I'm wondering if any of you have experience teaching elementary school, and if so, what has your experience been like?

I'm currently working as a behavioral therapist for a little boy in a first grade classroom and to my surprize I've learned that I love the kids and I envy the teacher -- it looks like a fantastic job! However, I also know that teachers have a lot of detailed stuff that they have to handle plus the bureaucratic bs.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had experience in this and what was it like? I have a few years before I want full time employment and I'm wondering if getting a teaching degree would be worth my while (I have a BA in psychology and our state has programs for people who already have degrees to get certification).

I'm currently in training to be a teacher. I just finished a brief practicum in a grade 2 class. I loved it! The lesson plans and marking and all that can be hard, but I find if I do it while watching TV or something it's not too bad. And the internet is a HUGE help!

The planning and paperwork can be difficult. Also, depending on the group of students you have, creating the structure and consistency they need can be a struggle. I teach second grade in an inner city school and was sinking before medication, when I worked in an upper-middle class district, I did ok without medication.

It really depends upon the age group, behavioral needs (inner city would be much more difficult than the suburbs), the severity of your ADHD and amount of paperwork and documentation your school requires. My school has doubled the amount of paperwork from last year! :eek::(

It can definitely be manageable and enjoyable though. Good luck!

amiegrace, I teach high school and formerly middle school (too many hormones) and most of my fellow teachers believe that there is a high percentage of teachers with ADD!

I am a second career teacher-started teaching at 50! So I truly am crazy! :D If you want to teach go for it. I love it, there are challenges because of the ADD, but I believe it makes us more compassionate and caring, plus, we get bored easily-that helps us make our lessons not only educational but fun too. And, the best part? Kids learn and retain knowledge much better with humor, if it is interesting, and when the teacher cares.

Love to talk to you more!

RADDmom, RADDteacher!

Great points above. I taught regular ed for a few years and struggled to get through the mountains of paperwork, lesson planning (though I loved to create them-to actually write them down was an entirely different thing), and I tried to do to much extra curricular stuff (student council, 5th grade safety team, PTA etc)

However, now that I have switched to SPED world, things are a bit different. I still hate to do the mundane tasks; but....my aid has been a god send. She is a tremendous help, of which you don't get in a reg class. She really helps me with the tremendous amount of paperwork SPED teachers deal with, she helps organize my IEP meetings, keeps me on task, and is just generally a person I couldn't do without!

I taught for 12 years and loved it. There is always something new with kids. The downside for me was grading the paperwork -- I think I lost more papers than the kids.:rolleyes:

I admire the fact that you made a mid-life careeer change. Very cool! I'm thinking of doing my own mid-life career change and I'm in my mid-forties. I would like to go into Social Work possibly, but that has yet to be determined. When you first starting planning for you career change, did you tell many people and did you get much support? I am finding it can be hard to find support for this endevor .