Life as a primary school teacher

So maybe I shall just update you with this. I got into a primary school with a position as a replacement teacher. And I’ll be leaving as soon as the teacher came back from maternity leave. The whole thing was quite messy and I really hope that you have the time to finish this. And another thing is there will not be any related pictures lol if you were expecting.

Okay the first day of school was really epic. I knew nothing about that school. Got a call and I knew I was in. Got into the school and waited for the headmistress for more than half an hour. Then I was brought to my seat (aka the teacher on leave’s seat). I thought there will be a small briefing for me but too bad there was none. With small disappointment I looked at the table, slowly observe things on that table and tried to figure out what are my responsibilities. Finally after half an hour touching and looking for useful materials , one of my colleague came and approach me with a list of things-to-do.

That was really a short list and I was quite happy with it. But after looking at my schedule I know I am, completely wrong. That small piece of paper was just the tip of an iceberg. I have tons of responsibilities. Being a primary school teacher ain’t easy. At the beginning I thought all I have to do is just to educate the children plus being a nanny in school but now I am COMPLETELY wrong.  Besides educating, there are TONS of work to be done. With only that tiny handbook I have to know EVERYTHING of the school and take over everything she(the teacher on leave) takes care of.

You might be curious, what am I actually doing. Well, let me tell you. Last time when I was a student, I thought being a teacher is just as easy as a piece of cake as all he/she needs to do is to educate and teach the children. (where most of the children are not that difficult to handle when you have some techniques) Everything taught needs to be written down and printed properly. Which means that, if you are teaching a lot of subjects or when you are the head of some department, you are in DEEP WATER. Everything needs to be documented. Daily teaching plan needs to be done in DETAIL. Let me repeat, IN DETAIL. Which means that you will need to list down, not only the objectives and learning outcome, but also the pages that you are suppose to teach and exercises and etc. These are all very exhausting work!

By the way, not only that extreme workload, the timing is also a big issue for me. As in for now, I think multitasking skill is a plus point if you really planned to be a teacher. And time management. For primary schools, one period will be half an hour. If you are lucky enough by getting those students in upper level, you can go ahead and indulge your students with all the knowledge. But when you are new and as unlucky as me, congratulations! You’ll need to have atleast 20 minutes to calm the students in lower level down and utilize the 10 minutes to deliver your materials.

Although it’s not easy to be a primary school teacher with all the restrictions, I still think I can make it. I’ll try my best to update you all with my school life here and get my students the best of me. Be optimistic! SMILE!

Wish me luck!