of those clearly unreasonable teachers. I can present the material in a straightforward way. But beyond that, most of the rest is up to you. In addition, there seems to be the fact, that if I put 'excelling' to the side, then it's far easier to engage in actual conversations and have the actual occasional back and forth with students.

You've got to be strict. You have got to be authoritarian. I don't like that, but you do. You start off strict and then gradually, ever so gradually, loosen up. But the baseline of how strict you need to start off, is so much higher than I thought it was.

Okay, here's one success I had. I was asked to fill in Calculus last period when the instructor was giving a quiz. I took it seriously, for it's important to do a good job proctoring a test. In addition, toward the end, I also casually leafed through the tests. And I saw that only about one student out of three got the quotient rule right. When the last boy (it was an upscale, all boys' Catholic school) turned in his test with a couple of minutes left, I said, "It looks like you guys are having some trouble with the quotient rule."

I went up to the board. One boy volunteered that they hadn't yet been taught it. As I began the example, another boy asked if he could finish it. Sure, I mean, that's kind of a dream of mine. That's kind of what I always hope for.

The bell rang--and mind you this is on Friday, last class period--and about eight or nine boys stayed and continued working on it. And my main job was merely to confirm that they were doing it correctly.

And I'm thinking, Wow, I'm a great teacher! I get these young adults to stay late on Friday afternoon. And out of positive motivation and engaging where they are right now. I told one of the older teachers, hoping to get some credit for being a star. He said, well, you know, these kids are highly motivated . . . (so, take it easily with zen-like grace when it happens. just let the magic be there without too much question or too much tooting of one's own horn)

I was a teacher for a few hours a week between 2006-2007. I can say that it was fun and i could have kept doing it, but they wanted someone with a teachers education for a more permanent job (their regular guy quit while i was there) and MABY getting a job (after going through an education and amassing a debt to pay off) that's just not good enough.

I teach and it's overwhelming - just too many people to deal with. I'm trying to get away from it. I get overstimulated from it almost daily.

I have been a secondary school teacher. In retrospect, I see it as the worst type of job I could have gone into. My ASD made me incapable of seeing my pupils' point of view. I didn't have a clue about what their experience of being in my class felt like, and I was not aware of this problem at the time. I couldn't read cues from pupils' non-verbal behaviour, so I couldn't adjust my behaviour accordingly, and I didn't control the lessons very well. Pupils saw me as an idiot and lost respect. Over time, that made the pupils' reactions more and more unpredictable for me, and it made my job more and more stressful. In addition, there were two many people to communicate with: pupils, parents, colleagues,... I found that overwhelming.

Yeah...my class is a bit...wild. But then I get bored when I actually control their behavior too well. It's sort of a catch 22 I guess.

I'm a teacher-at-home (don't know how to say that in english) and I love that. It's difficult to take the bus, to talk to the parents, but when it comes to teaching children, it's just... A childplay. I was afraid not to be able to do this. But they're fastly improving and, surprise, they like me very much. Another proof for demonstrating that AS can be very good for that... Did you know Mr Asperger used to call us "the little professors" ?

Oh goodness, yes. I had a really bad year after qualifying to teach. I'm moving more into personal tutoring and hopefully I'll get on a course to teach people with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia.

I've been teaching full time at the elementary level for almost ten years now. I think it really depends a lot on the individual aspie as to whether or not it can be a good fit. The biggest "problem"/challenge that I encounter is communication with parents. I think I am better at it now than I was ten years ago, but I also recognize that I am still pretty bad at it compared to my colleagues. Sometimes that results in a parent calling the school administration to complain. I find that stressful, but nothing 'bad' ever comes of it. A couple of times the principal will arrange for a face to face meeting with the three of us together (the principal, myself, and the parent). Things are usually better at the end of the meeting, because your NT principal will probably be able to explain/answer the parent's concern better than you can.

I haven't found a lot of difficulty in communication with the children. I teach the younger primary grades, so that might be why. Children are usually pretty concrete in their communication. No social "games" or nuances that I have to try to decode.

I have never disclosed to my work that I am Aspie. I think they just see me as socially awkward, but there have never been any real problems between myself and my colleagues. If teaching is something you are passionate about, I would encourage you to keep trying it.