E is for Education – A – Z challenge accepted!

So, here I am, on a Saturday afternoon, towards the end of my May vacation, with Magic Charts stuck up on my kitchen windows and sitting behind my laptop, working on the planning for next year.

Education is such a broad term. I studied to become a teacher many years ago, at the Hebrew University, in Jerusalem (close to where Giro d’Italia 2018 started off yesterday!), and here I am, over 30 years later, having worked in both business (doing marketing) and counseling (helping people) and now I find myself planning the new course for Personal Development for next year.

I love to teach, at least now I do.

When I started, back in the day, as a 24 year old teacher trying to work with pupils mid-adolescence, I swore I’d never, but never ever teach again! Those brats just ran circles around me. I figured: why work so hard, for so little money and suffer so much?

• Nowadays, things are different. My kids are the ages of the university students I teach, so guess what? They don’t scare me anymore!
• Secondly, this is the Netherlands. And yes, it’s true that the Dutch are very ‘direct’ (you can say rude, but I can’t – that would be rude, right?), but on the whole, these kids are a lot easier to manage than a class of 12 year old Jerusalemites.
• I get to teach the subjects I love – both Marketing and Personal Development.
• And I get to decide what to teach and how to teach it too! I’m using my creative skills and loving that.
• Sometimes I feel like I’m not a teacher, but an actor, on a stage. When all eyes are on me, instead of their smart phones, and some students even nod in agreement, or raise their hands to raise an issue and enter into a lively discussion, I feel I’m in my element and the magic is happening!

What I love less:

• The never ending ‘to do’ list. Although, I have to admit, that with every single job I’ve had, I’ve always had more to do in a day than the hours of the day allow.
• The grading. Ugh. It’s so hard to grade students when all you want to do is encourage them!
• The emailing. I didn’t go into education in order to become a customer service manager. I’m really tired of opening up my email box to see all those mails! Actually, I wrote about my allergy to emails in another blog.
• The admin. And by that I mean all the extras that come with the job. From entering grades into the system, to posting info online, and organizing stuff that has to be done (let’s just say that I’m more of a creative person than an organizer).

All in all, I have a job that fulfils me, gives me a sense of purpose and one where I can use my many talents.

I am grateful!