Frustration on Bad Experiences

First times are a difficult thing to face. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed by those things that you can't control. This is what happened to me when I had to teach for the very first time in a clasroom full of children under the age of eight.

Let me set the scene for you. I got a new job, in a school that I didntt know at all. This was the first time I was in front of a whole group of kids. It was my duty to teach. It was also my duty to keep them quiet, I mean, I needed to make a good impression if I wanted to keep the job.

I prepared myself. I was decided to teach English to that class and to make it enjoyable for everyone. It was really hard for me to come up with activities to do as I do not usually teach to children. Luckily, I came up with some ideas at last. I managed to borrow my little cousin's ball and learn a song on my guitar in order for my students to have some fun while learning.

By that time, ready and all, I was not nervous anymore. But nothing went as expected when I left that classroom. I had really high expectations, maybe. I thought they were going to be really interested in my activities, and the ball, and my playing the guitar. In fact they were, they liked my class, but they were very, very noisy. They did not pay as much attention to me as I wanted them to. They would stand up, they would fight, they would shout, they would take ages to write three words, they would run around. I panicked.

After the lesson I walked home thinking about how useless I was and how much I hated children. It is a sad thing to say but sometimes dissapointment makes us think the worst things. I wanted to quit (on my first day lol). I spent most of my day thinking of my lesson and how it ended up being such a mess.

It took me the whole day to realise that a mistake is also an opportunity to learn (at least that is what I'm told in my teacher training college, and I really needed to think that if I wanted to feel better). I tried really hard to get it right and understand what my mistake was. I now think that my mistake might have been expecting too much quietness on a group of many young learners. I haven't figured out it yet and I'm still trying to get productive and rewarding lessons.

To conclude, I think that it is sometimes sane to feel frustrated, to take your time to let your mind understand what happened and how to deal with it. Letting that frustration define you should never be an option. The important thing about mistakes are the things we make after we've commited them.