Michael P.

“ As a young lad with the Youth Employment Service of the National Council Of Jewish Women (early 1970s) I cared for a few small children over a two or three-year period. Prior to that, I would watch my sister who is seven years younger than I am.

During the next decade,(the 1980s) after I received my degree in Social Welfare from Loyola, I worked for year at New Alternatives, a group home in Costa Mesa, California....

As a young lad with the Youth Employment Service of the National Council Of Jewish Women (early 1970s) I cared for a few small children over a two or three-year period. Prior to that, I would watch my sister who is seven years younger than I am.

During the next decade,(the 1980s) after I received my degree in Social Welfare from Loyola, I worked for year at New Alternatives, a group home in Costa Mesa, California. These were children ages 10 through 18 with histories of neglect and abuse and cases that included periodic run-ins with Orange County Juvenile Court. There were 10 boys and 10 girls. I monitored several aspects of their daily lives from the details of their bathroom cleaning efforts, that required me to grade the mirrors and sinks and such, to noting the overall affectation and moods that could be described with some certainty. We used a behavior modification model to offer positive reinforcement with a system of rewards that supported that effort. The top group of four received the most privileges and the lowest scoring group of four received the least. I tutored these children when the occasion arose. I also drove the children to and from school and other appointments. It was a challenging and rewarding job.

The next decade (1990s) provided me with experience in maintenance as I helped put apartments back together--ones that had fallen into disrepair--for a real estate speculator/investor. I also did a lot of furniture moving and installation of furniture kits and such for Gary Moves It , Under One Roof Moving, and Affordable Moving. But by the end of that decade, I was in school at Northeastern Illinois University studying elementary education. I earned my ELED degree and obtained my K-9 Initial IL teacher's certification.(2001) I put that right to work with a job for the Archdiocese of Chicago at a Catholic School, Good Shepherd, on the city's southwest side. I had about one hundred students, ages 10 through 14 years--middle school language arts for the most part. My homeroom consisted of about 25 students. I only worked there for a year, as I determined that it was not a good match for what I wanted to do. The school was up and running for only one more year before they closed and the space was taken over by CPS.

In the last 8 years I have been substituting for teachers in Oak Park schools--Pre-K through eighth, working at the deli at Whole Foods, and raising my daughter, who will be 12 years old soon.

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