Teaching

I teach at three different schools: a middle school, a high school, and a center for students with disabilities.  Each is different:

-In the middle school, I get groups of students in rapid succession, 10 minutes/10 students.  The teachers give me the topic to discuss, so all I have to do is repeat the lesson over and over again (very slowly and clearly), and try to get the students to say a few words. Easy.

-For 2 hours per week I sit and talk with my most fluent student, Kevin.  This week he asked me if I owned any guns... so we chatted about Texas gun laws and capital punishment and the like...

-In a class of three, I can teach whatever I like-- the teacher gives me no guidance, though sometimes I wish he would. It often feels like I'm really teaching geography or social studies and English is just the means.  One week it's Halloween, another- vacation, another- Native Americans.

-My favorite class so far: eight senior boys at the handicapped school- they're attentive.  And their English is good enough that we can throw in some humor or talk about new movies, whatever.

-Another class of all boys!  High school sophomores. I've only met them once but they seem to be very interesting, intelligent people.  A couple have mothers that are English teachers, so they speak well.  And they seem to be friends with each other, whichmakes them more comfortable talking out loud and the classroom chemistry is better in general.

-I sat in an 8th grade class last week and listened to the teacher ream on the students for coming to class completely unprepared,  forgetting their homework (reminded me of some of my middle school classes).  One girl was so distressed that she ran out of the room sobbing (it was the school for disabilities, though, so breakdowns might be more common than usual?).