When he interviewed at Reedy Creek Middle School, this was one of the first questions Mick McKenna was asked: "Are you okay with snakes?"

Next door to the behavior support classroom where McKenna wanted to work as a teaching assistant was the animal science lab, which crawled with snakes, lizards and a tarantula.

In short, it sounded like an adventure. And McKenna - recognized this month as the 2011 Teacher Assistant of the Year for Wake County - welcomes an adventure. Having grown up in Scotland, McKenna spent 17 years as a social worker in Glasgow, a town with a rough reputation.

When his wife, Shirley, was transferred to the Triangle area for work, McKenna left the social work to raise his two young daughters. He worked stints as a freelance writer, but when his children grew older, he wanted a job that would let him work with children again.

Q: You were in social work. Why didn't you go back to that career?

A: At first, I worked in child protection. I worked with offenders and pedophiles ... it got incredibly hard, and I was very affected by it. By the time I was a post-grad, I was managing 50 people or so. It takes you away from the very things you liked about the job to begin with.

I also think social work in America is incredibly hard. In Scotland, the socialized medicine means that everything is interconnected: public health, public housing, public education. Here, there just aren't the same resources.

So when I first got a TA job, I was at Underwood Elementary [a magnet school in Raleigh], and I worked with special education students. They reminded me of everything I used to like. I've now been at Reedy Creek for two years. I work with the students, and when they get upset or aggressive, I find it easy to de-escalate it.

Q: You have worked as a freelance writer. Have you ever considered writing a memoir about your experiences as a social worker?

A: It's too painful. I had a couple of death threats. A teenager murdered a foster parent, and I learned he was contemplating murdering me when he was caught. By that time, I had two young children, and it made me reconsider my career path.

Q: Your family just became U.S. citizens, and your older daughter gained her citizenship on the same day you received your award. How did that come about?

A: My wife and I became American citizens in February. But my older daughter had just turned 18, so she had to file for citizenship separately.

We were originally supposed to come over for my wife's job and stay 18 months to two years. But we liked it here - now we've been here 11 years in September. Unlike the immigrants of the past, we are able to go back frequently, so we have the best of both worlds.

Q: You perform stand-up. Is boredom not an option?

A: I used to be scared to write for myself, to put myself out there, but once you get over 50, you don't care. I'm a rookie stand-up comic, paying my dues by doing open mic nights three nights a week. It feeds my creative spirit.