I don't find my teaching satisfying enough that I always feel frustrated and do not like my present job at all. What should I do? Can you give me some suggestions?
I have been teaching English for more than ten years in a senior high school in China, but I still can not find a proper way to teach my students interestingly and efficiently.
As an English teacher, I have always been dreaming to teach English naturally and humorously as Professor Fianna, my English training teacher in the UK, presented to us. However, in China, English teachers have to face the reality, that is, the students have to pass an College Entrance Examination. With the heavy burden in our mind, we have to teach them how to deal with examinations, and try our best to help them get high marks. As a consequence, it seems that it becomes a contradiction between teaching the 4 skills of English and helping them achieving their goals. We have to spend a lot of our time preparing examination papers, doing endless exercises and checking answers, especially when we are teaching Grade 3 students. Unfortunately, the results are not as satisfying as we expect.
How to solve the problem? Can you give me some tips? Thanks a lot.
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Comments
kandzia
Hi,
I understand very well your worries and having worked as an English language teacher in Mongolia (two years) I know the school realia that you are talking about, nevertheless, you mentioned that the way you are teaching at the moment does not bring very good results, which probably means that it's time to introduce some changes.
It sounds like you are not happy teaching the way you are expected to teach and your present morale is very low. You mustn't let the system kill your passion, because it is often the teacher's passion that motivates the students best and keep them working.
If the school fails the students, then maybe the school would be interested in trying new approaches towards methodology of teaching? If you could manage to convince them that there are alternative ways of teaching English (you will need some evidence, maybe your ex-teacher could help you on that too?), then maybe they would be willing to give it a go with at least one group? You could work out your goals, assess your students' current level of English and then assess them after 6 and 12 months. Your results should be then compared with the results of all the other teachers' teaching at your school.
I hope that one day you'll be allowed to spread your wings again and enjoy teaching.
Regards,
Agnieszka