Welcome to Ask a Teacher, a place for educators and those adjacent to education to tell their stories. The stories that they wish they could tell but haven’t for fear of retribution. Or simply, no one has ever asked them to share on a public platform before.

Here’s who is behind this public platform:

Teacher photo from 2008. Look at those over-plucked brows. 15 years later, I would pay a lady to permanently tattoo them back on.

  1. I taught special education for 12 years, in midwest public schools, every grade level except 7th and 8th.

  2. I left the profession twice. I adore teaching, but man did it take from me.

  3. I worked in four buildings in 12 years. I suffered from take-my-ball-and-go-home syndrome. The dysfunction of the buildings would wear me down into an angry little gremlin.

  4. I miss working with teachers so much. Maybe more than I miss being around my students? I wish I could take (some of) my former co-workers and find a nice quiet office for us to data process in. A place where we could gossip while sipping coffee all day.

  5. I won two teaching awards and I have also been investigated twice after two co-workers turned in complaints about me. The highs were high and the lows were low.

Above all, this is meant to be a love letter to teachers, from someone who has had many wild, difficult, beautiful experiences with the profession. If this sounds like your kind of thing, you can either sit back and enjoy or you can actively participate by submitting your story for an interview. I welcome all stories related to education, so if you are thinking, Shoot, I have something but I am not a teacher, send it to me anyway.

—Kristin