EMBRACING THE TEACHING PROFESSION

Well, here we are, the last weekend - for the next three years at least - that will not be at the mercy of teaching proper.

The last couple of mornings this week have been spent perusing for materials online that I hope to add to my teaching resources. Anything to relieve the stress I expect to face in the near future. My efforts so far have been bleak. Oh well. I'll start on lesson plans later.

It dawned on me as I was reading a teacher's blog on teaching Hyperbole in class, that I will be a teacher soon. In the fullest sense of the word, that it will soon be a label that I wear as a second-skin. There will be no "student-" attached as a prefix to the label, as in student-teacher. Just, Teacher. I don't think I have quite comprehensively embraced that I identity yet. Worn like clothing but not quite skin. Not for long though.

I look back at my posts related to teaching - I don't really say much about teaching, just some about the kids and people I meet. And there is a reason for that - because I am not just a teacher, there is more to be than that job. But perhaps I wonder if it is time for me to identify myself the profession and the responsibilities and stories that come with the turf. It won't be the only piece of clothing to become my skin, it will probably morph with the other identities I have become like christian worker, tentmaker.

And just as I take great pride in reflecting on the work I used to do in Japan as a christian worker, church-planter, so I think I should similarly take pride in the work I do as a teacher and not try to shrug it off so "I won't be identified with (stereotypical) teachers".

My gripe with the teaching community here? Teachers as a community seem to be a whiny lot, both to the insiders and to the outsiders. There is never a dearth of complaints to be heard, we are always hearing how they are overworked, underpaid and under-recognized. All true. :-)

But I also hail from the scientific community. And if the real reason be known, I was completely put-off that scientist are over-worked and pressured in an industry where there is similarly little recognition and reward for the toilsome labours of the little people. It is not unheard of for them to return to their lonesome laboratries at three in the morning to continue with their experiments which have to show results yesterday so that they can make journal publishing before the next other competitive lab across beats them to it. You could easily spend a year or two in research and then have nothing to show for your hardwork if somebody make public their findings before you. I decided then I could not bring myself to sweat over something I may never have anything to show for. And mind you, if you have nothing to show for it, you have no funding, no moolah.

I don't think teachers are in a worse position than this. It's really not that bad if we stopped comparing ourselves. My only anxiousness is that the demands will consume my time away from the things I want as important; friends, relationships, God and Kingdom-building.

So here we are, at a new threshold. Hi World, I am a middle-school Language Arts Teacher in Singapore. :-) I teach 12-13 year olds, English and to the 15-16 year olds, Literature.