Hello everyone! I am the newest blogger for the education forum here at Families.com. I really just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself, so that when you are reading my blogs you may feel like you know me a bit better.
My name is Kaye and I currently live in Missouri. I am a transplant, having lived in Iowa for most of my life. In January of 2005 we moved to South Carolina for a job promotion for my husband. As it turned out, he didn’t love his job so much down there! So, we packed up our bags and moved, twice in eight months! Our intention was always to return to the Midwest, so that is just what we did, a little sooner than planned.
We settled in Missouri and my husband loves his new job. Our goal, however, is to return to Iowa in the next few years. We really want our two small boys to get the best education possible, and Iowa is just the place to do it. Add that to the fact that it is a great place to grow-up; we just really feel the need to be back there. Can you tell I am just a bit biased towards Iowa?
Back home (and when I say this, I mean Iowa, of course!) I was a teacher for almost ten years. I graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1994 (did I just give away my age?) and went on to teach at a school just for students with severe behavior disabilities. I was fresh out of college working with junior-high and high-school students in what was basically a last-chance before lock-up school. I loved it! I knew then that I had found my calling, teaching students with behavior problems.
I taught at the school for three years until I decided to make a change. I accepted a similar position, but with less severely behavior disordered children, in my hometown. This time I was teaching in a public school and not a segregated setting. Again, this was a job that I truly, truly adored. My “kids” as I still lovingly refer to them as, were mostly boys with some big behaviors.
The last two years of my teaching career saw me meet my husband, get married and have our first child. I had also switched from teaching behavior disordered students to learning disabled. I loved teaching children with learning disabilities, but it only made me realize that teaching behavior disordered children is where my heart was.
After the birth of my first son, I went back to teaching but just part-time. I really thought I could handle it, I really did! No such luck. I missed my baby and I loathed the fact that his wonderful babysitter (and she was wonderful) was doing all these fun things with him while I was teaching. So, I resigned. I haven’t looked back since….okay, once in awhile I get that teaching twinge again. I even took a job at a local learning center a few nights a week here in our new city, just to keep my teaching skills fresh.
We now have two children, and that is it. No more. Someday, when we get back to Iowa and my boys are in school, I will go back to teaching the one thing I feel truly called for: behavior disorders.