3.3.4.6 > 13 'What should I do about my online teaching situation?'

[bluejay]

I work as a teacher, helping adults to learn English as a foreign language. I was lucky enough to be part of a school which quickly understood the way things were going in the run-up to the first UK covid lockdown, and managed to keep teaching online during the pandemic. As the lockdowns eased and the rules for entering the country were relaxed, the students steadily started flowing back in person. The school will probably have a normal busy summer this year for the first time since 2019.

Yet at the moment I represent the last vestige of those online days, the last teacher working solely online. It's not a position I asked for: I was thrust into it at the last moment before my previous manager decided to move jobs; and the new manager hasn't figured out a way to move me off since starting. I've repeatedly mentioned my desire to teach 'real' students again. And I've mostly been met with empty promises of 'soon' and 'not yet', with the end always a few weeks away, never quite here. I still go into the school everyday, as I lack the facilities to do it well from home. Even then my classes start an hour later than the rest of the school, so I hardly see anyone at all during the day as our breaks don't match. I've been teaching like this for two and a half months now and I'm coming to the end of my patience.

'Yi, what should I do about my online teaching situation?'
3.3.4.6 > 13

Well, there is definitely something I can do, with three changing lines.

Yi mentions going home as a better option than staying in the forest. I have wondered in the past whether it would be better to fully commit to online teaching, working from home and not showing my face at the school at all. I like how 'the forester' in line 3 represents preparation, so this could represent how ill-prepared I was for teaching online when I restarted again. I'd need a new laptop if I really wanted to do it from home, for example.

And then there are two lines (4 & 6) which mirror each other, but give opposite messages. Both involve the image of a team of horses, with their handler dressed in his finest in order to find a bride. In one line, this is overwhelmingly positive. In the other, it leads to 'tears of blood, flowing like water'. I'm not sure what to think of that, as they seem to show the same action--going out to seek what I want--with very different results...

Any ideas here?

 

[Trojina]

'Yi, what should I do about my online teaching situation?'
3.3.4.6 > 13

I've repeatedly mentioned my desire to teach 'real' students again. And I've mostly been met with empty promises of 'soon' and 'not yet', with the end always a few weeks away, never quite here.

It's not an easy cast to interpret I admit. I'll give my first impressions and see where it takes me. I get the feeling it's almost better to give up on this particular school and look further afield.

The reason I say this is it's quite a disorientated cast in a sense.

Line 3
'Pursuing a stag with no forester,
Simply entering into the centre of the forest.
A noble one reads the subtle signs and sets this aside.
Going on: shame.'

My experience with this line is there's no fixed orientation point to go by. On a mundane level for example it's like trying to meet your friend when you haven't given a clear time or location or that you have made a time and location but they are muddled and so you could spend a lot of time that day trying to meet up when without clarity/fixed points of reference it's just a muddle. So they aren't really organising things/you, it's up in the air and so it's a bit hopeless to get anywhere as you have found out in the above quote. I don't think this is literally telling you to go home, or you need not take it that way, it's more like perhaps you imagine there is more structure and organisation here than there actually is.


Line 4

'Driving a full team of horses,
Seeking marital alliance.
Going on, good fortune.
Nothing that does not bring harvest.'

That sounds like you, the whole reading seems to describe your experience. You're without orientation in line 3 but nonetheless you are ready to go and find those real life students. You want to get back to real people. It's saying it's good to pursue that aim. There's some constructive proactive search for a place, a contract going on here.


Line 6

'Now driving a team of horses,
Now tears of blood flow endlessly.'

So you've been lost/are lost with this(3.3) you nonetheless have a drive to communicate, to go forward, to 'plight your troth'(3.4) as it were in some other environment perhaps (I think also this line shows what you have done, you've gone to them and told them what you want). You have said you desire to get back to real people, that's you driving a team of horses, going after that. Then line 6 where things stand to come to quite a dead end. You're going forward with your horses, then there's tears. This is a line of giving up or sometimes things just coming to nothing despite our best efforts. It's a line of things being built up as something that come to nothing.


So far I think this is about you putting in your best efforts to them and in good faith asking for real life students and them not doing anything about it.


The 13 as relating makes me think about the wider field of this kind of teaching. You don't have to stay in this muddle when you have a lot of initiative to go forth into the world and teach. I think 13 is asking you to consider the broader environment of this kind of work. Other colleges, other kinds of teaching even?

The change patterns here are 56 and 60. So you came to the question with a sense of being a traveller in the situation. You work through the situation by coming to delineate what your particular route is here inside the boundaries you have.


My overall feeling is Yi is not showing confidence in them giving you what you want it's appreciating your wish to progress and perhaps suggesting you take those horses in line 4 and you take them beyond your current school or college.


Going back to the question it was in fact only what you should do about your online teaching situation. Well with line 3 and line 6 there I don't think you should wait patiently for them I think line 4 is the way beyond the confines (13) of that particular institution.

I may be off with this, there's no doubt other ways to see it but that's what I'm getting so far.

 

[marybluesky]

Bluejay my work is pretty like yours, the difference being I teach French and you English. I had the chance to be contacted by an institute that had soon realized the benefits of online courses during the lockdown, like in your case. I've had mostly online courses which I found to be a bit stressful at first as I had no experience in working with related applications, plus I hadn't worked as a teacher for a long time. For instance, I had to buy a new laptop because almost no part of the older one worked any more.

Now I have announced my readiness to take more classes in person. Most of my courses should continue to be online because of its special advantages like the possibility of having students from all over the world, not taking the time and energy for going to the work place every day and having more leisure and relaxing time. However I definitely want some face-to-face classes as it balances my life in every sense: physically, emotionally and socially+ it has a higher wage.

In fact you have asked for an advice: Yi, what should I do about my online teaching situation?' 3.3.4.6 > 13
I think the I Ching tells you to make up your mind about what you want and go for it. Here being hesitant, wanting real life classes while working as an online teacher without sufficient equipment (3.3) doesn't work, you should take a decision and make it clear (3.4) to your environment- people in your work place (13). 3.6 can show either hesitation or not reaching one's aims.

Are you OK only with real life courses? If so, go after it, apply for this post in a school that offers such a post. Or you can clearly talk about it with the current school, say that you can no longer give online lessons, so whether you'll have classes in person or end your work there.

But if your biggest concern is saving the job, and there are enough online students, then do what is necessary to improve your position as an online teacher, like renovating your lap-top.

Other than all this, I guess you can find your own students independent of the school, or in other schools, as teachers often work part-time jobs? (3.4) They may not be numerous at first, but the change of environment can be beneficial for you.

 

[bluejay]

Thank you Trojina and mary, your thoughts are much appreciated.

I've had some more time to reflect on this casting, considering what you both said. I think the answer really gave an image of how I was feeling about things when I casted, and that frustration shines through Yi's answer and my original post.

With that said, I understand more now. I think 13 is pointing to what I want, to be heard as part of the group in the new 'wilds' that are a post-pandemic language school environment. 3 is an image of me in this group: despite having the experience, I'm the youngest teacher at my school by about 15 years, still feeling my way into the profession. I don't really feel like a sprout anymore, but to most of the others I probably still look that way. And appearances mean a lot.
At the same time a new manager also makes the school feel completely new, like a sprouting seedling. The return of face-to-face students are like the spring rains, which are financially nourishing but also dangerously overwhelming for a fragile young plant.

I think line 3 is pointing to this new situation. The middle of the forest is part of these 'wilds'. I do expect to still have a structure like there was before, as Trojina said,

it's more like perhaps you imagine there is more structure and organisation here than there actually is.

My old manager was the forester, he was the one who knew how everything worked, who knew all the teachers, who knew how to balance the class rotations so everyone felt like it was fair. He only left a month and a half ago just before the busy summer period, and everything has been up in the air since then. So with line 3, I wonder if Yi is telling me that it's not a good idea to continue as if that same structure is still there. Things are different now. It's better to go back to basics, the character 舍 in that line pointing to a simple hut.

So maybe line 4 & 6 show the way forward. Driving a team of horses is quite a forceful event, but why this happens could cause different results. And for me this is a big difference between lines 4 and 6, despite their parallels.

Line 4:
'Now driving a team of horses,
seeking as marriage suitors.
Heading for good fortune.
Nothing but benefit.'

Line 6:
'Now driving a team of horses.
Now tears of blood, flowing endlessly.'

Maybe the way to make things happen, to drive forward those horses, is to do so by strengthening my relationships and seeking a marriage of some sort. That could be with the new manager, but it could more simply be with the other teachers who I already know quite well. I think what this casting could be saying is that my situation isn't going to change with the school doing anything about it. It's up to me to find a replacement for the online class, perhaps by switching classes with one of the other teachers. That goes two ways: a marriage needs to be accepted by both parties. But if that happens and everyone is happy with the arrangement, then only good things will come from it. The tears of the top line only start flowing when I drive out my horses without even trying to find a marriage partner. And that's all I've been doing up till now.

 

[bluejay]

An update:

It's been a month since I cast about my teaching situation. The situation has really changed!
I'm now teaching face-to-face, having left the online class behind. The school is far busier than it has ever been---to the point where we don't have enough teachers to fill the classes and each class is maxed out to the limit.

The ambiguity of the lines from the casting make more sense now. While I was teaching online, all I wanted was to leave the class and teach in person again. Now that it's happened, things are far busier and more chaotic than before! There are days when I miss the calm serenity of having a tiny online class and there are other days where it's so great to be back in the middle of things