 Hello and welcome to today's episode of create a life you love. Now as I've said before, and I will continue to say, I believe we all have a purpose, a destiny, a dharma. Today's guest had a very special, an extremely special destiny, and she is here to share it with us. Hi, Sarah. Thanks for being on the show today. Thank you for having me. So, Sarah, you're going to share your journey into teaching with everybody. Yes. Excellent. So my first question to everyone is, when did you know this is what you wanted to do? So for you, that would be, when did you know that teaching was it? I want to say when, even like in elementary school, you know, we always filled out papers of, all right, this is what I want to do, this is my future, this is my favorite color. I feel like I always wrote, I'm gonna be a teacher. I want to say maybe around like third grade. So ever since then, it's kind of been in the back of my mind of this is what I should do. And that's that's wonderful to know that young, that that's what you wanted to do. Yeah. Absolutely. So I have my questions here. Now, you actually teach special ed. Did you know from that point you wanted to teach special education? At that young age, not, I didn't know I wanted to do special ed yet. But throughout the years, I mean, especially during college, you do a lot of observations and you can observe in regular ed, some special ed. And at that point I said, this is like really rewarding to see growth and special ed and just a different group of kids. Absolutely. That's, that's so wonderful. And so I need to ask, was, no, was special ed once you saw that, was there something about that that made you say, okay, this is besides it being rewarding, was there something about it that made you say, this is definitely what I'm destined to do? I think working with kids is what I'm destined to do. Whether it's necessarily special ed or regular ed, I don't know if there's either or. Right. Because I have a degree in both, so I could do both. Okay. But right now I enjoy the special ed. I enjoy that population as a smaller group of kids that I work with. So now that's interesting that you say you have a degree in both. So first let's start with where did you go to school to become a teacher? I want to UW Stevens Point to be a teacher. My first, at the end of high school, I thought about, okay, maybe I should do interior design. I like, I like that. And so Stevens Point had not only interior designing programs, but also education. And it was also close enough from home, but far enough away to be away. So exactly. I thought about that as so my first semester, I was interior design major by November. I said, this is not me. This is not what I'm doing. I should have just started with special ed or education. So by November of my first semester, I already switched my degree. Oh, that's isn't that incredible? Like there's just something inside of us that just pulls us in that direction if we listen to it, right? And I just felt like I needed to try, at least try interior design clothes. Like no regrets. Yeah. Like at least I explored it. Yeah, exactly. So then now there's a teaching degree. Now my sister is a teacher. Teachers hold a very special place in my heart. Now my sister, all of her life wanted to be a psychologist. Well, her dad taught her, you're going to be a doctor, you're going to be a doctor, you're going to be a doctor. Okay, like from five on. He had her at UWM summer classes. You're going to be a doctor. Yeah. And then she was like, Okay, I'll be a psychologist. And once she started getting her psychology degree, and it was in child psychology. And she was she did get her masters in it. And she said, No, I want to teach. That's what I want to do. So for her to teach at a collegiate level and to teach child psychology or to be, you know, in that field, there were a lot of different classes she had to get or degrees that she had to get for that. So to be a teacher, there's a specific degree and classes you have to take. So for special ed, what's the difference? What's that extra step that you had to take? So I have, like I said, I have a degree in both regular and special ed to dual major. I had an extra semester, an extra, I want to say it was about 70 hours of observations in classrooms. And so a whole extra semester of classes to have both degrees. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I know that she she says it's her passion. She would never switch over to treating people like even though it takes up about 60 hours a week to, you know, you have your class time, but that's such a small percentage. And a lot of people don't realize teachers spend most of their time working at home. Like there's what you do in the class, but there's so much more after the class, all the grading, all the prepping, all of that. So do you find yourself in that same position? Yes, I am more productive at school than I am at home. So I'll stay late. And like a lot of teachers, I'll stay late four or five, six o'clock sometimes after school, even though the kids were out by 230. So yeah, I got a lot of that done after school for the most part. Excellent. Perfect. So now there are different levels of special ed. I have my youngest brother who has Down Syndrome, and he is just this amazing little bean that I love to pieces. And he's, I think, I should know this, he's 36 now. So when he was entering school, that was the beginning, I think of special ed, where they were doing what they called mainstreaming children like him or children with these disabilities. So fortunately, they were doing that. And my youngest brother was able to be mainstreamed through, you know, from kindergarten through high school. Yeah. And it was amazing. Everybody knew him. Everybody loved him. They're like, Hey, Stevie, what's up? As he'd walk through the halls and but my little brother is such a character to begin with. But so there are different levels of special education. Can you explain some of like the levels to me, please? So every district is different on how they run special their special ed programs. In Milwaukee, where I teach, there's like medical or handy more medical special ed, so very severely medical classrooms. And then there's more the same curriculum, so still the standard curriculum, but they need full support all day. And so they're in the special ed classroom all day. And then there's resource, which is I'm a special resource teacher. All of my students are in general ed classrooms. And I'll go in and push into their classroom and help support them in that. Otherwise, depending on the day time subject, the students need at that day. Sometimes I pull them out into my classroom to do that as well. But they're all of my students that I service are all in regular classrooms. And I just support them and their needs throughout the day. Okay, perfect. So the medical would be like the children maybe who have Asperger's, well, maybe not Asperger's, but Down syndrome or some of those other autism, some of those types of disabilities. Would that be accurate? Am I understanding that accurately? Yeah, more severe. So there's some students with Down syndrome that are a little more typical that could be successful in a regular classroom with support. There's some kids with autism that could be successful in a regular classroom. It depends on the severity of their disability. Yeah, that makes that makes sense. Every child in every case, even with every disability, even if you say this kid has autism, this kid with autism is totally different than this kid with autism. So it depends on that student's needs. Absolutely, absolutely. So I know quite a few teachers and I know that and every teacher I know almost with the exception of two teach some level of special ed. And our working one is one of my friends that's a teacher works with the severely disabled or like she'll say let's go read a book and they'll start like biting her sometimes, which she says she doesn't mind because she completely gets it. She understands it. She knows she knows that this is just part of who they are or their way of handling these stressful situations. You're not in that situation. I mean, I have students with all those disabilities. A lot of them are learning disabilities. Some are just have ADHD, ADD, ODD, EBD, which is emotional behavior. And so I deal with a variety of disabilities. I mean, okay, every student's different every year is different. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So sometimes you might not even know what you're walking into. Yeah. Yeah, it's different every day. But that's your toes. It does. And it's it helps to create that challenge every day of what to work with. Yes. Now most teachers have to get continuing education. Do you find that you do continuing education in general or towards special ed still? That has changed recently. So now I have to do a like a five year reflection plan. It's kind of it's a newer thing within the last seven, eight years. Okay. And so I don't have to I don't have to take extra classes. I just have to do reflections every five years. So the Wisconsin's also passively changing that and doing lifetime licenses. And that's going through right now too. How do you feel about that? If they just do a lifetime license, and you don't have to do those continuing education or up to date things? Do you feel like that would be positive for teachers and students? I think teachers and districts provide so much all this professional development throughout the school year. And so things are always changing in education. And I think districts are doing all right, keeping up with all that and providing all this professional development. Teachers already do a lot on top of Yes, more work more than 40 hours a week. So then if you tell them to also take classes now over the summer and do this to keep up with your I think it's been a positive thing for teachers that I've heard. Yeah, I don't have to do this. And I agree because my sister does teach summer classes also. And so on top of all the classes she's teaching and all the homework, she's been taking classes and having to balance all of that with her family and her children and trying to get them to soccer and do a tri athelon and so on and so forth. So you teach in Milwaukee where was your first the first place that you worked? This where I'm teaching right now is where I got hired. So first job right outside of college got offered a couple jobs and took this one. So I've been there for four years at Emerson Elementary in Milwaukee. Yeah. So was there something about Emerson that really drew you to it? So at every interview you kind of get a vibe of the culture and the teachers around you and so and the principal and it just felt right. Nice. A good connection that I had at the interview. So excellent. Perfect. Yeah. So yeah, you know when I think we do we know when we walk in a place how it feels and if we would listen or pay attention to how things feel rather than some of the other things we think we should be looking for people would be much happier in their careers. Absolutely. Absolutely. So what are some of your favorite moments from teaching? Some of my favorite moments from teaching so when you're a teacher, especially in regular or special ed, when kids understand it all of a sudden they're like you're teaching this and you're teaching this and you're teaching this for a week and you're like oh these kids don't get it these kids don't get it. So you're trying something new and all of a sudden the kids I get this I know how to do this and you're like done like done and so and sometimes with some of my students, special ed students, it takes a little bit longer. So I'm still working on this one topic maybe for two weeks long, but finally when they get that I'm like yes, you get this so you can read that word and so that's always the exciting thing is that aha moment I understand this. So that's that's that's so amazing. I can imagine like because you're very passionate about helping children get to the next level. So when you see them getting to the next level, that must be very, very, very gratifying. Yeah. Is there anything any specific stories that you could share about that? specific stories. I mean, I keep a lot of student portfolios, I guess I could say throughout the year and so showing some of the students like these are the number of words you could read in the beginning of the year and just continuing to show their progress to them and they see that how much they've learned throughout the years. Because I only knew one word and now I know 10 so that's always exciting when they can see their progress as well. Yeah. So now what grades do you teach? I teach first, second and third. So that would make sense because that is the time and point where they are learning words, they are learning the simple addition, things like that, or simple math, I should say it. So do they by the end of the school year, do they understand the difference and the impact of everything that you've taught them? Some students, depending on where they are intellectually, I guess some students understand how much they've learned and how much they've done throughout the year. Some of them are more don't have much long term memory that they're like, oh, the one thing I learned this year is adding because that's what we just got done with last week or something. So depends on the student. That makes sense. That totally makes sense. Who was your favorite teacher growing up? I got two favorite teachers. So I had one, my third grade teacher. She was wonderful and she had my I have an older sister and a younger sister and she had all three of us back to back to back and so she just made a connection with our family and she's somebody I've gotten coffee with to this day and she still teaches and I observed her when I was in college and I would go into her class from every once in a while and so yeah, at that point in my life, I mean, she was wonderful and then in high school as well, I just one teacher who just is able was able to connect with you and that you could just go there and talk to them about, you know, I'm struggling with this even if it's a personal thing or a school thing and just very supportive. Yeah, I had a teacher in high school that was hands down just the most amazing teacher and when I first met him, I did not like him at all. He was very like no BS like very firm but I went to a high school. I went to a high school that was very a little rougher and so like there was no crossing the line and the line was way here and he actually is the one teacher who failed me in a course. Anyway, it was geography and I just I thought oh my gosh, this guy what is wrong with him and then I actually I had to take geography in summer school. Thanks. And then the next the beginning of the school year I took speech class and he was the teacher for speech and I wanted to drop it. I was like oh I just can't I can't I can't deal with that harsh of a like that strong of a teacher again but in the end he saved me. He just totally saved me and totally became my absolute favorite teacher and there's only a couple of teachers that I even remember to this day that I will ever think about and he's the one that always comes to my mind first and just what a wonderful teacher he was. Thanks Mr. Wagner. You were awesome. But yeah he he really helped me in so many ways and I do think teachers although they're there to teach kids they can really sometimes take that extra step and help them in so many other areas of their life because I ended up graduating early and he did everything to make sure that everything went the way it was supposed to and helped me out and just just such a solid great amazing teacher that would have done anything for any student as long as they studied. Yes. So if someone's thinking about going into teaching what would you tell them to be open and flexible. I think you need to be very flexible as a teacher things are especially in education things are always changing. Classrooms change every single year so there's a group different group of kids every year and then get into classrooms and start working with kids now volunteer doing anything because the most more observations and all that you can get and the more volunteering you can do might lead you in a the right direction of where you want to go. So would you recommend to someone that they think about special education or is that a calling. I always honestly whenever somebody says they want to go into teaching I always tell them to look into special ed first special ed is very needed right now in education I think nationwide. Absolutely. And so I always say I mean look at it try it out I mean at least at least observe I mean it's not I don't think it's for everybody even if you could be a regular teacher it's totally different than special ed as well so but I always recommend to at least try and look into it a little bit. So that's a great recommendation. I know some teachers they'll start teaching and within that first year they want out they're like okay this and some of them end up in a school that might be a little bit more challenging have a little bit more challenging or they end up in a high school or junior high which is very different than elementary school and would you say that for some of the teachers that you know that might be teaching junior high or high school does it get better after that first year do you get a better understanding do you embrace it more or is it one of those things where it's for you or it's not. The first year is the hardest for everybody no matter what grade no matter what I think no matter what I think every first teacher cries throughout the year and but you need to have a supportive staff. A supportive staff is different than me going home to my now husband or fiance at the time during my first year. The staff gets it if I go home and complain the same thing to my husband he'd be like well just do this no you can't just do that in the school so you need to have very supportive staff co-workers to help you through that first year yeah so and I was definitely lucky enough and blessed to have that to be in an environment where everybody was very supportive yes and do you think there is a difference between teaching elementary middle and high school yeah there's a different vocabulary you can use with elementary kids versus middle school versus high school like high school you can be a lot more real with the students of this is your future in the next couple of years you need to get it together you know and so um it's not you can't do that as much or have you can talk about your future in elementary school but not I don't think it connects to them right away so yeah oh absolutely now let me ask you if um if we if somebody is thinking about teaching does it take a different mindset to teach high school and I would think it would than to teach elementary school and if you're being placed in a school either as a sub or as a regular full-on teacher the type of school you get placed in makes a huge difference how do you make sure again that you can get in that right school for you um you might maybe you won't the first year and if you don't if you aren't happy or successful or something in that year I mean um I'd recommend you to try and something I get and try that again or find a different school at that time even in the different district I mean there's Milwaukee's huge every school is completely different in Milwaukee so it's very easy to transfer in there but um I think you need a supportive principal you need to support a staff no matter where you are whether it's high school junior high and middle school elementary so yeah I know um a lot of teachers that teach different grades or different skill sets to students they can get a little bit frustrated so is there something you do if you get frustrated that really helps you uh re-center and get get back into it with a positive attitude what's your go-to I always have a it's the next day is a new day um especially special ed one day could be rough for the student and the next day they had the most wonderful day of this whole school year um so just getting in the mindset of okay I'm done for today we'll try something new tomorrow um I usually I'll relax at my desk at the end of the day if it's a rough day and that I won't do much planning I won't do many emails I'll sit there and just take a couple breaths and just relax at the end of the day so this was it and we're uh yeah I totally get that I I can so understand that has there ever been anything that has one thing that could stand out that has really made you say this was absolutely the best choice I could have ever made for my career as of I don't know if as of yet I mean I feel like I'm still a new teacher even though it's it's four years in but I feel like there's still a lot of years ahead of me so um if I found that exact moment of this is exactly why I'm doing it I don't know if I've found that yet but I have years ahead of me to do so and I'm sure you have several moments throughout the day or throughout a week that will say this is it yeah I'm so happy this happened like when a student learns a new word or uh something something clicks for them yeah I'm absolutely sure that that's uh those moments keep you going too so yeah Sarah thank you so much for sharing your journey into teaching and your story and where you are and it's it's been such an incredible story thank you so much for taking the time to share that with us today thank you for having me absolutely absolutely and I want to thank you for joining us and listening to Sarah's journey into teaching if you're in a position right now where you're doing something that doesn't fulfill you I always say figure it out you have a purpose there's a reason that you're here each and every one of us should feel fulfilled each and every day with what we're doing and what we're giving to this world so please take the time to figure out what your dharma is where you're supposed to be and what you're supposed to be doing that doesn't mean you have to quit everything right here and right now to start something new there's always transitioning I myself have had at least three different careers in my life I've loved them all but you might love something for a while and then there's time for something else follow your passion follow your heart and find that path that you're supposed to be at thank you so much for joining us today on create a life you love until next time