What is your educational background?
I completed a bachelor degree in languages after high school and worked in schools part-time while completing this degree. For my final year I studied abroad in Yogyakarta, central Java. That was an amazing experience and fuelled my love for working overseas. The following year I worked as an English teacher in the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta.
I began to worry that I needed a “serious” career and came back to Australia. I completed a diploma of network engineering and worked for two years in the IT industry. While I was successful, I grew to realise that working in an office wasn’t for me and I really missed working in classrooms.
I quit my junior systems admin job and applied for the JET Programme in Japan. I was successful and spent 4.5 years working in public elementary and junior high schools. I’ll never forget the experiences and friendships I made during that time. While working in Japan, I decided to improve my professional credentials by taking a Master of Education at USQ. I thought it would be a simple matter of some light study during break times and after work. Boy was I wrong. I’ve found my online education experience very stressful as I rarely felt any connection to my course mates or teachers. I’m really proud of what I’ve achieved as I’m now in my final semester of study but it’s been a difficult journey. There’s truth in my father’s comments on the situation, “if it were easy, everyone would have a masters degree”.
I’ve now been back in Adelaide for almost 2 weeks and am going through reverse culture shock. I’ve returned to apply for an on-campus course to gain teacher accreditation. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to work in classrooms again!
Adam Does NGL 