I Love Teaching
October 21, 2019
Teaching English to lower-income children in Ukraine has been such a fun way for me to return to my core.
Teaching has been a part of my life for over a decade. When I was around 10 I would help take care of the youngest kids at daycare. I always looked forward to summers. My parents say that I've been a caregiver since I was born. Apparently, even in pre-school, I was able to sniff out the kids that were even a month or two younger than me and I would take them under my wing.
When I was 13 I became a teaching assistant at my ballet company for the youngest class. The instructor basically needed extra hands to shepherd around the 4 - 6-year-olds and I had some free time. It gave me life. I loved that job so much, and I was damn good at it. After two years I was offered a promotion to teaching the class as the primary instructor, and the next year I was given another class of children aged 6-8. This was my job all through high school and I lived for it. It was legitimate work. The kids had milestones to achieve by the end of their time with me. I made up all their schedules and incentive charts. No matter how awful a day I was having, I would walk into class, all their little faces would look at me, and I would be filled with joy and energy to be their best teacher.
My favorite memory to date is still when I was teaching one of my levels how to skip. One student just wasn't getting it after weeks and weeks. The other girls would be skipping around the room easily and I would be working with her slowly. "Step, toe to knee, hop!".
One magical day she was going along slowly, and then I could see the gears click in her head and she took off like a rocket!
I will never ever forget the smile on her face. We were both SO PROUD!
That feeling is still what gets me excited about teaching every single day!
Teaching English to lower-income children in Ukraine has been such a fun way for me to return to my core.
Teaching has been a part of my life for over a decade. When I was around 10 I would help take care of the youngest kids at daycare. I always looked forward to summers. My parents say that I've been a caregiver since I was born. Apparently, even in pre-school, I was able to sniff out the kids that were even a month or two younger than me and I would take them under my wing.
When I was 13 I became a teaching assistant at my ballet company for the youngest class. The instructor basically needed extra hands to shepherd around the 4 - 6-year-olds and I had some free time. It gave me life. I loved that job so much, and I was damn good at it. After two years I was offered a promotion to teaching the class as the primary instructor, and the next year I was given another class of children aged 6-8. This was my job all through high school and I lived for it. It was legitimate work. The kids had milestones to achieve by the end of their time with me. I made up all their schedules and incentive charts. No matter how awful a day I was having, I would walk into class, all their little faces would look at me, and I would be filled with joy and energy to be their best teacher.
My favorite memory to date is still when I was teaching one of my levels how to skip. One student just wasn't getting it after weeks and weeks. The other girls would be skipping around the room easily and I would be working with her slowly. "Step, toe to knee, hop!".
One magical day she was going along slowly, and then I could see the gears click in her head and she took off like a rocket!
I will never ever forget the smile on her face. We were both SO PROUD!
That feeling is still what gets me excited about teaching every single day!
In college, I worked as an Undergraduate Teaching Fellow for microeconomics courses. That was a pretty cool opportunity too, although I missed working with younger kids.
With several years of varied teaching experience under my belt, I originally started doing some language teaching when I was working in refugee camps in Greece. We would teach them basic English every day, and I taught a small group of students what little Greek I knew.
After I returned home I began teaching English online as an independent contractor. Teaching online wasn't my favorite, but the training was very thorough and I learned a lot about how children learn a language. My classes were always prepared ahead of time to a specific curriculum though, so it's been a while since I did any lesson planning.
Though the school I am teaching at here in Ukraine is small, I have a very wide range of levels I'm teaching to.
I teach one level 1 class, three level 2 classes, one level 3 class (A1), one level 4 class (A2), and one level 5 class (B1). Each of them is held twice a week for one hour. In one afternoon I can go from working with ten-year-olds, to fifteen-year-olds, to six-year-olds.
Some days that massive shift in energies, I swear, gives me whiplash. My favorite part of teaching is still that moment when you can see the click in their eyes as they understand something that's been evading them. Even if there's only one moment like that in my entire stay here, it will totally be worth it.
One element that is new to me is teaching a second language while learning a second language. It gives me so much more respect and empathy for these kids. Some days I walk out of my Russian immersion class feeling dazed and confused, trying desperately to hold onto every bit of information that we went over. I can see that same feeling in my students if I talk too fast or use too many words. Being cognizant of that is such a gift that I don't take lightly. It definitely makes me a better teacher to understand the limits of my students, and of human beings as a whole. To combine some cheesy sayings: Rome wasn't built in a day, and slow and steady wins the race.
Learning- a new language, a new skill, anything- requires a fantastic amount of grace and courage. I'm so grateful for this experience and all the ones in my life that led me here.
xoxo,
Danielle