It has been an incredible experience teaching here at Chinmin Institute of Technology. I have been disappointed a lot. I have been overjoyed a lot.
It is not usual to think of teaching as an exciting profession. But I've found teaching here exciting.
The students here are here because they couldn't get into any other school. That is, they are not here by choice, mostly. They don't like studying.
This makes teaching them challenging.
But I like a challenge. A challenge is exciting, because there is a chance of success, even if mostly one fails!
It feels good when I am able to get them to participate.
Generally they have not been served well by the education system, so they are reluctant to participate in teachers' schemes.
When I do something that intrigues them, that makes them want to try and communicate about that thing, I feel that probably they are learning something.
This is a teachable moment.
Often they find it easier to talk to each other in English than to talk with me. Of course, talking to each other in Chinese is easier than talking to each other in English. But if I can create the right conditions I can get them to use English with each other.
These conditions may include standing over them, so that they feel inhibited from speaking Chinese. But that comes with the territory of being a teacher. That is, sometimes it is unavoidable to force students to do things, like use English, when they don't want to. It's good to use one's authority as a teacher as little as possible, however.
