Friday, June 29, 2007

Woes of an ESL Tutor's Day

Currently, Fridays are my "long days." I teach three ESL students in a row. Each lesson lasts an hour-and-a-half and I see my students back-to-back. I used to take 15-minute breaks between students, but I found that that just made my day too long.

Non-tutors may think that a four-and-a-half-hour work day is pretty easy, and it is, somewhat. However, when you have a "regular" job, especially in an office, you don't always have to concentrate for extended periods of time. You can check your personal email, surf the web, call a friend... And if you are focusing on work, you can move around, change your tasks, etc. Not all jobs require your complete concentration the entire time. Tutoring, and most classroom teaching, requires solid concentration.

The other difficult thing is having to sit for so long. By the end of my work day, my back is usually thrashed. It takes a little while to recover from sitting so long.

OK. That's my list of woes for today. I guess it's not so bad.

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