Teaching is my first love and I know that I will always come back to it.
At this point of my life, I feel I need to temporarily leave this profession to accommodate a new member of our family. Yes, I am pregnant!
In one of my previous posts, I expressed my desire to become a mother after being married to my husband for three years. I’ve been wanting it since we got married but for a lot of reasons, we’ve been putting it off. One was because we were not yet really settled—we’ve been moving from one city to another. Another one was because I wanted to build a career in teaching here in Austria but the baby’s here. At the time when I was doubtful about which one to do first, circumstances decided for me—I got pregnant and I am really very happy about it.
What happens to this blog now that I am not teaching anymore?
Well, I will still continue this blog. I’ll probably write about past experiences or future plans on teaching. And hey, a mother is a teacher too! So I don’t think I will run out of things to write about.
And to keep me busy, I will focus on my writing. I’ll do some freelance writing jobs while I’m pregnant. It’s the perfect set up for someone like me who wants to avoid all the stress of teaching but still wants something to keep her busy.
I actually already started updating all my blogs and I even created a new one. I created Being Super Mom to chronicle my pregnancy. My blogs will give me something to do from now until my baby’s old enough to go to school. That will take some time but I know that someday, I’ll go back to teaching because like I said when it comes to professions;
Teaching is my first love and I know that I will always come back to it.
For one thing, it is noble and that explains it all. I think we could see it better if we put ourselves into the shoes of those teachers teaching in public schools in poor countries. Those who still, even under extremely difficult situation, practice this profession.
True I got this job only after a thorough interview and an intensive training. In a private school in Austria that goes to say something but I still cannot relax. I want to be better in English especially because I am teaching it so I make sure that I do something every day to further improve my English skills. Among these things is reading.
It looks like I am going to get another five groups in addition to the five groups assigned to me last week. That means 10 hours teaching time each week. Not bad. And compared to the 20 hours per week I got back in China, 10 hours should be like a walk in the park.
Honestly speaking I was terrified that the parents won’t like me because I am not an English native speaker and I didn’t learn how to speak English in recognized English speaking countries (like all of my co-teachers).
So anyway, Dave’s teachers came in and saved him from his abusive mother. This is where I realized once again how important for us, teachers, to understand our pupils. Dave Pelzer was the school enemy number one. He was not only delinquent but he was also unkempt and stinky so nobody likes him. If it’s not because of that one substitute teacher who cared, he would have died in the hands of his mother or he would have end up being a criminal.
Before settling here in Austria, I have told my husband that I doubt it if I could teach here. When he asked me why, I told him it’s because kids will be different and I am different. For sure, I won’t be like the teachers they’re used to and they won’t be like the pupils I am used to. What if they don’t like me or vice versa? I honestly still have doubts but the kind of support I am getting from my love ones gives me a huge encouragement.
I had tried applying for jobs abroad and I was really pleased when I got a job offer to teach in China. Without hesitation, I had accepted it and flew immediately to China. I signed a contract to teach for a year in a middle school somewhere in a third class city near Changhcun, Jilin, China. It was a really tough year but thinking about it now, I am sure that going to China is one of the best decisions I made in my life. It paved my way back to teaching plus I met my husband. Shortly after getting married, I stopped working because the nature of my husband’s work doesn’t allow us to stay in one place long enough for me to teach in a school.
