The profession chooses the person
Having been involved in the education sector for over 23 years, few people know that Ms. Phuong once wanted to take the exam and pursue a law degree during her high school years. However, Ms. Phuong failed the law school entrance exam and was admitted to a teacher training college. With the encouragement of her family, she decided to study primary education.
In 2001, after graduating, Ms. Phuong taught on a contract at Thuong Thanh Primary School (Long Bien District, Hanoi) and was assigned to teach at a school in Thanh Am village, 2km from the main school. At that time, Ms. Phuong was assigned by the principal to teach first graders.
“First graders are not used to discipline, sometimes I can’t understand what they say, but in return they are very innocent, naive, and lovely. The more I interact with students, the more I love my job and understand the saying “the job chooses the person”” - Ms. Phuong shared.
When she first started teaching, Ms. Phuong's starting salary was only 400,000 VND. However, she told herself that she was luckier than many of her colleagues because she had the support of her family.
“Many colleagues could not stand the low salary and quit the job. As for me, because I love the environment and the affection for my colleagues, parents and students here, I decided to stay and continue teaching.
I also always encourage myself, I just graduated, my level of dedication is not much. I am still young, need to continue to accumulate experience for myself and try hard to definitely overcome the difficult period" - Ms. Phuong confided.
In 2010, Ms. Phuong passed the civil service exam, her salary improved significantly, and her life became less difficult. Since then, she has been assigned to work at many different primary schools in Long Bien district and is currently the Vice Principal of Doan Ket Primary School.
The profession that requires the most patience and tolerance
During her time in the profession, Ms. Phuong has encountered many memorable pedagogical situations.
The year she taught at Ngoc Thuy Primary School (Long Bien, Hanoi), her class had a student named Linh (name changed) with very special circumstances. Her mother was a single mother, living with her grandparents.
Lacking the love of her father, her mother was often away from home, so Linh was spoiled by her grandparents. Even though she was in 4th grade, she did not know how to do the smallest things like dressing, eating by herself, preparing her books, etc. Even after each class, her grandmother was waiting at the classroom door to collect her books.
Realizing that this way of raising children is not good, Ms. Phuong suggests that parents let their children be independent and not do daily chores for them.
“In addition to instructing my child in class, I had to do ideological work for the grandparents and parents so that they would understand that the purpose of my strictness was to train the student to be independent. Gradually, the grandmother also understood and cooperated. After only 1 year, the student had clearly improved,” Ms. Phuong recounted.
Another memory that Ms. Phuong will always remember is when she taught 3rd grade at Sai Dong Primary School, her class had a student with autism.
“I have to support my child to integrate with his classmates, but I also have to control him to avoid actions that endanger his classmates. He often forgets and has a confused memory of events, so his father and teacher guide him to write them down in a small notebook for easier communication.
Since using the notebook, my child has started to write stories about his teacher, which means that his teacher has a place in his heart. By the end of the school year, he was able to draw a picture of her and write in his notebook that he loves her, Ms. Phuong. I feel happy to see my child's progress," Ms. Phuong shared, adding that she is currently following her student's journey of growth through pictures and status updates on Facebook.
From her own experiences, Ms. Phuong believes that the teaching profession, in addition to imparting knowledge, also requires love and tolerance to accompany families in the process of educating children.
"The joy and motivation for teachers to try hard every day is seeing their students grow and improve in each lesson," said Ms. Phuong.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lieu - Principal of Doan Ket Primary School - assessed that Ms. Phuong is a manager, a teacher with good expertise, always enthusiastic about work, supporting colleagues in teaching as well as participating in excellent teacher competitions.
"With students, I am always dedicated, listen and give appropriate methods for them to be close to and share with teachers" - Ms. Lieu shared.
