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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…
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Looking For a Job While Employed: To Search or Not To Search?
Is your job what you honestly looked for, feel excited about, can’t wait to get back to? Have you ever asked yourself these questions? If the answers are yes, yes, yes, then you are most likely an entrepreneur. If the answers are no, no, no, then you are most probably like me always pondering the possibility of a new job search while being already employed or just hired. I wouldn’t describe it as impatience, lack of commitment, not knowing your stuff, or lack of focus. When you look for a job the first time, you just need the job, just something straight out of the college because you need to…
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Gut-level Teacher’s Confession.
I’m a teacher, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that. It started long ago. I remember having dinner at one of my father’s friend’s house. It was right after my admission to a quite high-ranking university in my country. I was radiating pride and happiness. The conversation came to the point that my father’s friend asked what career I was going to have after I graduate. “Teacher,” my father replied. I never forgot what happened after that. Suddenly, the whole world, the grandeur of my existence and my recent accomplishments have been annihilated by the wicked smirk. “That’s all?! Just a teacher? Well,” he responded. I don’t clearly…
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Handling the Overwhelm in First Years of Teaching and Beyond.
I am sure like me, you have been driving home from work, your head buzzing with what you’ve been trying to digest from the school day, and you had a thought, “Is what I am doing sustainable? Can I continue doing it for year and years?” The answer was probably, “Oh my gosh! It’s insane…” You probably have been waking up early like me at 5:30 a.m. for the fifth day in a row, feeling absolutely exhausted, dragging yourself to the kitchen to gobble your breakfast and empty a cup of coffee into your stomach in less than twenty minutes. You probably felt like calling off sick, but then you…
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10 Lessons I Learned My First 2 Years of Teaching.
Hello! It’s almost the end of the school year, and although a lot of you are stressing our because of coming or ongoing observations, planning finals and trying to keep children on task, it’s a great time to reflect and pat yourself on the back having survived one more year! Hooray! In this post, I’m going to share ten lessons I’ve learned in my two years of teaching in a public school system. For some of you who don’t know my struggles as a new teacher, read this post about my struggles. I need to say, a person and a professional I am now is due to the constant reflection…
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Best Transformational Books!
In this post, I will share some of the excellent books I gobbled recently. These books have been transformational to me, the best of my reads for the year, offering an enjoyable past-time. I know that books can be an enjoyable read, or they can be the beginning of something more significant in your life. So as a dedicated bookworm, I am giving you a gift of these remarkable, compelling self-help books that made me a much happier person with a mission! 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…
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Failure is (NOT) an Option In the Teaching Profession.
I can’t swim. I never learned, never felt the need for it. When my husband bought a family gym membership, we started our weekly trips to the pool, which has become my getaway from the everyday grind. During one of those frequent trips to the pool, I had a revelation. It literally happened in the pool. I was standing next to the 4-feet mark contemplating my plan B and C and D in case I happen to be drowning. I can scream, start grabbing floating Barbies, and stereo foam dumbbells for seniors, or even any hands and legs in my proximity. That could have been probably unnecessary since lifeguards watched…
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6 Effective Teacher Practices That Will Lower Your Anxiety.
Has anyone ever told you before you made a decision to become a teacher that your weekends might be jeopardized for life, you will have to cope with anxiety, your mind will always keep working on unit and lesson plans even during vacation, anything you see in life will be subconsciously evaluated towards the possibility of using it in a classroom? When I was pregnant, I would read “What to expect when you are expecting” manual that would make me even more nervous. The “after-life” after having a baby is dramatically different from the book although I still felt I had a good “101 mom life” course to prepare mentally.…
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How to Motivate Reluctant ESL Students and Build Their Independence.
As a new teacher, I have understood that some of the things I couldn’t function without from day one are classroom routines, clear explanation of consequences for misbehavior and non-completion of tasks, clear statement of expectations from each task. Taking care of those is a learning process, but in the end, it pays off. One of the things that caught me off guard is the fact that students do not necessarily have accountability for their work. They tend to shift the ownership of their completed assignments to me, hoping I will magically turn them into A graded papers. So the question my students have been driving me bananas with is…
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Is Google Translation Benefiting ESL Students or Harming Them?
Today I want to talk about the problem of Google translation for assignments in an ESL classroom. To give you an idea how painful it can be not only to an ESL teacher but any teacher, let me describe a scene in one of my classes. It’s an English as a Second Language class, level A which means that students are beginner learners of the language. Although they have language basics, they continue developing their vocabulary, learn how to connect ideas logically and grammatically correct. Some of them might have the struggle to write a sentence. Some of them can create a pretty good paragraph and more. The task students…
