Published on 12, July, 2020
I would like to know if there are any autistic teachers here.
I would like to know...
How has autism had an impact on your teaching (in and out of the classroom ....positive and negative)
How has the job affected your autistic life? Im thinking here specifically in terms of the non-classroom elements of the job. For example how does the paperwork and planning affect you at home and your routines? How do you cope with the stresses of the job and a changing environment? How does it impact on your worklife balance as an autistic person? Do you have many meltdowns shutdowns or burnout episodes? Do you have any sensory problems at work such as information or social overload? How do you cope with these?
Why did you decide to take up the profession and did you know you were autistic before you started teaching?
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I am self-diagnosed and can relate to many aspects of autism throughout my life. Since self realisation i am able to use coping strategies Im an adult tutor and currently this is the only teaching job ive had so i cant compare with other teaching roles. I would be interested to know how much of my job is general stress and how much could be down to being potentially autistic which compounds any stress. But i also would like to know your positive stories and experience!
I am a teacher with no formal training - late diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. Having always structured lessons around my student's needs, post-diagnosis, I am only now starting to consider my own needs as a teacher with autism.
I feel uncomfortable with some students and cant be sure if what I'm feeling is because I am just missing a few fundamentals as a teacher or because I am allowing myself to be railroaded by new students because I believe in choice allowed students to dictate where we focus in session and reign them in if we end up on a tangent away from their goals. The newest student I'm working with has disclosed to me he has OCD and is a qualified teacher and used to be in the army - he's quite forceful and wanted to hit the ground running so because he opted for feedback in person (only because I gave him the option) which backfired on me as I didn't get chance to digest it alone. Whilst it was all positive, I feel under pressure to make the lesson balanced but feel I've put myself under unnecessary pressure to give him a return of investment when I cannot guarantee the results after this first set of sessions. But also I don't have the sessions mapped out and am working 10X harder to accommodate his needs and sacrificing my own. I realise I haven't helped matters by the way I set the expectations which I want to improve and create a framework for my lessons and maybe an online course they have to do first to ensure they're up to speed on the theory first as I don't want to work with everyone.
I'm keen to understand if anyone can relate and if you have any recommendations or advice. Meanwhile I am trying to create a framework for my lessons but have no resources to pull from and wanting to create more distance especially with new students to make a consious call as to whether I want to work with this person or not rather than just try and help everyone. As there are too many mandatory theory bits they need to know about the reality don't know about which I need to get down almost on a course to give myself some time to decide if they are a good fit for my brand and programme.
Looking forward to hearing from you guys...