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something happened to me on MondayAugust 25th 2008 that was so significantfor me it literally changed the courseof my career that day was my first dayever as a real live substitute teachernow since I'm a licensed psychologist Iknow the best way to heal from atraumatic event is to talk about itthere's so much I could tell you aboutwhat an absolute train wreck that daywas but let me give you some of thelowlights so my method for behaviormanagement for this classroom aninner-city third grade classroom wasthat I was going to write their names onthe board you know surely that would putthe fear of God in them as if right so10 minutes before lunch I'm trying tomake this big dramatic point to the kidsabout how bad their behavior was and howdisappointed the teacher was going to beand I said you know what's really sad Isaid in ten minutes we're about to go tolunch and let me just check so I startcounting names da da da da da I said 28of you were going to be stuck in herewith me at recess this little girl inthe back of the classroom she raised herhand sir there are only 22 kids in thisclassroom and it was just stupid stufflike that all day long it was a master'sworkshop and how not to lead a classroomso finally we get through the day thelast bell rings the kids are walking outand that sure enough the last kid toleave the classroom was the one that hadbeen riding me the hardest all day longhis goal that day was to make me cry Iknow it so just before he gets to thedoor he stops and he turns and he looksat me and he says hey dr. Stein's you'repretty cool man are you going to be myteacher again tomorrowdude I looked at kids straight in theeye said oh sweet God I hope notI got through the afternoon I went homeyou know that saying that a picture isworth a thousand words a couple dayslater I found this picture and I said ohmy gosh this picture captures my firstday as a substitute teacher I'm that guyand this is that third-grade class justsquatting the collective rear end oftheir bad behavior on my skills you cansee who's coming out on top so what I dois a psychologist in school is a bigpart of what I do is I consult withteachers so teachers that are teachingchildren with academic and behavioralissues I coach them and I startedthinking about I said you know what I doall this time teaching teachers but I'venever taught in a classroom myself andso I started to to teaching because Iwanted just a taste of what it's like toactually be in a classroom to see ifthat in any way change would I believethat like the recommendations that I wasmaking or what I believe in theory or inpractice about how to intervene withchildren and let me tell you somethingthe first light bulb that went off forme after that very first day ofsubstitute teaching was this hey Adamguess what big guy it doesn't matter howmany degrees you have it doesn't matterwhere you got them from it doesn'tmatter what you think you know abouteducation unless you've actually taughtin a classroom day-in day-out and donethe work there is no way you will everever understand how incredibly demandingand challenging that vocation is and itwas a huge moment of insight for me andwhat happened was I was overwhelmed withthis sense of admiration for educatorsfor men and women across the countrythat are in classrooms everywhere justflat-out getting it done do an amazingjob overwhelmed at how incredible thatis and then what happened was thatfeeling of being overwhelmed it sort ofshifted into one of curiosity and I gotintensely curious about about this thingI was wondering how do you get good atthat thing called teaching number oneand number two how do you get good at itand stay good at it when data showedthat about half the teachers teaching inschools now will be employed in anotherprofession in five years so for those ofus who work in education we we go to somany conferences and workshops about thehow of Education the where the what thewindbut I was curious about the why the whyof education because I know thatwhenever we engage a significant task ifwe enter it with the right why the whatthe where the wind how that usuallyfalls into place so I startedresearching what are the psychologicalvariables that drive vocationalsatisfaction for educators and and thepoint that I want to share the idea thatI want to share today is this when we ineducation when we enter into thatvocation from the right why we postureourselves and poise ourselves to makethe kind of life impacting relationshipsthat have the power to change the futureso what I want to do is I want to sharea couple of case studies with you and Ithink these case studies will do more toillustrate my point than me talkingthrough my research and through data sothe boy on the left is a sixth-grade boyhis name is Lou the girl on the right isa fourth-grade girl her name is Laurenlet's talk about Lou sixth-grade boyHispanic male low socioeconomic homehe's got a single uninvolved parenthistory of truancy history ofinteraction with the legal system he'sgot an undiagnosed depression and he'susing street drugs to self-medicate nowif you're a classroom teacher and youhave this kid in your classroom this isthe kid that will make you sit out inthe parking lot on your campus and havean existential crisis this is the kidthat will make you sit out in Februarywhen the snows piled that high and saydo I really want to walk the two hundredyards into that building because Ididn't sleep well last night but Iguarantee you Lou slept like a baby andhe's going to be loaded for bear andready for me and then you start thinkingyou know like they don't pay me enoughfor this why am I doing this and allthat goes on and if you have this kid inyour classroom he will wear you out andif you have this kid in your classroomand he doesn't wear you out I would sayone of two things is true of you eitheryou're a superhero or you're in just alittle bit of denialthat's this kid well this kid actuallyis not in sixth grade anymore of allthings this little stinker grew up andbecame a licensed psychologist andthat's what he looks like today I wasthat kid I was that kid let me share mystory with you the setting is the early1980s the location is the Lower RioGrande Valley the very southern tip veryclose to the border of Mexico 95%Hispanicand I remember I remember the look on mymom's face the first time she had tocome to juvenile to pick me up when Iwas arrested to anger in her face andthe first words out of her mouth whenshe saw me was what are you doing herewhat are you doing here and thatquestion it wasn't a question of actionwhat am I doing here while I'm sittingin this chair with these handcuffsdigging into my wrist wondering what thenext 48 hours of my life will look likethat's not the question she was askingit was a question of identity and Iremember thinking what an absolutelystupid question to ask me are youkidding me what am I doing here I KnowWho I amI'm Lu signs it's my job to make yourlife hell I'm never going to learn Ican't make it through a single day whatam I doing here this is who I am this iswhere I belong this is what I do well mymom Child Protective Services was neverinvolved with my family but my mom couldread the writing on the wall and shevoluntarily relinquished guardianship tome and I went to live with this familyseveral hundred miles away and what wasthen this tiny rice farming town out inthe sticks out in the suburbs of Houstoncalled Katy Texas and I ended up doingpretty well at Katy junior high and Katyhigh school but by my senior year Istarted to get depressed again becausethe family that I lived withthey said sudden we love you but butyou're 18 and when you graduate you'reon your own and I was terrified becauseI knew no no no no no when you take allthe structure away from me I knew that Istill had demons on the inside and theywere going to come and get me well sureenough I graduated from Katy High Schoolon the bottom fell out I ended up in SanAntonio I was working as a dishwasher Imet this guy he'd let me sleep on thedelivering living room floor of his tinyone-bedroom apartment my depression wasout of control I was using drugs againto self-medicate street drugs and and Iwasn't suicidal but I remember thinkinglike are you kidding me I'm 19 years oldI'm working as a dishwasher I'm usingdrugs and I've got another 60 years ofthis to look forward to what's the pointwell I remember coming home from workone morning it was about 3:00 a.m. veryearly and I was really really depressedand really really overwhelmed and so Ipulled out my journal I just needed toget into my journal to write and as Ipulled out my journal in my journal boxI saw these two letters and I couldn'tfigure out what they were but when Ifound them I was blown away at what theywere they were two lettersthat had been written to me by two of myteachers my senior year at Katie highschool and this is part of what one ofthose letters said you're extremelytalented and intelligent but mostimportantly you have a good heart I knowyou will use your talents to help yourfellow man and that's the mostsatisfying life a person can have and itwas signed by my English teacher JoeElla Exley it said some other things butthat's what jumped out put it away Ipulled out the second letter and this ispart of what that letter said don't quitwriting especially in your journalsomeday it may be the basis for yourbook you have insight sensitivityintelligence and maturity beyond yourtender years keep being you you're aspecial person and it was signed by mycreative writing teacher Polly McRobertsand those words absolutely haunted methey just haunted me because I said waita minute wait a minute wait a minute Iknow who I amI know who I am I'm Lou sines I'm a19-year old version of that sixth gradekid that's never going to make itthrough a single day whose job it is tomake your life hell who's never going tolearn I'm using drugs I'm depressed outof my mind I'm working as a dishwasher Ihave no future I Know Who I ambut here were these two women for whom Ihad tremendous respect that weredisagreeing with me and because of whothey were in the kind of life they livedin front of us in the classroom Icouldn't just blow them off I couldn'tjust say well you don't know what you'retalking about and because of theircharacter and their integrity I knewthey would not have written these wordsto me if they didn't absolutely believeitso back and forth I went back and forthwho's right about me who's right aboutmeso Farley I said you know what I need toput this theory to the test I need tofigure out who I am I know what I'mgonna do I'm gonna sign up for a collegecourse I had no idea how to do thatneither my parents went to college but Iwent to the University of Texas at SanAntonio I was accepted the first courseI had to take was introduction toEnglish and I said oh thank God becauseif I have any hope of passing a collegecourse it's got to be this Englishcourse well at the end of the semester Iremember I got my grade and I passed itcouldn't believe it couldn't believe itand so I started thinking you know whatmaybe mrs. Robertson mrs. actually wereright about me maybe they could seesomething in me that I couldn't see inmyself on the one hand on the other handmaybe this was just a clerical error forall I know she'd probably take anothercourse so I took another course thatspring and I passed it couldn't believeitof course that summer then two thenthree and just kept going a little at atime and then just before I turn 27years old I graduated with myundergraduate degree in Englishnever never never thought I was going toget a college degree I never did butthere I had it and then I startedthinking you know what they were rightabout me mrs. McRoberts and mrs.actually could see something in me thatI couldn't see in myself and I said youknow what I'm done being loo I'm donebeing that kid that's never going tomake it through a single day whose jobit is to make your life hell who's nevergoing to learn and then justpsychologically as a way to give myselfpermission to be somebody else I saidI'm going to start going by my firstname now I'm going to be Adam and maybeAdam can live into this life that thosetwo teachers saw in him so many yearsago well I started my master's programand then I started my own therapy towork through my own past my own traumain my own abuse finish my master's andthen I applied for a PhD in schoolpsychology at Texas A&M and then thewhole thing came full circle in it wasMarch of 2001 I remember I was sittingin Logan Airport I was finishing myinternship at Boston Children's Hospitalunder a fellowship appointment toHarvard and I was scheduled to graduatein May and I had applied for postdocs atBrown Yale in Columbia and Brown was mytop choiceso I'm sitting in the airport at Loganwaiting for my flight I was going to flyback to College Station to defend mydissertation and my cell phone rang Isaid hello this is Adam and then a voiceon the other end of the phone said Adamhey this is dr. J Reeve at Brown MedicalSchool listen we got your paperwork wereally enjoyed our interview with youand I'm calling to offer you afellowship appointment here at themedical school and I was just thrilled Imean this is my top choice right so ashe's talking about the research and theclinical work I had an incoming phonecall and I didn't recognize the numberand I said I said dr. vo I said I'm sosorry to ask but do you mind if I putyou on hold I have a call coming and Ithink I need to take it no problem clickover hello this is Adam then a voice onthe other end said Adam hey this is dr.Chuck Santa slow at Yale Medical Schoollisten we got your paperwork we reallyenjoyed our interview with you and I'mcalling to offer you a fellowshipappointment to Yale I said dude I gotbrown on the other line I don't have tocall you backclick took the position at Brown hung upand then it hit me in that moment it hitme I realized Adam you can write yourown ticket you are qualified to dowhat you love to do which is practicepsychology at any Hospital anyuniversity any school district in thecountry and you're bilingual and Irealized in that moment I wouldn't havethose options if I didn't have a PhD inpsychology and I never would have hadthe courage to apply for a PhD if Ihadn't finished my master's degree and Inever could have applied for a master'sdegree if I hadn't first finished myundergraduate degree and you know what Iknow that I know that I know that i knowthat i never would have stepped out forthat first degree had educators notspoken truth into my life about Who I amand my identity and I'll tell you rightnow I will be forever grateful to mrs.McRoberts and mrs. Exley for the momentof impact they had in my life if youever happen to be in Katy Texas by theway and you're driving down West timerParkway you're going to see thatbuilding and that's Joella ExleyElementary and if you ever happen to bedriving down Fran's Road you're going tosee that building and that's PollyMcRoberts Elementary and I am so proudof Katie ISD for honoring these twowomen now let's go to my second casestudy this was Lauren Garcia and when Ilook at that picture of Lauren her smiledoesn't convince me and when I thinkabout who she was at this time I thinkwhat does she have to smile about shehad been in protective services thecustody of protective services for twoyears already in her young life she hadexperienced things that no human beingshould ever have to experience let alonea little girl and then we sit her downin front of a camera and tell her to saycheese well what's there to smile aboutwell what happens with children that arein protective services in custody whenthey're 10 11 12 years old if theyhaven't been adopted by that timestatistically speaking the likelihoodthat they will ever be adopted it dropsdramatically well what happened withLauren was she ended up in court butwith her the circumstances were a littlebit differentit wasn't juvenile court it was anadoption court because the family readher file and they said we know exactlywhat we're signing up for and in Marchof 2010 Lauren Garcia became Laurensigns and that was the day that my wifeand I adopted her and there we are onour adoption day with my biologicalchildren and that was a very veryspecial day in our family that was on aTuesday that very next Saturday Laurenand I had our very first daddy-daughterand there we are getting ready for thedaddy-daughter dance and she was so cuteI remember I said all right sweet girlyou've got new shoes you've got a newdress you're beautiful I said you knowwhat before the dance I'm going to takeyou out to dinner anywhere you want togo and man her little eyes just lit upare you kidding me anywhere I wantto go sit anywhere you want to go Idon't care you name is steak seafoodchick filet so there we were achick-fil-a in our formalwear wafflefries and chicken sandwiches it was thebomb so after dinner you know we endedup at the dance and we were stillgetting to know each other at that pointshe'd only been with us for about sixmonths and I remembered to dance I justwanted to make one point of connectionwith her you know and so when we gotthere and we settled in I remember Ireached over and I held her hand and Itook this little picture and I saidsweet girl there are two things you needto understand about being my girl andabout being family I said the first isthis you do not make the rules and ourfamily mom and I make the rules and yourjob is to follow them there's not aquestion mark at the end of thatstatement there's not a comma at the endof that statement there is a period atthe end of that statement do youunderstand me and she said yes sir I doand I said very good here's the secondthing you need to know I said do youknow what my job is and she said yes siryour job is to make sure that I followthe rules and I smiled at her and I saidoh no no no sweet girl I said listen tome my job is to lay my life down for youmy job is to protect you my job is toprovide for you my job is to guide you Isaid sweetheart you don't understandthis about yourself yet but you are themost precious thing on the planetthere is no pile of money anywhere onthe planet more valuable than you're noteven in the same category and and my jobis to lay my life down for youso that you will understand your valuebecause when you understand your valueyou will live as though your choicesmatter you will understand that justlike me you have a calling you have apurpose you have a destiny you are onthis planet for a reason and then in amoment of incredible insight she lookedat me and she said dad I don't thinkI've ever been loved that way before andI remember I smiled at her and I said ahost sweet girl sweet girl believe it ornot I knowexactly how you feel I said let me tellyou a story about a kid I used to knowhis name was Lou and I shared my storywith her and it was a powerful powerfulmoment in our relationship and thereason I share my daughter as a casestudy is just to underscore thegenerational power that educators havein the classroom when we as educatorsmake that connection with those studentswe change every heartbeat they have tothe grave and when I think about the menand women that poured into my life theeducators like mrs. McRoberts and mrs.Exley that poured it into my life whenquite frankly I was not the best versionof myself how do I look at a little girllike this and not bring her into my lifethat is the power of an educator that isthe power of a teacher so let meconclude with this I'm going to answerthat question that my mom asked me whenI was in juvenile sitting in handcuffswhat are you doing herewhat am I doing here you know what byGod's grace I Know Who I am today myname is dr. Adam Lewis signs and I'mhere on this stage today because my lifewas impacted by the power of a teacherthank youEnglish (auto-generated)

After reading the attached paragraphs, please post a reflection.