Vent and question to teachers

[eureka1017]

Working for this childcare company has felt like a major roller coaster. First things were good and I was working at a A++ school but my boss there felt as though I wasn’t being challenged and recommended me to the title school that I am at now. Me being the one to accept the challenge, I went there and fell in love with these under privileged children and I truly felt like I could make a difference. But in October things had started to go south. First, it was working with all these "EBD"- behavioral students, as I started to work with them, it was a challenge. I had never experienced working with children who could go from 0-60 in less than a millisecond and second, my father hit on this a lot, he felt as though I wasn’t getting the whole picture of the students emotional problems therefore I wasn’t succeeding because the company or director was choosing not to tell me the full story mainly giving me no support. Then as Thanksgiving came around I got my performance review and my boss clearly stated that she wasn’t sure this was the place for me as I am trying to bring order to my students in a militia type of way. (in researching and reading about childcare- I found out that children need order and discipline to truly thrive) and in my many free meeting with other workers in company training classes this seemed to ring true, however at my center, my boss feels it’s horrible to treat children this way. So again I got absolutely no support. This past Friday seemed to be the last straw when a co worker tried to get one of the snacks for the children to eat for herself when I knew there wasn’t enough to go around for the children and I yelled across the hall for her not to touch it. The boss overheard me and pulled me aside and was like it is not your place to tell her what to eat. When I stood up for myself explaining the situation, the boss who is related to the coworker sided with the coworker and said I was mean and condescending and catty and she was writing me up for being catty and bossing her around. This seemed to be my last straw and I couldn’t take it anymore. I went home on Friday annoyed upset and angered.

On Saturday I thought things through and have decided to quit working there even though its only weeks away from Christmas.
I feel heartbroken because the children are the ones who are going to suffer. I believe that some of them even though they treated me like crap truly did listen to the words I said and understood but a lot of them just kept waiting for me to be fired or to be replaced as so many have come before me. But what rubs me the wrong way, is the lack of support or camaraderie between coworkers. I feel as though they just want a worker to be a babysitter and I don’t feel like I want to be that. I want to teach, but with the economy the school board is on a hiring freeze. I have a degree and I feel like my smarts are failing as they don’t like that I have a degree and or smarts. (I even brought a dictionary for the kids to use) and home work time is a joke. Most of my students have straight Fs and could really use the help.

Man, as I look up at what I have written, if you have read this far, I thank you for sticking with me.

My questions to you are what helped you pick your career?
As I move into what I am calling a "New Beginning" I am trying to figure out what my next move is and what I should do...
TIA

[macmars45]

I work for a school district with special needs preschoolers. I love it! My coworkers are great and I love the kids. ;D

I've always loved working with kids who need a little extra help to succeed. I got a degree in early childhood education. It took me four years to get to my current job. Four years of crap part-time dead end jobs, but I finally made it.

I am really sorry about your job and the lack of support. GL with whatever you decide to do.

[Joseph_Ohler_Jr]

What are you doing career-wise now? If you don't mind teaching professional adults and live near a branch campus of those "online universities" having onsite teaching centers (DeVry, Strayer, U. of Phoenix, etc.), then I advise you to apply for an instructor position there.