My life as a teacher

Can you guess who I am among these people?

Blame this article on the February 2007 edition of Reader’s Digest that published this known fact: TEACHING is the number one job that can cause burnout or stress. Apparently, this didn’t stop me from entering into the world of earth-shattering responsibility with numerous discouraging descriptions (warnings, perhaps) and circulating stories-be it a fact or lie-of what is known as the life of “Sir & Ma’am”. Simply put, it is the life as a teacher, educator, professor or what is more aptly called in STI as… the instructors.

“Teaching won’t make you rich.”

“You’ll just end up looking older.”

“Who wants to eat stress and deadlines for breakfast anyway?”

“Run away and find another job, one that is easier to handle.”

These are just a few of the comments I’ve heard prior to my teaching profession. Growing up in a family of teachers, becoming a college instructor is also one of my dream jobs after graduation. I was supposed to take up Education but I ended up with a Degree in Bachelor of Arts in Communication. This time, blame it on my mother who doubly discouraged me from having the profession I used to just imagine. Apparently, no amount of ‘threats’ of disowning stopped me from heading to the widely known institution where I am now in.

From a former classmate of mine, I found out that STI San Fernando is in need of English instructors. Armed with disparaging remarks about teaching from various people around me, my resume, a cute outfit and readiness for a rejection, I bravely went to the unforgettable HR office of STI San Fernando.

After taking “The Exam”, “The Demo” and passing “The Interviews”, I’m finally hired. I refer to my experiences with such reverence to emphasize how much ordeal I’ve experienced before acceptance. I thought my experience in radio, Journalism, stage and public speaking is enough for me not to stutter in front of the Academic Head but I was wrong. My knees are literally trembling before The Demonstration.

Now I know why STI is known to be the best computer school in the nation. They are meticulously scrutinizing qualified applicants, particularly instructors, before his/her employment. Anyone hired in their company without even experiencing the “nervousness” that I went through probably has a “computer-programmed brain”.

Anyway, as it turned out, the person who threatened to disown and even discouraged me from teaching is actually the proudest person when she found out about my employment. It was bliss. Weeks later, school started. I am now an official STI instructor. My life changed.

If you are a dancer, body movement is your game. If you are an artist or a musician, your hands are your main armor to work. But if you are an instructor, every aspect such as your mind, hands, body movement, concentration and especially patience are needed for you to become an erudite educator. What becomes more challenging and sometimes frustrating is that no matter how much you utilize these and your human-power as well, everything can become futile upon realization that half of your students are failing and are also being threatened by their parents to be disowned because of low grades.

Notwithstanding the fact that STI is a computer school, sometimes, I can’t help but hate the mentioned technological product. Who would want to compete with the ogres and monsters that only Dota games can provide? But, we, as an instructor don’t need to transform into monsters just to get the students’ attention. A little threat of failing grade will do though in reality, we can’t fail their grades without basis lest we may be pictured by the students themselves as ogres and monsters.

Sometimes, I can only wonder what my students call me when my back is turned. I certainly don’t want to be labeled as an instructor with features like that of a character in Dota. Needless to say, instructors are open to criticisms. The way we talk, walk, the dress we wear and even other personal matters are inevitably noticeable and are open to public brouhaha. Cautiousness is the key though we can’t help but be appreciative to those students who make our life as an instructor easy. They are the kind of students that we wish everyone is like. But, what’s the point of becoming an instructor then? We are here to mold and teach them the values and knowledge that they should inculcate in and outside school.

Furthermore, time management is one of the challenges that we face as an instructor. This may sound easy especially to the renowned educators but for a neophyte like me, it’s definitely a challenge. There are times wherein I wish I can just transform into a computer game character and scare the heck out of the bundee clock just for it to pardon my one-minute lateness. But it’s impossible just like the grade escalation of a student who, albeit being courteous and kind has academic performance one can only sigh at.

I bid goodbye to endless nights of partying and hang-outs; basically my happy-go-lucky lifestyle. I waved hello to the world where deadline and pressure is a norm. No words aside from “SGR” can send chills up and down my spine. STI taught me the real essence of being a responsible employee who knows that procrastination and lack of discipline brings forth the dreaded memo.

Yes, stress and exhaustion is normal in the lives of instructors. But seeing the genuine happy look on your students whenever they greet you at the corridors alleviates the tiredness due to your late-night adventure with SGR. Hearing positive feedbacks from the people whose lives you have touched alleviates the tension you always encounter from the black section. Getting a good students’ rating eases away all the grunts and 5-month brunt of managing a class with effervescent energies you can only wish you still have.

Really, who can manage more than two dozen people simultaneously moving inside the room you consider to be your everyday battle arena? While politicians can manage the whole region or country, do they have the patience to shush everyday the constant blabbering of students at the same time filling up their neurons with knowledge? Accountants and engineers are touted good and at ease with computation, Statistics and tallying but should they try becoming an instructor and compute grades during examinations, I doubt that they wouldn’t end up dizzy. Not to mention the effort and sweat that instructors produce when checking more than 500 test papers, tolerance, versatility and patience that needs to be multiplied and basically everything that an instructor does is a constant challenge. Without these instructors, we wouldn’t have the engineers, doctors and professionals that we call anyway. Suffice to say, life as an instructor is a rollercoaster-it’s one of a kind.