Teaching English: Looking back

Positives

• A celta 
• Reason to get up in morning 
• Gave me back confidence (especially in 1st year) 
• A new experience for life 
• + $ 75,000 in 2 years 
• Survived almost no preparation in last year 
• Zest of creating lessons, I was good at it 
• Grew lot in skill from initial "teach from book" 
• Made earlier classes laugh 
• "Best teacher ever had" 
• Adoration of Ana 
• Fannie "That was very interesting" 
• Bella "Great grammar" 
• "You're a great teacher" 
• Business students to Fee "enjoy class" - we missed you 
• Lovely people (Steve, Ed, Fee, Janice, Matt x 2, Sam, Jo) 
• Teacher Trove + writing Wiki + student blog 
• Lauren blown away 
• Part time - so able to focus on Art of Living 
• Extremely resilient (divorce, tax, students leaving, CELTA observers) 
• Stockpile of ready lessons - print in morning (amazing!) 
• Celta observers always impressed 
• Several inexperienced teachers did not cut it - I did 
• Rosa did ask me back in summer - knew I was going away 

Triumphs   

• You're a good teacher! (Bella + Gustavo + Melanie + Michaela and co) 
• Famous lesson with Steve Jobs 
• Your lesson is very interesting. Thank you. (ghost stories at last minute) 
• girl wanted to stay in my business class 
• funny video of BBC Guy - hilarity 
• riddles with business class 
• wonderful atmosphere in intermediate class 
• Riddles - great excitement 
• English Powerpoints with great images 
• Anat changed back to my class 
• Max: "Best teacher ever had" 
• ten fingers - Pauline 
• Anat - this is excellent (twice) 
• Elementaries - you're such a good teacher. Best in Kaplan. 
• Michala and Mattheus very happy with my lessons - fun (Phi) 
• Upper Int students were saying they enjoy your lessons (Aparna) 
• Michala - we missed you on Tuesday 
• CELTA (my friend Russell) - it was so useful 
• Lauren: "Lauren is amazed" "This is amazing!" (blog) 
• Lauren: I'm blown away" (Teacher Trove) 
• Linda: "Graeme Myburgh! Your blog is amazing." 66 pages. Called Aparna in.   
• Principal: Your photos are fantastic. 
• Keeping going with my teaching (and stepping right up) when student left class 
• My triumphant lessons to CELTA students 
• My Halloween lesson 
• Melbourne Cup facts 
• My Twists English lesson 

Student gripes   

• First girl - it revolutionised my teaching 
• French girl (Int) - class too disruptive 
• Evan (thick glasses) - had for elective and main (more lively, more indiv attention) 
• Pre-Int girl - not show us enough attention 
• Ron - 2nd time I got him 
• Sweet girl (ele) - changed mind once class mill 
• 3 princesses in upper - stayed 
• Upper class from hell - 2 girls + guy complained in class (interview skills) 
• Last class - 3 wanted to do test to go up 
• "Fat face" 
• Girl upset not grammar (test coming!) - other girl said "great class" 
• Business class - some changed (doing it it morning too) 
• Happened to others all time (Ed, South African guy, Sam's feral class, Indian girl advanced class) 

What I did not enjoy   

• Stress of new class 
• Wake very early 
• Expensive purchases (coffee milk $8 plus train $6 plus bakery $5 = $80 per week)  $400 / month! 
• Low pay for high stress 
• Always risk of rejection 
• Repetition of lessons 
• ISR's - huge waste of time 
• Marking essays 
• Janice upset with me once at photocopier
• Student increasingly spoiled (able to afford $, Rosa soft touch, change class epidemic) 
• Photocopy lessons at 8 am - stress! 
• Work stopped - but Rosa did invite back, knew I was going away 
• Stress of what next class would be - scared elementary or upper int 
• Electives a lot of work 
• Paid by hour, not by day