09/12/2022
A TEACHER’S STORY
By Ms. Julie
I will not sugarcoat things.
It is true when they say it is very hard to teach here in the USA. It really is.
Classroom management is the most difficult aspect that one must overcome here. It is not easy to implement classroom policies. Students can be very argumentative, and they wouldn’t hesitate to question the teacher’s authority.
Respect to teachers is not automatic unlike in the Asian countries. In the beginning, students will see how you perform, and how you are able to manage the classroom. Students will later test you how far they can get away with things they do in the classroom. As clichè as it may sound, but they will really test your patience up to the last strand.
The teacher’s first few weeks are crucial because it would determine what kind of a classroom s/he would have for the entire school year.
Just before Quarter 1 ended, I found myself crying so bad in front of a class. That was the first time it happened in my ten whole years of teaching career! And the emotion dragged on to the second class. Looking back, I find it so hilarious how I was such a crybaby that day.
I felt so vulnerable. It was so embarrassing. But I couldn’t contain it any longer. The challenge to steer the class towards the right direction every single day had gotten me. It is not tiring to teach the class everyday; reminding them every single day to focus on studying is.
I cried not because a student angered me; I cried probably because the stress piled up on that day.
But you know what? Something amazing happened after that unfortunate day.
The students became apologetic.
I noticed in the days that followed, they would easily heed my reminders and instructions. I no longer have to “fight for attention”.
I later realized that it’s okay to be vulnerable sometimes. Maybe, my vulnerability that day made them see exactly how I value our teaching-learning relationship. Maybe, my vulnerability “humanized” me to them — that more than being a teacher, I am a human first and foremost, who also feels tired, sad, and burned out.
I can safely say that our relationship improved after that incident.
Of course, we are still a work in progress. I still have to remind the students every time. But overall, I think we have a better relationship now.
In the USA most especially, forming a healthy and positive teacher-student relationship is the most basic recipe to success.
Because here, a teacher’s content knowledge and expertise only falls secondary. The most important mission here would be: how can the teacher make the students become receptive to new learning, on a daily basis?
Teaching in the USA humbled me.
It is not always about what we know. Rather, it is about how we relate to others that makes all the difference.
