Kids Want To Get Back To The Classroom
Some teachers don’t
A few weeks into our online lockdown classes, I asked my English language students what they had come to appreciate over the previous weeks.
“School,” they answered. “I miss school.”
“You mean, you miss your friends?”
“No, everything,” they replied.
Colour me surprised. Before coronavirus shut our private academy, most of my students had frequently told me they hated school and that my after-school lesson wasn’t all that much better. All that looking at the clock during class, asking each other what the time was in their mother tongue, asking me if they could go home, ignoring me while I was talking, rolling their eyes when asked to do anything — none of it went unnoticed. Schoolwork was always getting in the way of TikTok, Fortnite, and hanging out with their friends. What the students didn’t know is that when they were glancing at the clock praying for time to pass faster, so was I.
Teaching during lockdown has not only provided me with a whole new skill-set, but it has also allowed me to take stock of the situation I was in. I have been aware for a few years that I am coming to the end of my teaching career, but the last seven months in my current job have made it very clear that it’s time to leave. Being able to…
