The other day I was called to fill a high school position, for the summer program. It was ‘foreign language, other’, which could mean anything from Sign Language to Korean, but since I knew there was a slim chance to get anything else, I took it.
When I arrived, I found out that it
was for Spanish, not an ‘other’, but I already knew to expect anything at
summer. The roster of the first period (two and a half hours) was promising –
only four students, and in reality – only two showed up. With the help of the
temporary principal, I tried to figure out what the teacher’s intentions were,
and since it was not clear, I came up with a suggested lesson plan. The
students, respectfully, accepted it, but showed no signs of following it up…
Then I found a packet that was
already distributed to the students earlier. It included maps of South and
Central America, and a list of countries to identify on the map. I don’t speak Spanish but I can recognize
most countries’ names even in foreign language. I, also, always try to use an
opportunity to enrich young people’s general knowledge, especially with
geography. I started quizzing my two students about the listed countries and
they showed certain knowledge and some interest.
This is what I am looking for -
Teach someone who is interested, or at least, polite enough to listen… I told
these kids, who have probably never left the state, or even the city, about my
trips to Cuba, Brazil and Costa-Rica, showed them pictures on my phone of Cuba’s
streets and old cars, forests and volcanoes in Costa-Rica, Rio beaches and the
amazing Iguacu water falls on the Brazilian and Argentinian side. I even showed
pictures of myself in a costume that was used for the Rio carnival...
These are the teachable moments which
I so hoped to find when I became a teacher, where I hoped to strike a chord of
curiosity, where I thought I would be able to broaden students’ horizons… but which, unfortunately, I so seldom find…
The magic has broken as soon as
the first period ended. The next group of students was uninterested and
unwilling, so I resigned to broadening my own horizons with my Time magazine… Back
to the old frustrating story of teachers and teaching …
