Hello I'm Angie, I'm a newbie and a seriously bad one. My lesson plans are a mess (despite preparing for ages), my teaching skills are weak and my classes are chaos. I have no authority, no organisation and, I think, no hope of getting better. When I decided to change of career and take on teaching, I didn't expected it to be a bed of roses. I remember looking at my stressed teachers at school and thinking that I'd never want to do their job. I ended up wanted to be a teacher anyway but I didn't think I would be so bad at it. I can't teach english to my thai kids. I can't help them to improve. Of course I have the regular teacher problems in thailand: overcrowded classes, lack of material, language barrier, no thai teacher to help ... But I've seen other teachers at work that seemed to be sailing easily through their lessons, with the kids spellbound. How do they do that? I know it's all down to experience but I'm feeling bad getting paid for doing such a bad job. Even the thai teachers don't look impressed, I have the feeling I'm only here to prove a point: "Look, falang no good, thai teacher better. No need falang to teach english!". I'm torn between giving my resignation and staying until the end of my contract in three months (if I don't managed to get fired like it would happen in the west if I was let to teach like this). I don't know how much bad teaching the kids can take, but I personally can't give it anymore. They need an experienced teacher, not a newbieAnyone on this forum had feelings of inadequacy when starting their career? I sure could do with some advice.
Welcome Angie - since you have posted this in newbies, I will refrain from appropriate comment.
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If you can't say something nice about someone, shut the f*k up
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Angie, relax. Breathe. Don't think too much. Every teacher has been a newbie. It's the way it is. We've all been there. I didn't sleep a wink before my first day teaching. I was a mess inside, but I pulled it off. Looking back, my first days (maybe weeks and months) were terrible. Because I was a new teacher, the Thai staff understood that and gave me the benefit of the doubt and allowed me to improve. You are a noobie. You're expected to suck at teaching, at first. Just learn about what doesn't work and change your style as you see fit. You'll get better if you try. Don't give up!
Are you kidding? I had those same feelings when I first started. Sometimes I still have them. But you know what? Some of the best advice I ever received about TEFL in Thailand was, "fake it 'till you make it." Honestly, that will get you very far, if you can pull it off. If the students can see that you are struggling or don't know what you are doing, they will eat you up and spit you out. Give the impression that you know what you are doing. If you look like you are in control and confident, they will think you are too. A lot of teaching in Thailand is about appearance. Use that to your benefit. Look the part and act the part.Originally Posted by Angie
Fake it 'till you make it.
"Thailand is way past the days of tuna, pineapples, and bargirls." - Sharky
ask your matayoum kids to give you a quick recap of the tenses
Oh, you'd be surprised.
Ask the teachers you've seen "sailing through" to let you sit in on their classes, or for advice.
Get a textbook to work from, at least.
As for what the Thais are thinking- you seem to breaking the Golden Rule in Thailand- "Don't think too much."
I sleep in the daytime, I
Work in the night time, I
Might not ever get home
There you go. Good suggestions. If you really care (you seem to) then you'll find a way to improve.
Frederick Douglass: Find out just what any people will quietly submit to
and you have found out the exact measure of injustice
and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these
will continue till they are resisted with either
words or blows, or with both.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn;
“Don’t believe them, don’t fear them, don’t ask
anything of them.”
Did you take a TEFL course? Either way there's a lesson there for others looking to get into this.
Observing someone you think is doing it right is a good idea, you can pick up some good techniques.
"While Jim is milking the Russian Boar, I'm in the shade of a Baobab tree being served a cool drink by a beautiful young indigenous girl. "
Marlin Perkins
Aloha - Aloha HARD
I agree; that's exactly what I did and I was lucky to have an American and a Brit who did a good job and were very free with their knowledge and time.
Don't quit, stay 'til your contract ends.
Although you may not see it now, this experience is teaching you many things. If you see it through, later at your next school when you look back you'll realise things you won't want to be doing the same as at your old school. That's the moment where you've truly improved.
The fact you are not satisfied with yourself, being a teacher who is 'not good enough' shows you are probably going to be someone the industry needs. Congratulations, you just passed TEFL Course 101: How To Be A Reflexive Teacher. Actually giving a shit and thinking about how you are doing and trying to come up with ways to improve are highly important.
You said your lesson plans are a mess and your lessons are chaos. Is it possible these issues are somehow linked? You are clearly someone who thinks. Maybe you've been over-thinking the lesson planning and that's contributed to the multitude of other problems one can face in a classroom, with kids and in Thailand.
Try to keep your plans simple and not too detailed and don't sweat over minor things. Let them be a basic guide and ensure that if you get finished early or you decide (on the fly) to scrap a part of the lesson that you have something else at hand, even if it's just a whiteboard game to kill the last 10 minutes.
Make the structure of your lessons extremely simple. Don't worry too much about ideal methodology or ideal lesson structure: chop 50 minutes into about 3 parts and see how it goes. You can't expect to be perfect, you can barely expect to measure up to experienced teachers and you mustn't expect anything resembling some idealised TEFL course, particularly one taken in the West.
Instead, everything you think or know about good teaching should be something you want to work towards. Don't beat yourself up if the environment you're in is making things difficult: that's the fault of things other than yourself. You can't instantly change the world. A good, experienced teacher could possibly turn some bad situations completely on their head and come up smelling of roses. The reason they are able to do this is because they didn't give up, they saw it out and moved on and later they realised not all situations are the same, and that there are things they can see now they didn't realise before.
You just can't judge teaching or you as a teacher on one experience. Best to try different types of teaching in different areas. At least see it through then try some other position and see that through. It's not the end of the world.
There are 'teachers' who don't put much thought or work in either in or out of the classroom who've been 'teaching' for years and you're already better than they are.
what he said. it sounds probably like all you need to do now is relax into what you're doing. so what if you do it badly, you'll improve or you won't, nobody's gonna get hurt.
you're just freaking out. that'll happen. 3 months and you'll be proud to say you did a year, and it will look good to others. you'll feel way strong and you'll get some respect too. and you'll probably learn shit as the man says.
don't be a big girls' blouse now.
apart from the kids...
whatever. i'm sure you're a good guy but you only come across as some pissy young drunk guy online sometimes and it's disappointing.
a person of goodwill is worth ten competent assholes in terms of representing a role model. every teacher is a role model first and foremost whether you care to think that or not.
and far as the clowns representing the fruit of western learning in thailand go, well let me tell you the bar has been set very low.
If I had to guess, probably the main difference between you and the teachers you said were doing a good job, is they respect the kids less (or none). Somehow that is the key, it is kinda like men's relationships with women.
I'm willing to bet you aren't as bad as you think you are. The fact that you're worried suggests that you really are a good teacher--just a bit inexperienced and scared. Take a deep breath, try to relax, and try to have a little fun in the classroom. You'll find your teaching improve on its own, over time.
You're on about Poo3, right?
Reading the OP left me cold, below zero in fact.
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