Any Aspie Teachers out there?

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Well i teach Flash at a local community collage part time. The class went well and it seems people learn stuff when i teach something which is good. But then again i've only been doing it for a month and i'll be doing it for April and then in the Summer. Fun stuff when it's your special interest.

what is flash?

Flash is a computer program used to create graphical and animations for use online. It was originally released by a company call Macromedia, but that company was bought up by Adobe. Youtube videos are flash video files that were converted from larger video formats. But any animated banner ad is more then likely Flash, there's a whole site that has Flash based content called Newgrounds.

Thanks! I knew that. Somehow I thought it was an exercise or weight loss program like yoga or tai chi
I would like to learn that! Flash that is... Similar to shockwave

I teach beginning Spanish at a Tech college (polytechnic). And beginning French on Saturdays, because I need the money.
I find it easier to teach adults than kids or teens, because I never became good at classroom control... although I do have some teens in my classes at Tech who are home-schooled, and they are some of the more dutiful students.

I'm new here, but I'm an ESL instructor living in Japan. Thankfully, I teach adults. Many of my colleagues tell me I should teach kids, but I have absolutely no desire to do so. Some parts of my job are okay- I get good evaluations, I'm the go-to person when it comes to explaining English grammar, and the students say my voice is very understandable and easy for them to listen to (go monotone!) On the other hand, I don't socialize with my students very much, if at all. Other instructors go bowling with them, or go to karaoke with them all the time. I only go if it's the end of the year celebration (and sometimes not even that). I can talk to them easily in class (it's like giving a performance), but outside of class, it's very difficult to relate to them. But overall, I am good at my job and I like it.

In Developing Talents: Careers for People with High Functioning Autism/Asperger's Syndrome, Temple Grandin makes it clear that not everyone on the autism spectrum is a math whiz. In fact, a lot of us have dyscalcula. I would add that not all of us are computer geeks, and in fact many like myself make horrible programmer analysts.

Some of us obsess on subjects like literature (poetry, novels, etc.) and entertainment--things not valued much in the job market. I wish more people knew that many Aspies/autistics are as far as you can get from being human calculators and computer geeks.

Last edited by ocelot1962 on 07 Apr 2008, 10:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

I am not fantastic at maths either - although that may be average adult rather than autism.
I can teach a subject with a passion and enjoy taking primary classes, and always loved my job except the bit that involved interacting with the other teachers in the school

My high school history teacher, Mr. Otto, is so obviously an Aspie it's funny. He taught at the same school for over 40 years, he started teaching in the early 60s and retired in 2003 when I was in 11th grade. The way he taught changed very little over those 40 years, a lot of the tests he gave to me were the same tests he gave to my parents! He used the same 1950's typewriter for making notes and worksheets since he started teaching! His classed were strict (nobody dared talk without asking permission), structured and regimented down to the smallest detail and change was not something that is in his vocabulary. His routine was so predictable you could use it to set a clock (philosopher Immanuel Kant, who was likely an aspie, was the same way and, not surprisingly, was someone Mr. Otto greatly admired). He was pretty much an institution he was there for so long!

Kant had AS?

It's all coming together now...

Oh, definitely. He was seen as eccentric, a bit of a recluse (except for having guests over for intellectual discussions), and was very much attached to routine and took the exact same path at the exact same time every day for his afternoon walks (which is why people used him to set their clocks!). His ethical system and his political views fits very well an aspie way of thinking.

I'm also a Kant fan, BTW.

Speaking of teachers, some sites claim John Nash, Nobel prize winner and Princeton professor is an aspie. I think that's going too far. Are some aspies also paranoid schizophrenics?

I know there are plenty of NT teachers here impersonating aspies.

why would anyone do that? its not logical

Why would anybody impersonate an aspie?

So the dealing with other teachers...strategies on that? My current one is simply keeping my head down and out and out minimizing it. The less aware they are I even exist, the safer I am.

-Frank