I moved to the USA in November 2018, and since I am an experienced ESOL teacher, I thought that the best employment option for me would be teaching at school. I was very curious about teaching English to native speakers. I believed that it would be a great learning challenge which would give me an opportunity to grow as a professional. Once I got myself established (got my green card and driver’s license, opened a bank account, got a part-time job as a test administrator at Pearson Professional Center), I began my research into what I should do in order to obtain a teaching license. It turned out that based on my post-secondary experience all I needed to do was to submit my credential evaluation by http://www.wes.org, verification of my post-secondary experience which proved to be a great challenge, enrollment into a reading course instruction, background check, and a processing fee of $125. Done. During this time I applied for different positions within the school district. I was very determined to become a middle school teacher. My husband works at middle school and told me nightmare stories about his kids and stuff he has to deal with but I thought it was an exaggeration. Surely I didn’t have extensive experience working with teenagers but the experience I had was very positive.
Finally, I got a job offer from one of the middle schools in the area. I was warned that the school mainly serves children from underprivileged families, and is located in the area known as war zone meaning that it is not a very safe neighborhood. I was promised to be working with ESOL kids whose families recently immigrated to the States. Since I had no idea how American schools function, I did not really understand what it all meant. I was very excited to get a real job and start teaching. Boy, I was stupid.
I should have checked the school ratings. It turned out to be one of the worst schools with the performance below average. I was expected to teach 6 periods each of which was about 54 minutes. The students were very disrespectful. They cussed in my presence despite all my requests to stop doing it. They refused to do any work and questioned every single activity I offered them. I tried all the classroom management techniques that I always used: silence, smile, polite requests, repeating my requests over and over again until they did what I asked them to do. I even tried to speak Russian to them which usually worked well with my Emirati students. Alas, it was all in vain. To add insult to injury, one of these little rascals stole my flash drive with my personal stuff including pictures. I survived the day but decided that my mental health is more important to me, and sent a resignation letter to the school principal. Since it was on short notice, I promised that I would teach for one more day so that they could find another substitute teacher. I made it to period 6 and lost it when the students started throwing books and binders at each other. The first time ever in my teaching career I cried in front of the students. I had never felt so desperate and helpless. The angry knot in my stomach was so tense that I thought I’d start vomiting right there. I was overwhelmed with the panic attack to the point that I felt that I couldn’t breathe. Needless to say, I was asked to leave the school which I happily did it. I almost ran to my car.
Honestly, now I am confirmed in my reluctance to work for American schools be it elementary, middle, high or private schools. I don’t want to test my luck again.
Indeed, be careful what you wish for. I remembered the story that I read a long time ago which describes my situation so well. It’s Monkey’s Paw. Your wish may be granted but the price may be too high to handle.
Another good thing is that I learned about another great book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai which is taught as a part of the ELA grade 8 curriculum.
https://americanliterature.com/author/w-w-jacobs/short-story/the-monkeys-paw
