It's about 1AM on Wednesday, March 10, year 2010. I realise that the more I work as a (private) teacher, the more fulfilling I find it. It's still not something I'd do full-time as a career, I still don't think I was meant to be a teacher. But it is something I really wouldn't mind doing on the side, at all - like once school starts in August, I'll shift all my private tutoring jobs and things to the weekend, Sundays and Saturday mornings. I counted the hours I work as a teacher, and this is what I got:
Sunday: 1115-1200 beginner piano; 1330-1530 English and Lit tutoring
Monday: nothing
Tuesday: 1730-1815 Grade 1 piano
Wednesday: 1300-1430 Conversational Chinese; 1600-1730 PAP phonics
Thursday: 1930-2015 beginner piano
Friday: nothing
Saturday: nothing
I work four days a week, for a total of about 6.5 hours. That's not bad at all. I get to travel so I'm not stuck in some office, and the pay really isn't bad. I get to meet lots of different people and interact with kids, parents, be a teacher and a student at the same time - you're always learning, right? - my schedule is ultra flexible, I spend two whole weekdays with my mom and gran, Thursdays I get to spend the day too because I only work at night. I get to sleep in to about noon almost every day except Wednesdays when I have to be awake at 11AM to give myself time to prep for the Chinese thing. It's great :D
Today (well, actually yesterday, seeing as how it's past midnight) my Grade 1 piano student's mom told me that she recommended me to her friend who wants to get piano classes for her two daughters. Sounds like a pretty darn awesome thing to me. Teaching piano is pretty darn lucrative, but money aside, it's nice to see your students learn their pieces well - even if they still hate the technical work like scales. Come on, everyone hates practicing scales, me included.
Still though, I'd be pretty excited if that other mom calls me and asks me to teach her two kids. Let's see if I can get her to come over to my place on Sunday mornings at 9AM then I wouldn't have to move about that much of my schedule once August hits. Wish me luck!
I'm not doing my Sunday morning admin job anymore, since now I'm teaching at the music school instead of doing admin. Don't tell my boss, but I think I'll probably take that student with me once school starts and I'll try to do everything from home as much as possible to cut down on travel time but maintain my pay. XD Hey it's good to have a steady source of income even when I'm schooling, yes? Set aside one day a week, maybe about 10 hours total, to just teach everything at one shot. Sounds doable to me. :D
I'll also be stopping my ballet pianist position with Crestar once this batch of ballet students goes for their CSTD exam on Thursday. I'll miss seeing all the cute little girls in class - Rae, Ashley, Chloe, all those itty bitty little tiny ballerinas who Joan is forever screaming at to remember their footwork properly. But they're always so adorable they make me smile. I'll miss them :/ Oh well.
Okay now that talking about work and work is done, I shall end this post. I still refuse to go into teaching as a full-time job. Certainly not classrooms, I have enough problems as it is projecting my voice across the conversational Chinese classroom. Private is probably as far as I'll go because I don't have to scream and shout, and only one day a week aside from a full-time job that isn't teaching. It's interesting the different perspectives work puts you in.
Until next time, guys.