Last March, I left my 22-year job with the Department of Education. I chose to take early retirement when my other options included being laid off, transferred to another agency, or working for an administration that clearly wanted to destroy the agency.
Ten months ago I took a job as a teaching assistant in a local high school. The principal couldn’t give me a teaching job, but he did set me up assisting some of his best English teachers, so I could learn much more about teaching. It’s been quite a journey, and now, my first school year is ending and I’m saying farewell for the summer to students I’ve come to love.
I entered high school with trepidation — I hadn’t liked my own high school experience. At first, it was all I could do to find my classrooms and learn my students’ names. Then I gradually came to learn about their different needs (all of my students have disabilities and most are English learners). I needed to learn how to support them without pushing them too hard, or doing too much of the work for them.
A teacher and students sit in a circle enjoying a lively reading group in their classroom.
" data-orig-size="1024,1024" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" data-image-title="Engaged classroom reading group session" data-orig-file="https://thebookstop.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/the-book-stop-6a2c19e9aea1e.png" style="width:423px;height:auto" data-image-description="The image depicts a warm, inviting classroom where a teacher and six students are seated in a circle engaged in a reading group session. Each student and the teacher hold a colorful book, smiling and sharing the reading experience. The classroom is decorated with educational posters, bookshelves filled with books, a whiteboard featuring history class notes, and drawings on the walls. Natural light filters in from a large window showing a view of trees and a building outside, creating a bright and cheerful atmosphere focused on learning and collaboration.
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","alt":""}" width="1024" data-comments-opened="1" data-permalink="https://thebookstop.wordpress.com/the-book-stop-6a2c19e9aea1e/" alt="Teacher and six diverse students sitting in a circle, reading books during a history class reading group" height="1024" srcset="https://thebookstop.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/the-book-stop-6a2c19e9aea1e.png 1024w, https://thebookstop.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/the-book-stop-6a2c19e9aea1e.png?w=150 150w, https://thebookstop.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/the-book-stop-6a2c19e9aea1e.png?w=314 314w, https://thebookstop.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/the-book-stop-6a2c19e9aea1e.png?w=768 768w" class="wp-image-22962" data-large-file="https://thebookstop.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/the-book-stop-6a2c19e9aea1e.png?w=560" />Around the middle of the school year, I felt a shift in the work. Instead of feeling helpless, I started to feel pride in how well my students were doing. Instead of going home exhausted I started to feel energized. Not that every day was flowers and sunshine. Our students bring a lot of issues into the classroom. One was terrifyingly angry, and others alternated between depressed, rude, and uncaring. I didn’t know who I’d see each day. I worked to learn things about each student so I could connect with them — sports teams they liked, music, pets. When all else failed, I baked something.
It may be cliche to say the small breakthroughs are worth it, but it’s true. I had students who refused to read aloud who are now comfortable with it. I had one student with severe anxiety who flinched any time I went near him, and now, at the end of the year he’s smiling and talking to me. Maybe that sounds like a low bar, but it’s a meaningful one.
To be clear, as a teaching assistant I didn’t do most of the work the teachers do. I didn’t have to buy supplies, attend countless meetings, or meet with families. But I’m hoping to do all that next year. I don’t know what the next school year will bring, but I love the school and I want to see my students walk across the graduation stage in a few years.
This last year has been a constant test of how I see myself and what I value. I still miss my government job. I was used to supporting our family financially and now I couldn’t. I went from managing a team to assisting teachers in a job I knew little about. Some days I felt too old to be starting over.
People told me that amazing new opportunities would arise (“when a door closes, a window opens”) but that only made me worry about those opportunities that were eluding my grasp. I applied for so many jobs, only to receive generic emails in return.
Dealing with change and uncertainty isn’t my strong point. But as the school year closes and I prepare for vacation, I can see how much my students have grown and I look forward to seeing them as sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The changes in one year have been huge, and I can’t help but feel honored to have played some small role in that.
