It has been said by a professor during my time in the Education program (and reiterated by others) that a large amount of teachers switch careers within five years. In a way, I'm past that point by pursing my sixth year in less than a week's time. I also recall my first superintendent telling me in my first year of teaching that it normally takes five years to settle in comfortably as an educator.
In a way, I do feel like I have a routine and that I am able to deal with most situations with the experience I acquired throughout the years.
Or so I thought.
As a bit of background, my fifth year was the first time where I taught all core classes: one grade 7 science, three grade 8 sciences and one grade 9 science. Not teaching options was both a blessing and a curse: blessing in that I don't have to plan a curriculum that spans a short period of 3 months and then have to repeat it to a brand new batch. With that, I find it difficult to progress far, whether it's karate or music as the option. As a curse, not teaching options meant more curriculum to cover overall, which means more work generally. (I'm never satisfied am I?)
In one of my classes, I had a student that was immensely difficult to deal with for this student was highly uncooperative. This student required a lot of attention, which disrupted the classroom dynamics and didn't allow me to spend time with other students that needed me. Every time I disciplined this student, s/he would play the victim and insists that I'm simply picking on him/her. Escalating the situation via administration or talking directly to the parents made it worse. It wasn't just a behavior issue, for s/he was struggling academically. Throughout all my experience as an educator, I never had to deal with this kind of situation, which made my year extremely draining early on. I would dread teaching this particular class because of this one student.
Unfortunately, I did not deal with the situation in the most ideal way, for my displeasure would taint my other classes. Students are very perceptive, and they were able to pick up on my negative feel. A classroom filled with negative energy is not the most conducive learning environment.
But enough negatives. What would I do differently for this upcoming year, since chances are I will see the same student or have similar students in the near future:
1) Remember that it's not always something that you can control.
This is something that I should have recalled, since it brings back a student from my first year of teaching. This student was extremely lazy and never got stuff handed in on time, or ever at all. After much discussion with his/her parents (almost weekly telephone calls), nothing came out of the solution we crafted together. Ironically, I met this particular student last year, and it seemed like s/he was the same as always.
As an educator, you can't always inspire students to find joy in learning. Beating yourself up for not being able to is not productive in my opinion. It's better to spend your effort on those who are willing to learn, or inspired by your teaching. I've seen my fair share of students who simply don't want to invest time or effort into their studies despite how much I try and push. Then again, I've seen an equal number of students that are willing to push themselves when given the right amount of guidance.
Yes, there are many educators out there that have a higher level of tolerance/patience to deal with these particular students, but I have to remember that I am me and I have my own limits.
2) Never hesitate to ask for help from others.
I think I mentioned this before in a previous reflective post, but I never truly acted on it. I would ask for advice, but I would rarely ask for assistance when I truly needed it. To illustrate, April this year was a hellish month for me: science fair coordinator and badminton season. Organizing Science Fair took many hours, despite seemingly simple enough to do. It didn't help that there was practice three times a week after school. My mistake was not utilizing more help for Science Fair. Fortunately though, I had a volunteer help with practices and colleagues were more than willing to help me supervise the numerous tournaments we had.
3) Teach different courses.
A year ago to this day, I was anxiously awaiting for the school year to start since I'll be teaching a government standard test. I was comfortable with teaching my usual grade 7 & 8 sciences, and doing a new course was nerve wracking initially. Like mentioned before, it required more work on my part as well. I'm glad that I had the opportunity though since it expanded my own experiences. As for this upcoming school year, I'll be teaching robotics, which is totally out of my field of expertise. A challenge for sure, but I believe I'm ready to confront it!
And that's pretty much it for my fifth year reflection. They get shorter and shorter, though hopefully more concise! As for whether I stay as a teacher or not, I don't have any plans of switching careers at this point of my life. Let's hope it stays that way!
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