Happy Celebration Of Labor, Teacher!!!
How are you on your job? How’s your job?
Are your students giving you much headaches? Are the parents good to you? Do you get along with your colleagues as well? Are you tired of seminars here and there at your own expense?
Going to work everyday following the daily routine can become so monotonous until it turns out to be a task needed to be accomplished at the end of the day.
Then, here comes orders from your right, left, front and back that add up with the burden of your job.
Thus, we force ourselves to work harder, and harder, and harder.
Then, at the end of the day, we complain saying, “Puro na lang trabaho, pero bakit hindi pa rin gumiginhawa ang buhay ko”. (I work hard all day long but why my life isn’t getting better)
Others Work According To Their Pay
Just last week, some of our students misbehaved. They were late and some didn’t attend the morning exercises on the playground-this is a morning routine in our school.
So, of course, the homeroom teacher’s (class adviser’s) attention was called by the principal. And while the homeroom teacher was sobbing in the principal’s office, the other teachers in the faculty room were discussing about the incident and other past events with the students.
And it was not a surprise for me to hear that many of the teachers aren’t really doing much to help discipline the students and help implement the school’s policies because according to them they aren’t paid to do that. They are only paid to teach and their salary does not even compensate their teaching time.
Others Work Long Hours To Get Extra Pay
I used to work overtime to get extra pay. I used to stay late at the office at night pretending to accommodate questions from the students- not good. (In China, most are boarding schools so students stay in the classrooms to study until 9 PM).
Others, although they are already exhausted as hell from the whole day’s work, they still do after school tutorials just to bring in extra bacon on the table.
Some do work on their extra business like a tailoring shop, sari-sari store, barbecue restaurant and many more extra businesses that most teachers are engaged to. They stay up all night and just have 2 to 3 hours sleep before they again get themselves ready to go to school the next morning.
I’m not saying this is all bad. The bottom line is, don’t exhaust yourself…work smartly not hardly
Others Work Hard To Be Promoted
We are ambitious. We want to be on top and that’s good. We want to make our performance better so we can be the next in line.
The bad side is, you work too hard disregarding other aspects of your life. You need rest, too. You need fun, too.
Take those paper work aside, pick that shorts and “sando” or your swim suit and head to the swimming pool. Enjoy the summer breeze.
I know, I know, it is easier said than done.
But, we again work smart and not hard.
HOW TO WORK SMARTLY
1.Go to work with a positive thought
For the past few days, in preparation of our next literature piece in class, I was watching Amish Lives documentaries.
And I am amazed to learn how most Amish people do their work. You see, like an Amish wife, she does the same work over and over again everyday-doing house chores, serving her children and helping her husband. But most of them are still smiling, finding pleasure in what they do.
And when they were asked why they seem so happy doing their routines that seems boring for us who follow the modern way of living, the Amish mom said, it is because they don’t consider it as a task but something they can do to glorify the Lord. Amazing!
2.Delegate some tasks to others
And device a system that works for you to make your daily work faster and orderly.
It can be from filling, scheduling, managing your class, cleaning, checking.
I often utilize other people’s skills. I don’t mean being bossy and manipulative.
We like to be recognized and we have skills that we aren’t yet fully aware of. Take this belief at work. Help others discover and develop their potentials by delegating tasks to them.
Ask a student to draw pictures for your class wall décor, ask someone who can make flashcards for the class, who can be monitors in every subject areas.
Find ways to collate and check papers faster.
Collaborate with others to make lesson planning faster and easier.
4.Face your tasks right on
One of the reasons why we are burdened with our day to day work is procrastination. We love waiting for the deadline. So, when deadline is near, we burn our candles until midnight.
But if we do or work head on, it will be much easier. Don’t wait for the end of the month to complete your form 1. Don’t wait for the end of the grading period to record all your students’ scores.
Probably, you still haven’t checked their quizzes and assignments, yet or haven’t given projects, yet. So, you cram and ask your students to submit work giving them a very short span of time to prepare. Sounds familiar? (wink)
I always find giving verbal comments to each of my students at the end of the semester tasking. So what I did last year and is doing now is keeping anecdotal records for each of my students.
So, I wrote significant progress or misbehavior in my notebook. And last year, writing my students’ individual report becomes easier.
4.Save more
Not that SM Savemore.
Starting to save is one of the first important steps to work smartly. Because when you save, you will have the ability to make this saving, your money to be your servant. How will you do that? By investing it.
5.Invest
Once you start investing, it’s just like hiring workers to make more money for you. And the best thing is, these workers don’t get tired. They will work for you day and night.
How will that happen?
When you invest your money in legitimate businesses, your money will be earning more money for you even when you are resting. It won’t get tired.
All you need to do is managed it once in a while.
So what happens when you invest the money you saved?
There will be more of you working that will provide you with your needs.
- You who physically work in the office or in the classroom who will bring home the pay envelope/ATM card at the end of the month, and
- Your tiny tireless workers (your money) that will keep working for you day and night, holidays and working days as long as there are people consuming the goods/produce of your business.
Happy Labor Day. Start working smarter today to enjoy the fruit of your labor.
P.S. Do you have more things in mind how we can start working smartly? We are also very eager to know. Please be kind enough to share them below. 🙂
