Reply
Thu 7 Jun, 2007 07:30 pm
My crazy yelling neighbor woke me up tonight at 2 am. I know when you wake up in the middle of the night and you are anything but feeling relaxed - he keeps yelling behind the wall - I started to think about my work and became so stressed like I haven't been for years. All the problems and pressure and negative emotional input of my students have piled up in my mind like poison and took control of my body. My blood pressure is probably high above the normal. I started to feel - man, you are seriously going nuts.
You should quit this job teaching teenagers and go back to language schools and adults and translating. I just can't seem to be able to handle the strange negative things I get from some of my students. I don't think I am teaching at a normal high school any more, but it seems I teach classes of intelligent students mixed with students with huge inferior complexes who are indirectly aggressive toward me, keep complaining or giggling, and although I have been looking for ways how to deal with this behavior and keep asking colleagues and you at this forum, I just can't figure out what is going on. I have always had problems dealing with students with low IQ and behavior problems but they have been usually minority in my classes but recently they have started to put too much pressure on me, I guess.
Unfortunately, TEFL course taught me perfectly how to be nice to students and make sure nobody is hurt, but they have not taught me how to deal with mental agressivity and all kinds of social disorders.
Half a year ago I felt I love my job, I had a lot of positive reactions from both colleagues and students, I believed I was an excellent teacher who is popular and liked by his students and I was really happy teaching.
But recently there has been too much negativity from the troubled students and I just need a break desperately. Fortunately we will have two months holidays soon.
Next school year I will have even more lessons and I think I made a big mistake that I am taking more teaching load instead of reducing it. I think I should get rid of some classes as soon as possible and keep this teaching at high school as a half time job and not near full time job like now and do more translating.
I must say I have calmed down a bit. I've read some news on the internet and relaxed a bit. But this night thing aside, I do have felt quite emotionally exhausted recently. I am very sensitive toward my students' emotional input so I feel happy when I get positive emotions from students and it influences how I feel all day and at the same time, a lot of negative emotions can ruin my weekend. I can take things rationally, but the emotions always sneak in.
You probably know this very well, both men and women, I just think different people deal with it differently. We can explain things feeling as if emotions were under control, but they are piling up somewhere in the body and when there is too many negative emotions coming from outside, it can become a kind of tumor that grows and one day you feel - I can't handle this any more.
Hello stach, I was reading your post and I agree with you with some things. I'm also a teacher, I work in a middle school and I must say that at first I wasn't too "sure" about working as a teacher. This is my first year teaching and I LOVE IT! Students can be a real pain sometimes, but that's why you need to have some classroom discipline and classroom management. Don't let your students control you, YOU be the boss. I know sometimes it can get a little difficult, but try to learn how to stay calm and relaxed. My students at first were out of control and about a week or two I had all of them in control. Trust me, it takes a lot of PATIENCE.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace