Ayeesha's job log: 10

The story so far... Ayeesha has returned from Newcastle to Hong Kong to become a Montessori teacher, if she can fit in distance learning alongside the day job.

Half term

I have to admit that one of my absolute favourite perks about being a kindergarten teacher has got to be…the holidays!!! I have had the last week off due to it being half term. Now had I been a secondary teacher, I would have probably spent the last seven days marking papers and getting a head start on lesson plans. But as a kindergarten teacher the only holiday prep I have to do is to buy prizes for the Halloween costume competition I am having next week. Being filled with gusto at the beginning of the week I confidently allocated all of my time over half term to catching up on my Montessori assignments. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am desperately behind schedule in terms of keeping up with the Montessori coursework for my distance learning course. So although I am not being paid for this week off work (since I am still on probation and therefore don't get paid for school holidays) I decided against getting a part-time job for this week to make up the setback in my income. I figured that if I was working part-time or even half days, I would still be coming home exhausted and by the time I ate and got myself sorted there wouldn’t be enough time in the day to really immerse myself into the reading. I wanted to live and breathe Montessori this week….at least that was the plan!

Distractions!

It’s amazing how important ignored odd jobs around the house become in the few moments before you are about to buckle down and crack on with something you have been procrastinating about! Suddenly I would feel a burning desire to wash the dishes, hoover the house, organise my filing system and delete any unnecessary files off my computer before I could properly concentrate on work - you know, because I wanted to start with my best foot forward! Truth is it doesn’t work like that and sometimes you just have to plunge into it to find your flow.

Over-committing

So I found my flow for a day but had to cut it short since I had a netball match that evening. That’s right, netball. Yet another activity that I probably don’t have time for, yet can’t help but commit to. I used to play in school and loved it. So since I have been trying to get a bit fitter - I decided to join a team. Of course, being me I had to take control of it and become captain since no one else wanted to and now I get a weekly flurry of emails asking me to organise positions, players, umpires and desk duty!? So with training and matches, netball now takes up two evenings a week, but luckily I am thoroughly enjoying it. Not only is it great exercise but I have made the most interesting and fabulous network of friends through the team.

As if my new sporting career wasn’t enough of a distraction I got a tutoring job through another teacher at work. I was asked if I would tutor a four-year-old boy and teach him English for HK$400 (£33) an hour! I jumped at it! I have been looking for a tutoring job on the weekdays anyway so that I can drop my Saturday kindergarten job and have my weekends back. Unfortunately, I am stuck in my Saturday job till the end of November meaning that until then I am going to be doing both afterschool and weekend work! Great! I wanted the tutoring to ease my workload and give me enough time on the weekend to do coursework and rest, not to increase it and made it even harder. What's more is that not only did I have to start straight away during my half term work week (which cut into my coursework time), but they liked me so much they asked me to take on their nine-year-old as well and do two-hour sets twice a week! The thought of it made me feel instantly exhausted! That is until I suddenly came too after doing a quick calculation in my head as to how much that would add onto my monthly income!

Fun with the fam!

To add to the ever extending list of reasons why I am not on top of my coursework, my grandma made a last minute decision to come and visit me and my sister in HK. Having her here this whole week while I have been off work would have been perfect…had I not planned to do my Montessori work! Instead I have been having a ball with her and everyday and work seems to be the furthest things form my mind.

Needless to say with all of this going on I have barely done half the work I planned to do this week and instead I am twice as stressed about it! When I get back to work this week I know I am going to be swamped with planning and I have a feeling that my coursework will quietly slide further down my list of things to do. I’m just going to have to find a way to pull my finger out and get motivated to do it….but how?!

Ayeesha's previous job logs