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So I have this Sundays gig at the Andrew Biggs Academy which I think is a fine little school down on Rama the Fourth. The materials are fun and the students are motivated and bright. The atmosphere is casual and as laid back as a new language school scrambling to get everything together prolly can be. So I set up in my class and met my students and got started. They've got one area with a huge room that can be divided into three with sliding folding room divider thingies. They do funny aerobics stuff with the kids when they open it up.
So I'm teaching in one of these half-rooms. Not five minutes into my lesson it becomes clear that I'm being overshadowed, somehow.
I become intensely self-aware...what a boring class!...move it along!....if I could only translate this word into perfect thai!...why aren't they lovingly laughing at everything I'm saying...they're quiet!....etc.
I quickly realize that the class next door is being taught by none other than our famous bald-headed ajarn dynamo Mr. Biggs himself, and you can pretty much hear everything that's going on over there. And it's a rollicking success, as I'm sure all his classes are. The Thais love him, and jump at the chance to speak to, with, or near him. This means his class had that electric buzz of completely engaged, enthused, aroused students volleying the English language around on their tongues like some kind of jamaican bobsled team. Lovely.
Yes, it's all lovely and good. Except for the fact that I, along with my own precious would be English olympians, could hear it all. And I'm not the competitive type per se, but this situation tested me. I began feeling like a real loser, trudging along a in CELTA-Pass type fashion. So class was alright, but how can I compare with the fete next door? Teaching next to Andrew Biggs was a bit of a brow sweat for this newbie teacher.
I suppose everything turned out fine in the end. Perhaps the test is to see how many show up this week? Could they have compared me with Andrew Himself and decided I don't fill the bill?
Anyhoo, just though I'd share my little story. If there is any moral to it, it would probably be "don't think teaching is about you" anyway. There *should* be no ego in it at all. However...
Ever worked at a school with a superstar teacher who showed you up and made you get your shit together (or not)? Or were you that teacher.
( Posted by Matthew 2006)
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