I found my way into teaching special education for secondary students with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) by accident. When I was in high school I wanted to be an English teacher; however, I followed another path and completed my B.S. degree in Exercise Sport Science from East Carolina University and became a Health Promotion Specialist for a Fortune 500 company. After my first professional job, I spent the next seven years bouncing around from one job to the next because of layoffs, downsizing, and corporate buyouts. I worked in the health field, the energy industry, marketing, and information technology. During this time, I got married to my beautiful wife and had two wonderful children. After my last layoff, I realized I needed to find a career that was stable and that would give me a marketable skill that would allow me to successfully take care of my family.

Until I decided what I wanted to do, I went back to my roots and started teaching health promotion and fitness classes for Inova Healthsource. While there, I met Dr. Rick Leichtweis from The Kellar Center. The Kellar Center provides educational, therapeutic, and outpatient treatment to students with EBD and learning disabilities (LD). A few months passed before Dr. Leichtweis asked if I would work as a camp counselor for six weeks at their Attention Deficient and Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) Camp. Before I answered, he started to tell me that I would be perfect for this population. Honestly, I thought he was crazy. However, I needed the money, so I agreed. I fell in love with the kids and the program. The summer ended and The Kellar School offered me a job as a mental health technician/long-term substitute teacher. Although I took a $10/hour pay cut, something inside of me told me I had found my new career.

Prior to starting at The Kellar School, I had begun a graduate degree in social work to become a licensed therapist. However, the more I worked with students the more I realized that the teacher got to spend more “good” times than “bad” times with the student. So after a semester of social work classes, I transferred to the Masters of Education program at George Mason University (GMU) and applied for my emergency provisional teaching license. While at The Kellar School, I completed three years of teaching special education, two summers as a Camp Director of the ADHD/Autism camp, and two summers as a counselor.

After finishing my M.Ed. I was accepted into GMU’s Ph.D. in Education program and started the program in August 2008. That same month I started a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) position with Dr. Margaret King-Sears and started a new teaching assignment at Freedom High School as their School-Within-A-School teacher (SWS). The SWS teacher manages the school’s EBD students and program throughout the school year. As of August 2009, I will be starting my second year at Freedom High School, my second year as a GRA for Dr. King-Sears, and my second year in the Ph.D. program.

As I look back on how my teaching career got started, I’m happy that The Kellar School was my first teaching assignment. I had spent several years teaching corporate lectures about health promotion and fitness to adults. However, teaching academics in a classroom with teenage students who do not want to be there or hate you because you are simply a teacher is an eye-opening experience. The skills that I learned at The Kellar School were on how to deescalate a student while they were in crisis, manage a classroom, classroom teaching, develop instructional plans for individual students and classes, write Individual Education Plans (IEP), provide individual and group counseling, and to manage a day camp. Each teacher was given a set of core and elective classes that they taught. We were also the substitute teachers if our peer teachers were out sick or on a reward trip.

I probably experienced more outrageous behaviors and difficult teaching situations in the three years I taught at The Kellar School than most teachers do in their first five years of teaching. During my Masters program when I found out that a fellow graduate student wanted to teach high school students with EBD I would ask them if they have ever been threatened or cursed at by a teenager. A majority of the time the answer was no. I would encourage them to observe an EBD class because working with students with EBD is not for everyone.

My wife says that I am the horse whisper to students with EBD. I admit that I understand how they think and how they act. I believe a part of the reason why I understand students with EBD is because of the three years I worked at The Kellar School. I also believe that I understand them, because I listen to them.

After finishing my M.Ed., I felt that it was important for me to teach in the public schools to understand the differences and similarities of public and private schools. This past year of teaching at Freedom High School (FHS) has been much easier in regards to managing student behaviors, but challenging in regards to the amount of policies and procedures that need to be followed. The students’ behaviors are less dramatic, but they still need the support and encouragement from a teacher that understands their needs. The County does provide structure and guidance for the SWS program by creating a clinical team in each school that consists of Administrators, Counselors, School Psychologist, and consulting teachers to help support the SWS teacher. FHS is excited that I will be starting my second year with them, because this is the first time they will have had the same teacher coming back to manage the SWS program.

Throughout the years, I have learned that I am an experiential learner. So when I started my Ph.D. program I wanted to work as a GRA to gain valuable experience in conducting research and writing grant proposals. Throughout my first year as a GRA, I gained valuable experience in writing and assisting in the submission of a Human Subjects Research Application, writing and submission of a grant proposal for a research project, managing and manipulating statistical data, and creating PowerPoint presentations for various audiences.

At times, I wish I had followed my dream back in high school and pursued a career as an English teacher. But looking back on my childhood and roller coaster ride of a career, I know everything brought me to this point so I could better understand and connect with my students with EBD. As I look towards the future, I am torn between conducting research that will help students with EBD and continuing to teach students with EBD. However, I know in my heart I want to make more of an impact in education than just teaching a small group of students. I believe that as I move forward in my Ph.D. program and into my career I will always continue to work with students with EBD in some capacity. I will conduct research in the use of meditation and alternative therapies in helping students with EBD deal with everyday stresses of life and school. I also hope that through my research and endeavors, that I will help start a school or program that will utilize the latest findings in the use of meditation and alternative therapies for all students.