Most new teachers started out with full of dreams and imagination of how teaching is like.

They imagine that wonderful rapport and the appreciative smiles from children as they teach in class.

I agree there can be rapport and appreciation from our students but these do not come easily when you have a difficult class to handle.

After the first few weeks, all the dreams and visions would have been sucked out of the new teachers.

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Facing the reality of teaching where students can be rude and they would even confront a teacher when they disagree with things. Protective parents who can be nasty to new teachers. There can be many other challenges that you have not expected.

During one of the teacher-leader workshops, I was shown a videoclip of Janine Shepherd. She shared about her terrible accident when she was hit by a truck during a training resulting her dream of being the Olympic skier shattered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX32U_hfri4

I will be sharing about a few practical facts about how to face the reality of teaching in this short article.

<strong>Reality and dream do not coincide </strong>

The hopes and dreams that a new teacher may have before officially appointed and entered the school may sometimes be shattered to million pieces when they are faced with the reality of teaching.

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<strong>There can be three things they can do.</strong>

<strong>1) Face the Challenge</strong>

Find ways to overcome every difficulty and bring their dreams to reality

<strong>2) Accept the fact and endure</strong>

Accept how things are as reality and continue to teach aimlessly without a vision

<strong>3) Give up totally</strong>

Knowing oneself that this is the wrong pathway so give up on teaching

I would definitely like all teachers to <strong>face the challenge</strong> as teaching is really a meaningful job if you can find how you can connect with your students and how you can cope with the different challenges effectively.

<strong>Connect your interest with your teaching</strong>

As a teacher mentor, I once had a mentee who was totally not interested in teaching Mathematics. She had to do it since it was an allocated subject.

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After observing her lesson, she closed with a summary of what the students had learnt for the day.

I took this opportunity to write down the key concepts of the lesson and created a rap.

I got her permission and got her class to rap and do the actions with me. She was able see who the children had fun and how getting the children to rap changes the whole mood of lesson.

I am aware that this mentee has a passion for music and I shared with her that she can create her own songs to assist in teaching.

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Learn to have fun and enjoy the process of teaching.

I was able to see the change in her lessons for other observations and she started to build interest and the children really enjoyed her lessons.

When we really find it hard to connect with the subject that we need to teach, reflect what is our interest and how we will teach differently by incorporating our interest to it.

Some teachers really like computers so they are able to make use of many ICT tools in their teaching.

Find your interest and get connected with your teaching to find the passion in the things that you do.

<strong>Teacher model</strong>

In the videoclip, Janine Shepherd shared about how she remembered another patient in the hospital who was in a worst situation than her but kept smiling. This help her to reflect and reconstruct her thoughts.

Looking at how others who manage to do the same thing that we are doing, can really be a motivational factor and give us an idea on how we can find our success.

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When we are really down with all the difficulty students, difficulty principal, tons of administrative work etc, reflect and look at a teacher who has always exhibited a positive attitude regardless of circumstances.

Imagine how she will react and learn from her positive attitude. Pick ourselves up and find the inner energy within us.

With this teacher model in mind, we may even want to find a chance to talk to the teacher and get positive charged and influenced by the teacher through regular interactions.

<strong>Connect with your community</strong>

Without good connection, we may find that there is no emotional support. In the video of Janine Shepherd, she shared about how she was not able to move but she was made to connect with others through straws.

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Feeling connected is important and we need to recognise and accept ourselves into the teaching community in our school.

Knowing that we are part of the community and having a belonging will motivate us positively.

We can start to work well with others as a team and we can get mutual encouragement from the teachers around us.

Sometimes, new teachers may be lonely as they may have negative thoughts that the teachers around do not care or they just want to mind their own business.

With the change of mindset, our circumstances will change just like what happened to Janine Shepherd.

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Even if the teachers are hostile in the beginning, we should just continue to get connected and be extremely helpful when we can.

We will start to build strong bonding with others who will come forward to help you in your time of need.

<strong>Find your charger</strong>

Some people find their energy recharged by chatting with others while others need to find a quiet place to just reflect quietly.

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Sometimes, jogging is a form of releasing the stress as you sweat but there are also people who can simply listen to songs and music and get their energy back.

Reflect on what you like to do if you have a choice. It is usually how you can recharge yourself again.

Without proper recharge, you may be heading for a burnout and you may find it hard to regain the momentum once you reach that stage.

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Very often, you can start the whole day right but speaking a statement of positivity before leaving the house for work.

Example: This is going to be a great day and I am going to impact my students.

By reading this, I hope you are starting to find your main charger to continue your teaching journey effectively each day.

<strong>In conclusion</strong>

I may not have touched on many other possible effective ways on how to cope with your reality in teaching but I do hope this article has helped to rekindle the passion and hope in teaching again.

When your original vision and dream differ from reality, you can find new hopes and dreams by reflecting on a new direction to enable you to move on from your current stagnant position to a place of fruitfulness and fulfilment.

You can become an effective teacher when you choose to face the reality of teaching positively.

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Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.

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