Working in over thirty schools has boosted my stress level. But I have to say, it’s kind of fun. I’m working with 3rd-12th graders and sometimes they can be obnoxious, but I adore those little hooligans. Actually, I don’t adore the middle and high schoolers, just the little ones in elementary.

I work in so many schools I can’t even name them. There are days that I don’t even know where be placed.I work for a private company, meaning that the company doesn’t work alongside The Department of Education. My boss is pretty much self-employed. The company offers what ever the school asks for.

I’m not a teacher, I’m not even sure if I’m a teacher’s assistant, I don’t know what I am at this point but it’s awesome I swear. I do many things at each school. So my job title depends on what I’m doing that day and at that school.The many things I do include, putting up bulletin boards for teachers and staff, hosting school events, managing after and in-school programs, and summer programs, chaperoning field trips, decorating rooms and offices, putting up artwork, making artwork, I even paint murals sometimes. It’s pretty awesome.

To be honest, doing all this can be really frustrating .About 50% of the time, I want to pull the hair out of my head. But I like not knowing what I will be doing each week. I’m a very adventurous person, and I consider this job super adventurous.
It’s hard to process the transition with the job when you go from being a student to being your teacher’s employee. I did not understand what I was doing. But thankfully, I got the hang of it. I started working at the school I graduated from, so that was interesting. I was friends with half of these kids like a year ago. Now I’m a staff member, telling them to get to class when I had the biggest case of senioritis during my senior year.

But besides that, It keeps me busy and keeps my mind on something other than having a paper due and a test coming up. Plus, the aftermath and reactions we get from the staff and students always fill my heart with joy. I love seeing people happy.

One of our most famous after school/in-school program is Making HERstory. It’s an all-girls program that I was once a part of when I was just another high school rebel. That’s how I met my boss. She likes to hire people she knows are trustworthy and enrolled in college.

In HERstory, we make cute crafts and play games and talk about our feelings. You know, girl stuff. The best part of it, we go on field trips. I could go to a lot of places I didn’t even know existed because of this job. I didn’t know how awesome Broadway is until I had to take kids on a trip to see a Broadway show.

The other day, these girls almost tackled me in one of my after school HERstory groups; it felt good to be missed and to know they appreciate me.
Some people may say they don’t know how I do it, I don’t know either. But what I can say is I can’t imagine working in one place and doing one specific job every day. I would probably lose my mind.

My heart grows two sizes more every time I see young girls and boys join the company’s clubs and want to be a part of the school community. Knowing that I am impacting their lives gives me something to look forward to. I love walking into classrooms and hearing kids yell “Ms. Amber!” They get so excited to see me.

If you’re wondering why they call me Ms. Amber and not Ms. Perez, it’s because I don’t being called by my last name. I’m not a teacher, I’m a whatchamacallit.