Things I wish I had known before I started working
Teaching is something I've always known I wanted to do. I went through a rigorous teacher training course - well, it was rigorous in the way it took me out of my comfort zone, even if not rigorous in an academic sense - and had practicums in 3 different schools for a total of 6 months, so I thought I was prepared for the world of teaching. Make no mistake, I was about 70% prepared, but there were still some things that took me by surprise.
Here's a list of what I've discovered over the past 10 months of being in an international school.
#1 How physically and mentally tired I am every single working day
I usually get off earlier than JW does because school lets out at 4pm. When I get back home, though, I'm so drained from the day that I don't want to do anything that requires physical or mental resources. JW, on the other hand, is relatively fresh at the end of the work day. We've figured out that teaching in the primary school is more physically taxing than an office job, which explains why JW is pretty high-functioning at the end of the work day, whereas I'm the equivalent of a zombie. Sure, he's mentally tired from all the thinking he has to do, but I had to do public speaking for 3 hours, deal with crime investigations, make split second decisions on whether an infraction is worth dealing with and how to best approach it, bandage wounds and reprimand kids, not to mention marking piles of exercise books and assessments. The list I mentioned is just the tip of the iceberg - depending on the time of the year and committees you're part of, one can be inundated with other miscellaneous responsibilities. I mentioned earlier that school lets out at 4pm, but I hardly ever leave at 4pm. Anyway, this just means that I find myself without the energy to engage in hobbies like reading or writing, and I get fiercely protective of my weekends because they're my only chill time. To this day, I still marvel at how other teachers have the stamina to give private tuition classes outside of their regular day job.
#2 Crime investigations and first-aid are part and parcel of school life
School is a place to attain knowledge and build character, right? Unfortunately, it's also a simulation of society where you get a whole mix of characters, which makes it inevitable that bad things happen. Bullies, thieves and vandals are present in every school, which is no surprise. What's complicated, however, is investigating cases. We have CCTV in the school, but CCTV can only do so much. If a child is being psychologically and emotionally bullied, many a time it's a case of 'He said, she said'. I'm no expert in lie detection, which makes me feel crippled when I get reports of happenings that I did not personally witness. Another thing that I had to learn on my feet was how to deal with wounds, scrapes and nosebleeds, and how to judge if a child needs to be sent to the school nurse or not. There are tummy aches, and there are also phantom tummy aches. They don't teach you these things in teacher training college. =P
#3 Communicating with parents can be mentally exhausting
I've never been a very tactful person, so every time I make a phone call to a parent, I get a little anxious about how to phrase what I'm going to say. The hardest thing for me is to give negative feedback about a child, which is sometimes necessary for the parents to know. No one likes hearing negative things about their own children, so I feel the pressure to phrase it in a way that is tactful and hopefully go down well, which can be really tough. Initially, it was more nerve-wracking, but now I've realized that for most parents, this would not be the first time they've gotten similar feedback if the child has been in school for the past 2 years. Still, if there's a course for teachers on how to tactfully phrase negative feedback during Report Card Day or when misdemeanours occur, sign me right up for it. The decision fatigue is real.
The things that I mentioned are just things that I didn't expect to have to deal with as a teacher, so future teachers, this is a heads up. Teaching is still rewarding and fun, but it does come with its own set of challenges.
To be fair, here's one thing that I expected, but didn't happen:
Definitely one of the perks of being in an international school. =P
Here's a list of what I've discovered over the past 10 months of being in an international school.
#1 How physically and mentally tired I am every single working day
I usually get off earlier than JW does because school lets out at 4pm. When I get back home, though, I'm so drained from the day that I don't want to do anything that requires physical or mental resources. JW, on the other hand, is relatively fresh at the end of the work day. We've figured out that teaching in the primary school is more physically taxing than an office job, which explains why JW is pretty high-functioning at the end of the work day, whereas I'm the equivalent of a zombie. Sure, he's mentally tired from all the thinking he has to do, but I had to do public speaking for 3 hours, deal with crime investigations, make split second decisions on whether an infraction is worth dealing with and how to best approach it, bandage wounds and reprimand kids, not to mention marking piles of exercise books and assessments. The list I mentioned is just the tip of the iceberg - depending on the time of the year and committees you're part of, one can be inundated with other miscellaneous responsibilities. I mentioned earlier that school lets out at 4pm, but I hardly ever leave at 4pm. Anyway, this just means that I find myself without the energy to engage in hobbies like reading or writing, and I get fiercely protective of my weekends because they're my only chill time. To this day, I still marvel at how other teachers have the stamina to give private tuition classes outside of their regular day job.
#2 Crime investigations and first-aid are part and parcel of school life
School is a place to attain knowledge and build character, right? Unfortunately, it's also a simulation of society where you get a whole mix of characters, which makes it inevitable that bad things happen. Bullies, thieves and vandals are present in every school, which is no surprise. What's complicated, however, is investigating cases. We have CCTV in the school, but CCTV can only do so much. If a child is being psychologically and emotionally bullied, many a time it's a case of 'He said, she said'. I'm no expert in lie detection, which makes me feel crippled when I get reports of happenings that I did not personally witness. Another thing that I had to learn on my feet was how to deal with wounds, scrapes and nosebleeds, and how to judge if a child needs to be sent to the school nurse or not. There are tummy aches, and there are also phantom tummy aches. They don't teach you these things in teacher training college. =P
#3 Communicating with parents can be mentally exhausting
I've never been a very tactful person, so every time I make a phone call to a parent, I get a little anxious about how to phrase what I'm going to say. The hardest thing for me is to give negative feedback about a child, which is sometimes necessary for the parents to know. No one likes hearing negative things about their own children, so I feel the pressure to phrase it in a way that is tactful and hopefully go down well, which can be really tough. Initially, it was more nerve-wracking, but now I've realized that for most parents, this would not be the first time they've gotten similar feedback if the child has been in school for the past 2 years. Still, if there's a course for teachers on how to tactfully phrase negative feedback during Report Card Day or when misdemeanours occur, sign me right up for it. The decision fatigue is real.
The things that I mentioned are just things that I didn't expect to have to deal with as a teacher, so future teachers, this is a heads up. Teaching is still rewarding and fun, but it does come with its own set of challenges.
To be fair, here's one thing that I expected, but didn't happen:
Paperwork.
Definitely one of the perks of being in an international school. =P
You're back! I figured as much that you're somewhat burned out from the work day to ever feel like blogging haha. (Cuz I was in the same boat) How did the both of you learn to adjust to each other's working schedule?
ReplyDeleteIt got better with time. I used to be super highly strung about everything but now I'm more relaxed after getting used to the rhythm. The first few months of work were definitely full of strife and conflict =P But don't worry, it gets better!
ReplyDelete