Being a teacher is easy. Who cares if I play with my phone in the back of the class. 20 minute bathroom break...SURE! As long as I'm quiet I can sleep. The only job of my teacher is to teach. Teachers have no life.
FALSE. FALSE. FALSE. FALSE.
Before I describe the awesomeness that is teaching, let me first apologize to all of my teachers and professors, as well as my mother who always said "teaching is hard work", which I never fully believed. I AM SO SO SORRY, FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. I had to apologize to my coaches for this same thing when I first started coaching. Teaching, like coaching, is not easy; not even close.
Having students play with their phone and sleep in class is annoying and demoralizing, and to their surprise I do have a life (all the classes think Jimmy is so handsome -UGH can't even protect him from the girls in a foreign country- and they give a collective awwwww when they see I have a boyfriend. So surprise, teachers do have lives). So, I will say it again, I am sorry for everything I put you through and every negative thing I have ever said about teaching in general. I came to Thailand to travel, to go on adventures and to find myself. Teaching was the means to the end. However, shocker, like everything about Thailand so far, I was so wrong. Teaching is hard work, and it takes time, effort and a lot of patience but it really is wonderful. My mom sent me an email to catch up, as is the norm for us. In this email a portion was dedicated to her giving me advice on being a teacher, and us trading stories and strategies. In one particularly interesting part she said "I am curious to see what you will do with this after you come home...if you will be interested in teaching ( something you said you were never very interested in)." Well I'll be darned if she wasn't exactly right. See my mom teaches special needs kids (shout out to all you teachers doing that, you are an angel from God and you deserve all the blessings this world has to offer), and I have always said " No way, not me. I could never teach. I am not patient enough."
This is true.
I am not patient, but all of the sudden I am a teacher and I am thrown into a world where I am forced to be patient (God's way of teaching me this character trait I suppose, because I am seriously lacking in this department). I teach English to students who range from the lower levels and saying the alphabet and a few vocabulary words to a YouTube star lady-boy (Which is a totally accepted phrase here and not seen as disrespectful at all) who speaks wonderful English. This entails lots and lots of patience. I go to the and write the sentence 'I need an apple.' Okay, no problem. Except I have to spend 10 minutes getting the students to understand need has a hard 'D' sound at the end. It does not sound like 'kneesd' as they say. Last year I would have thought this would have driven me up a stinkin' wall, but for some reason it doesn't. Interesting plot twist: I love it. Sure I might only be teaching the difference between him or her, but to watch students struggle to push through the initial disappointment of not understanding, to watching the light click on in their head is absolutely fantastic. These students love to laugh and they love to have fun (sometimes right in the middle of my teaching, but a halfhearted stern look reals them back in). I have 6 rambunctious English classes full of students who barely speak English, and I am about 99% positive they talk about me behind my back. One boy looks me straight into my eyes, says something in Thai as soon as I walk away from the table and the whole class laughs...yeah they are so making fun of me for something. Not that I have any clue what they are saying about me, but I am beginning to get good at bluffing like I know exactly what the little bugger is saying. Hey, if the students want to make fun of me then it is on them when they get embarrassed for me "fake" calling them out!!
I can't tell you that I have absolutely found my purpose in teaching, and that this is my life's ambition, but I can tell you that I think I am on the right track, if not for teaching then at least for finding myself.
A year ago being a teacher seemed like torture, this morning I woke up excited for class and enjoying making lesson plans (doubt that will last long though).
I don't know about you, but I like those odds.
Teacher (Ajahn) out!
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