I’ve been teaching since my senior year in high school (around 4 years) and even when I know it’s not a long amount time, it has given me a good perspective on all the factors involved in the teaching process.
To summarize, teaching in my country is like a cycle, with very defining stages that go around way faster than anyone feels comfortable with.
The first stage is the honeymoon phase; we teachers are all excited and ready to start working. we have all the strategies, resources and materials ready to be the best teachers we can.
…but then reality kicks in, and you notice that students could care less about your effort and the time you put into every class and every detail.
They don’t care if you have a sore throat and the thought of speaking feels like a knife on your esophagus, or that you want them to practice the great trick you have been rehearsing with them on their own, hoping it will improve their skills (or at least let them know which way is better for them to learn). They don’t even care about the fact that if they don’t do their part they won’t have the perfect A they think they deserve. And when they don’t get it, it’s our fault. it’s always the teachers’ fault.
They also don’t care to cheat and find the quickest, sloppiest way to do their work, because after all, who really cares? Cool kids don’t care about those things.
This is the moment where the confusion starts; what is going on? what am I doing wrong? what can I do better? how can I make them improve? you ask yourself all these questions in hopes to be really wrong and the answer not to be what you’re thinking, so you keep fighting.
When it’s the 30th round and you’re still losing,
anger kicks in.
what the actual @#!%! This little pieces of @#!%& How dare them to @#!%^# while I’m !@#%&!
You’re completely frustrated by the situation, and your every day becomes a mass of nothingness and all you have left is to meditate and focus really, really hard in not choking one of them.
And don’t get me wrong, it’s not the “teacher, I don’t understand!” the ones that make me livid, I actually love and enjoy when my students ask questions!! because where there are questions there’s curiosity, and there’s nothing more beautiful than that in the learning process. what makes me feel discouraged, sad and disappointed is, like I mentioned before, when students blatantly don’t care; don’t care about their class, their opportunities, about how lucky they are to be getting a proper education, about my subject nor any other,
about me and my effort…
And that’s the point where I stop fighting the strong current of I don’t cares…
Project Lissa 