TEFL, stress and me
I rather odd effect that I always experience is that the longer I am in one place or with one class, the more stressed I get. When I arrive somewhere, I have the excuse of not knowing the common errors and other peculiarities of that nationality yet, and I also have the buzz of being and working somewhere new. With a new class, it is bound to take a while to get to know them and what they like and dislike. In both cases, I’m also too busy to let any negative thoughts slip in: finding out what books are in the teachers’ room, getting them used to my favourite classroom activities, introducing them to the phonemic script, etc.
As time goes on, though, I come up against the fact that I don’t know 90% of what I need to know about how we best learn languages, and part of what I do know is based on variables that I will never be able to control. And so the stress slowly builds…
And TEFL, stress and you?
July 11th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Well, I just started a new job last week doing 3 hr intensive classes with 15 mixed-level teenagers in a cramped room with faulty air conditioning in July. That’s been enough to stress me out, I tell you what.
Plus, my precious “dicking-around-on-the-internet” time has been reduced to next to nil. Maybe that’s a good thing?