Positives
- A celta
- Reason to get up in morning
- Gave me back confidence (especially in 1st year)
- A new experience for life
- + $ 75,000 in 2 years
- Survived almost no preparation in last year
- Zest of creating lessons, I was good at it
- Grew lot in skill from initial "teach from book"
- Made earlier classes laugh
- "Best teacher ever had"
- Adoration of Ana
- Fannie "That was very interesting"
- Bella "Great grammar"
- "You're a great teacher"
- Business students to Fee "enjoy class" - we missed you
- Lovely people (Steve, Ed, Fee, Janice, Matt x 2, Sam, Jo)
- Teacher Trove + writing Wiki + student blog
- Lauren blown away
- Part time - so able to focus on Art of Living
- Extremely resilient (divorce, tax, students leaving, CELTA observers)
- Stockpile of ready lessons - print in morning (amazing!)
- Celta observers always impressed
- Several inexperienced teachers did not cut it - I did
- Rosa did ask me back in summer - knew I was going away
Triumphs
- You're a good teacher! (Bella + Gustavo + Melanie + Michaela and co)
- Famous lesson with Steve Jobs
- Your lesson is very interesting. Thank you. (ghost stories at last minute)
- girl wanted to stay in my business class
- funny video of BBC Guy - hilarity
- riddles with business class
- wonderful atmosphere in intermediate class
- Riddles - great excitement
- English Powerpoints with great images
- Anat changed back to my class
- Max: "Best teacher ever had"
- ten fingers - Pauline
- Anat - this is excellent (twice)
- Elementaries - you're such a good teacher. Best in Kaplan.
- Michala and Mattheus very happy with my lessons - fun (Phi)
- Upper Int students were saying they enjoy your lessons (Aparna)
- Michala - we missed you on Tuesday
- CELTA (my friend Russell) - it was so useful
- Lauren: "Lauren is amazed" "This is amazing!" (blog)
- Lauren: I'm blown away" (Teacher Trove)
- Linda: "Graeme Myburgh! Your blog is amazing." 66 pages. Called Aparna in.
- Principal: Your photos are fantastic.
- Keeping going with my teaching (and stepping right up) when student left class
- My triumphant lessons to CELTA students
- My Halloween lesson
- Melbourne Cup facts
- My Twists English lesson
Student gripes
- First girl - it revolutionised my teaching
- French girl (Int) - class too disruptive
- Evan (thick glasses) - had for elective and main (more lively, more indiv attention)
- Pre-Int girl - not show us enough attention
- Ron - 2nd time I got him
- Sweet girl (ele) - changed mind once class mill
- 3 princesses in upper - stayed
- Upper class from hell - 2 girls + guy complained in class (interview skills)
- Last class - 3 wanted to do test to go up
- "Fat face"
- Girl upset not grammar (test coming!) - other girl said "great class"
- Business class - some changed (doing it it morning too)
- Happened to others all time (Ed, South African guy, Sam's feral class, Indian girl advanced class)
What I did not enjoy
- Stress of new class
- Wake very early
- Expensive purchases (coffee milk $8 plus train $6 plus bakery $5 = $80 per week) $400 / month!
- Low pay for high stress
- Always risk of rejection
- Repetition of lessons
- ISR's - huge waste of time
- Marking essays
- Janice upset with me once at photocopier
- Student increasingly spoiled (able to afford $, Rosa soft touch, change class epidemic)
- Photocopy lessons at 8 am - stress!
- Work stopped - but Rosa did invite back, knew I was going away
- Stress of what next class would be - scared elementary or upper int
- Electives a lot of work
- Paid by hour, not by day
