The Highs & Lows of Being an English Teacher

Anecdotally, this piece does was it says on the tin. These experiences and points-of-view are personal to the writer and may be shared by some.

The Cherry on the Cake

Teaching English as a foreign language to adults is one side of the coin, just as being a contracted secondary school teacher is another. When push comes to shove, we’re all in the same boat together. The greatest moments are surely seeing your hard work pay off when students recognise the usefulness of the course and they have enjoyed every moment of it and acknowledge improvements. Showing gratitude on their part is nice but is not the icing on the cake. After all, the proof is in the pudding, the good feeling comes from the results and there’s nothing wrong with polite and kind gestures, i.e. gift giving, though that is beside the point. The real value comes from making a difference to your students. The greatest compliment received was that the teacher was an inspiration for learning = priceless.

Are you a Social Animal?

The social side of the equation may be a case of whether you are an extrovert or not. If you enjoy social contact and conversing with different characters, it may be more to your taste than for introverted characters. Meeting new people and learning about cultures can be interesting and informative, while building a strong bond with your students based on a personal approach can pay dividends for your lessons. Apart from creating a safe learning environment and increasing familiarity, inadvertently, this allows for a greater level of trust between those involved; this works to a greater extent with one-on-one lessons. By sharing some personal information such as about family, friends, tastes and so on, you get to know one another better and it makes a difference. Still, this is on a case-by case basis as some individuals are private by nature and we have to respect that.

Promoting Productivity

Are you the best organised person you can be? Do you plan all your lessons two weeks in advance? If so, then this short paragraph is for you.?The benefits of this approach are that you never play catch up, though you always have to be on top of things. Everything must be well-organised with folders of material that are streamlined; nothing that is out of place. There shouldn’t be too many handouts in each plastic sleeve; three is enough and perhaps a key. Now that online lessons are more common, there is less need for paper. A mild case of OCD? Quite possibly.

Doing What You Love to Do

The benefits of loving what you do speak volumes. Every time you get up (on a weekday) you have a mission to accomplish. You will help others and do something productive. You will use all your powers for good such as creativity, your teaching experience, empathy etc. You will exercise your brain, use up plenty of energy in a good way, and carry on the quest without any fanfare or, sadly, in many cases, recognition from the organisation(s) you work with. Your enthusiasm and passion could well catch on; rubbing off on those you teach.

The Niggly Bits

Teachers are often made to do administrative duties that they shouldn’t need to concern themselves with. Nowadays, they must send Zoom invites, schedules, make all the date changes, and, sometimes, update the class on how long they have to wait for books to arrive. All of these duties should be in the remit of project co-ordinators aka account managers. This worrying trend ties up the teacher, wastes time and energy and can cause stressful situations. In one instance an account manager did not know that Teams has a limit when using a free account, which meant that the client needs to send the invitations, so a whole flurry of emails to three groups ensued; not from the person who arranges the course but from the teacher instead. On another occasion, when availability for a course was given with all the correct dates, the official line was: ‘the system didn’t recognise holiday dates’, but some dates were incorrect on there and had nothing to do with holiday dates. So, of course, the teacher was left to clear up the mess without any acknowledgment of a mistake, and, consequently, is also not the best impression to make on a new class before starting a new course. Sadly, this is not the only occasion; emails sent to the project co-ordinator were unanswered (certainly not for the first time) while there is in fact no inclination to do anything whatsoever, i.e. when it is necessary for the teacher to phone to find out what the policy is when some class members do not want recordings when one had requested it, it's the teacher but not the person in charge of administrative duties who followed up with three emails; the third being a message to the student after the person responsible for making the decision (re the official line) didn't send one. The moral of the story if there is one is if you want something done, then you've got to do it yourself.

It can happen from time to time that a student will try and get the better of you (or the rules) or due to a lack of empathy, may not see things eye to eye with you. In one instance, a student seemed unhappy about the policy a language centre had regarding date changes (twice is possible or the teacher can decide on more, i.e. 1 extra). In two of his emails he appeared angry and even aggressive. One included the words ‘I expect tolerance’ and the other showed his frustration that in his job he is unable to block dates and know his availability far in advance and used !!!!!!!!!!! It could be that this gent struggles writing diplomatically. Thankfully, a sales manager dropped by to the next online lesson to save the day and showed great people skills explaining everything patiently while backing up the teacher. Let's not forget those who seem incapable of following even the most basic of instructions. Walking the tightrope between between being the most patient teacher known to man and getting exasperated beyond your wildest nightmares. This can happen when seemingly painless forms of communication are ignored like a simple ''yes'' when asked if he/ she has downloaded a document, or when its spelled out as clear as day so any Tom, Dick or Harry could understand what needs to be done in letters and numbers, i.e. use the verbs in 1) A-F to fill the gaps in B) G-L; somehow another so and so manages to use the meanings (of the phrasal verbs) in A) 1-6). This, it should be pointed out, is after you've adapted an exercise that you had already simplified. Go figure?!

Secondary school teachers have a special place in my heart. Having been there in the thick of things at a private secondary school for one year, I have been there and done that for better or worse. I notice that teachers are still struggling with burn out, being given more work than they should be given without being paid to do so and not being shown any appreciation or decent financial reward in the first place. Here in the Netherlands teachers with the maximum amount of experience are not often given the right salary scale known as LD. The system allows for this. This must stop. The ruling government is not friendly towards education. Something must change somehow. Wouldn't it make sense to get the best out of your teachers by supporting and incentivising, rewarding and respecting our educators? The way things are going, very few people will want to work as a teacher in schools. Deep sigh....