Daily Prompt: Mentor Me

Have you ever had a mentor? What was the greatest lesson you learned from him or her?

I guess you could say I was a mentor…

I was a Teacher Assistant… later called a Paraprofessional… for 30 + years…

We were to instruct (teach) our Special Needs Students… under the guidance of the Teacher in charge…

I stayed in that profession as I said… for many years…

People asked me…”Why don’t you go back to school and become a teacher?”…

“You already know how to do most everything there is to teach”…

and my answer was, “I like my position!”…

I like implementing the assigned work prepared by the Teacher…

I like being able to give one on one instruction to our students…

I liked following them to classes where they were mainstreamed into classes with the “regular” students…

I liked taking care of their needs… either physical or mental…

I liked the freedom I found with the wonderful teachers I worked with…

I liked the repertoire I had with the kids parents…

I liked that I was doing a service that all would not like… and even heard others say, “I could never do that!”…”That requires such patience!”

I mentored by teaching these special children… math, grammar, spelling, reading, science, phys ed, art, geography, writing and training them in situations that they being… “special” … would encounter in their lives…

 

The teachers became friends… not just co-workers…

My mentors were the fantastic teachers I had the pleasure of working with… They taught me… as I taught the students in their class…

I learned so much!…

Things I would never had been in touch with if I hadn’t been placed in my position…

I thank the Lord every day for my experiences I was taught at the hands of some very good teachers…

and the smaller mentors (the kids I had the pleasure of working with)…

I tell everyone… THEY… these special kids…

Taught me… as I was teaching them!…

They taught me…

self-reliance…

strength…

determination…

caring…

fortitude…

and love…

and I thank them in my heart every day for the lessons learned!

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