Day of Celebration!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow I know it's been so long! I didn't actually plan to update my blog today, just browsing through when I noticed I have like 4 views from different countries today!!! I mean WOW!!! I HAVE READERS???! Like seriously??? And I don't even have to slot some green notes in their pockets to read my blog, they actually on their own accord, are reading my blog!!! How awesome is that??! That certainly encourages me to keep updating religiously!!! ;D

Ok... today had been amazing so far. A week ago I got this new teaching job at this school, which I'm gonna name O School. O School is reputated to be one of the best language schools in Turkey therefore I was really thrilled to be apart of the team! I mean yea they have high standards and really out of the box teaching methods. I must admit though I was pretty intimidated at first by their teaching system and the amazing teachers there. I was like damnnn... I've always received great feedback from other schools I've worked in but this one is kinda out of my league! I like to think I do embrace challenges though so I really worked my ass off trying to justify my existence in that school.

Today was my observed lesson with the director and geez, I was darn nervous last night!!!! One thing about me which I brought along all the way from Singapore is that I'm a bloody perfectionist WHEN IT COMES TO WORK! It's not just ok for me to perform well, I have to be GREAT. And when I reached the point of being great, I get unsatisfied and aim to be ONE OF THE BEST. That's one thing I hate about myself sometimes... I truly give myself unnecessary stress with this obsession to perform well at work. To me, that equates my worth and value as an individual.

No doubt teaching is very very new to me. I was in the creative line for years and one day, I just enrolled myself for the Diploma in TESOL course, packed my bags upon graduation and headed to Istanbul to be an ESL teacher. I like the adventurous move, it's certainly about time, I'm always being too proper at times, it's almost sick.

Anyways as I was saying, I had an observed lesson with the director today and I was scared shit. Well, I got over my nerves pretty quick after that- simply because I spent ages on my lesson plans, my preparations etc, making sure everything was in tip top form. I just had to, I'm quite anal on things like that. I did role playing with my class and other stuff.

I love my students, they are a darn sporting and fun bunch, sometimes I really cracked myself laughing at their antics. I like to think they are comfortable with me too as I always like having fun in class, that's the best way to engage students really. I'm not afraid of making a fool of myself in class - to cringe my face and sobbed like a ditched cow or to be a drama queen. All I think about is - my students MUST have a good time learning in MY class.

To cut the story short, I went to the director's office after my class for my feedback. There were lotsa good things and couple of things he advised I should improve on. Generally he said it was really good and he enjoyed my class, it was fun and energetic, students were happy and excited.

I can't describe the feeling I had in me when I heard that. First and foremost, that director is like one darn tough cookie and a bloody bloody bloody driven perfectionist. In fact, he's like this person who's bursting with ideas and creativity and energy - I mean God have mercy on me, I received tons of emails from him pertaining to latest teaching methodologies, this teaching research, recommended websites and so on and so forth. This guy just never STOPS! He's forever on the roll, seems like he live to work and he works so O School will remain at the top of the list and from the looks of it, I think yea, it will!

So you can appreciate me saying that yea, his words means a lot to me especially when he's not a suck up, saying good things to his teachers all the time and sugar coating his words. This dude says it like it is.

I was estactic, I knew my hard work paid off, I knew with hard work one can see results. Though I was broke, I threw caution to the wind, whip out my credit card and head to my fave restaurant with E to celebrate. I blew like over 100lira but it was worth it! I bloody deserve it alrite!!!!!! WOOOooHoooo!!!