Three teachers in one!

Right! I’ve just survived another week of school! Hooray.

Hello teachers or whoever is reading this.  Apologies for not writing to you last week. It’s because things have been very hectic as is usual at the beginning of each school year and I couldn’t find any time to write anything. As for this week, here I am, back with more things to share with you or let me say complain about, So let’s get straight to it!

 Let’s assume you teach students of one level only, let’s say 12 to 13 year old students. Can you think of how much time you spend every day to prepare for your classes? Preparing resources such as teaching aids, activities, games, worksheets, etc. Exhausted already just to think about it, aren’t you?

OK, Now, imagine having to teach three different levels aged for example, let’s randomly say 6, 8, and 11 year old students. Not only that, but also having to teach them all in one day? It’s a huge load of work, isn’t it? And just to give you a rough idea, here’s how it goes on the ground in Gaza.

It could be something like teaching 50 six year old students for 45 minutes, then teaching 45 eleven year old students for 45 minutes, and another 45 minutes teaching 45 eight year old students, and so on.  A normal school schedule includes at least five different classes of three different levels everyday - and this is the case of my schedule.

 I am struggling! I am racing all the time to get everything ready and right for each level. Running from a class to class, getting the right teaching aids such as posters, flash cards, word cards, etc. And hoping not to bring the wrong material to the wrong class. And by the way, I’ve done that a couple or three times at least.

You know what else I find very exhausting and draining about that too? It’s the continuing change I need to make on myself. The many different personalities I need to change all the time. For instance, apart from being a teacher, with very young students, I am a singer, a dancer, an entertainer, a cheerleader, and a babysitter too.

It’s different with higher levels, as I need to have some sense back and start acting like an adult again. This is quite challenging and energy consuming. Not only do I need to change the resources I use every time to fit the level I’m teaching, it’s also about changing me and the way I interact - classroom language- to suit each level I am teaching. By the end of each day, I am completely done.

The weird thing too is that it feels like levels are sometimes randomly selected! We can have students in lower levels who can communicate quite well and others in higher levels who can barely say a word! By trying to help everyone at the same time we end up helping nobody!

Tell me about you. How many levels do you teach? What’s it like? Any advice for me to make it easier/ less stressful?