Friday 18 April 2014

(mentally) SLAP YOuRSELF!


When people ask me, how teaching has been so far, I have decided that the best answer is that there are good days, where you feel like Mary Poppins and there are days when you are Snape.
During yesterday’s poetry lesson, we had an engaging discussion on things that were not fair or wrong in the country.

And everyone participated.

And I felt light and happy.

Last week, after a particularly exhausting day of trying to get the students to focus on the task, one student tells me very matter of factly “teacher kelas kamu sangat bosanla, takda syiok” “kelas 
cikgu lain lagi syiok” which translates to “teacher your class is extremely boring, and not fun at all” “all the other teachers’ classes are more fun” to which I replied “oh is that so? Thank you very much”

But inside, I felt a bit broken.


At least three times a week, I ask myself why the hell I chose to do this but then I figured, I’m sure people from other fields struggle with this question at least once in their life, and then I mentally slap myself for whining.  

1 comment:

Lydia Chai said...

I faced something like this once with my Form 4s.. It was not mentioned publicly right in front of me but somehow I got to know that students dislike me. And after a while of investigating and observing by myself, I noticed that student was actually creating lies and drama = =". Whatever her purpose was, I did feel sad at that moment when I knew that news. I fall into the dilemma stage of depression and self questioning whether all these were worth it or not. So, I totally understand that heartbroken feeling. Anyway, I'm glad that I managed to stand up again not long after that - I guess this is just one of the challenges of being a teacher. Not everyone is gonna like you/the way you teach/whatever you do. And people can dislike you for many reasons too. Just do what you are supposed to do and live guilt-free.