I Love My Job

Some of my friends have commented about how good I have it at this job and have told me to quit bitching about it because it irritates the crap out of them. As instructors of this program, we know we have it good. In my case, I teach only 12 hours a week and make a decent salary. I could choose to work longer hours and, now that I'm off probation, I can expect a salary bump every subsequent year after this. What bugs some of my friends even more is that, ever since Kai started daycare, I stopped bringing work home because there's no need to do so anymore. That means even with all the prep work, marking, and meetings, I'm able to leisurely roll into the office around 10, work (and chat) for 90 minutes, eat (and chat some more) in the lunch room, and go to class at 12:30. My schedule allows me to work only 4 days a week, two of which I teach 4 hours and only 2 hours on the other two. Oh, and neither of my partners fight me for it, I usually get Fridays off.

So yeah, compared to other working professionals who start their morning commute before sunrise and don't make it home until it's dark, we seem to earn quite a bit of money for the amount of work we put in. But we do work hard. It's just that the amount of work we put in cannot be measured or evaluated the same way as jobs in other industries. It's not how much time you put in each day or how many sales you make (hell, we are not even responsible for retaining students in the program). The real evaluation of your ability to deliver quality lessons to maximize learning potentials takes place every day in class in how well your students understand to your instructions and explanations and how capable you are in identifying problems and finding effective solutions in a timely manner. If you think about it, we're evaluated in every thing we do the moment we walk into the classroom every single day. And there isn't much room for failure. Once you're in front of a group of students, there's no time to consult the thesaurus for synonyms or polish up your grammar.

Oh, but we ESL teachers love it!

If you ask around in my office, most instructors will tell you that we chose to get into the TESL industry because of the flexibility and freedom it offers and the "never-a-dull-moment" nature of the job. As ESL instructors, We get to (try to) answer all kinds of wacky questions (e.g., "Why are Canadians so lazy?" Who are you calling lazy, Mr. I've-missed-3-classes-in-the-last-week-because-I-couldn't-get-up-at-11-to-make-it-to-a-12:30-class?) We are also very easily pleased. Something as small as a joke perfectly delivered by a lower-intermediate student can make a teacher's day (e.g., "I was looking up the word 'charismatic' last night and guess what? I found a picture of me in the definition"). What I most love about my job is the fact that there's really very little I can do to determine the outcome of my effort in any given class. Even with 10+ years of teaching experience or having taught the same materials a few times, every 7 weeks we get a group of different students (repeating students never get the same teachers twice, which is a good thing for the teachers as well). Something that might have worked really well before may totally tank with the students this session. I love the challenge because it keeps me on my toes. Plus, I'm totally addicted to the thrill and sense of accomplishment when I find another effective way of solving a problem or answering a question.

I seriously think being a teacher is Gemini's calling. I'm sure my cousins and many of my friends will agree.