Update on my Career change

[DanaC]

Well now I have had the most interesting and challenging month for a long time. This seems to have come at the cost of all my freetime but hey! Beggars can't be choosers and I was crying out for something with some kind of point to it, to fill my otherwise rather bland life ( discounting the drug soaked rave parties, cannabusiness conventions and music festivals) .

Yesterday I spent two hours teaching a 25 year old Pakistani woman to read 3 letter words. Whilst she was practising writing out the alphabet I worked with the rest of the pre entry group ( 7 students of mixed age and ability) on forming sentences.

Wow. Without a doubt the most rewarding working month of my adult life.

Because I am a trainee I have a monthly review. In this monthly review my trainer has to make a few notes about my progress.....I saw the review for this month and one line of my trainer's comments really made my day. She wrote "the students have accepted her as a tutor". I had a smile on my face all day after reading that.

On the downside my house looks like a bomb hit it. I seem to have absolutely no time to do anything. Every few days I do a quick rescue job but I am so wiped out by this month that it's rarely anything more thorough......Oh yes and I am flat broke. Had to drop my hours at the pipe company and theyre the hours that put food on th table and money in the landlord's bank account :P

But.....First month is over and I am starting to get used to the additional workload and the pressure and the studies and the having to look respectable when i go to work etc Tonight is the first Friday night since I started this venture, that hasnt seen me deeply tired and barely able to make it through "Will and Grace" and "Greenwing".

Oh.....in case anyone is interested the drink in my hand is a Pint of Hen's Tooth *grins*

[zippyt]

Congrats on doing something SOO challenging and worth while !!!!!!
Rember to make SOME space in your life for just YOU !!!!!

Good for you, Dana! So tell me, what happens when your students make it up to 4 letter words?

[DanaC]

Ahhhhh......well then they start adding the 3 and 4 letter words together to make some simple sentences

The main difficulty they seem to be encountering at the moment is the similiarity between the vowel sounds. So pin becomes pen and pen becomes pin etc.

Zippyt, you are soo right. I have in fact decided that as of next week I am driopping friday down to a half day. From now on Friday afternoons are mine all mine *smiles*

I should not by rights have been teaching full on this first month. One of the tutors has been off sick for four and a half weeks with a really nasty infection and since the Chamber ( the place I work) is short staffed to begin with this meant I was invited to jump in at the deep end if I felt able to and take on the pre entry group. I am so glad I did. It's been good fun and the students are lovely.........I will however be glad ( as well as a little sad :P ) when Kieren returns and is able to do the bulk of the teaching with the pre entry group.

One of the things I love most about this job is meeting people from different countries. All three groups spend some time in the main classroom together ( with one or another group going off to the little classroom for more intensive lessons when needed) this means we often have various levels of ability present at any one time and the more able act as interpreters for the least able. We have Hindi speakers, Punjabi speakers, Farsi speakers, Kurdish speakers, Arabic speakers and a french speaker from the Congo. At times it resembles the tower of Babel *smiles*

[Catwoman]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Oh.....in case anyone is interested the drink in my hand is a Pint of Hen's Tooth *grins*

Heh. Spent this weekend swimming in Ringwood 49er and HSB. Gotta love that real ale.

The new career sounds fascinating Dana. Fucking well done for being one of 'those liberals' that actually gets up off their arse to make a difference. Not many people are willing, despite profound and vigorous diatribes against 'the system' to actually dedicate their own time to the cause. Unfortunately I feel that I often fall into this category, and spend many a wistful hour wondering what 'rightful cause' I could apply myself to.

I give money each month to several charities and once attended my local Amnesty support group. I have written one letter to the President of Pakistan protesting against the proposed capitulation of a 17 year old boy, and once bought a pack of cards from my local Age Concern. I have never attended a protest and the only voluntary work I have done has been for friends and family. Oh - and I work in an ad agency, in my own small way contributing to the noise and myth and clutter that perpetuates this damage - the inequality of wealth, a false image of reality, fallacious differentiation.

I suppose I am arrogant enough to think 'I don't want to be just one more person helping out in my own small way - I want to evoke real difference, big changes'. But it is the so-called 'small' people that do make the difference - the unsung heroes that help for the sake of helping, not for applause or to abate a guilt-infused conscience.

But advertising rules the world. Ever seen Men in Black? K destroys the alien from within. For all the charity fundraising, social care, voluntary work I could be doing, it really wouldn't make that much difference long term. But conquer this baby - and who knows.

Saying that, I don't actually think that will happen. I'll end up living in a van in a field eating home grown veg and tending to the chickens. The simple life. But maybe that will be just as much help. The point being, it doesn't actually matter what we do. So why not do what makes you happy. Then you can make the world a better place every day.