Renewing your interest in teaching
What do you do to renew your interest in teaching after you have been in the profession for 5, 10, 15, 20 or more years?!
You've most certainly heard about the distiction between having "20 years experience in teaching" vs "1 year experience repeated 20 times." How can we achieve the former and prevent the latter?
Really looking forward to what you have to say about it! :)
Gerardo from Uruguay
Hi Vanuza
Beautifully put into words! Thank you very much indeed!
I find Vanuza's metaphor comparing remaining interested in teaching and being in a relationship very illustrative. However, I would really be interested in reading what teachers do to keep "the flame burning regardless of the everyday problems that they may encounter."
What are some the little things we need to do on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to remain interested in our profession? What would the equivalent to the bunch of flowers, the candle-lit dinner, the romantic and passionate night or the engagement ring be? :)
Hi Gerardo, here are my answers!
What are some the little things we need to do on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to remain interested in our profession? What would the equivalent to:
the bunch of flowers? - reading some positive feedback from past or present students
the candle-lit dinner? - curling up with an interesting book on teaching or learning, preferably something I know little about yet
the romantic and passionate night? - preparing and giving a talk or workshop, or going to a conference like IATEFL
engagement ring? - starting an MA or other course of study, which was a kind of "renewal of vows" for me and my profession when I decided to do it.
Thank you very much, Anthony. Very good choices of activities!
Hello
For me remaining interested in teaching is also about having access to and engaging in ethical and sustainable practitioner research which primarily focuses on mutual understandings about areas of concern experienced by a teacher and her/his students.
I feel lucky to have been introduced to Exploratory Practice (Allwright 2005, Allwright and Hanks 2009) because amongst other things it has helped me to develop my understanding about my particular language learners.
Many thanks, Yasmin.
How would you define "exploratory practice"?
Many thanks in advance!
Hi Gerardo,
I strongly believe that remaining interested in teaching could be compared to being in a relationship, that is, you need to love your parner/job to the extent of pushing yourself hard to keeping the flame burning regardless of the everyday problems that you may encounter. In terms of teaching, that means believing you can make a difference in someone´s life and in society in general , even if both are unaware of that fact. It is knowing your role in the construction of identity, citizenship and a society and doing your best albeit the obstacles.
Vanuza