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Is There a Teacher in the Class ?

Sunday 7 December 2008 by legendary_totoro

I failed to pass the STACK 6 months ago but took an opportunity to still be able to teach. More details below...

As I said, I’m still able to teach for the next 10 months (already 2 months consumed).

My Career Begins...

The story is simple : in April when my spirit was at the verge of withering, I went back to the high-school were I sprouted and stemmed from. I met the current person in charge who happened to be a teacher I had in the past. We exchanged for some time about what happened to us in the meantime we didn’t see each other and as we parted, I left my resume and contacts.

I got called back one month later, in order to make a tryout for 3 weeks, which happened to be good at the time since I received the STACK results knew I failed. The 3 weeks went smoothly and I did all I could to try to get enrolled for the following school period. Three days before school started again, I’ve got a phone call and here I am with the auxiliary teacher position.

...With a Big Load of Work...

I’m assigned to 5 different classes, one of which I’m the main teacher. This particular position gives me more responsibilities as I’m the one to manage and "boss around" the other teachers in my teacher-composed team. So I’m in charge of this 7th grade class, then I have 2 other 8th grade classes and 2 last 9th grade classes.

I’m totaling 20 hours of service per week, in which we don’t count all the preparations I need to make at home or the time used for correcting written tests. And if my weekly schedule wasn’t full enough, I’ve joined for the 2nd year the cram school where I’m preparing for the STACK. Thus, I have all days completely booked for 8 hours. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I’m also on duty on Saturdays for either :
- Mock STACK tests
- Class councils

So please bear with me if I’m ever slow again in publishing articles.

...And Tough Times...

After 2 months of work, I’m somewhat pleased by my 7th and 8th grade classes. The pupils are sometimes a bit too noisy but overall there’s a good working atmosphere and aside from some young dudes who obviously aren’t made for the current educational system, everything progresses at a good pace.

Who I’m a bit disappointed in are my two 9th grade classes. If you don’t know, they are at a level where they have some exam at the end of the year in order to get into high-school. In these conditions, one ought to think they should be motivated but on the contrary, they tend to have low working spirits and look after every opportunity to do nothing or to not do a thing...

I have some plans up my sleeves to help motivate them but in the end, the job will still need to come from their part. Let’s hope for the best.

...And (Hopefully) Some Times of Joy

In all this mix of work and pressure I’m having a great time teaching. I think I’m really loving the act of explaining. The more I practice it, the more I love it and it has this really exciting moments when pupils have this little spark ignited in their eyes.

I think every little kid should have the opportunity to meet at least one teacher who’s able of creating that spark. I don’t know yet how good I am at doing this, but I’ll sure keep track of little sparks and stars :)

There also cherished times like when you really feel like you’re doing it right when you meet the parents of the children and they actually are the ones saying it : "my kid just keeps talking about you, maths is now his favorite subject" or "she was worried she would fail maths but with her A, she’s more confident now".

Wrapping Up

In closing, this new activity is very time consuming but on the other hand, it’s really rewarding in terms of human experience. I may have not covered everything I’ve seen so far, but I’ll try to keep posting about this later on....should I manage to find some free time !


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