Working with kids is teaching me so much about life, myself, and people.  

They've taught me to be assertive when I need to be.  Sometimes you really need to be the boss in certain situations.  You have to be to survive.

They've taught me not to care too much about what people think.  Try as I might to prevent this, there will be days when the kids are furious with me, upset, cranky, etc.  I've gotten to the point where I don't really care.  Of course I want them to be happy, but I don't take it personally when they take out their anger/crankiness on me.  I know it's bound to happen.  This makes me think I should go easier on adults, too, and not take things adults do so personally.

Kids have taught me that even a bad day has lots of good in it, and vice versa.  There are always highlights to even the worst day.  You have to focus on the highlights to stave off disenchantment at the least and at the worst, depression.  This is so true of life, yet perhaps the highlights aren't always as clear as they are in a classroom.

I've learned that I probably don't want to work with kids again.  I think I might prefer the older crowd more.  While I would consider my work right now a generally positive experience, I'm seriously wondering whether I want to sign up to do it again.  I think that if you have to ask yourself the question of whether or not you should be working with kids, if you have to think about it for any length of time, the answer is probably no.  I have to think about it a lot.  Where does that lead me?  Maybe to grad school for Spanish or Fashion Design school or something else to do with Deaf Education or some office job I don't know I'm in love with yet.  I guess I'm still trying to figure out whether or not I love teaching or if something else is better for me.

Sometimes it is a complete surprise where life leads us.