It is now November. Late is better than never, I suppose, for an update.
Reflections
Teaching is... also a lot about managing time and paperwork. If you can figure out how to do that, then you will have a lot of your job done. The other parts are lesson planning and classroom management. Actually how you teach the information... that is just the icing on the cake or just what you do. Teaching is also a lot about having guts, stick-to-it-iveness, (tenacity or grit) and knowing if you want it or not. Teaching also, like any major job or career choice, involves figuring out how to take care of yourself to a certain extent, or balance.
So a lot of figuring out how to do the above stuff comes with 1) Practiced teachers telling you and showing you, 2) You getting to observe and see how it is done so you can put it into practice 3) Figuring out what part of this is your way of doing things 4) How creative and experimental you are, and how adaptive you are to new situations, and/or how willing to take other people's stuff and use it for your own (especially in NewTech) 5) Personality and what you want to do with life 6) what's going on with you & self-care.. how strong you are, how much sleep you get, how you deal with stress or how you deal so that you can handle the kids, discipline, the daily piles of questions and things to do coming from above (admin and advising sources) and below (kids) 7) How relaxed you can be in the middle of the craziness. All of this can vary depending on various things in the school and in your own life or way of handling things.
Teaching is a lot of not teaching. Teaching is there, but it is not the only thing. It is a lot of managing different things. There is not much really that can train you for this, especially not in 6 weeks... whatever you do can partially prepare you better or less.
Teaching is also learning that when you are roasted by parents (I had the first ever parent-teacher conference) that you need to learn what is and isn't your fault and let the rest.. or all of it, go. You can only help a student so much, and if you made mistakes, you will try again the next 9 weeks. If the student does not try, you cannot change that for them, regardless of age, it is their responsibility.
Teaching is also learning that when you are roasted by parents (I had the first ever parent-teacher conference) that you need to learn what is and isn't your fault and let the rest.. or all of it, go. You can only help a student so much, and if you made mistakes, you will try again the next 9 weeks. If the student does not try, you cannot change that for them, regardless of age, it is their responsibility.
Teaching is, again, also a lot of requirements from a lot of different people. It is experimentation sometimes, other times tried and true stuff. It is being real with the kids but not being on their level so much that they think they can run over you... sticking to your guns even when you feel that they aren't loaded.
It is also better if you have people in your same shoes. I don't have a roommate right now and that is tough, but I do have people at the same school in the same situation.
My life
So that was a fairly natural transition to this section.
My paycheck is interesting. After high insurance rates, I take home (net) only about $200 more per month than I did in my last job, although my gross yearly is supposed to be double. I have so many bills that I am left with $300 a month (or less) to live on. Not much money, and not really much more than I had before.
I also do not have many friends here, so I am trying to figure out how to address what interaction everyone including myself needs. Besides my personal things going on that adds to my struggle with that, I just have not found a church with people my age or where I feel completely or comfortable enough to go to while I am here. I also would like to find a house mate. Perhaps I will learn a lot about being happy on one's own.
If you look at what I said in the section above, teaching requires a commitment to know this is what you want, especially in areas that for one reason or another are tough for you. I do not think this is what I want for my life long term, but I do not want to give up on teaching in case I want to teach as a professor. This would then be a good learning experience. Also, I want to finish out the year or two so that I gain something and give something from being here. I am trying to consider if I want to do something else, and if so when, and what. It is quite difficult.
My paycheck is interesting. After high insurance rates, I take home (net) only about $200 more per month than I did in my last job, although my gross yearly is supposed to be double. I have so many bills that I am left with $300 a month (or less) to live on. Not much money, and not really much more than I had before.
I also do not have many friends here, so I am trying to figure out how to address what interaction everyone including myself needs. Besides my personal things going on that adds to my struggle with that, I just have not found a church with people my age or where I feel completely or comfortable enough to go to while I am here. I also would like to find a house mate. Perhaps I will learn a lot about being happy on one's own.
If you look at what I said in the section above, teaching requires a commitment to know this is what you want, especially in areas that for one reason or another are tough for you. I do not think this is what I want for my life long term, but I do not want to give up on teaching in case I want to teach as a professor. This would then be a good learning experience. Also, I want to finish out the year or two so that I gain something and give something from being here. I am trying to consider if I want to do something else, and if so when, and what. It is quite difficult.
Conclusions for now...
I really don't know what to conclude. Life is in a state of flux and transition, and teaching as well as the rest of life requires management, working a little at a time, and not getting overwhelmed. It is difficult not to get discouraged when you are trying to do something for others and do not see the fruit of it for a long time. The fruits are varied and may not show up in some students while we are here, but it is like the saying, "They are better off with you than without you"... at least I trust that is the case.
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