Thursday, June 30, 2016

The Life of a Teacher

I don't think I'd make a very good teacher. I'm not patient enough, I don't know how to motivate students in a positive way, and my mind goes blank when I have to think of examples.

When I was growing up, people always told me I should become a teacher one day. To this day, I'm not sure whether they said it because I had several teachers in my family, because my mom home-schooled us, or because it was a good career that could help in the mission field. I always adamantly vowed I would not become a teacher and managed to avoid it both in college and after. The extent of my teaching was a computer class and a couple of modules for a leadership class.

Then I came to MEU and not teaching wasn't an option. I was assigned Advanced Writing in the ESL program the first semester. Thankfully, I also received a book that I could follow step by step and supplement as needed. My 7 students and I made it through the semester relatively unscathed and emerged with grades reflective of the amount of effort they put in. As I contemplated my teaching methods, I realized that I was not someone who teased out knowledge or asked students to think in a way other than they had before. I relied on their innate ability to motivate them and if they chose not to be motivated then I didn't push them. I didn't know how to. I'd spent my educational years breezing through simple classes or responding to teachers who challenged me. I didn't know how, though, to motivate students beyond the reward of a good grade.

Yesterday, when I was asking students to respond to questions about the reading assignment, one of them kept saying things that were not related to the answer. I finally said, I don't want you to just shout out anything. Take a moment and think about it. The student went silent.

Today, the students were in a giggly mood, not unusual if it would have been a bunch of teenage girls, but it was several guys and some of them appeared to be amused by a classmate's accent, unaware that they too sported accents of their own. I was frustrated because they weren't paying attention to the debate assignment and I do not tolerate making fun of someone in front of them so I insisted they stop laughing. I made eye contact with the offending students and spoke in a very serious tone of voice. I felt bad about taking a stand but I knew if I allowed them to push the boundaries, they would continue to do so and lose all respect for me. At the same time, a thought kept whirling in my head that I should have disciplined them with a soft kind tone of voice.

So there you have it. I'm teaching Intermediate Writing in ESL as a summer intensive and I have no teaching background, no ESL training, no textbook to follow, and precious little time to prepare as I'm also working as an executive assistant. But strangely enough, I'm excited about the class. As much as the students frustrate me, I love their personalities and how they express themselves. I finally finished putting together the course outline that will serve as a mini lesson plan and we're going to have fun playing Mad Libs and Balderdash, writing a group play, creating a comic strip narrative, and possibly even going on a field trip. And this is part of the adventure.

Whenever I find myself feeling like I'm paddling just to stay above water, I stop and take a breath and remind myself that I'm not indispensable, the world won't stop turning if I miss an appointment, and I'm here doing what God has called me to do. As long as I am faithful to His call, I need never be stressed or worried. I can have peace and contentment because He is holding my right hand and guiding me with His counsel (Psalm 73:23-24).

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