There's nothing worse than being a new teacher. You have no idea what your doing, all of the training you received is useless, and you're standing in front of a class of students, which, if you're lucky, is screaming out of control. If you're unlucky they're looking at you quietly and expectantly.
I think now more than ever I’m at risk of quitting again. Here are some reasons why:
- I don’t live in China anymore;
- I don’t teach ESL anymore;
- I’m very happy I’m not living in China;
- I’m very happy I don’t teach English anymore.
In other words, you probably won’t be getting very many encouraging words about China or ESL from me.
The Life of an Ex-ESL Teacher
Later that month I began writing for people online. I was still working at EF, and we were just getting into our busy winter schedule. I always wrote between my classes and was soon racking up a little money. After a few months I was pulling down more than $2,000 each month, and making more than my ESL job. Finally, I could get out of China!
I moved back to the US in late June and kept on working with my writing. By that time I had out about 11 or 12 eBooks, I’m not sure. As of this writing I’ve got 15 selling on Amazon, and that’s a nice check to get each month. I’m also making nearly twice as much as I did as an ESL Teacher by writing for people.
I don’t know why I wasted 5 years of my life in a fruitless and thankless job. Oh well, perhaps it needed to be done, and I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t done it. I’m sure there are many ESL teachers that kind of feel that way, and I’m sure there are many that just love their job. All probably feel a little bit of both on most days.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t do a good job. My students always had fun in class, and I don’t think I’ve had a job where I smiled more. There are some great resources on this site if you read through some of the old blogs. This is the 113th post to the site, for a total of just over 62,000 words.
So will there be another 62,000? We’ll see.