My evolving journey as a teacher

As I progress along my teaching career, I came to the realization that my teaching life is an evolving journey. Before I started teaching, I had a certain set of expectations about myself and about teaching. As soon as I begin teaching as a contract, and I begin immersing myself in the actual reality of school, I begin to discover who I am as I reacted and adapted to the challenges, pains and joys of teaching.

Once thing is for sure, I am constantly learning from my own mistakes. I question myself and these questions open new paths for exploration. I select specific courses according to the different stages of my teaching journey. I came to realize the different batches of students with different learning needs and had to adapt my teaching to cater to these needs. Over and over again, I am tested of the limits I can do in my classroom, of my own personal limits, the risks I am willing to take with particular groups, of course, within the frame of school rules. One of my school leaders spoke about being a good husband, a good father and a good educator – all the same time? Am I successful at this? Maybe I am still trying and trying. Hence, experience has become my best teacher.

As I reflect upon my teaching journey, I try to follow the path of what I have been trying to articulate and achieve (and the difficulties, both inside and outside of school that I have to face and overcome along the way, some of which I am still trying to overcome). As I progress, the different roles and responsibilities I take on (from CCA Oi/c, mentor, subject head and now HOD) made me realized how I have changed from who I was as a beginning teacher. At times, I even find myself living different versions of the same situation – having gone through both the “best of times” and “worst of times” in the same school for several years now.

The New Year and new role presents me with the possibility of new learning around these recurring same school contexts. Do I need to change context? But for now, within this school will both my deepest meaning of my evolving journey as a teacher and the hidden bud which I hope to next grow.