What if the TEACHER has ADD?

I am ADHD and I just realized it recently. What you have described is so familiar to me. I would get so frustrated because I wondered how some people could do something in 1 hour that would take me days.. I remember working at a learning center and the director said, “You have all these wonderful ideas but you sure have a hard time focusing on what to start with…But she helped me with organizing where to start and implemented my ideas with other students. Don’t beat yourself up about what your short comings are. See the beauty in who you are and the gifts that you have for they are many…I can see them and I know you know what they are too.

I have periods when I am super organized and others where I make such a mess that it drives people bonkers. When I start working with kids who are struggling with their ADD and accepting it, I am straight up with them. I tell them that the only person who counts is them, and that if they want something they are the only one who can stand in their way. The choice is theirs. I also tell them that I too struggle with ADD but that I have learned to accept it and celebrate it. Perhaps you can make friends with a fellow teacher who has strengths in your weak areas but you can help her with having some creative ideas in her classroom and she can help you get organized? Heck, that is why CEO’s have personal assistants to help them stay on top of their busy schedule, etc…

Thanks for having the strength to admit and post your difficulties. You are right, most of your colleagues do not “get” the issues, not even some “special ed teachers”. They however are not “organized enough” to follow the ieps that they help to create! I would try not talking about it, bcs you probably will get nowhere. Most people think this is a made up disorder for lazy kids and lazy parents and that you will “outgrow” this. Well as you know you do not outgrow ADD, you keep learning stradegies to compensate (even in adulthood). We have many people in our family with ADD. They have shortcomings and many strengths. Some are more successful in careers than most people who do not have ADD. A psychologist once told me that most CEOs have ADD. Is this true, well I do not know. I would think it could be. You need to be able to think out of the box, move from one thing to the next, do more than one thing at a time, and they have SECRETARIES to organize them, so they do not miss those meetings :)!

I don’t have ADD but I am not a super organized person. I also teach for a living, although college students which involves less details. However, once I gave back papers at the end of the term without recording the grades first!!!!

Anyway, I think you are being too hard on yourself. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. And most people, ADD or not, would turn to the rude student while ignoring the quiet one.

You have many gifts and it is no small thing that you understand your students.

Maybe you could find someone to help you figure out some systems to keep the paper in check so you don’t lose your sanity. Personally, I use a very loose system because I don’t have the interest/energy to deal with any other sort. I keep all material related to a single class in a file box with wheels. I record grades on the computer because the hard disk doesn’t getlost!! I use a wall calendar for meetings because at least I know where it is!!! (I long ago gave up on desk calendars because you never could see the surface of my desk.) I also do research and keep everything related to a project in office envelope boxes. (I can never remember where I filed something!!).

Also, while it is great to want to be an incredible teacher, perhaps being a very good one is enough. And perhaps the challenge of life for you to be content with that. I have a colleague who consistently is rated very high by her students but who always compares herself to the best teachers she ever had and feels she falls short. I think she is too hard on herself too!!!

Beth

Funny you should mention it- My brother-in-law is a 47 year old corporate executive. He has been struggling with the idea that he might be ADHD.

The doctor with which he is working told him that a number of ADHD people who get past the magical barrier of not having/then having a secretary. If they get to that point, their career can really skyrocket- someone else handles the minutia and keeps them focused and reminds them of things while they continue to work on the big ideas. So that anecdote you mention could very well be true! That would be a great study!

I suppose that is what ADD coaches are meant to do, on a smaller scale. How could I find a coach? Where should I look?

Afraid I cannot help you find the coach. I would like one for my child. Do they offer such coaches in the school you work in and what do they do for the child? I can suggest that you buddy up with a colleague to learn their organizational stradegies and use the ones that will work for you. Get a great calander for those appointments and a red pen to highlight the most important items. You could visit a psychologist or somebody trained in teaching these stradegies. Do not beat yourself up. A member of the iep team in my school missed my son’s meetings twice through several years. The secetary called him, we waited and then began the meeting. Each time he used the excuse of a crisis in the school, which was just that, an excuse. I know he forgot, but we moved on.

Thanks for your story. I just love/wallow in stories from other adults. For me, the world has cleaved into those who know what I am talking about, and another sphere of those who think it is a crock of s***. I am trying medication, and seeing some improvement, but it is not providing the miracle my dr. seemed to anticipate for me.

I am trying not to beat myself up. But more importantly (sort of) is keeping my job!! Others sometimes interpret my shortcomings as either not-caring, or irresponsibility. And uh… I don’t have tenure!! I took a job cut to work here, and moved my family accross town. One of the reasons I did this was because this school was very computerized (grades attendence, etc.) and I thought there would be less of the paper pushing shuffle that I cannnot manage. And it is less, so that is an improvement. Some deans have recently told me to just email them instead of filling out the forms. I have secretly thought that if principals managed schools as if ALL teachers were ADD they would be much more satisfied with performance, and less frequently disappointed.

I have just started to ask some other teachers how they organize certain things. I am old enough to recognize what will help me and what will only add to my burden. So I will just be brave and keep pestering people. And complimenting them on helpful good ideas.

I don’t think ADD/ADHD should stop one from becoming a teacher. I think like you it can give a certain compassion for the ADD/ADHD children we see. It makes the top of my desk look like a hurricane hit it and I write new curriculum every year because I can’t find my old one. But it also helps me to move at the same pace as do many of my middleschoolers. I can’t sit still and neither can they.

I believe that if I were better organized, I could accomplish more in school and out of it. I’d like to write a book showing the other side of the coin. So many of the books available to parents talk the old party line about school…. the kids need to try harder… the kids need to be motivated…

I remember how hard it was to sit through a school day and how many classes were just teachers standing in front of the room talking. I remember trying to listening but being easily distracted by the drop of a pencil and missing an important instruction. I see these things happening again and again to the students in front of me now. I think we could do a better job in our schools than we do for these children and others.

But if I don’t write the book and if I never get organized and all I do is teach with compassion the children in front of me, I’d like to think my ADHD life isn’t wasted. Neither is yours.

Have you told your kids you have ADD/ADHD? When I tell my students that, half the faces in the room light up with relief and the other half with wonder that a teacher would say they’re not perfect in evey way.

I so agree with this, it is always an inspiration for the students to know they are not alone. My oldest son has a reading tutor who did not learn to read until she was 30. She shares this with my son and relates to him some of the struggles she has had. She has shown him that you can succeede despite your difference’s. He repects and listens to her and his reading has improved! (he is add also)

I teach children with Emotional Disturbances and many of them have a medical diagonsis of ADD/ADHD. I do not have ADD/ADHD but do have ADD/ADHD tendencies. Like you, I tend to turn to the louder students but I have found several strategies that help both my students and myself to work effectively. MUSIC (atleast 40 beats per minute) will keep a student with ADD/ADHD focused. Also, you may consider giving your students a small piece of silly puddy or clay to help keep fidigiting under control. Please feel free to email me if I can be of assistance. I have several organization tips that may help you. Good luck and remember that showing compassion for your special students is the best thing you can do for them.

Have you looked in Daniel Amen’s website? He has lots of books to help people with ADD and perhaps you can find one that will help you get organized. Does your Dr. have any suggestions that will help you? I would sure hook up with a coach if I were you, there are professional organizers out there who relish in that type of insanity, ORGANIZATION…If they set up a protocal for you I am sure you could follow it and hopefully after a certain amount of time it becomes a habit.. Luckily, even with my ADD behaviors I am able to buckle down on things when I have to and to minimize distractibility I have to be somewhat organized. Somedays it takes everything I have though. Hang in there!

I have told some students, selectively. Once I politely asked a student not to fidget, not because it was wrong, I added, but the distraction of it kept me from finishing a thought. And we needed for me to finish the thought so we could get to the fun part of the lesson. Another student said jokingly “What are you ADD or something??”

“Actually, Yes,” I said. “And I need your help in getting to the main point here so that we can make something together instead of me saying be quiet.” There was an awkward shuffle. And had their undivided attention. For a while.

Greetings,

I would also encourage you to check out Dr. Amen’s website at brainplace.com in which he discusses the 6 different types of ADD. Perhaps you would respond better to a medication different than the one your doctor has prescribed.

Blessings, momo

Wow! I am a substitute teacher and I like it that way. I like variety. AND I cannot keep track of the paper on the long term assignment I am on now. It takes me a half hour at the end of the day to get the paper sorted, and then I can’t find the piece I want. Back to daily sub teaching for me!

I was stunned by the reference to attending to the loud child. I too respond, usually negatively, to the loud or interrupting child. I get so distracted. Thank you so much for pointing this out as part of the ADD. I will watch that from ow on.

On the positive side, I am very creative with ideas, and how to put them across. I am able to switch in mid lesson to find a new way to get ideas across. As long as I know the point I want to get across, I can use any way to get there. I get rather dramatic, which throws some kids who are used to a more methodical teacher. I love to teach people new ideas.

I have been feeling a little guilty because I know my ADD gets in the way of my teaching. Thank you.. I will concentrate on how my ADD enhances my teaching instead.

You are so right about that positive side- I have been in mid sentence, and noticed a child “not getting it”. Just like you, I have been able to come up with a new metaphor, or a new demonstration on the spot and carried it off, seeing the “aha” look on the child’s face. For example, I was trying to explain how to make photographs bigger and smaller in the darkroom, and suddenly turned on the overhead projector and moved it closer and further from the wall. The Aha look! What I live for!!

I think this is the -not just the good, but the gorgeous side of ADD- working on lots of levels all at once all the time, like a wacky intuitive super computer. Many ideas are being processed at once, and suddenly one clicks. And its a beaut!

There are many more methodical teachers out there, and that is also of value to students.

When it comes to organization, of course, I am incompetent, until I finally find something that works for me. I am now starting to think of it like a zoologist would think of skeletons- the mammals have a skeleton on the inside, the crabs and mollusks have their support on the outside. Some people have an internal sense directing their organization, I have to construct an external organization for myself that I can follow unthinkingly.

Also I got that buzzer watch- When it works right it buzzes me 7 minutes before classes end. The kids don’t know, but suddenly I stand up straight, and start to end the class and draw a conclusion. Like I knew what time it was (not).

If a student has a real difficulty with inattention, that will affect how they teach later as a real teacher. In some cases, if the students in class are given individual textbooks which are good (vs poor), then the information is available theoretically to the student through the written page so a real live teacher may not have to cover everything herself/himself in class (as it is covered well in the good textbook).

I applaude you for your accomplishments as a teacher. After over 20 yrs in various business activities, I have decided to become a special ed treacher in middle school/ jr high. I’ve had ADHD all my life, my kids have it, it’s a fact of life! Those who don’t have ADD/ADHD can never really understand no matter have much they study the subject. While “their” lives always seem to be in focus, organized, and supposedly successful, we and the ADD/ADHD kids we teach are left to feel like we are less than perfect! Well while our lives may be out of focus, our’s tend to be in color rather than black and white.Somehow we’ve got to teach these kids to cope and use their ADD/ADHD to their advantage whenever possible. My experience with the super-organized and those that don’t appreciate our gift is to give them just enough to satisfy them at the time and then stay away from them as much as possible!!!

coondawg said

I do not have ADD/ADHD or LD but if you could see the mountain of paperwork and clutter I have stacked around my house you would know that non-ADDers can also be less focused and less organized and can also struggle with feelings that we are less than perfect! ;-> Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted as saying, “You cannot be made to feel inferior unless you allow it.” We all have shortcomings but we can choose to focus on our strengths and work to minimize the ownership of our feelings of inferiority.

Blessings, momo

For a lot of folks(me included), having a “deficit disorder” is somewhat frustrating and at times enraging. The implication, while certainly not intended but nonetheless implied, is that those with ADD/ADHD or any LD for that matter are somehow deffective. In terms of human history, it wasn’t that long ago that left-handed children would have their left arm bound so they would some how learn to use only their right hand and be “normal”. Having ADD/ADHD and possibly a few other LD’s gives one a little insight into the minds of these kids and their parents. Quite honestly most of these kids really suffer from a more severe problem commonly known as UBTS (unbelievably boring teacher syndrome). I think most with ADD/ADHD understand that everyone just wants to help. Perhaps we need to again change the description of this syndrome to something a bit more appropriate or perhaps less degrading such as “Conceptually Enhanched”, “Transendental Thinkers”, Just kidding; that might hurt the feelings of those left out!

Oh my, I am so glad to hear that I am not the only adult person in the world that struggles with all of this. I have left the classroom to be an administrator…yikes! Keeping it all together is so hard to do. I can think out of the box….BUT… i have the hardest time working in the box to keep up with the work load! Any suggestions …drugs… anything….:)
I would love to hear from you…
[email protected]

To a certain extent, I count on others and ask for help. For instance, when someone asks me to to them a favor at work, I only agree if they promise to email a reminder at the right time. When dividing up a task with others, chose the tasks that you feel are easier to remember, or that will be triggered by other events. Or choose the thing you can do this instant, over some later thing.

Observe organized people carefully. adopt whatever you think you can use. I even ask how people org. stuff, if I feel comfortable.

My administer-in-training friend, calls his work number from home to remind himself via voice mail of stuff that he knows he might forget.

When I got paid extra for extra students, I could never remember if I had filled out the form for that week. The second year I sat down at the beginning of the year and filled in only the dates for the entire school YEAR. I then kept them in a zippered pencil case in my plan book. I looked at the one on top, and sometimes realized I was 2 weeks behind. Better than guessing! This would be good for any repetitive paperwork.

I collect kids work in hanging folders( names attached) in a carrying case. As I ask each one to turn in their stuff TO THEIR OWN FOLDER. I go on & on at length about why they should never ever put stuff “on my desk”. I am trying to train other teachers and adults to put stuff in my mailbox, not my desk.
I keep the kids papers in that case until I hand it back. It is harder to loose a case than a pile of papers. This year I started writing dates and comments right on the folders. If a certain date has gone by with no work, I put that date on the folder too. Then I have a written history of grades lateness etc to refer to. This could be applied to some of your projects too, I bet. My other grades are in the computer.

I don’t know how digital you are, but keep as much stuff digitized as possible. I can somehow organize on the computer what I can’t in the tangible world. My Doctor says this is very common, ADD people are drawn to computers. I even have blank forms scanned, (even my health care forms) so that when I can’t find certain forms, I have a way to get them. I loved using a PDA, but I don’t always have pockets in which to put it. Also once the backup…. didn’t! I have been slow to trust it again.

I schedule meetings whenever possible so that the other person comes to me, or I will be seeing them anyway. They remember, I forget, but I ACT as if I remember.

Only a few high priority things get to live in my on-desk “outside” file. These stand at attention in a special holder where I can SEE them, are brightly colored, & I stuff all the little papers in as they come my way. also I use apple computers, and have digital post-its. Some computer programs can remind you of stuff. Also just be friendly SUPER FRIENDLY to all of the secretaries. Make small talk, ask about their kids. These are the people who really have the power to save your butt.

My friend got me a key finder for my house- I set off a remote when I can’t find the keys. Got it at Brookstone. I have heard of people who have put a pager on their keys and “call them” when they are lost. I also have a clip, so they stay on my body the entire workday. It took more than a year to really learn this habit.

You can learn habits, but it takes longer than other people (when the little voice says, “just this one time..I’ll remember!” you have to shush it.

Take joy in throwing stuff out. You must, or it will kill you. all people should, but you and I need it MORE.

Really- the key is pretend that you and Mr. Hyde take turns inhabiting your brain. I have done better when I give up “trying harder” to remember, and tried harder to foolproof myself instead. Double or triple-proof your reminders. The best advice

*Act as if the person you are reminding is not your wonderful self, but someone else who will be driving your body around at a future date.*

If you catch yourself thinking “I will remember this, I’ll try really hard…” shake it off. That’s the devil (or add) talking. call yourself. email yourself. Develop rituals and try to embrace them. My inner ADD resists rituals, but eventually I can adapt some, and really do them.

The best is - if you are an admin., to look for ways to eliminate paperwork for your whole district. Encourage your district to keep all forms online, records and attendance on servers, email over paper when ever possible. Think through all the stupid procedures- what could be shortened? What steps could be combined or eliminated? What is essential and how can that be done in the quickest, easiest way? What kinds of crappy forms do teachers & Admin. have to fill out by hand over & over, & could that be computerized? If admin.s acted as if all teachers were ADHD, and structured accordingly, everyone would be better off.