As a freelance English teacher in the Netherlands, no two days are the same for me. Over the course of a week, I travel to six schools, see 250 children aged from 10 to 21, in primary and high schools, state and private schools.

My days are busy and full. An average day will see me in two schools and I’ll often teach students privately in the afternoon and get home to have Skype calls with parents or emails from kids with questions about their projects or exam preparation. I work a very full week, and spend at least half a day over the weekend getting ready for the next week.

I never know how or when my words or teaching might impact a child, and I think this is the intrinsic importance of my work. The effect of my teaching ripples out into society and the children who leave my classroom will go on to be the citizens of the future. I believe that I have an important role in caretaking that future and the children in my classes.  

I had a conversation recently with a young woman who had been in my class some years ago. She said,“Sally, do you remember telling us to never let our imagination be limited? Do you remember tearing off the corner of our worksheets, so that we wouldn’t be stuck in a box?” I didn’t recall the moment, but she did. She told me with excitement that she always remembered to go further and explore more because of that moment with the torn off corners of paper.

I was awestruck. Something which had been unmemorable for me had been so powerful for her. I wonder how many other children are rippling out into the world and what they are doing?

The huge rewards of teaching

My daily teaching is made more complex because the government provides “key guidelines” about the vocabulary, grammar, reading and speaking skills children should reach at certain ages. But the national curriculum does not fit a whole class, and does not meet the needs of children who are dyslexic, highly gifted, slow at learning or who might have other learning needs. A big part of my job is juggling the requirements of these kids into the whole class, so that everyone is getting the material they need at the right level and some time with me.

My favourite thing about my job are the “ah ha” moments: when a child suddenly understands and can apply something they were struggling with. Or when a child builds up the confidence to do a presentation in front of the class. Points of connection and breakthrough are what I love most about this work. These moments keep me turning up, they get me to my desk on a Sunday, when I still need to mark papers, prepare a quiz and get my work organised for the following week.

Recently I started filming my instruction and posting it on YouTube so that the kids can have constant access to the lessons, regardless of whether I am available. It seemed the only sensible thing to do when there was one teacher and 30 kids in a class.

The availability of technology is changing how I teach and manage the class. I enjoy the control that the kids have over their learning process. In terms of learning English, their access to films, songs, gaming and TV in English rapidly improves their understanding and use of the language. While they get better, the assumption grows from the adults that all kids will be good at English. This puts a lot of pressure on the less confident or less able pupils, which is sometimes difficult for them to deal with considering that there is already a lot of pressure on them to perform and be successful in school.

Would I change anything about my job? I once taught in a school for highly gifted children. We had a very gifted boy in the class, who was also on the autistic spectrum. It took a year until he trusted me enough to even let me sit at his desk. It took another six months till he would look at a worksheet and another six months till he did any work. In the end he started to work, and then we couldn’t stop him. He steamed ahead, loved learning and would chat away non-stop in English.

With experiences like these, there is nothing I would change about my work. I know that what I am doing matters for the kids and is important to our world as a whole.

Sally Edwards is a freelance English teacher in The Hague, the Netherlands.