I'm a teacher!
I'm still shocked by how lucky I'm to be not yet 22 years old and already being an English teacher in a linguistic school. Without a doubt I can say that getting this job is another miricle in my life (being perfectly candid). You need to admit that finding a possition of Your highest interests, 3 minutes walk from Your place, well paid and with great coworkers is something extraordinary. For the very beggining of my blog I want to spred my joy and happines to every reader. Also, this is kind of a diary, a memento for "the future me" about the start of my teaching journey.
Right now I have three groups. Two of them are A2+ level (group of five and group of six people) and the third are kids from 3rd grade, six of them. First day was really challenging, not only because it was my first time in the real school, but also because of the fact that I took those groups from other teacher, who already started the work with them. This is the topic I'd like to write about in the following post, as such situation can happen to any teacher, anytime.
Before hiring me my boss told me a little about the previous teacher and the reason why she resigned (witch were health problems). Inspire that, I didn't get to know the woman, I didn't know her character, her ways of teaching, nothing. It made me quite stressed before the lessons. But the worst was yet to come. I was sitting in the classroom, five minutes to the lesson, first students opened the door. Their first words were: Where is Mrs. Karolina? I was stunned. Didn't know how to answer the question, after few seconds I said: Hello, my name is Mrs. Agnieszka, today I'll be Your English teacher. As they didn't get the respond, shocked student took their usual sits and stayed silent till the beginning of the lesson. As I think about the situation now, I assume I did the right thing, not getting int details, which I myself didn't actually know.
On the second lesson, two days later, the same group asked me in the middle of the lesson: So now You are our regular teacher? Mrs. Karolina won't be back? I said: Yes, now I'm Your teacher. I don't have any informations about Mrs. Karolina, I'm sorry. After the last sentence I supposed they can get sad or worried, but they just came back to the task they were doing before like nothing happened. Breath of relief, and till now I never got these questions again. Few times I overheard students discussing Mrs. Karolina with rather negative attitude, but I decided not to think or ask about that. What happened is now in the past, I believe that in this case it's for the best just to start a new course with me as a teacher without mentioning the previous one.
Generally speaking of the change of a teacher, I strongly believe that it's a difficult situation, especially for the kids. Even if they had only few lessons. As a grownup I can say that changes aren't easy, in case of changing some person in my life, even if that's "only" a teacher. Speaking of children, the feelings are much stronger. They get attached very quickly and if they start a relation, they are not used to or ready to quickly end it. I think as a human is growing and experiencing different situations and relations he starts to understand that loosing or ending relationships is a natural thing. He also gets used to be less trustful, which is a saving from getting hurt. That's why we adults tend to detract the importance of this kind of experience and it's impact on a child.
For now I'm trying to get to know the children, remember their names by heart and prepare fun activities for them, in a nutshell: bond with them. My goal is when somebody mentiones fraze "an English teacher", children from my group would think of me and a smile would appear on their faces.
Right now I have three groups. Two of them are A2+ level (group of five and group of six people) and the third are kids from 3rd grade, six of them. First day was really challenging, not only because it was my first time in the real school, but also because of the fact that I took those groups from other teacher, who already started the work with them. This is the topic I'd like to write about in the following post, as such situation can happen to any teacher, anytime.
Before hiring me my boss told me a little about the previous teacher and the reason why she resigned (witch were health problems). Inspire that, I didn't get to know the woman, I didn't know her character, her ways of teaching, nothing. It made me quite stressed before the lessons. But the worst was yet to come. I was sitting in the classroom, five minutes to the lesson, first students opened the door. Their first words were: Where is Mrs. Karolina? I was stunned. Didn't know how to answer the question, after few seconds I said: Hello, my name is Mrs. Agnieszka, today I'll be Your English teacher. As they didn't get the respond, shocked student took their usual sits and stayed silent till the beginning of the lesson. As I think about the situation now, I assume I did the right thing, not getting int details, which I myself didn't actually know.
On the second lesson, two days later, the same group asked me in the middle of the lesson: So now You are our regular teacher? Mrs. Karolina won't be back? I said: Yes, now I'm Your teacher. I don't have any informations about Mrs. Karolina, I'm sorry. After the last sentence I supposed they can get sad or worried, but they just came back to the task they were doing before like nothing happened. Breath of relief, and till now I never got these questions again. Few times I overheard students discussing Mrs. Karolina with rather negative attitude, but I decided not to think or ask about that. What happened is now in the past, I believe that in this case it's for the best just to start a new course with me as a teacher without mentioning the previous one.
Generally speaking of the change of a teacher, I strongly believe that it's a difficult situation, especially for the kids. Even if they had only few lessons. As a grownup I can say that changes aren't easy, in case of changing some person in my life, even if that's "only" a teacher. Speaking of children, the feelings are much stronger. They get attached very quickly and if they start a relation, they are not used to or ready to quickly end it. I think as a human is growing and experiencing different situations and relations he starts to understand that loosing or ending relationships is a natural thing. He also gets used to be less trustful, which is a saving from getting hurt. That's why we adults tend to detract the importance of this kind of experience and it's impact on a child.
For now I'm trying to get to know the children, remember their names by heart and prepare fun activities for them, in a nutshell: bond with them. My goal is when somebody mentiones fraze "an English teacher", children from my group would think of me and a smile would appear on their faces.
"I think as a human is growing and experiencing different situations and relations he starts to understand that loosing or ending relationships is a natural thing. " --- Hmm. To me it is partly true, mostly false. We, human beings are superior animals because of superior feelings. To me, it is a task of balancing.
OdpowiedzUsuńThank you for your post! It's so nice that you decided to touch on the topic of changing a teacher in the middle of the semester - I feel that this topic is often omitted, which is unfortunate since these kinds of things often happen. Perhaps the students didn't exhibit sadness or worry connected with change because for one reason or another they didn't feel attached to the previous teacher? It would make sense since you mentioned hearing some rather unpleasant comments about her from the students. All in all, I'm sure you'll do great both during our practice and in your own classroom!
OdpowiedzUsuń