Honestly, when my lessons stop I miss teaching, because my holidays don �t start for another month and a half, and most of what we do during those days is paperwork - sorting out and finishing current paperwork and preparing those for next year. When my holidays start, at first, when I was younger, I missed everything, and nowadays, as Mena says, experience and age have brought me to the point where I don �t really miss anything or anyone... for about 2-3 weeks. And then about a month before my lessons start I miss a lot of things...
I never miss
:
- overambitious parents who live their own dreams vicariously through their unsuspecting, suffering children
- worrying about some colleagues whom I have to do a project with and can �t rely on
- some students - mostly those who are accustomed to getting everything for nothing at home and get mad when I don �t share that view
- experienced colleagues who still believe sharing is a one way street in their direction
- teacher trainees who think they know everything, won �t ask, don �t take advice and don �t care about work, but only about pay(as if anyone ever got materially rich from teaching)
- the side-effects of teaching such as loss of voice, picking up viruses from coughing sts, bringing lots of work home, some unneccessary paperwork...
I always miss
:
- my preschoolers and the looks on their faces when I preteach a rhyme through a story and they walk into my world eyes wide open
- my school kids (7-11) and their first independent uses of blocks of language which surprise even themselves and their enthusiasm for every single project we do
- my teenagers (12-15) and their battle between intellect and emotion, and their cheekiness, and the how they give themselves all out when you hit just the right material with them
- my high school classes and their almost adult comments, and being able to compare them to when they were preschoolers (because I �m lucky enough to have a lot of those sts) and what they knew about the world then and now, and how their English grew with them...
- my elementary adult classes - and the rare lessons when I teach them through games as if they were kids and they actually learn the most
- my colleagues who share - materials, life, the good and the bad...
- some of my teacher trainees - and the moment they finally relax and feel what teaching is all about, and the moment of pride when I see them with their sts during their final show for the parents and we �re all bursting with pride...
- the rush when I get a new idea or rehearse a new play with sts, and the proud feeling that I did sth good that I sometimes get before I go to sleep...
OK, too emotional, I know... I �ll stop now...
