Hello everyone!
I was just watching the video of 2011 Iatefl's Pecha Kucha session for 456th time and it got me thinking...
Around 2 months ago I attended a meeting at a school and this meeting was supposed to be a kind of a training session. There were around 20 people in the room and the DOS asked people to get to know one another better by asking the question: Why did you become a teacher?
That was not the first that ever happened to me and now I can pretty much say that I have a collection of interesting answers I've heard along the years...
'I like to have children around' - Valid point... not my case... people's ages were not the reason why I decided to have a go in the area....
'Because of the money' - Well... I'd like to know where this person was getting so much money. To my eye, teaching is not exactly the profession to choose if you want to become wealthy... (Sorry, guys! It had to be said!)
'I was out of a job in my area and as I can speak fairly good English I decided to try teaching so that I wouldn't starve' - another very valid point. I would go into another profession if I couldn't get around to finding a job in teaching... so why not the opposite? The only thing is, I would not try something different without being offered training to do that (and this os often what people do when they decide to teach).
'I had no idea what I wanted to do professionally and a friend suggested I try it out' - OK... so maybe you just parachuted in the profession and then discovered you got the hang of it.
'I wanted to have a job in which I would surely be the authority' - Sorry! Even though I believe that respect is the essential building block for the teacher-learner relationship, the word authority just sounds too old-fashioned for me. Also, sad but true, nowadays teachers are not really seen as the authority anymore in most of the environments where learning takes place.
'I started teaching because I liked it' - Hard to believe! We can only discover if we really like something when we start doing it. Perhaps you liked the idea of it and then after you really started your hands-on period you got to grow fond of it. I only really discovered I like teaching better than other professions after I had a go at another profession and then realized it was really not my thing...
So many different answers... I could never relate to any of them...
And then after watching the Iatefl's videos, I was remind by my own conscience the reason why I started out in the area...
As I watched the videos and learned a lot by doing this, my eyes were filled with tears... Tears of joy... I was reminded of a simple fact...
'I started TEACHING, because I never wanted to stop LEARNING'....
Thank you to all the people who participated in all the events I was ever present. You've made me grow... : )
I was just watching the video of 2011 Iatefl's Pecha Kucha session for 456th time and it got me thinking...
Around 2 months ago I attended a meeting at a school and this meeting was supposed to be a kind of a training session. There were around 20 people in the room and the DOS asked people to get to know one another better by asking the question: Why did you become a teacher?
That was not the first that ever happened to me and now I can pretty much say that I have a collection of interesting answers I've heard along the years...
'Because of the money' - Well... I'd like to know where this person was getting so much money. To my eye, teaching is not exactly the profession to choose if you want to become wealthy... (Sorry, guys! It had to be said!)
'I was out of a job in my area and as I can speak fairly good English I decided to try teaching so that I wouldn't starve' - another very valid point. I would go into another profession if I couldn't get around to finding a job in teaching... so why not the opposite? The only thing is, I would not try something different without being offered training to do that (and this os often what people do when they decide to teach).
'I had no idea what I wanted to do professionally and a friend suggested I try it out' - OK... so maybe you just parachuted in the profession and then discovered you got the hang of it.
'I wanted to have a job in which I would surely be the authority' - Sorry! Even though I believe that respect is the essential building block for the teacher-learner relationship, the word authority just sounds too old-fashioned for me. Also, sad but true, nowadays teachers are not really seen as the authority anymore in most of the environments where learning takes place.
'I started teaching because I liked it' - Hard to believe! We can only discover if we really like something when we start doing it. Perhaps you liked the idea of it and then after you really started your hands-on period you got to grow fond of it. I only really discovered I like teaching better than other professions after I had a go at another profession and then realized it was really not my thing...
And then after watching the Iatefl's videos, I was remind by my own conscience the reason why I started out in the area...
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