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There Are Things You Cannot Control In Education, So Stop Worrying About Them.
As a new teacher, you have naïve expectations about what your classroom would look like, how your students would behave, how you would teach, and how things would work for you. I’m sorry to be a party pooper, but you are wrong, and you will fail. On top of that, if you don’t adapt your mind and teaching, you will fail again. Whoever is not or was not a teacher by vocation will never understand the fear and anxiety of facing twenty-five adolescents staring in your face, judging every move of yours, testing your integrity, emotional stamina, and knowledge. I’ve been there, and I failed, and I know now…
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Copy From Other Teachers To Figure Out What You Lack.
I tend to pay attention to things that happen in other teachers’ classrooms. While walking from a teacher’s lounge, from the main office, on my way to make copies, or grab some coffee, I take few-second snapshots of the action that I witness in a classroom, and my mind inevitably ponders the question: do I want to be a student in this classroom or not? Sometimes my answer is Yes, but more often my answer is No. This small test comes from the archives of memory going back to my school years and me learning English. My memories of the English class are quite unpleasant. I remember my teacher…
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Can Teaching Ruin Your Marriage?
Yes, it can. I have recently listened to the podcast episode “What to do when teaching is ruining your marriage” by Angela Watson. This was one of many episodes that made me relate and say, “Oh my! It’s not just in my head! Teacher overwhelm is real, and it does affect relationships if not taken seriously. ” I can relate to so many discussions led by Angela on her podcast. This platform actually became the first that helped me validate my good and bad experiences as a teacher. Those moments and hours of stress that I thought I had been experiencing on my own suddenly became shared by thousands of…
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8 Things To Focus On For A New ESL Teacher.
Starting a teaching career is quite a launch in terms of its effects on your life and the people around you. Starting as a new ESL teacher can either turn you off or give you the environment to propel your career. Let’s talk about eight things a new ESL teacher should keep in mind. 1. Teach concepts and skills. It is quite apparent, isn’t it? Wrong. Well, at least for me it was not something I knew when I started teaching. At the very beginning, I was destructed and overwhelmed by the number of things I felt I had to “fix.“ How can you teach “Students will…
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8 Pitfalls To Avoid For A New ESL Teacher.
What a “still new” teacher can tell to a “fresh new” teacher? Quite a lot! First two-three years in a classroom is a learning curve when important perspectives are shaped, the unnecessary falls off, the anxiety-causing elements are being tested and dealt with. These are the years to start shaping your idea about what this profession is going to be like for you, and whether changes and adjustments are needed for you to grow more efficient and avoid the overwhelm. Let’s talk about 8 pitfalls to avoid as a new ESL teacher. I will be honest, I am a teacher who adores grammar. I learned English through…
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How To Get A Job Again: Tips For ESL Teachers.
I started looking for a job a month after I got one. At first, it was the fear of failure, not fitting in, anxiety, and total disillusionment in teaching. I thought I wasn’t made for that. I thought It wasn’t what I expected, so I was not prepared for that. Two years into my school career, I catapulted higher than my modest expectations to the status of an efficient and highly efficient teacher according to my administrators, and “I am not that bad, indeed” according to my recuperating ego. I read my way through the periods of anxiety, emotional overwhelm, physical exhaustion due to the lack of sleep and…
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The Power Of The Compound Effect.
Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below (I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post), but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used. I have recently read the book “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy and was blown away by the takeaways that connected the dots in my personal and professional life. According to Hardy, the Compound Effect is “the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices.” Every day we move one step at a time to our goals if we have those. Some of…
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Finding Relevance In Content For Our Students’ Lives.
Teachers everywhere are finding a balance between what we have to teach and what students are really into. In my first year of teaching, I often taught lessons I had no connection to. I taught them because I just wanted to live through one more week of teaching and keep my students busy. Keeping students busy has become a shameful activity. The goal of a modern lesson has grown more and more sophisticated, more conceptual than practical, more daring and seemingly unrelated to the reality of a classroom and a huge phycological crisis we find our students in. Although I have just started shaping my teaching practices and figuring…
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Being An Adjunct: Helping Teacher’s Salary or A Wasting Your Time?
Becoming an ESL teacher opens up multiple opportunities in terms of the employment available. One can choose from becoming a public-school teacher, a tutor, a private school teacher, an adult education teacher, an adjunct at a local college or university, an online teacher, and many more. The availability of options is quite tempting, but the choice, however, is often determined by the salary target you are aiming at. When I first got my New Jersey Board of Education certifications, I did it because everyone told me to. Graduating with a degree in education entails getting certified in the areas of your specialization. Although I got three certifications, my job…
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Should I Become A Superintendent?
We all look for opportunities to get happier and wealthier with less effort. It would be even better to have a “job” that could sustain the desired lifestyle and liberate us from worries, financial instability, and having to wake up early and commute to the job you wish you didn’t have. As I grew in my entrepreneurial spirit and my obsession to read every single book on financial freedom and the movement of liberation from 9 to 5 rat race, I started noticing the opportunities around me that would otherwise be ignored for fear of failure or embarrassment. Most importantly, I have understood the trick of how some people…
