Another letter to the teachers part 2
In the past few weeks, I have received several emails from teachers explaining their situations and frustrations with certain current issues. Of course, I do not teach there and cannot address these issues so I write this open letter to all teachers who share my passion for teaching.
Dear Teachers,
As teachers, we all know that our job is difficult. We teach, plan lessons, organize lectures, grade exams, and manage a large class of students with different levels of learning and behaviors. We also have to deal with the school administrators, students’ parents and still make sure that our students will do well, will pass exams, and grow up to be productive people for our society. With all of these pressures, sometimes many of us feel depressed for not being appreciated and respected.”
“As teachers, we all know that teaching is an unselfish profession where many of us spend all of our time planning lesson or grading exams and neglecting our own personal needs. We all do that because we care but sometimes we need to take a moment to rest and do something good for ourselves to reduce the burden of teaching. Studies find that listening to music can improve your inner feeling. When I feel stress after teaching a class, I often listen to classical music as it helps me to relax and keep my mind off work. When I was young, I like to read martial arts novel as I could imagine being transported to another magical world that was outside of reality. Today, I do not read novels but still reading a lot of books that help me to relax and enrich my life. Reading helped me to stay calm than watching movies or TV shows but I am sure others have their preferences for relaxation. The main idea is we all need to spend the time to take care of our mind and our health before continue with our job.”
“As Teachers, we all know that teaching is unpredictable because no class is the same and no students are alike. But many of us have high expectation as we want things to happen as we have exactly planned. We may need to lower our expectation a little bit so it does not give us stress. Sometimes thing does not happen as we wish and we feel bad but we need to think of it as a learning experience. When we teach our students that they can learn from their mistakes, so can we.”
“As Teachers, some of us prefer to work alone, especially when under pressure or feeling unhappy. Sometimes we pay too much attention to what we cannot control such as having a smaller class, better students, better salary and these wishes make us feel uncomfortable about our choice. We need to spend more time with other teachers and together we can share experience, good or bad, and learn from others. Teaching profession should be open with more socializing as it helps us to reduce the pressure of our daily works. As teachers, we all are committing to make a difference in our students’ lives and developing the next generation for our country and the more we share and help others, the better we can feel about ourselves and our choice of being teachers.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
