I first met Adele Meintjes during an internship at the local primary school. At the time she was often around the school to drop off her two young daughters or to volunteer in their classrooms. We overheard each other speaking our common native language, and have remained in touch ever since. She’s both a personal and professional contact and we’ve been a great resource to each other in a variety of ways. I’m glad I now had this excuse to formally pick her brain about all things job-related, as she now happens to be working in my dream job: English teacher!
Adele and her family moved to Finland from Australia (they are originally South African) in the summer of 2015 for her husband’s job. As she enrolled her girls in school she asked to volunteer there This served the triple purpose of meeting people in her new town, helping her children settle in , and getting a foot in the door for future employment.
Previously, she had worked as an early primary school classroom teacher. Adele has a degree in education and teaching licenses in Australia and South Africa. This is a different background to me, as I do not have pedagogy training. However our our situations converge when it comes to official qualifications to teach English in Finland: we are, in practice, qualified to teach our native language (and are in high demand as there are not terribly many native English speakers in the town where we live, Lappeenranta), but neither of us has a Finnish teaching certificate. For Adele, this would require sending her transcripts to the Ministry of Education, and for me this would require a year in the University of Helsinki’s STEP subject teacher training program.
Although I’ve asked Adele about her job before, this interview gave me the opportunity to ask the dirty details and to get some hints about how I might be able to get a similar job in the future!
Adele teaches English as a foreign language to six primary school classes and holds separate enrichment sessions for children who speak English at home. She says the most difficult part of her job is how little time per week she gets with each group. This an unfortunate side effect of being a subject teacher, particularly at the primary level: you don’t get the benefits, both in terms of educational and personal connectedness, of seeing the same children daily.
Being adaptable is a key part of the job. Different countries, different schools, and even different classrooms have different routines and procedures for handling grading, discipline, the curriculum, etc. Additionally, there are cultural peculiarities that go with each space – things like whether it’s ok to give hugs, how much responsibility children are given and at what age, and how best to gauge students’ engagement with the lesson. If you don’t know, all you have to do is ask! The other teachers are more than happy to take you under their wing – use their wisdom. There is enormous strength in teamwork.
So a teacher must be flexible. A commitment to self-improvement is important, as well as the ability and willingness to recognize your own flaws. He or she must also be able to stay positive, because bad days will always happen wherever you are and whatever job you’re in. A positive attitude will allow you to make continuous improvements.
Adele is one of the many people, I’m coming to find, who began her job by volunteering. It’s a low pressure way to demonstrate your ability to do a job with excellence. In the process, you’ll plump up your CV and make contacts – maybe even a future friend or colleague!