Teachers with ADHD out there?

[beechlover]

I have just "retired" after teaching for 13 years. I was diagnosed about 5 years ago. It has been a struggle for me throughout. Having said that, I don't think that means you can't teach with ADD. If you are a person with a LOT of energy, and don't mind working some each night and over the weekend, it may be fine. I found that I was never able to compartmentalize so I could fully enjoy life OUTSIDE teaching, and thus became resentful. I worked in a school with demanding parents, and I think once they got a whiff of my disorganization, they began to question my competence. Not having a great wellspring of self-esteem, the parent complaints really socked me in the gut.
However, there are things I love about teaching. It's different every day. The kids can be such fun at times, though challenging at others. Doing special ed means you would usually be working with small groups or individuals, which I think would be much more of a match for ADD. I love the different avenues you have for creativity. However, you will be going to endless meeting, each with lots of paperwork, which will be your cross to bear. Since I quite often would forget a meeting, it's important to set up whatever tools you can to keep your schedule in front of you, with reminders.

Perhaps going into it knowing your limitations will help. You can frontload all the organizational tools before you get started. Spend A LOT of time on this...get some help from a veteran teacher to set up your filing system, read a lot about setting up your space, and make sure you make positive connections with your fellow teachers.

Good luck!

[santouri]

I don't have an official diagnosis yet (that's in the works), but I am so grateful that there are teachers who have ADHD. I'm going into my third year, and I feel like if I don't get some help soon I'm going to lose my mind! I teach elementary music, middle school choir and middle school band. I don't have any two days with the same schedule (most days I have 8 or 9 classes of any age from K-8th grade), and I have a really hard time staying organized. I had a really understanding principal, but he has since left and I'm kind of nervous about the person taking his place.

Anyway, this is my first post, and I'm really glad that there I'm not the only teacher who is struggling!

[mimosa]

I like to color-code folders, etc, use a calendar and to do lists. Also, I like to always put things where they belong; that means I most decide/plan that first. As a teacher, we must do this first; then we must teach are students these procedures.
I also identify trustworthy, responsible and high-organized students so I can enlist their help. It works!

[sighduck]

Im a high school science teacher in training... when i finish my degree im gonna start working on my masters in ed. psych, so i wont be teaching for very long

[jasondega]

Hi Everyone,

I'm in postsecondary education and work as an instructor of computer information systems in a technical college. When I left work in the communications industry to become an educator the paperwork was the part that blindsided me! In industry, we were 100% ) paperless, and then suddenly I find out working for the state... I need 7 (literally 7) signatures from different people to complete an inventory transfer form! It's crazy.

The key for me has been developing systems to manage and remind myself of the deadlines. I use my outlook calendar extensively but like most ADDers... I find myself waiting till the last minute whenever I can to get paperwork done. I think maybe the only advantage of postsecondary ed is that we have less oversight. So while we have to do a lot of paperwork... it's not as much as you find in the elementary and secondary school systems.

In the classroom I've always been great. My students provide an interesting array of constant distractions that works very well with my ADD. I only started to have trouble as my career advance and I became department chair here and suddenly they want me to do *shudder* research! I'm still trying to learn how to cope with the research demands.

[MEDELIZA]

Found a wonderful resource at ADDCrusher.com. The references given for organizing were especially helpful for me.

[SquarePeg]

I´m not a qualified teacher, but live in Spain and give conversation classes to Spanish students aged between 5 and 18.

I have a lot of students and my main problem is that I can´t remember their names. I try to write little notes next to their names to help but it´s so difficult. I have had some students for over two years (only once a week) and still can´t remember their names. Filling in evaluations is a nightmare.

I find lessons plans so tough. I have no books to work with. I get an idea, start a plan and then get sidetracked and start on another lesson, and then another lesson, until I´m doing 5 at once and totally confused.

When I finally complete my plans and go to bed, I find that by the next morning they sometimes make little sense to me and I can´t remember what all my little notes meant.

I also end up redoing a lot of plans the following year because I can´t remember or find my old plans. I can´t seem to organise a filing system for them.

I only work 20 hours a week.

I have only just started meds so hope that my concentration and memory will improve.

[damnthedoodle]

I'm a nurse in a rehab center. Most of my patients have recently had hip or knee replacements and generally stay for oh maybe 1 or 2 months. I have a max of 15 patients at a time, and generally only about 10 - an extremely small patient load compared to most nursing positions. The only patient names I ever remember are the ones who I regularly "shoot the sh*+" with, and even then it takes weeks.

Each treatment I need to do goes something like this: Check computer for patient name room number, and remind myself which knee was replaced that needs the dressing change (I have rolled up the wrong pant leg on patients before...awkward) -> Walk down hall to patient's room and try to remember their name -> Knock on door and announce intent to enter room -> quickly walk back out of room to read the name on the door and hope they do not notice -> Say "Hi Doris! I've gotta change your dressing before bed, are you busy right now??"

I simply am not capable of remembering names. The CNAs I work with give me crap about this all the time too. They will try to reminisce about good times with "Old John in 104" or something similar, and I won't have any clue who they are talking about until they start describing the patient's crazy antics.

[onmyown]

I don't know if this will help but I'll tell you what my ADD wife does. The first several years teaching she left for work between 6 and 7 in the morning and didn't come home until 7 or 8 at night, occasionally staying until 9 or 10.

That did get better and I think its when she quit trying to do everything. Maybe that's when the "new teacher" expectations wore off? She is supposed to fill in her grade book before she does something but most often she fills it in afterward. She also keeps piles. It's not the best way of organizing things but something about it works for her. I think because she can do it quickly and come back later to organize. So she spends her time with students focusing mostly on lessons. Once they're gone she gets dragged into meetings. Once those are done she scrambles to clean up after all the messes in the classroom, fills in her grade book and calls parents. Then she piles all her grading and lesson project stuff in a cart and brings it home.

Now she typically leaves for work about 7 and comes home between 5 and 6. But, she still puts in 2-3 hours a night. I may be overstating that last part. It's hard for me to judge the actual workload because she looks at facebook and watches TV at the same time.

I think teaching is good for her because as a teacher (at least in primary) you get some autonomy on how to plan your day, how you will present the material and how to organize yourself and your students time and tasks. That's quite a bit more than any job I've ever had. I think that part is actually good for people with ADD. Now that they've got the Common code State Standards, there's more paperwork to do and more record keeping. It's also hard right now trying to figure out how their curriculum fits in this the standards, especially so now that they've been forced intto 4 days weeks. That part has been hard for her to adjust and starting this year, she's been working until 10 or 11 at night.

I see teaching getting less autonomous as time goes on. The systemic problems in our economy and society are being addressed in the classroom. That's the wrong place to do it in my opinion. People don't parent well when they have little or no opportunity in their lives. They also don't act as parents should when their role models don't. The lack of parenting comes into the classroom where teachers have to now teach basic life skills on top of curriculum. That's one thing I've noticed that's changed quite a bit since she started teaching. Instead of being one or two special needs kids, she's got 4-6 every year. Sometimes more. Some of that is from no child left behind, some of it has to do with poor quality cheap food, and some is just a change in society.

It's still rewarding for her to see students graduate high school that she taught in primary. The seem to always remember her too. If you have a love for children like she does then all that hassle will be worth it.

[demfabbones]

I was a teacher and got fired from my job. In my case, I believe I wasn't in the right job to begin with. I really, really thought I wanted to be a teacher, but my job now has the elements I loved about teaching without as many of the elements I didn't. However, I did learn some things about what I was doing WRONG that may help you now -

As far as lesson plans: I always wanted to be super creative and come up with lesson plans that would wow my students. But, it was difficult to follow through, and I really didn't have time to plan the type of lessons I wanted. I was constantly trying to "reinvent the wheel", but I should have cut myself some slack. Being creative is awesome, but don't think it's a cop-out or laziness to utilize the many free resources that are online for teachers. There are tons of free lesson plans, worksheets, etc. I never wanted to be a "by the book" kind of teacher, but in retrospect, I burned myself out trying to do too much. Online lesson plans are nice too, because you can organize them online with bookmarks, or even a site like Pinterest, and while it's not foolproof, it's easier than traditional filing. Stockpile them even for when you're having a rough day and need something fast and easy.

With the name thing - could you be upfront with your students about this problem and just ask them to wear name tags? It might be a little unorthodox, but if you explain that you have an issue that makes it difficult they may be understanding. I don't think you have to divulge any more than that.

I think a pro of your job is the fact that it's part-time. A con though might be that you have such a wide range of age groups. You obviously can't use the exact same plans with 5 year olds as 18 year olds. Maybe a job where you taught only adults, or only young kids, would be easier to organize.

Good luck!

[sighduck]

lol, the name thing is hardest on students here... on our practicals we only get to spend about 3-4 weeks at a school, so i never manage to learn more than a hand-full of my learners names

[TygerSan]

lol, the name thing is hardest on students here... on our practicals we only get to spend about 3-4 weeks at a school, so i never manage to learn more than a hand-full of my learners names

What I find particularly funny is that I'm generally very good with putting faces to names. . . when I meet people one-to-one. . . It took me *way* too long to put faces to names in my classroom. . . information overload maybe?