Keeps Me Young

Today I took a picture of my little heroes. These are some of the kids I teach everyday at work. I work at a preschool as an English teacher. I have a program, which I follow, but I add my own flavor to the lessons. For example, the other day the children thought they were reciting random numbers as I held them up on flashcards, but really they were reciting pi. Another example is that sometimes after I've read a story, I read it again but much faster, skipping over the less important sections. Then I read it a third time, spending about a second on each page. They all laugh and we move onto something else.

What I like most about my job is the group of other teachers who work there. Many of them teach me Turkish (for lack of knowing much English) and they are all super nice. We gossip, we try to come up with creative ways of involving the children in new activities, and we are all in the same boat each day. Of course I also like the children. One of my favorites is the kid in the foreground of the picture. His name is Oktay, and he's really smart.

The most challenging things about work are: it can be very tiring, it's not easy to act enthusiastic for the times when you are not feeling that way, and it's important to give extra attention to the children who don't speak up or don't learn as quickly.

So now you know my work. I'll be teaching at this school until February, so I'll have a chance to save a little cash and plan my future beyond. On that note, I'm looking into jobs more in line with my profession and graduate school for next fall. Though it may seem like this job I have now does little for me in the long run, it does a lot more than I expected. For instance, it really challenges me in areas which I'm not well-rehearsed. Now I am more comfortable with children, human interaction, teaching, creativity and expression, but at the same time I really miss the heavy application of the left side of my brain with engineering. I can say that my life is full and that I won't be surprised if one day I learn that the true value of these experiences is much greater than I had originally considered.