The stress faced by a teacher

These few weeks I'm ultra busy. Normally, I'm just busy. The mid year examinations are coming, so that's bringing a lot of extra work to me. When you read this post, I'm probably out working already - I just scheduled this article to be posted at this time and date. Ah, the magic of technology.

In the past, during this period, I'll be quite stressful. This is because I've to push students to cramp a lot of things in their mind to prepare them for this major examination. I certainly don't like doing this because it's a mad rush of time. But can you imagine the students? It'll be worse because they are the ones taking the examinations and facing the consequences in the end.

Over the years of tutoring, I realised these truths:

1. Some students just do not want to get A. You might want them to get it, but if they do not desire it, they will just put in enough effort to get whatever grades they think is fair for them. I realised it's more of a motivational issue than a knowledge issue. I blogged about motivational methods in the past, and I employed every single trick that I talked about, to various outcomes. I can't do it consistently so I usually try to do everything and see if it hits something. If I managed to motivate them, they will do all that is necessary to get it done.

2. I fully understand the stress of teaching students. It should be (if it isn't already) the first thing they warn you about when getting your teaching degree. You say something important, students do not get it. You say it again, they got it, then after a while, they forgot about it. So you repeat and if they still do not get it, you get frustrated. This is because there's no reward in your actions. Action without reaction leads to frustration. But what happens if you give up? Then there's no hope anymore.

This is of course easier said than done. I had given up hope on students too (maybe less than 5 out of so many over 7 years) because I'm only human and can only take a certain amount of punishment before I give in. But remember, if you give up, there's no more hope.

3. It's possible to win a battle but lose the war in teaching. While stressing the importance of major examinations, you can actually create such bad vibes in learning that it might lead to bigger problems downstream when it comes to anything school related.

I remember teaching a JC student about maths. Though he didn't do very well in statistics when I taught him (he always get mediocre grades for his tests), he found the topic fascinating. I jumped on that curiosity and introduced him a few things that are not required in the examinations but can expand his views on the topic itself. So years had passed and sometimes when I met him on the street, he'll shout out to me and said that he remembered me teaching him statistics and had a fun time together. He even wanted to do a statistics course in university.

I pointed out the story to highlight the fact that it's sometimes easy to forget the perspective in things. Being zen-like and having the belief that things will work out well in the end will remove some of the stress in teaching students. I always say this: Things could get worse ...but it didn't.


So, for all the parents and tutors out there teaching their kids, I hope this article gives you something to think about over the weekend. Have a great weekend :)