To Healthy Habits and Routines

I began my T2W1 reflection with “Teaching is never easy”. I would like to add that teaching is also a stressful job. The burn-out rate, stress-related health problems are indeed happening among many of us teachers I know.

Personally, the best thing being a teacher is to being able to provide a safe environment for my students to explore parts of their being – may it be public speaking or social interaction. Our students do having difficulties communicating ideas and opinions – the skill to communicate freely. Even for myself, I had to keep telling myself to relax and speak naturally. The most precious moments in school so far this year have been those times when I looked to the podium (every morning) or stage (during sec 1 orientation) and seeing my students speaking freely, even though it may be only a few minutes – confidently articulating in front of the whole school, rising from being terrified to now believing in themselves which most of them didn’t know they could.

The worst thing being a teacher is the juggling of many things on our plate, trying to keep in balance all the different demands required of the profession. There are times when there are actions that we may not agree with that cause us painful inner clashes. Sometimes, conflict among staff occurs where “passive” aggression hangs in the air. The educational landscape has also changed with visible shifts towards preparing students for life and not just to pass examinations and find jobs. And even the most optimistic of us teachers will feel disheartened after reading mid-year examination results and facing the truth of what our students have – and have not – really learnt. One of my AYHs spoke about this feeling of frustration because “no one seems interested to listen to what they have to say about how things could get better.” I thought about this and decided that such feeling of being alone and disappointed may be due to the fact that these teachers not being able to find emphatic listeners for their own needs and demands.

While I believe that preventing all these from affecting our health and well-being is not completely in our hands, learnt and having a coping mechanism can make a big difference. For me, a “self-care” plan includes reliable ways to release stress, recharge, connecting with people I care about, enjoy my “white-space” time, and watching my favorite movies. In the end, I came to this realization that in order for the quality of our teaching to improve, I have to actively take good care of myself through healthy habits and routines.

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.

My story of becoming a teacher

Once upon a time (for some of us..), we became teachers. We started the teaching journey with a treasure chest full of experiences, hopes and expectations – all gained from early childhood experience.

There is a moment back in those times when we decided we would be teachers. I am sure each of us lived a different story that led up to this choice, the story of how we told ourselves what we can offer back to the society and how, in our particular life situation, waited for an answer.

How come? Well, the reason is that there are endless possibilities for how this might happen.

I know that some of us are born in a family of teachers and followed the family way, or maybe we were fresh graduates and full of ideals and became the first teacher in the family. Perhaps there are those who had always been great with young children and wanted to work with them, or perhaps teaching is the only career that appealed to us. Maybe we have gone through other careers before and wanted to use that knowledge to mold our future generation.

We are also most likely influenced by the memories of those teachers who touched our lives when we were young, those who nurtured our talents and sense of curiosity, infusing us with their love for teaching.

As for myself, I became a teacher after years of industry work – both locally and abroad. It took me about nine years from my graduation to my first contract in a neighborhood school. By then I had my first kid and was enjoying fatherhood. The first encounter with students in the school made me knew I was in the right profession and the help from many of my experienced colleagues and tutors made it easier for me to make up my mind to follow this path till today.

What is your story – blog about it and ask yourself when did you know you would become a teacher or to be part of the education profession? These are the treasure chest of experiences, hopes and expectations which I speak of at the start of the blog and I am sure that that chest may still contain many surprises if and only if we are willing to look back and remember them.

Why do I continue to blog?

Teaching is never easy, but right now it is an especially tough time to be a teacher.

I was reminded of this when I read the article on Heng Swee Keat thanks all school teachers, Education Minister said that “when we seek to bring out the best in every child, it takes more than good teaching curricula, strategies or experience – it takes heart.” He added that more challenges lies ahead, saying “Our children will need, more than ever, tools to guide them when the path ahead is not laid out… They will needs a compass of values and character that will keep them focused on their true North even when the terrain throws up surprises.”

I know that as teachers we still love the classroom, but like many others in the teaching profession, I recognized the truth of what my former colleague Mr Zee said to me: Teachers are struggling to find the energy to teach!

So I think the time is ripe for us teachers all to recharge ourselves, to help ourselves reclaim that energy, and capture again the love and hope that brought us into the teaching profession. Through expressing ourselves through blogging or writing and blogging or writing in community, we can return to our core beliefs and rekindle the energy needed to teach.

Into the fourth year now, I have seen what happens when teachers blog or write expressing, discovering and sharing their views within a community of other teacher writers. As we read into other teachers’ world, or tell their stories, or play with the magic of “letting it go”, teachers are energized. And when they have “listeners” who want to hear their stories or better still, share the same story, teachers feel cheered up and remember why they teach.

Hence, this is a way for us teachers to turn inward and open the “treasure chest of hopes and memories” each and every one of us carry in our teaching journey. Let us all listen to our inner voices – one of my teacher call this “self-talk” – the healthy and the unhealthy ones – and then together as a community of bloggers or writers show how to feed the healthy voice and silence the others. In this way, it will lead us back to those happy moments in our teaching career and help us wrestle with the demons that are hanging out there somewhere.

Affairs of the Heart – My Takeaway

Today when I heard my school leaders talk about us dedicating ourselves to possibilities – I told myself, “They had a lot of heart.”

In my previous job, we are often divorce our emotions from a situation and approach things purely rationally. Hence, the phrase “It’s not personal, it’s just business” is often used.

As I go about my leadership journey this year, I am holding onto a differing view about leadership – that leaders must be the most open and caring. Leaders should be able to demonstrate most affection towards others and want others to be more open to them.  

I need to be more positive and passionate, more caring, and more grateful and encouraging than before. That is why I am trying to write more “Thank You” emails and notes to both teachers and students. Why is this so? Pure and simply, there can be no improvements of human performance without paying attention to the human heart. Only when the heart is liberated both my own and others will great things can be done. I heard and agree of this “.. people work harder and more effectively for people they like.” There is definitely much deeper human connection when people are engaged with those they care about when doing things that really matter.

My school leader also spoke about “looking back and not leaving anyone behind.” I see that this can be done by understanding the needs of my teachers and interacting with them in ways that make others feel more confident and capable. In this way, my teachers can be elevated – thereby heightening their positive emotions and enhancing their well-being which can result in improved performance.

And I know that it will not be easy task – but I will say, “It will take a lot of heart to do what I intend to and I will not give up!”