Teaching on the Spectrum, Part 2

I get asked a few times by colleagues and some on Twitter, what is it like to teach as someone on the spectrum. It is not easy, but for me school was a safe space most of the time (other than the bullying). I have a routine, where I go in do my job, decompress during lunch, and then go back and finish the job. There is a microcasm in of itself during the day that goes on in my head and while I am gifted in a lot of areas, teaching the content, data collection, classroom management, and assessment, I still struggle in a lot of areas.

For example, executive functioning such as taking attendance or grading in a timely fashion. When I had to grade as a teacher, turnaround was slow for me. Also, paperwork and planning are areas that I struggle. I can see the lesson in my head, know its steps, and how to implement it, but I struggle with writing it down. We use planbook in my district, and the colors overwhelm me to the point I shut down. Paperwork such as documentation on certain things, I am ok with, but I still struggle with other areas.

An area that I have grown in, is preparing for unexpected changes in the schedule. This includes testing changes, student absences, our SRO teaching classes, and others. If I know about it in advance, then I do pretty well. 

I still have sensory issues with the lighting and drills. Luckily, I have these light filters over my work area that help with the light overload and I have pretty Christmas lights in the corner of my room that are calming. I am so glad to be in a room where I can shut off my lights and still have enough light to not hurt my eyes, and cause headaches. I also have four walls that are closed off. My old school was open concept so it was noisy even when my class was working quietly. 

Now in terms of what goes on in my head, that's a different story. When I am in the moment teaching, I tend to info dump as most people who are ASD or higher functioning tend to do. I also tend to hyper focus on what I am teaching and what needs to be done. When I have a student that is dysregulated, yes it does bug me but now that I am studying a bit more on human behavior, I now understand it a bit more. Sometimes, when I am teaching and it is a hard day, my brain goes into white noise or shutdown mode.  It just happens for no reason.

-more to come