![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In (semi)professional news
Jun. 5th, 2018 12:03 pmI accidentally ended up tutoring the daughter of a friend of my husband in Latin. Originally, Jörg had been helping her with chemistry and maths, and then it turned out that she had trouble in Latin, too. Jörg decided that this was a job for me, the language specialist. (This is funny because he took 9 years of Latin in school, and finished it with the German equivalent of A+.) "But your linguistic intuition is better!" ... Not in Latin, love!
Anyway, I met up with her and we translated a bit of Caesar, and... I hardly dare to admit how much fun it was. Honestly. It was a joy. (For me. Probably not for the poor girl.) Three hours passed and I honestly thought it was one. Then we met again the other day and spent another two hours identifying verb forms and phrases. I came back totally psyched. Good grief. I just hope it'll help her. (She's got most of the theoretical knowledge, but forgets it as soon as she needs to put it into practice. It doesn't help that her last teacher allowed them to use an online dictionary and didn't keep them practicing declensions and memorising principal parts so she's got next to no practice in identifying these.) Her parents seem to hope that having practiced twice will be enough to save her grade, but honestly, right now she needs someone to regularly sit down with her and remind her to stay calm and look for the main verb and be mindful of cases and tenses. Which I wouldn't mind doing. We'll see.
- - -
In the light of our devastating financial situation, and because Jörg won't be able to work for another couple of months (or to be honest, at all in that company), I applied for teaching positions at various elementary schools in the next town over. (NOT for Latin. They're not teaching that in elementary. For English.)
Now, I am not actually qualified as a teacher, and I'm not all that certain that I'd be a good teacher, either (so many students at once! help!). But our federal state is currently so desperate for teachers that they've opened the field for people who studied anything vaguely related to the subject and have anything resembling teaching experience, so I figured I ought to try. (Also, I needed to show the husband that even I, the world's greatest procrastinatrix, could send out a couple of applications on short notice so he, the world's greatest getting-shit-done guy, should stop dragging his feet about writing his own.)
And I really hate writing applications. Halfway through the process, my brain starts going "oh you don't really want this anyway, so you can as well stop wasting your time" and ultimately I won't even know whether I do or don't want the job and which part is just my executive dysfunction raising its ugly head and which part is actual, reasonable thinking. Do I want to teach? Do I want to teach at THAT school? Can I, responsibly, impose my chaotic self on poor, innocent, helpless students? Can I fake being a functional adult human being in front of a classroom of troublemakers every day, every week? While actually getting them to know and understand stuff?
Oh well, they won't respond anyway.
Well, one of the five schools invited me for an interview. (They must be truly desperate. Which surprises me, because this is one of the nice schools. Maybe they're just inviting me for the sake of variety?) Partial success! I am not prepared for that! What do I do if they don't hire me after that? WHAT DO I DO IF THEY DO? What do I want? I am not ready! (Is anyone ever?)
The truth of the matter is, I really do enjoy teaching and knowledge. But can I handle 20+ kids (and their parents) at the same time? I have no clue.
EDIT: A second school called... HELP
Anyway, I met up with her and we translated a bit of Caesar, and... I hardly dare to admit how much fun it was. Honestly. It was a joy. (For me. Probably not for the poor girl.) Three hours passed and I honestly thought it was one. Then we met again the other day and spent another two hours identifying verb forms and phrases. I came back totally psyched. Good grief. I just hope it'll help her. (She's got most of the theoretical knowledge, but forgets it as soon as she needs to put it into practice. It doesn't help that her last teacher allowed them to use an online dictionary and didn't keep them practicing declensions and memorising principal parts so she's got next to no practice in identifying these.) Her parents seem to hope that having practiced twice will be enough to save her grade, but honestly, right now she needs someone to regularly sit down with her and remind her to stay calm and look for the main verb and be mindful of cases and tenses. Which I wouldn't mind doing. We'll see.
- - -
In the light of our devastating financial situation, and because Jörg won't be able to work for another couple of months (or to be honest, at all in that company), I applied for teaching positions at various elementary schools in the next town over. (NOT for Latin. They're not teaching that in elementary. For English.)
Now, I am not actually qualified as a teacher, and I'm not all that certain that I'd be a good teacher, either (so many students at once! help!). But our federal state is currently so desperate for teachers that they've opened the field for people who studied anything vaguely related to the subject and have anything resembling teaching experience, so I figured I ought to try. (Also, I needed to show the husband that even I, the world's greatest procrastinatrix, could send out a couple of applications on short notice so he, the world's greatest getting-shit-done guy, should stop dragging his feet about writing his own.)
And I really hate writing applications. Halfway through the process, my brain starts going "oh you don't really want this anyway, so you can as well stop wasting your time" and ultimately I won't even know whether I do or don't want the job and which part is just my executive dysfunction raising its ugly head and which part is actual, reasonable thinking. Do I want to teach? Do I want to teach at THAT school? Can I, responsibly, impose my chaotic self on poor, innocent, helpless students? Can I fake being a functional adult human being in front of a classroom of troublemakers every day, every week? While actually getting them to know and understand stuff?
Oh well, they won't respond anyway.
Well, one of the five schools invited me for an interview. (They must be truly desperate. Which surprises me, because this is one of the nice schools. Maybe they're just inviting me for the sake of variety?) Partial success! I am not prepared for that! What do I do if they don't hire me after that? WHAT DO I DO IF THEY DO? What do I want? I am not ready! (Is anyone ever?)
The truth of the matter is, I really do enjoy teaching and knowledge. But can I handle 20+ kids (and their parents) at the same time? I have no clue.
EDIT: A second school called... HELP
