Just returned from TEFL teaching in Taiwan, Laura Carr is already ensconced in a college lecturing job. But was the transition as amazingly smooth and angst-free as it appeared? Kids, where are you? I’ve been back in the UK for over a month now and at first I was so excited to see everyone and just enjoy being home that I didn’t take a backwards glance. But now I’m settled in and I’m not being treated as a novelty by my family anymore, I’m finally beginning to miss Taiwan.
Well, not Taiwan as such, but I miss my kids a lot. The older ones will be in elementary school now, and I wonder how they’re getting on. As for the younger ones, I still feel funny that someone else has taken over their education. As for the teaching itself, I miss the predictability of working with young kids. Even though it’s true that every day is different when you’re teaching, I knew what to do and say to get the best out of them and how to get them to behave. Now I’m living on my own with only my cat for company, I also miss how affectionate and loving they were too! While I miss my kiddies, I still don’t have any regrets about coming home. I’m now well and truly settled into my job - I have a work mug for cups of tea, my resolution to keep neat and organized files has dissolved into an almighty mess and I’m no longer wearing smart black trousers every day. I’m still learning what works with my new students, and while I don’t get that instant gratification that kids give you, I do like working with teenagers and I’m glad I made the shift to a different age group. General knowledgeWhen I was teaching kids, I already knew everything that I taught them. But teaching General Studies requires a little bit of knowledge about a lot of different things. Unfortunately for me, my general knowledge is rubbish, but for the most part, this isn’t a problem because I can learn most of the stuff before I teach it. In fact, a week and a half ago I knew nothing about the Renaissance and now I know loads (OK, a slight exaggeration, but I know a bit). Most of the syllabus is right up my street - lots of culture and society and politics and morality, but the one area that is a bit shaky for me is the science unit. If truth be told, I have a pathological hatred of anything remotely scientific, which I blame on my natural inaptitude for the subject coupled with a series of uninspiring science teachers at school. So, I always knew the Scientific Revolutions lecture was going to be a tough one. Due to a lack of organisation within my team, I didn’t actually get to see the lecture until this morning and I was due to teach it this afternoon. I only had one hour prep, which was nowhere near enough time for me to get my head around heliocentricism, evolution, gravity, the Big Bang theory, quantum physics, circulation of blood around the body and tectonic plates. Inevitably, the lecture flopped and after thirty-five minutes of me trying my best to explain things that I didn’t really understand myself, I had to admit defeat and let them go early. I have the same lecture in the morning and by tomorrow I need to know an awful lot more than I do right now, which will make for a fun evening for me. Other plansNothing else is really new on the career front: on the way to work I formulate vague plans to buy apartments in Bulgaria with my non-existent savings, every now and again I find myself admiring Charlie (the cat) and thinking about writing that children’s book, I started another novel but I’m only about eight hundred words in and my motivation has slumped. In other words, my head is still in the clouds but my feet are firmly on the floor. The next big thing in my life is the Great North Run, which is in five days’ time (and will be over by the time you read this). There’s no way that I’m going to be able to run the full 13 miles without stopping, but I think I’ll make it past the finishing line without keeling over, which has got to be a positive thing. My sister and I haven’t actually got anyone to sponsor us yet, which is a little concerning. We have lots of verbal promises, but none in writing yet - eek. And as for the dog I’ve been chasing around the neighbourhood, the good news is that she has an owner, but she escaped and got a bit confused. I’d been having secret daydreams that I’d get to catch her and keep her, but it wasn’t meant to be. I might have to get myself another cat to help me get over the disappointment… See Laura's earlier writings |
