Scared I Won't Be Good Enough

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
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I am not certified as a teacher. I was offered a job as an ALT in a public school in Saitama but they could not process the visa quick enough

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Its okay about Saitama though because I really like Taiwan :slight_smile:

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Oh, I love it here. Like anywhere, there is good and bad, but over all…this place is the tops! If I can get by with minimal Chinese…then this is alright. (I am not against learning Chinese, but I can never get the pronunciations right.)

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What belt are you in BJJ?

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Brown

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Hi guys, thanks for all of your help. Tomorrow is my first class teaching. I am going to think about it kind of like jumping off the high dive. I am so scared to do it but once you have done it, and you hit the water, it will be okay; like you never know how you will feel on the other side until you have actually done it. It is weird, I have rolled with great Jiu-Jitsu people like Ralek Gracie and I’ve even got third place at the IBJJF No-Gi World Championship at my rank, and since I have graduated I have studied almost up to real analysis on my own, because I love science, so I am scared of no person or no subject, but for some reason I am scared of social situations. But just thinking about this my entire life has done me no good. This is just cathartic writing for my benefit.

Time to take the plunge. See you on the other side, swimming safely in the water! :slight_smile:

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Sounds like you suffer from social anxiety. You’ll be fine.

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Hahaha :slight_smile: I think you are right. But social anxiety is an understatement :slight_smile:

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If you can throw a sticky ball without taking someones eye out you’ll be fine, even if you take someones eye out you’ll still be OK so don’t worry about any of it.

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Thank you for the support, encouragement, and levity :slight_smile:

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I wanted to update you guys. I bombed, bombed big time. I was put into a class that is just about ready to graduate. And although my trainers are super nice and helpful, as well as my boss, I was not really given enough to succeed. But I think they wanted me to do a trial by fire and make me want to improve.

I am going to work really hard this next month at becoming a better teacher, as well as losing weight and getting into shape in case I want another career here and also because I might want to compete at the BJJ championship here next month.

Can I tell you something strange, I know that no decision I make is final because I am still a young man, and won’t let any one job define me, having this mindset might take the pressure off :slight_smile:

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Why do you say that?

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All the other teachers and bosses told me that everyone bombs their first class. But the lesson that I taught was not good. I was kind of lost, nobody’s fault. The company I work for is really supportive, but they had to get me in there really fast because a teacher left abruptly, so I only had the opportunity to have limited training and only observe a few classes. I took diligent notes and made a lesson plan. But I am super green, and the students I had were super advanced and I had no idea what they knew and didn’t know, so I ended up having to throw out half my lesson plan during class, so there was just a lot of standing around. It was kind of discouraging

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Standing around is undoubtedly nightmare type stuff :slight_smile: It sounds like a good idea to look online for “get to know you” type lesson plans. That would be a good thing to have in the back of your head in case things go south early on, or to do in general.

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Prepare, but don’t over prepare. Allow yourself flexibility. Have an organic lesson plan that you can adapt to the needs of your students. Feel quietly confident in your abilities and trust your students to respond positively to your instruction. They can smell fear, and won’t trust you if you don’t even trust yourself. Also, know when to step back and let them take the lead. Too much teacher talk is the main problem with newbies. Be the guide on the side, not the sage on the stage. Finally, use every “bombed” class as a learning experience to find out what worked and what didn’t, and then you can modify future plans accordingly.

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I think it’s safe to say that anyone being substituted in mid-game, no matter if it’s an actual game or teaching, will be somewhat lost if no one briefed them beforehand. It’s good the company is behind you and wants you to succeed, but hell, a heads up or FYI would’ve been nice from them.

There’s no doubt that those here in the forums can help and the internet has is an limitless library of information on teaching. I’ve had so many friends on FB make posts asking for other teacher friends for ideas on situations. So don’t be ashamed to ask for help, you can definitely get ideas from others and apply it to your classroom.

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You’ll probably suck.
Get used to it.

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Rocket, I think that already goes without saying, :wink:

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You are right my friend. I just hope it starts looking up. But anything is up, because it couldn’t get any worse that yesterday :smile_cat:

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