Am I A Good Teacher?

The past few weeks have been not been the greatest weeks for me as a teacher.  And although this has not been the first time I have questioned my teaching ability, it surly has made me pay more attention to that deep little voice inside that asks… “Am I a good teacher?”

With each new adventurist situation, like the grade 9 students throwing chips from their window to the grade 1 – 3 students during recess and telling them to eat it as if they are monkeys in a zoo; that once almost inaudible voice gets stronger and more prominent.  It is a real disappointing scene when I am in the front of my grade 9 boy’s class attempting to teach the lesson when the whole class is not giving me the slightest amount of attention.  I have some student’s sleeping, others calling each other names in Arabic, and a few fighting in the corner.  Of course there has been improvement since September, but it is still a challenge to get order in a school with little administration support, students who don’t care about detention, homework or their marks, and the inability to communicate with parents because of language barrier.  If I can only use Arabic and quotes from the Qur’an like the Arabic teachers do to get through to the students.  Unfortunately all I have at my disposal is making them feel ashamed, which has to be done with broken-up English so they can understand me.  If I use too many ‘big’ words, like responsibility, agenda, unique or literacy, I lose them.  And when they tell me I am the only teacher that they somewhat behave for, I feel like I am making progress.

However, with days like today when a student sandwiches himself between the bathroom door and wall to lock himself in to avoid going to class, I feel like its one step forward, two steps back.

Bryan the Camel says…

            You need a ‘Please Don’t Feed the Animals’ sign outside the grade 9 window.