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AGING WELL|LIFE-LONG LEARNING|FOLLOWING DREAMS
One Step Closer to My Last Career
I started this post in November, after I received my Alternative Teaching Certificate. I had passed the K-12 exam and completed a certain percentage of my courses to qualify for the Alternative Cert. All I need to do now is complete a year of “student teaching,” finish my courses, and take two Constitution course — U.S. Constitution and Arizona Constitution. Then I will be fully certified.
My “student teaching” is covered by my actual employment at the school where I work now. After starting out as a part-time driver, I became an Assistant Teacher full-time, and am now a full-time teacher. When the once locally-owned private school for Autistic students sold to a larger private company that runs Special Education schools across the country, it began the transition from a not-quite school, not-quite daycare center to a full-fledged accredited K-12 school.
I’m proud to be working in this school. In the past few months, we have seen major changes which have been difficult for students and staff alike. It has been especially hard on some of the staff who are diagnosed Autistic themselves. There’s been a lot of training, and some warning about certain changes on the horizon, but there have also been sudden, immediate shifts in expectations. These are hard for…
