How Things Started

To start the real posting I thought I would start with basically where I started my career and where I have spent a majority of my short career.

When I applied to Clark County School District I did it during a time after graduation that I was trying to distract myself. Long story short, a family friend had passed away and I didn't want to think about it. I had set up an in-person interview with the district and planned a Vegas Trip with a friend of mine. The district ending up calling me and changing my interview format and appointment because I was in a "High-need area". So in the days between the funeral and going on vacation I had a phone interview. Fast forward 2 weeks, I'm home from vacation and gathering things with my friend for our Vegas Trip that we decided to keep and I get an email from a principal about a Resource position. Just to let you know, I wasn't sure I wanted to teach that but at the same time it was a foot in the door. I did a phone interview with her within 10 minutes of the email and set up an in-person interview with the AP of the school for a few days later while I was in Vegas. By the end of the day that I interviewed with the AP, I was offered the position and had accepted it.

Now, that first year like all first years was difficult. I also learned I really am not cut out to teach Resource. Like I said though, it was a foot in the door and that door opened for me at the end of the year for what I really wanted to do. I always wanted to teach a Self-Contained class. I was given the opportunity to voluntarily transfer at the end of the year and was able to decided then where and what I wanted to teach. I was given this opportunity because the district was moving Self-Contained programs around and deleted one from the school I was at. If that teacher wanted to stay, then to lowest seniority person was going to be involuntarily transferred unless someone voluntarily transferred. That person was me. It was suggested by everyone in my department and the principal that I just transfer on my own. So, I did and found the program I wanted and around the area that I wanted to be near due to my boyfriend at the time (now that man is my husband).

My second year of teaching was in a classroom that I felt like I fit into better. I was able to get into that self-contained Special Ed class that I wanted. The area that I was in, is a difficult area. It was full of very low income families. When I say very low, I mean like homeless or welfare, or Social Security from the kids type low. These families if they had an income coming in also didn't much care about education. Heck! We had parents that were addicted to controlled substances- both drugs and alcohol. I was in that particular class for 4 years. I just finished my last year at that school. Each year there presented me with a new and different challenge. A few of those challenges have changed how I do things even in my personal life.

A lot of the things that I will share through these first posts this summer will mostly contain things that I learned or materials I found that I like and used in my Self-Contained class. Some of the things can be transferred and used in a General Ed classroom and some may not be able to quite the way that I used them. So please keep this in mind as you read some of my posts.