Reflections on my first week as an English teacher

What a long time it has been since I posted. I'm pleased to say this is because I've been really busy and haven't had much time for blogging. Also, I have discovered with blogging that, if I don't feel the urge to write, no blogs get written. It's a good thing I don't do this for a living. As a result of my lack of blogging, I've got lots of news to impart, but rather than do really boring "I did this...and then I did that...and then I did something else..." type posts, I'll do them by theme. They may still be really boring, of course, but at least they will be shorter!

As you know from a previous instalment, I applied for a voluntary teaching job with Reach Out Academy in Dokki, and was offered a paid job. I accepted the job and agreed to do 24 hours a week, over 3 days. I've just finished my first three days. These are my reflections.

I will never have to go through my first day as a teacher EVER AGAIN. I have done it. My first day as a teacher is over. Having had my first day as a teacher, all I can say to this is THANK GOD. I may have other first days in new jobs, but never again will it be my first day as a teacher. Honestly, I was petrified. I was given my schedule at the end of the training. This was it (note the past tense):

Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday

13:00 General English 5 (pre intermediate for the CELTA people reading)
15.00 General English 6
17.15 General English 5
19.30 General English 5

I had prepared. I spent HOURS (lots of capitalisation in this post but believe me, it's necessary) preparing. I diligently filled out my CELTA lesson plan (and I will have more to say on THIS in the future dear CELTA people!) I forgot, as I had a tendency to do on the CELTA course, that with pre-intermediate students, everything takes twice as long as you think it will. I wondered how on earth I was going to fill two hours. A better question to ask myself would have been, seriously? You really think that activity is only going to take that long? Sigh. Aside from that, quite honestly it's a bit of a blur now. I came home, went to bed, and slept solidly for 12 hours.

During the first day, I was asked if I would take another class at 11.00 on Tuesday as there had been a "teacher illness". I have since found out that this means "another teacher has left without any warning, and we're having to scrabble around like mad to find someone else". It was a Conversation class.

So off I went on Tuesday morning to teach 6 hours back to back with no breaks. I had spent far too long preparing (again) and agonising about my qualities as a teacher (again), but by the time I got to preparation for Conversation, I just could not be arsed. I wrote a brief schedule on a scrap of paper.

So many things are clear to me now that completely passed me by during the training. One of the other new (unqualified) teachers told the school that he only wanted to do Conversation classes. "Oh!" thought I. "I wonder why?" Older, wiser teachers will be chuckling to themselves now at how naive I am. Conversation is hugely, monumentally, MASSIVELY easier to teach than General English. I had been given four General English classes BECAUSE I'M QUALIFIED. Hardly anyone else is. So they're scared of General English. Too much grammar. Too much preparation. Too much actual teaching. Conversation classes? F*****g piece of p*ss. I'm not joking. I could teach a Conversation class with NO preparation. I won't. But I could.

After teaching for 10 hours on Tuesday, I was asked to take on the Conversation class permanently. I agreed, mainly because the first one was such good fun, and after the first class, one of the students asked if they could always have me because they loved me. Well who could possibly say no after that? I taught it again today and I honestly can't remember the last time I enjoyed my job so much.

That said, I do also love teaching General English. It's incredibly rewarding when you see the eyes of your students light up when they actually get something, or when you have a laugh with them. The problem is that by the time I've got to the third General English 5 class of the day, which is also the LAST class of the day, it's really quite difficult to drum up enthusiasm for present simple and present continuous tenses for daily routines and activities. I get up. I eat my breakfast. I go to college. I go home. I'm studying. I'm eating my dinner. I drink coffee. I drink more coffee. I drink strong coffee. There isn't enough caffeine in this coffee........I eat chocolate. You get the idea.

My feet are killing me though. I've discovered I'm not a sitting down teacher, which is something of a surprise, since I'm a natural couch potato. So after 10 hours on my feet with only two 15 minute breaks (the first of which happens after 6 hours of teaching), everything aches. Still, I only have to do three weeks of this and then I get week off.

Conversation 5's view on life

No doubt I'll have lots more to say about it all in future posts, but I'll end by saying this. I will earn in 3 weeks less than what I could earn in a day back in the UK, but in my 28 year career, I can't remember many hours as enjoyable and rewarding as the four hours I have spent this week teaching Conversation 5.