Lifestyle Choices And Self-maintenance For Teachers

[Ijustwannateach]

It's been a long time since I came up with a new long-ish thread, so I've been feeling a bit guilty; besides, I have other work to avoid (marking notebooks anyone? how about a writeup of committee minutes- what, no takers?).

After a rather extended period of teaching- which is fair on its way now to two decades- I have some general lifestyle and maintenance advice for beginners, teachers in the middle of their career, and burnouts. The purpose of this advice is rather different from other advice I have written here, which has been more in the way of 'how-to' aimed at beginners and those who want to start work in Thailand. This advice is general advice and discussion for choices about work and life as a teaching professional, which is not generally limited to Thailand (but with bits and pieces aimed at those who work in Thailand or Asia at large). I have several different ideas I'd like to explore, so I may try to keep each message to one topic or area. I'd appreciate comments from those who agree or disagree, or have additional suggestions to offer.

My first piece is addressed to all would-be or would-be-continuing teachers is to consider your motivations and abilities in light of what a teaching job actually entails.

1. Teaching is primarily SOCIAL work. It is a combination of communication, enculturation, demonstration, and evaluation. Proficiency with subject matter is a prerequisite, but it is not sufficient and not even the single most important factor in being a functional teacher. To be a good teacher requires a highly developed social sensibility, maturity, acting skills, enjoyment of people, congeniality, sense of humour, and both the desire and ability to care for other people. You will need to be able to hold students' attention, earn their respect/liking/tolerance, project an air of competent (rather than domineering or bullying) authority, and above all convince the students by your manner alone that you care about what is happening in the class and that you care about them. Without accomplishing these things, your subject matter knowledge (and even your ability to communicate that knowledge) is all but wasted.

Do you have the social skills and the temperament to succeed?

2. Furthermore, your social work does not end with the students. You must be interested in keeping several competing groups happy with your performance: the parents, your departmental and administrative managers, and your coworkers. Can you prioritize conflicting agendas effectively and still manage your teaching load? Some of these persons will be difficult to work with: are you skilled at managing conflict in a professional way, even if your school is not providing sufficient support?

Does the knowledge that you will be working in a socially complex and stressful environment sound like a manageable challenge or a life of pain?

3. Teaching is nearly always related to conservative social institutions and conformist social positions. Despite any personal feelings on these issues, are you able to achieve the minimum role required by your school environment (in terms of dress, hairstyle, smoking/alcohol use, personal lifestyle, punctuality and respect for rules, expression of opinion) in order for them to regard you as fit enough to serve as a model for your students (which is one of your functions)?

Or, as is usually more to the point, can you appear to most inspections that you have achieved this role?

4. Finally, last on this introductory list, are you a competent teacher and classroom manager? Do you know the subject matter? Can you communicate it in an effective way and think (quickly!) of alternative explanations for students who don't understand? Can you think of engaging activities and group work to involve the students in learning? Can you hold the attention of a room full of children who may not really want to be there? Can you keep records and reproduce them to the satisfaction of your school office?

A 'no' answer or a serious doubt in even one of these areas should give you pause in plans you have to be or to continue to be a teacher. It is not an easy job, and it can be an extremely stressful job, especially when one is starting out. It is really work that should be done only by those who really want to do it, as clearly we're not generally in it for the money compared to other types of professional occupation.

[Ijustwannateach]

My second topic in this series is on managing stress. As you probably know if you are already a teacher, or will find out when you become one, teaching can be a very stressful job. There are a lot of demands on you, almost all the time, and there is nearly never enough time to accomplish all your tasks completely satisfactorily. If you are a perfectionist, teaching may not be the best choice of career for you. However, if you made your choice and are now in the midst of it, what can you do to decompress and keep from developing health problems?

Here are some of my favourite anti-stress tactics:

Personal

Teachers who feel bad will project their feelings onto students and colleagues and this will cripple them professionally. It is essential that a teacher should take care of his/her physical, emotional, and mental health in order not to risk damage to professional social relationships.

1. Eat well and exercise frequently. Get plenty of rest and an occasional massage. If your body is not fit, your mind and feelings will follow.

2. Try to keep your personal life interesting and varied. The people you know at work are not a substitute for a social life.

3. Your important primary relationships- with a spouse or lover, family, or close friends- need to be functioning well. If there are trouble areas, address them with your family/friends/partner, with the help of other trusted friends or professional help if necessary.

4. Don't put off taking care of illness; make it a priority and avoid chronic conditions that will wear you down.

5. Take good advantage of those long vacations- it's one of the few upsides of the working conditions of a teacher!

6. Reward yourself with trips, recreation, and mental and emotional health breaks regularly.

Professional

There are a number of things you can do at work to reduce stress on the job (and the stress that may follow you home).

1. Avoid negative coworkers. Aggressive, bitter, depressed, socially dysfunctional, bullying, or mentally or emotionally ill coworkers can add stress to your life at no extra benefit. Work with them when you have to, but don't let them drag the topic onto negative obsessions. Attempt to find desk positions near happier, more satisfied coworkers or find a 'temporary desk' elsewhere if necessary. If a coworker's behaviour has an unavoidable effect on your professional performance and work satisfaction, be direct but professional in seeking management support in resolving the problem.

2. Make your desk a comfortable place to work. Personalise it as much as possible with humour and warmth. Bring headphones in to listen to music. Find a chair that suits you (even if you have to buy your own). You're going to be spending a lot of time there, so make it nice to do so.

3. Find good places to eat and relax around the school during your lunchtime or off-periods. You'll need them.

4. Develop at least a few close relationships with coworkers and other staff to help give you a listening ear during difficult times.

5. Make your classes enjoyable experiences for you by engaging with the students using humour and warmth as well as suitable and interesting activities; class periods go much faster with a laughing class that wants to work with you.

[aitch52]

Thanks Justwannateach you make some excellent points here, all valid. I have 15 years experience as a Technical Instructor for the Armed Forces, 9 years in the Middle East and can confirm that yes the stress levels are high. Never enough time to get your lesson plans or content absolutely perfect. I recently completed the TEFL course in Khon Kaen and I am jobhunting right now, pretty thin on the ground here in Phetchabun. I am awaiting the results of an recent interview, I am hopeful but not confident, as there are many candidates for 2 positions.

To get to the point, I get a great deal of satisfaction out of helping students to realise their potential and am hopeful that I will get a position soon as the recruiting season is almost upon us. Your post certainly gave me some things to think about and yes I still feel positive about my aims in wanting to teach here in LOS, despite the pitfalls and frustrations.

Your final point in the second post is right on the button

Cheers

Chris (justwannateach2!!)

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

Great thread! One major consideration is whether all this effort and these sacrifices are worth the peanuts that they will throw to you as compensation?

[PeaceBlondie]

Yes, great thread. Such as avoiding negative co-workers.

I might add, avoid shitty jobs. Summer camp with 45 kids and no air-con, no teaching aide and nobody is fluent in English, with 8 hour workdays in a shirt and tie? Don't even stink about it. A job requiring a 44 minute commute in heavy traffic? No way to start a hard day.

[BFD]

Some excellent advice here, Ijustwannateach. I wish I would have read something like this before I got into the profession (although I probably still wouldn't have developed a healthy diet or exercise regime!).

On thing I'd stress is that having a close friend at work (#4 in the second post) is of paramount importance. While it might not seem like it to many people, teaching can be an incredibly lonely profession; possibly in much the same way prostitution would be (I imagine!). In other words, while you're surrounded by people almost constantly, it's difficult to get much social satisfaction from the fast-paced conversations and high-pressure situations. That's why having a friend to talk to, joke around with, or just sit with can really help stave off the burn-out.

Thanks again for this post; I look forward to reading more.

[dgwooster]

Thanks for the advice Ijustwannateach.

One question I have after reading your post is: How has teaching changed you? For example, are you a better teacher than you were when you first started out? Can most people improve their teaching skills with time?

[PeaceBlondie]

dgwoostwer, good question, and on topic. Almost any line of work should change you for the better. First, make you better at that job. Teach yourself your own limits, and what you do best/worst.

For teaching skills, you should notice obvious improvement at first. Within a couple of years, if you are not getting better, maybe time to do a reality check.

[Ijustwannateach]

Some excellent advice here, Ijustwannateach. I wish I would have read something like this before I got into the profession (although I probably still wouldn't have developed a healthy diet or exercise regime!).

On thing I'd stress is that having a close friend at work (#4 in the second post) is of paramount importance. While it might not seem like it to many people, teaching can be an incredibly lonely profession; possibly in much the same way prostitution would be (I imagine!). In other words, while you're surrounded by people almost constantly, it's difficult to get much social satisfaction from the fast-paced conversations and high-pressure situations. That's why having a friend to talk to, joke around with, or just sit with can really help stave off the burn-out.

Thanks again for this post; I look forward to reading more.

I am averse to comparing teaching to prostitution generally, and the metaphor will not be further drawn out on this thread.

However, at a certain level both are kinds of social work, in that they involve non-material transactions between persons (social transactions).

It is perhaps worth emphasizing the consequences and the requirements of such social interactions between teachers, colleagues, parents, and students.

Initially, and above all, one has a PROFESSIONAL relationship with all other persons related to teaching job- the other teachers, bosses and administrative staff, students, and their parents and families. In the beginning of your relationship with a school, this professionalism is paramount because without a track record at the school, it is the only thing on which to judge you and through which to relate to you and evaluate you. This can be stressful initially because it is a matter of dotting i's and crossing t's more than anything else, and it is bureaucratic and dehumanising.

However, teaching involves- at its best- a closer connection with those you work with, in the sense that you get to know them. This makes for better understanding, and also a certain level of personal risk and vulnerability. Students and colleagues respect and like teachers who can be seen as real human beings, with whom they can relate in a real way- but to allow more of your personality in the classroom or the staffroom is also a risk, which potentially allows dysfunctional types the opportunity to become abusive. This risk can never be reduced to zero, and constant self-monitoring and consultation with others is advisable to make sure you are not either too locked up and distant, or too open and vulnerable. In this sense, I feel that a teacher's job is no less socially vulnerable than that of a counsellor, doctor, or any other professional who provides personal services. When it goes wrong, it can be very personal.

A teacher wants all of his/her students to do well, but how to accomplish this? Sometimes harsh behaviours or object lessons are necessary in the name of teaching a lesson. Students who do poorly must see this reflected in their marks, and it can be painful to see their pain at observing their failures. A teacher who attempts to avoid inflicting pain in the name of avoiding his/her own pain is not doing his students any favours. And yet it is even worse to conflate one's professional judgments of students with her/his ability to relate to them as human beings. A student is not a bad person because he or she is bad at maths, any more than being good at English makes them a good person. An unfortunate tendency among teachers who are not very self-reflective to identify the two together (bad academic performance=bad personal character) also does no one any favours, and can have the effect of turning students away from the enjoyment of study and learning for life, as well as having the very natural effect of alienating the two individuals. So students and teachers both take some risk of things going wrong, and it will reward both to consider how to avoid such pitfalls together.

Aside from the professional benefits, one should seek to remain at schools for as long as possible so that one's bureaucratic professional image can become instead an abstraction of the real person, an idealised projection onto you of the intersection of the things which the students, parents, administrators, and your colleagues find appealing, and yet which draws upon elements of your own personality. To the extent that you are not required to repress yourself in the process, this means that the respect a good teacher earns is in a very real way respect for a teacher's individual good personality, which in my view makes teaching one of the most self-esteeming professions there is, when it is done well by those suited to it. I hope this will also be part of the answer to Zaphod's very reasonable query about whether given the many hassles and problems it is all worth it or not.

DG, your question is worth another full post sometime soon, on the evolution and age-linked social positions of teachers.

[bruceboy]

A great post with some excellent ideas.

[aitch52]

More excellent feedback, in a group of students you tend to identify and remember the bright ones, the strugglers and the characters. I personally was a struggler at school. My academic performance improved only after a mentor demonstrated to me the importance of being organised and self disciplined. This enabled me to achieve my potential.

It is a difficult balancing act but the strongest also need help and encouragement to continue to fulfill their potential and can help the weaker students. If you can motivate the strugglers to organise themselves, pay attention, have good note taking habits, with a set period for study in their own time then their academic performance should improve. The characters, bless 'em can be a boon or a bane, try to motivate them to be a positive not destructive influence in the classroom. You won't win all of the time in any of these cases but the ones you manage to motivate will give you incredible job satisfaction, accept small victories each day and don't be disheartened by the failures too much.

These observations are based on 6 years teaching 19-33 year olds theory and practical at an aircraft engineering college, using English as a second language, with at times a 75% failure rate with huge financial and career penalties for those that did not make the grade. We managed to eventually reduce the failure rate to 10-15%.

It is still upsetting to see a person that you have known for 6-9 months maybe, fail, but you have to shrug it off and move on. I guess it is all about using your experience to teach your students life lessons that can be applied throughout their working career.

Good Luck to you all

Chris

[bungy007]

Yes, excellent points raised. As others have pointed out, it is vital to find good friends who understand the ups and downs of the daily routine of your school. If you are working with Thais, sooner or later you will be backed into a corner - whether it is for teaching the Thai teachers for free during your free time or attending a summer camp during a long weekend for which you have planned you own break.

Indeed, I would argue that the Thai politics factor is by far the biggest hurdle to enjoyment of teaching in Thailand. You are going to have to rationalise the 'no fail policy' for students who fail to turn up to class, fail to do homework or study for exams and fail to complete the exam! Probably no real problem for most students who are pretty nice kids but for those one or two that have really been giving you a hard time and just when its your turn... the 'no fail policy' kicks in with a big thump! That's when you need friends to talk through your frustrations.

Find a good friend

Edited February 17, 2009 by bungy007

[Loaded]

Good stuff IJWT.

[RobotTeacher]

Great thread! One major consideration is whether all this effort and these sacrifices are worth the peanuts that they will throw to you as compensation?

So are you actually expected to do more and be more than typically is expected of FTs in Korea? I know compensation is about only half of that in Korea if you consider 2.2 million won is currently $1466 US (was normally $2,200 before October) and the provided apartment as being worth $400 and add another $100 for the provided flight to Asia. Of course, robots are happy to work for very little to nothing as long as you supply them with plenty of electricity and regular scheduled maintenance.

I would guess one doesn't go to Thailand for a well paying gig, but to enjoy living in a tropical climate with all the exotic flavors such as curry, hill tribes, elephants, orchids among millions of other things not found in the Americas. By going to Thailand, it appears you put experiencing an interesting lifestyle over making money.

[PeaceBlondie]

Robot, I agree in general with what you said, until you hit my geograpphy button with that term, "orchids among millions of other things not found in the Americas." The Mexican peso is now near 15 to the U$, and orchids grow wild. No tooo bad, actually, compared to Thailand. My house at the beach, private pool, etc., would now be $70 per month

[matthew78]

This thread is a great read, IJWT, thank you very much.