Teacher. When I asked people what they thought of a teacher, many would say it’s a noble job. Some said it’s an easy one. Come to school at 7.20 in the morning, enter the classes, then by 2.00 p.m, starts your car engine, and off you go. Some (especially the males) said it suited females as you could be back in the afternoon and do house chores. Duh! What a sexist statement. And also unprofessional. Many people still cannot understand teaching profession. If you say it’s easy, try to be in our shoes and experience what we experience. A teacher who said teaching is like eating nasi lemak, he or she is a lousy teacher. A real dedicated teacher has to deal with:
- Scheme of work (if the school doesn’t provide any).
- Lesson plan for each lesson. Normal teachers in Malaysia would have 20-25 periods per week. It makes 12-13 sessions in a week, meaning to say, 12-13 sets of lesson plan.
- Before you plan the lesson, you have to think what to teach. Yes, you have the scheme of
work, but still, will you use the same methods and activities all the time? If the students don’t pay attention or don’t do well in the exam, you will be blamed for not being a creative and productive teacher. So, it’s all up to you. - Talk and chalk would result to a ‘C’ if there are education officers observing you. You MUST prepare other teaching aids, as simple as pictures, handouts, realia, Powerpoint presentation, videos or songs. It TAKES time.
- Teach the students and prepare to answer all kinds of questions; some are good, some are
challenging, some are stupid. - Mark your students’ workbooks or exercise books.
- Prepare test or exam papers.
- Mark test papers and exam papers. Then, key in the marks and prepare reports.
- Class teacher. You have to ‘take care’ of your sons and daughters. If anything concerns them, for example they are called by the discipline board, you have to be there. If they are absent, you have to know the reason they didn’t come to school. You have to prepare report again.
- Secretarial works. Especially if you are the new teacher, or you are chosen to be the secretary for any event in your school. Remember, in schools, there are many events: Maulidurrasul, Awal Muharam, Teacher’s Day, Sports Day, Merdeka Day Celebration, Hari Raya Celebration, Hari Penyampaian Hadiah, PTA Annual Meeting and many more other events, for example when the school is the host for any quiz or competition.
- Co-curricular activities. You’ll be the advisor of this and that club, society, sports team and so on. In a week, there’ll be at east one meeting for each.
- Meetings and courses. There’ll be a lot. Department meeting, club meeting (refer to no 11), computer courses, English courses, motivational talk, etc.
- Tests. PTK test (which I found useless), PTP test (if you are ETeMS teacher).
- Parents. Some are supportive and active. Some are assertive. Some are ‘talkative’. They will question all sorts of things happened in school, like when will the school provide e-book
to their children, why does the school have too many students, why isn’t the teacher handsome. Very good questions. - Expectation. Society’s expectation is very taxing. A teacher should be a perfect role
model. Cannot wear jeans, cannot wear stilettos (stupid rules). Have to behave all the time. Students’ expectation. If you are an English teacher, you are expected to be Oxford Advanced ‘Alive Version’ Dictionary. There are millions of English words. It’s impossible for the teacher to know all of them. School expectation. English teachers can teach Math and Science just because they can deliver in English, without considering how many years they have left Math and Science books behind.
So, do you still think teaching is like “kacang goreng”? I had some discussions with my friends (who are basically engineers, but how good they are, I don’t know). They claimed that engineers have really difficult job, and challenging as well. Well, they are dealing with machines, aren’t they? They set the machines, and do some maintenance, and after they are broken (I mean the machines, not the engineers :p), just dispose them. While teachers are dealing with HUMAN BEINGS. They are unpredictable, fragile, colourful and most of all, they are seeking for knowledge. And the responsibility is all ours. “Teachers are the engineers of mind” (Cohort 5 Students, 2009, haha). I’m grateful that God showed me the way to be a teacher. Remember, once a teacher, forever a teacher, even when you are six feet under. MAYBE I WAS BORN TO BE A TEACHER. And I am proud to be one.
