I first wanted to be a teacher around the same time I had the first mental health diagnosis. At that time, I was in an elite institution that considers class, fraudulent syndrome, and chronic loneliness. I experienced ruthless insomnia, dissection, and brain fog condition. I was always tired and worried while hurt my condition.
My first year of my education, my student education, was very difficult. It was hard to give a clear instruction when my brain could barely understand me. In my anxiety, I couldn’t read the room during the whole class discussion. I had a day when my heart moved 1 mile per minute, and my instructions were messed up. Most of the day, when I spoke, I made a ST sound and was very unpleasant to my skin, so I was able to violate my voice. For a few weeks, I felt very low and sporadic high energy days. Instead of asking for help, I amolated myself and create a self -destructive story about how terrible I am. I felt self -conscious about my failure every day.
Even worse, I confirmed that I had a mentor teacher and knew I wasn’t doing a good job. When the employment season came, my mentor teacher told me, “You are too sick to be hired.” When our time was over, her last word was, “I don’t know what you are doing or how much you will continue as a teacher.” I knew I was struggling, and to relieve the tension between us, I was vulnerable and chose to share my mental diagnosis with her.
I continued to struggle with the mechanism of education, especially the most important part of being a teacher. Face -to -face。 I felt that this profession was more and more equipment. I felt that the student’s education year was really broken. No matter what happened, I felt that this very difficult job was insufficient.
Despite the disability in front of me, I did not accurate my graduate school experience, and I knew all anxiety and pain that I felt that it was not a problem since I was a child. I did it. I realized that what I wanted to do in my life was there for others who were struggling as me and for others. The person I wanted to be the most was my younger version.
The truth is that there was no day in my life that I had not struggled with mental health. The only difference is that I have tools and discipline to keep it sustainable. When I was first educated, I wanted to be emotionally there for young people. Now, I realized that it was not only for them, but also to give the skills I gained to live with me. NeurodiverGense。
The words of my mentor’s teacher have been bothering me for years, but now I’m proud to say that I’m not just finding a way to live with her. NeurodiverGenseBut I learned to accept it and even accepted it as a tool that helps students to provide the best education. Not only that, I was able to merge scaffold I built it for myself in the foothold provided to students.
Tools for students and teachers
If I have learned as a nervous educator, that’s it Competentist The world doesn’t wait for me, so I need to know what I need. For the past few years, I have learned that I can’t simply make a class plan. For my anxiety, I need to know exactly what I do in advance to meet the students’ needs. I will prepare a wide range, as I accept that this needs to be successful in order to exist.
As a result, we created a graphic organizer. Please make a voice。 You can write down the expected students and know when you have heard what you can appreciate the students. In addition, it is necessary to color the script part and pause to confirm the understanding. Before teaching, read the lesson plan. I knew that I couldn’t hold all the information in my brain in my brain, so I built a system on the lesson planning approach that I keep organizing.
I accept that I can’t provide high -quality lessons without important preparation. With the help of many therapists and psychiatrists, I learned that this is okay. Not only that, this level preparation means that you can share lessons with others and support new teachers when you need reference.
The self -awareness and organization I have found is a skill that can be a nerve -style teacher, and it should be given to all students, not all students. IEP or 504。 You need to teach all students for all students, such as color coding, affirmation, graphic organizer, or extension time to support becoming an independent learner. All of these are tools I use every day as educators.
Now I understand that tasks need to start faster to complete on time. These hard lessons can be conveyed to the students as real. Because I can speak from my personal experience as a person who had to find a way to fuss the expectations of experts, not because they are trying to give them strict love.
There are still days when I can’t communicate clearly as I want. I know this, so I write down the direction and expectations Students -friendly checklist format If all my slides have a hard time giving me a consistent direction, the students can at least refer to them. After all, a checklist format is a repetitive accommodation facility given to many students with IEP, and is often discussed as “” “often” outside the context of special education. “Changing。 “I know that I need to have it for neurological production, and not.
Finally, I have not disclosed the diagnosis with the students, but when the mental hygiene day is bad, I am honest and transparent. I literally say, “I’m sorry, everyone, E is on the struggle bus today.” And when the student asks me what I mean, I say, “I’m just struggling with my mental health.”
As a result, we had a honest conversation about some situations, such as depression and anxiety. When choosing to be vulnerable and honest, I provide a moment to teach hindrance It means that my students may not be able to get it. When I talk about myself, I open the portal in a world where teachers are humanized, rather than being considered the authority to distribute grades at the end of the semester.
Our difference is not a burden
I tell her that if I can return to the person who was there when I started a student class, she would be a superpower as an educator.
I know the importance of scaffolding, accommodation, and accommodation facilities, so I don’t think my disability is a burden on my educational practice. Universal design learning。 I wake up, I can’t make the future in the future, and know what kind of support for me to use my affirmation, exercise, and meditation. Mental resilience。 Since I am alive, I can tell the students the value of the strength of the building in the face of pain.
My preparation, my heart, and my diligence are all the results of my neurology. To that end, I am proud to say that I am writing this as a person who finds the tools and strengths needed to keep this in education. Eventually, everything you need to succeed as a teacher and what you continue to use is exactly what my students need. Neurodivergent teachers think that they are classroom assets because they have directly experienced the difficulty of receiving and processing information. We know what the teacher has said and do not meet the eyebrows with eyebrows. Students know that they need fundamental patience, compassion, attention and curiosity. Because it is necessary as a student in the classroom. Eventually, “what was happening” with me was a classroom and avoided it.
