Teachers who have Aspergers

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I'm currently in my final semester of student teaching and am wondering if there is anyone else out there that is either a student teacher or actual teacher who is on the autistic spectrum. It's been difficult and there really isn't much support out there for me. Student teaching almost feels like I'm back in High School getting bullied again. It's not just the kids though, even the other teacher's at the school talk down about me. The atmosphere has just become so negative. Of course if they only knew what it was like having this disorder and the day to day anxiety that comes with it, I'm pretty sure they would never be able to handle what I've had to deal with. I have disclosed my condition to a few people at my site, but it hasn't made things that much better unfortunately

Yes that's right, I'm an Aspie teaching high school kids, what the heck am I doing!?

So please, if their's anyone out there how can offer me advice please do, it would mean so much to me

I'm a music teacher. I teach private lessons only, so I don't have the same set of challenges as you do.

I taught for two weeks once (1990), suffered a monumental crisis brought on by the stress. I resigned from my university teaching course and wandered off into the social blizzard.

I teach college courses online. If I was asked to teach in person, I'd give it a shot, but....

i was a teacher for 5 years (and finally a principal). the teaching part went smoothly, but the parents/teachers/admin were difficult to work with at times though not impossible. my worst experience was during my practicum (before i was diagnosed with anything), when i was placed with a very experienced teacher who did not allow any flexibility in how i was supposed to deliver lessons. she was old-school and i was into attempting things experimentally. i ended up almost dropping out of the program and only stayed enrolled with the assistance of a counsellor in the department.

once i had my own classroom, things were much better, and the best experiences were jobs where i could really tailor the classroom direction according to my vision. i was able to get great results but they had to let me do it my way (backed by research, of course). i worked in classrooms that were not part of big schools in big divisions, though - i worked rurally, in tiny non-unionised schools. it was a sacrifice i had to make in order to find environments that worked for me.

it's better when you finish school because it is YOUR classroom.

I used to be an EFL teacher (teaching English as a Foreign language) and I couldn't cope with it. Here is part of a post I wrote elsewhere on my experiences:

I taught English as a foreign language for a number of years and found it tough. Firstly, I had problems with class management and discipline. Kids will always test their boundaries and to maintain discipline you to respond to problems quickly and decisively, which I was never able to do, they knew it and took advantage. Another problem was engaging the students. I tended to lecture and do too much talking, my voice is a bit toneless and they got bored, which led to discipline problems. Trying to keep the students needs good communication skills, enthusiasm and a lot of energy, and after 6 hours of teaching I was totally exhausted. Also keeping myself organised was a real challenge. I was asked to do yearly and semester planning, which I found very difficult. It was easy to plan a single lesson, but a whole semester is a different matter... I felt overwhelmed, stressed and unable to cope. Another thing I couldn't cope with was being observed while teaching. Also, a school staffroom is just like a big office, including all the politics that goes with it. Staffroom politics is completely over my head and I was always the last to catch on to what was going on.

I know that there are some successful teachers with AS, but I wasn't one of them. I still do some private online tuition.

To me, your problems sound like they'd be school-specific. Have you tried teaching at a different school? Each school has its own 'climate', so you might do just fine with a different bunch of coworkers.

I substituted for a short time but was driven out of it by bullying from the other adults. I liked the actual job, but the social environment was intolerable. It was the cattiest, backstabbing-est group of people I've encountered since high school.

I've noticed a few in the work and education forums.

I taught for 5 years. I went into teaching with the naive idea that I would be teaching almost all of the time. Most of my time instead was spent on discipline. The students liked me and did well on their yearly tests the state gave to see how well they were being taught. Other teachers viewed me as a ret*d. They would even go as far as telling their students I was. The students would talk to me and say "Mrs. So & So says you are ret*d, are you?" Needless to say I did not stay in teaching.

I teached programming to college students. It's a lot different than what you do, but if you have any specific questions, shoot.

It helped that i have been coding in many languages in my life and i could basically have "winged" the entire course if i would have wanted to. The course plan was thrown into the bin on the first week and i made a new one based upon what i saw useful to know as someone who want to learn/see what it is like to code professionally.